When we moved down here 7 or was it 6
years ago (I don't know feels like we have been here for ever!), we
were supposed to rent for 6 months and then buy our own place with a
bit of land for a smallholding. Unfortunately we rather fell in love
with our very old dairy farmhouse with fabulous views and were
convinced that our lovely landlord (and he was brilliant) would
eventually sell it to us so we were rather lackadaisical about house
hunting.
In the early part of last year we had
another 'oh go on sell it to us, you know you want to' conversation
with the landlord and for the first time he gave us a very firm 'NO'!
In the past he just used to say 'maybe, maybe not', but now the
message was clear. So now we really had to go, we had to make a
proper effort and so the house hunting started in earnest. We saw
some great places, big, small, needing work, ready to move into, some
mad ones on Bodmin Moor (one very very very remote and old and very
very cold!), but all had something 'not quite right' about them.
Then this very quirky house came on the market, AGAIN. Being a
'Rightmove and Primelocation' watcher (these are websites where you
can see most houses for sale in an area from all the agents rather
than having to check out each agent one at a time and stops all those
annoying mail shots!) I had seen this house many times over the
previous 6 years. When I first saw it they wanted an enormous amount
of money for it; it was in the wrong area (a lovely area but not
where we wanted to be, especially with my parents living in S Devon);
had little land and no real outbuildings, but it did look very
quirky, had no near neighbours and walking distance to the sea and
always intrigued me. However, as it didn't fit the bill we never
viewed it. Then in April it came on again, at a much lower price and
we were getting desperate, so we made an appointment.
So on a hot April day (day before my
birthday in-fact) we came to see this mad house. Quirky is an
understatement and the garden is a jungle, but it was just 'us'! We
had a second view, made a stupid offer (it had come down in price
ALOT since I had first seen it 5 years before, and infact had changed
hands once in that period) and got a prompt and very firm NO from the
estate agent, so we waited and made other viewings for other houses.
3 weeks later a phone call, 'it's yours
if you still want it'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was nearly
sick, excitement and OMG! In July we moved in on a hot hot hot day
(with my poor confused father phoning me to tell me that his flat had
burned down and he had lost everything; he was in hospital by now and
of course his flat hadn't burned down at all – poor chap!).
So we have bought a crazy house, miles
from anywhere (except a lovely pub) with no neighbours, well water
and only mains electricity which needs lots of work and comes with 3
acres of jungle (think there might be some garden under it all,
including an acre of ancient woodland, ¾ acre of field and a veggie
plot). In the 8 months since we have moved in we have done quite a
bit, but it is one of those projects where trying to prioritise work
is almost impossible and we want everything to happen NOW, but we are
learning to be patient (just about).
Oh and the plan was to be closer to
Bude just over the border in Cornwall as I spend about 3 or 4 days a
week there in summer working, we aren't really that much closer but
the commute is something else, with views of the sea all the way and
going to work views of Dartmoor and Bodmin, beats the M25 I can tell
you!
In my next post be prepared for scary,
'OMG the house is falling down' moments as I tell the tale of
restoration!
