ABOUT US

We are John and Liz, and we have been married for 24 years. We have two daughters who are have now bought their own homes, and three cats. We have recently left our busy lives in Leamington Spa, as a new life loomed, for our dream of a slower pace of life in the country. Now our dream has become reality and we have started the exciting journey of exploring our new home turf and making our house a home. We wanted to share it with you - our hopes, our fears, our excitement and our discoveries.

WHERE WE CAME FROM

Our last house was a basic new-build box when we bought it off plan in 2001. We ended up in this house by sheer accident, because the house we had put a reservation payment down on had been sold from under us. It was a fortuitous twist of fate because we ended up somewhere even better. We reserved a corner plot of a small new development in our sleepy town, and watched our house being built from the bedroom window of the show-home opposite. We were looking forward to having more space and a garden of our own. Amber was 10 months old when we moved in in April 2002.The house was within walking distance of a great nursery and primary school, and at the end of a cul-de-sac so it was super-safe for a small girl growing up. Charlotte was added to our family 8 months later, and after that a cat called Alfie, and we were complete.

It was a great house, but it was just a cube with rooms in. We did our best to put our mark on it, but we were limited to different colours of paint, knocking through from the kitchen to the utility room, updating the bathrooms and adding a veranda. We also did a lot of work in the garden, so in the summer it looks lovely...but it is overlooked by 8 of our neighbours - so, no privacy. It can be very peaceful on a weekend afternoon, despite being on the flight path into Birmingham! But, it was just not our retirement ideal, and so we set about hunting for the perfect spot to relax and settle down for at least 10-15 yers before reviewing.

Sadly, as many things, it didn't quite turn out as we planned, and the story is here in our blog posts. We love it and we have found our little oasis of peace and calm, but life has thrown us quite the curve ball and so we find ourselves on borrowed time and trying to soak up all our haven has to offer on fast forward.