How convenient is your house?

We moved two years ago because although we loved our house, it was not situated in a good place to grow old. Over the 25 years we lived there, we had lost all the amenities of our village, one by one and there was no public transport. Other factors were that all our children had flown far off and would never return and that our garden was steeply terraced and we couldn’t maintain it ourselves without help, or even access it if either of us became infirm. The final straw was Storm Arwen, when we lost all power for a week, including mobile phone signal. We coped then but we looked ten years ahead and saw that we might possible not cope and that it was a worry and concern to our children.

So yes, we spent a lot of money moving but we are in a good place now. We miss the wonderful views and seeing wildlife etc but we have a large supermarket 10mins walk away and a garden centre even closer. There’s a pub just a minute or two away and buses into town. We’re minutes from a dual carriageway to places further afield (though I miss driving over the mountain pass!) and it’s an easier journey for family to visit us. We chose here because one of our daughters lives a few minutes drive away and wanted us nearer. We now do enough childcare to feel we’re useful but not so much that it’s a burden.

We have a 4-bed new build house so although it’s smaller and we’ve had to get rid of many belongings, it’s been good to reduce the clutter. Best of all, we have a very accessible garden with French doors and I’m loving creating it from scratch, though I don’t have a plan, it’s all very ad hoc. And I don’t need a sauna - I hate being too hot!

Well, we are on the move. Our house is for sale. The main reason is that our children now live cross country from us, and as we have discovered, not easy journeys in in emergency.

We also live in a village with a local (and very expensive) Co-op and good bus services, but, I suffer from travel sickness on local busese, the nearest station, foctor, dentist, rasonable supermarket etc etc is 4 miles away and we now think it will be wise to move to the centre of a small town, where we have conformed that all services are within an easy walk.

So far, so conventional, but where we go astray from the rules, is that we do not want a nice modern flat or house. We are used to living in old, interesting and quirky houses and see no reason why that should change and, providing a buyer for our house comes along soon, we have our eye on a listed building in need of renovation, to be done by builders this time, not us. However it is in the towncentre, the garden is small and the house is only slightly smaller than our current home.

Sounds like a plan M0nica. Just one thing though, not all flats are modern. Some older houses converted into flats can be v nice. I visited a friend in one last week and was v impressed. Nice big rooms which suits their older furniture and a lovely manageable front garden. All on the ground floor and on one level. If we weren't already suited I'd be looking around for one like that. Just a suggestion.

We’re fine, a walk to regular buses, pharmacy, pub, two grocery shops and a bakers. GP surgery is a 20 minute walk or short drive.
Our house isn’t huge, so manageable, similarly the garden, both children live locally, for now and we have good local friends.

Our problem is the outside noises. Over the 11 years there are more vehicles parked around and a neighbour (two of them) have four vehicles between them. Managed to negotiate some understanding trouble is there are two camper vans locally as well. White vans from self employed are also a bl**dy nuisance. Could downsize but would take up savings as we've already don e it twice. Need a bungalow (an important consideration when you're much older).

My parents-in-law used to live on a private road situated on a common. There was no footpath leading from their road and no amenities with easy walking distance. If they had to go anywhere at all they needed to drive - then some years ago we had snow and of course they were completely cut off for several days. It was the wake up call they needed and they now live just a few minutes walk away from me. Fortunately they already had a bungalow here and they were able to put an extension on it and add an extra sitting/dining room, bathroom and utility. However beautiful a house and garden may be I do think that access to local amenities become more important when we get older.

We are ok where we live. There’s a bus stop just along from the house which has a bus service that drops off at the two nearest villages, the railway station and on into town, going through another village should we need it. However, at the moment we both drive. The nearest village is a half mile walk and it has various shops, a pharmacy and post office. The next village, just a few miles further has 2 supermarkets, doctors surgery, dentist, pharmacy, a couple of pubs, a butcher, a chippy and various other shops. The village on from that is similar. The railway station has direct routes to several cities.
We are lucky in that there are (at least for the moment) some fields and green spaces nearby, too. As importantly, our neighbours are all good, and we have family nearby.
The house suits our needs, it’s not very big, but enough for us. It has a downstairs cloakroom which is very useful. The garden is manageable, and as regards future proofing, if it ever became necessary, we could have a stairlift installed - a similar house had one, so we know it’s doable. So, all in all, I think it likely that we’ll be staying put.

Thanks, Aveline But a flat is unlikely to provide the accommodation we require - 3 large living spaces and 3 bedrooms.

My MiL had a flat like that you describe and was very happy in it. It was a new conversion and the other 3 flat owners were young first time buyers. They had a really happy relationship, she would take in parcels and hold spare keys and they would drop in for coffee

The problem with some flats, even if they have lovely communal gardens, are that there are service charges. There some nearby and the service charges have tripled over a few years, they are thousands of pounds per year.

Sounds perfect OP- can we expect to see it on Rightmove any day now?

No Rightmove for me RosiesMaw, every time I look for another house I realise I’m looking for what I’ve already got. I’m even more appreciative on Mondays after the cleaner has worked her magic. 😂

I can walk to.
My Dr.
My Dentist.
Optician.
The beach.
The station to London ( 1 hour to London)
20 min drive to airport and large hospital.
More convenience shops that you can shake a stick at including an Aldi and a large supermarket.
4 charity shops.
A haberdashery that does home delivery.
A wonderful fish shop.
A post office
3 pubs and
A dry cleaners.
I think that’s it 😂
I’m never moving.

We have moved a good few times, making changes to each house based on what we liked/disliked about the previous. We now have a spacious bungalow with some vaulted ceilings, modern efficient bathrooms and a lovely big kitchen diner. My utility room is the size of many kitchens, has room for pet food, laundry to dry, and important stuff like the wine fridge. Manageable back garden opening onto fields, lots of nice big trees. But, most importantly, walking distance from surgery, food shop, pharmacist, village hall and bus stop to main town. Also only 45 minutes from London. We did consider moving a few years back, buy when we listed wat we wanted and needed, we realised that we had it all already

That’s brilliant Petra but the most important things in my life (apart from family) are peace and quiet, open fields, wildlife and the big Norfolk dark skies, and proximity to the coast. I can’t imagine sacrificing them for convenient facilities. We can both drive - if that ever became impossible there are taxis, and we already have home deliveries of most groceries and all meat and fish. I would hate to sacrifice this lovely country life for the convenience of having facilities within walking distance - and as we age, what is walking distance?

grannyactivist we realise our current house is really suitable for our needs and has some extra features that I suspect are irreplaceable

Our home is not convenient to shops, Post Office, health centres, buses, train, motorway - however it's quite convenient to live in for my husband's work and our gardens/yards. We're happy roaming round here.

Delivery services, taxis, and this home will see us out.

As grannyactivist says irreplaceable, we couldn't find better.

Well, I downsized when I was widowed, moved from a 4-bed detached with 3/4 of an acre garden to a 2-bed terrace with a paved back yard. I love the house, it's very cosy, and a ten minute walk from the station, the bus, and the sea. However, since I moved, 3 grandchildren have been born, and it saddens me that I don't have a garden for them to play in! I keep looking at property, but the cost of moving again would be too much.

This is going back a bit, but I'm a farm child & when I was born, a newly -retired childless couple from Birmingham moved into an old cottage on our farm. They didn't drive & the nearest bus stop (one am coach to the town 10 miles away, & two pm coaches back, none on sunday) was 1 mile away down a steep one-track lane.There was a neighbour opposite but they were recluses, apart from that no-one for half a mile. There was no mains electricity until the mid 80's. They took the coach once a week to the shops, grew their own vegetables & foraged, read books, babysat us sometimes. They were very Green. The wife went into a nursing home at 97 for 6 months before she died, the husband died 2 days short of his 100th birthday in their beloved cottage cared for by the District nurse & my mum.They'd been there 40 years.

Norah I couldn’t agree with you more. We have an unusual, idiosyncratic house which we love. It , and especially the garden may become too much for us. Butthere is lots of outside help around here. We will just have to use that. Won’t move unless we really must.

I think it is easy to have sterotypicsl ideas about what living in a town close to amenities means.

It doesn't need to mean a concrete jungle. The two small towns we are looking at are on a wide meandering river, with the little rivers and streams that feed it form green corridors through the towns. I need to be in sight of trees and green spaces and all the houses we have considered have provided just that, one had river views and a mooring another backs onto one of these green corridors. In small towns with old town centres, the back streets are not busy, they are quiet, often tree lined and mainly residential

I would love to stay where we are but the garden is getting too much and we are too far from our children. Our new planned location makes it much easier for both to get to us more easily - and as we age so do they - My father lived to be 92, I was then in my mid 60s and if I lived that long they would be the same and the 4 hour cross country drive that they did so casually at 30, may be much more tiring at over 60.

Personally, I am seeing it as a big new adventure. I am an army brat so accustomed to house moves. This one is going to take me away from county where, girl and woman, I have lived in for around 60 years. but hopefully somewhere new with new opportunities and, hopefully, new friends.

That's exciting M0nica. Back to my previous post. On thinking about it, that ground floor conversion of an old house was certainly big enough with two public,three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a sunroom but it was stone built with big old windows (may have been listed). I suspect that it might be very hard to keep warming winter. Another thing to consider.

Although my house is large for one person I have it just the way I like it and it is easy to care for. Three bedrooms so that people can stay, two bathrooms, three living rooms, a study and a very big kitchen. The garden is block paved and artificial lawn.
There is a bus stop at the bottom of the street and a Morrisons and Aldi less than half a mile away.

Ours is a semi, on a steep hill. We like it and have been here for 33 years. The back garden is about 70ft long. We're not overlooked there. About 1 mile away, we've got :

Asda, Sainsburys, Lidl, Aldi, a Co-Op local
2 GP surgeries
Dentists
Library
Post office
Marketplace
Several charity shops
Estate agents, banks
Chip shops, also Indian, Nepalese, Chinese takeaways
Delicatessens
2 Butchers
A few homeware shops, including a brand-new B & M and Boyes
Bon Marche
Birds bakery & cafe
Swimming pool
(leisure centre without a pool is 1/2 a mile from us)
Small theatre
Various cafes, pubs, restaurants.
A park (another one is about 5 minutes' walk from us)

Son2 and his family are 2 miles from us. Son1 and family 8 miles.

I love our small but extended end of terrace home with a small walled garden in a small bustling town on the Thames. We have a large field directly outside our front door where our grandchildren love to play football and other games. All cars at the back of the row of houses.

Here’s a view out of our stable front door.

Only drawback is that the bathroom and the en-suite are both upstairs.

We are up a hill which I can easily walk down but not up! I drive into town which takes about 4 minutes where there are many cafes, restaurants, new swish cinema, fab charity shops and clothes shops which are far too expensive.

There is a bus twice a week which goes through our estate and maybe one day I will need to use it.

I have visited KittyLester’s house and can confirm it is lovely and is unusual as it was a school.

Looks lovely NanKate. A nice open green view. Very therapeutic. We're very lucky with our view too. It's much nicer than the one from our previous home.

That's a lovely thing to say, thank you, Kate.