New House

[skeggijon]

We have bought a new house, which fingers crossed we should be moving into at the end of the month.
It's a Victorian Gothic detatched villa. My OH loves it because of the sweeping staircase, high ceilings and light, airy rooms. Me? The conservatory that I can overwinter my chilli plants and lemon trees in - and the most fantastic enormous pear tree in the garden, which is currently heaving with pears. Plus lots of space for the chickens and a garden remodelling opportunity.

What swung your decision to take the house you currently live in? Was it the house or the garden and growing opportunities?

[veggiechicken]

Sounds fantastic - just the sort of house I would have bought!
I've been in this house 30+ years and it was the location, on the outskirts of town, fields behind, beech and bluebell woods across the road and enough garden for a GH, a shed and 2 garages. Now there are 4 GHs
The house wasn't very important - the garden was.

[Nicos]

House, garden, country, change of life-syle...it ticked all our boxes!

The previous UK home ?....I think it was the fact it was very light, was near 2 different allotment site and had a garden we could completely redo...oh and not overlooked in the garden....oh and the surrounding gardens had trees, hedges- basically lots of greenery.

[Small pumpkin]

3 reasons why we are at our current property.
1, we were homeless living in very temporary accommodation and really really needed a home.
2, the house & location is perfect ( things dreams are made of ) we were very lucky to find it after 6 months of cr@p.
3, is just a huge added bonus, it had an established ( but neglected) veg garden with soft fruits & an established small orchard with lots of space for my poultry.
Nearly 3 years later, still love the house and location. Veg garden no longer neglected and can't wait to play out there again next year. ( never do much autumn & winter due to location). The poultry family is expanding nicely

[Lisasbolt]

Mine echo´s that of Nico´s. change of life and country living.

My first house in the UK we got mainly for the garden and refurbishing and i loved having all that space especially we had just moved out of rented tiny stamp sized garden on one of those horrible complexes (p.s it was bracebridge health!)
But then due to life changes we got a 70´s style house in town and i did not having anything only a apple tree and a few fruit bushes. It was a lovely modern home we did up but felt like everything had to be perfect.
Life is very different now and i spend most of my time outside year round and i won't change that for anything nor go back.
I have endless space which i do not know what to do with so plenty to keep me busy for years to come (i hope)

[Guest]

Do you believe that some things are just meant to happen?

We looked on and off for years for somewhere with a bit of land (upto an acre) or somewhere with the chance to tap up a farmer. With no joy we decided to expand our search area and we found our current home. I was eight months pregnant and we made an appointment to view it two weeks later - thinking if it goes, it goes. We viewed it, it needed tlc but the bones were all there, it was just right for us. An extended ex-authority with a bit of land - not huge but enough for the family to have their own space. Two and a half years on we still can't believe we found it and at an affordable price and we don't intend to leave until we are old fogies

[Jay22]

Location for schools and work! Kids grown, so if I can persuade OH to slow down a bit maybe a move on the cards...garden must have a greenhouse though! Growing things wasn't even on the list when we moved here...I've only just discovered GYO!

[craftymarie]

Congrats on your new house - it sounds like it is full of character and I'd give a lot for a conservatory, they can be such lovely additions.

Our house was bought purely based on location. It's a 10 minute walk max to all the schools with the current one being just over the road. It means from 4-18 my daughter is lucky not to have to take a very long bus journey like I did. It's also 10 minutes from the town centre and all the amenities we need.

I didn't love it at first. It's a small town house and it was so dark with really gloomy and rather hideous wallpapers and carpets. It's taken many years of hard work to make it lighter and brighter. We've also had lots of damp issues and have had the downstairs plaster ripped off the walls 3 times in 15 years. At one point I was so sick of it, I wanted to move.

So it definitely wasn't love at first sight but I've grown very attached to it and especially now all the interior issues are hopefully resolved. I finally have time now to focus on the garden

[Verinda]

My parents gave us a plot of land which was brilliant. Having no money to build a house we lived in a caravan, next thing we have a baby and Mr V built on an extra wooden room...next thing we've another baby and another room! Twelve years later our house was finally built and we moved in. Curiously instead of wallowing in the luxury of a proper house we missed our hut! Nine years on we are settled and happy.

[bramble]

When we were getting married there was a smalll amount of houses being built in a private area quite close to where my parents lived. We decided to invest and put a deposit on our house.
We were 50 years in our house at the beginning of August.
We dont have a huge garden but there is room for my greenhouse, my hubbys shed, our deck and patio area, our conservatory and enough room for a large raised bed running down the full length of the garden.
I would love a bigger growing space but would never leave my house.

[Tripmeup]

We were lucky enough to be able to buy a site and build our own house about 5 years ago... There was also plenty of room for my garden and I have 3 greenhouses now...
Lovely neighbours, a house out in the country and a place I love...

[noviceveggrower]

We are in rented at the moment. When we first got married the place we were in was rented then but I had set up my business and we were saving up for a deposit. Then the recession happened and we lost our business and house. Then we had to move to where we could find work.
So at the moment we are in a two bedroom house with a fairly big garden. It was the garden that won us over. The landlord hasn't touched the house since we moved in apart from when the boiler went kerput. So we have decorated it ourselves and made it ours.
I would like to live in a little three bedroom place with a cottage type garden, an orchard and a veg patch.
Before I'm rude congrats on your new house Skeggi

[Scarlet]

We were living & working in London and then I had twins Which isn't so good in a two bedroom flat when the OH works from home! We wanted something that was an easy commute to London and the drive to Wales was reasonable....at over 50 houses the OH was losing the will to live then at the estate agents we spotted an old farmhouse with an acre plot backing onto fields from the road side it looked derelict! OH pulled into the drive, we took one look at the garden, looked at each other and new instantly we had found our family home. Probably a bit rash the house was a tip inside, I haven't got upstairs carpets yet but I've got 2 greenhouses - 15 years on we still love it here.

[JanieB]

I lived in tied houses for all my married life barring 1 year at the start and one year when we managed to buy the cottage we'd lived in for 21 years. We had to sell it to raise the money to get our own farm.

The house I live in now was my late OH's. He bought it about the time we started seeing each other. I love it. He left it to me for my lifetime after which it reverts to his daughter. It's a 3 bed terrace in a lovely little town that was no more than a big village when we moved in. It was then on the edge of town and overlooked the Thames Valley.

That was 20 years ago. It would now be classed as close to the town centre. The view over the valley is somewhat obscured by the "landscaping" the local housing association have done to the estate they have built at the back.

The main part of it was built around 1790, with some added on in 1820. A rather mean single story kitchen was added in 1981, which is why it's currently being pulled down and a new one built.

The garden is about the size of a large allotment. When we moved in there were 5 sheds marching down the centre. We pulled one down immediately but the others stayed up for some years as Brian was a hoarder and he used them as storage. I finally pulled the last one down last year and this year put up a log cabin style shed.

I will at last be able to grow things and use the garden as a garden. My need to cultivate has been satisfied to some extent by the conservatory that has just been demolished and an allotment which I no longer have.

I'm currently trying to decide whether to have a greenhouse or a poly tunnel next year, and where to put it. And how I persuade my next door neighbour to chop down the sumac that has self seeded itself in his garden and is causing not only too much shade in my garden but also a mini forest of the damn things on my side of the fence that I have to dig up every year.

[1Bee]

Congrats on the new house!

There aren't many houses with gardens round here, oddly. We live in the depths of the countryside, and the older houses don't tend to have gardens... It's farm or nothing! LOL!

We loved our current house because it was:-

1) Old. Sometime before the mid 1700s, we think.
2) Large. I sometimes have to send out for snacks when crossing the bedroom from bed to linen basket....
3) Odd. I once had a builder nearly in tears because he couldn't find a right angle anywhere. (see 1))

But really it was because it was standing empty, but I could in my mind's ear hear the children laughing while running up and down the stairs. It was crying out to be a family home. That thought (and that echo of a sound) kept me going through ten years of trying for a baby (ultimately we adopted. And yes, he laughs while running up and down the stairs. Life is so good.)

Plus I fell in love with the stairs for not having a single tread or riser the same height or depth... And with the dining room table, which is very old, very battered, will seat 10+ and must have been built in situ, as it won't fit through any of the (wide) doors.

I do believe that some things are meant to be. We offered for the house first time round and didn't get it. That sale fell through, and it turned out that the floor in the dining room - which is the room the front door opens into - was rotten and dangerous, and the current owners had to replace it. we offered again, and were successful.

If we'd got it first time round, the first piece of furniture we'd have moved in would have been the extremely heavy piano... which would have promptly fallen through the rotten floor and into the cellar below....

Apart from putting in a kitchen (the original didn't merit the term 'kitchen' - it was barely a 'scullery') and heating in (we won't talk about the first winter), we've done very little. Except remove the derelict roof from the attached barn so we could have a courtyard garden! Priorities...