You may remember that back in May we were spending our days walking in The Forest of Dean.  What we didn’t tell you is that we took a couple of days out to go shopping.

We’ve not lived a conventional life since we started that first six month trip back in 2008. Living a nomadic lifestyle split between long winter trips overseas and summer tours of the UK in our caravan has become normal for us.  However, over the last couple of years we’ve spent our time looking at various locations in the UK to buy our first home together.   We looked at coastal towns as we both love being by the sea, as well as various locations mainly in the South West.  We both had our own set of ‘must have requirements’ meaning that compromise was always going to happen. 

One day Cheryl showed Neil a house on Rightmove that took her fancy expecting him to say ‘no, absolutely not, it’s too expensive, it’s a money pit and hadn’t you noticed it’s way too big for two people?’.  He said all of the above but did agree to see it so we booked a viewing and then went again the next day to have another look. 

Well, it’s certainly more than we planned to spend, it probably is a money pit and it’s definitely much too big but we just fell in love with it even though it needs lots of remodelling and modernisation to satisfy our ‘must have requirements’. 

It wasn’t plain sailing through the sales process and several times we thought it was going to fall apart.  First the owners hadn’t found somewhere to move to, and that process took a month.  Then two months later when we went to visit them, they revealed that the first purchase wasn’t in the frame anymore but ‘not to worry, we’ve agreed a price on a house today’!  So, that’s three months gone already.  Then they revealed that the house was the subject of probate and we knew that process could take months.  Fortunately, they agreed to move into rented accommodation if needed.  Then there was another sticky moment when the drain survey revealed one or two potential problems.  Again, the sellers came up trumps and agreed to split the cost of the repairs. 

The house is in Seaton in Devon and it was built in 1928.  It’s a 5 minute walk to the beach, town, pubs, tennis courts, a proper butcher, The Purbeck Coastal Path, gym, theatre/cinema, Seaton Tramway, Jurassic Centre, Wetland Wildlife Trust, in fact, just about everything.  The garden is a whopping 0.75 of an acre with stunning specimen trees planted by the current owners who are nearing 90 years old.  It has several man caves, a garage, conservatory, loggia and a summer house. We also have a proper Croquet Lawn – now all we have to do is buy a croquet set and learn the rules. 

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Ah, almost forgot.  It’ll also need furnishing and as we’ve not actually had a traditional home for the last 11 years our entire world fits into a single garage.  This means lots of shopping………. ‘deep joy’ said Neil.  Who cares, we’re excited about knocking down walls, changing the kitchen and installing some bathrooms, excited about putting down some roots, excited about living by the sea and just generally, as you might have worked out, very, very excited. 

We’ve just exchanged contracts and move in mid September.  We have several spare rooms if you want to come and visit, just let us know.