Sell the smallholding, buy a small bungalow in town, use the caravan to visit all over the country, decide where to buy, perhaps Wales, and rent out bungalow in town.
Plan B January 2016
After diagnoses of Non Hodgkin Lymphoma, live in small bungalow in town until Colin has recovered then use caravan to travel and decide where to live perhaps Wales. Rent out bungalow in town.
Plan C Suddenly October 2016
Spot lovely home for sale in Suffolk countryside, abandon idea of ever living in Wales due to ongoing health problems, the wet weather there and arrival of 2 grandchildren. Make a cash offer on house - which gets accepted. Put small bungalow on market.
All family cheering that we are not going to Wales.
Yes, after just 7 months in town we are heading back out into 'the sticks'.
We hadn't really planned to move again so quickly but when we spotted a house in Mid Suffolk on t'internet that looked really interesting, we went to look and it was just what we wanted. The sort of place we were looking for in Wales but without the rain and the hills!
So we are going to ignore the fact that Colin might have to have donated stem cells and more months of treatment. We shall ignore the fact that buying the house means we wipe out all savings and we'll have hardly anything to live on until we sell this bungalow and Col gets work pension in March 2017. We will ignore the fact that he may only be in remission for a short while and I could be on my own in the middle of nowhere and we will just go for it.
When it comes to house buying we've always gone with gut feeling (For instance taking 2 small children to live in a caravan while we restored a very old semi-derelict property in 1983 and moving across Suffolk to the completely run down smallholding in 1992)
The cottage is part very old but part more modern it has 4 bedrooms although the small one will be my craft room/office, plenty of room for the Surrey bit of the family to stay. It has a lovely big living room and conservatory, with a dining room and kitchen. There is already a mini orchard of 1 apple, 1 pear and a plum tree + vegetable beds and a greenhouse. It's down a track off a country lane with just 3 other houses and so very quiet. There is a half acre paddock just crying out to be planted up with trees to make a wood. It's 10-15 minutes from a village we know well with a doctor and small shops. 20 minutes from the Asda on the edge of Ipswich and slightly less to a Tesco outside of Stowmarket which is the town that has always felt like our home town. We will be closer to Col's sister, Dad and brother. Closer to my sister and not a lot further from our two Suffolk children. Now that I've done so much driving and gained in confidence it doesn't seem to matter that we may be back and forwards to hospital etc.
It's totally mad but very exciting
Here is a small blurry glimpse
Must say welcome to a whole load of new followers all because of John Gray at Going Gently. He was shamelessly begging for followers to get to 1000 when he will die happy - at least I think that was the promise! so I hopped on his bandwagon and begged to get to 400. Trouble is my blog doesn't quite have the same attractions as John's so I'm not expecting the new followers to actually read my drivel!
Back Soon - probably with more new granddaughter photos which is something that you won't see on John's blog unless he has dark secrets from the past that we don't know about!!
Sue
