AleisterCrowley wrote:Is your search limited to east Midlands/East Anglia* ?
There are plenty of areas west which fulfill your criteria, although getting a train 'around' London back east (rather than in<>out can be a pain
*I'm never sure whether to capitalise the 'east' bits, so have gone for both options
No, happy to go further west/West. I'm not a big fan of East Anglia for living, certainly no further east than I am, don't like the dank fens. Def want to be further south.
BUT - my other personal conditions (I mean, the conditions I place on where I live, not medical conditions!) mean that places west are not doable as far as I can tell.
So, just to be really awkward:
not east of London, nor south. No Southern Trains. So, no Kent, no Sussex, probably no Surrey.
Midlands works well because it's, you know, in the middle.
west of London is fine - but village - no Wokingham/Reading/Maidenhead/Slough areas. Beds/Herts/Bucks all good (but costly). Ideal would be village with pub and shop but NO school (so it's not just overrun with families, like my current village is, feel like I don't fit in, all the neighbours knows each other through their kids).
No estates. Small development is OK.
min 1 bed with a room for a study, or two bed (second room as study).
Must have parking, not specifically a drive but at least a road where parking isn't a total nightmare.
Must have a shower *and* bath - can be shower over the bath (or headroom/wall to put one in, don't mind getting it done), so doesn't have to be separate, but I need to have a shower and I have also decided that although I only have about one bath a year, I don't want to love without a bath. I can cope with a downstairs bathroom (prefer not but compromise) as long as it's not through the kitchen.
Don't mind no gas, but some form of heating is useful, though I'd also like an open fire/log burner...
Kitchen needs w/m and d/w (no need for tumble dryer) and space for f/f.
Main bedroom min 10'x10' with room for double bed and at least one bedside table.
A garden would be nice, can be quite small but have been put off by places with just a courtyard.
Pref not new build. Oh, and has to be a house, not a flat (I've had my fill of leaseholds).
...think that's it....
Yes, I have considered renting and I will be moving to a shared house first - but not in 'the area' as on that basis I could end up moving several times! Esp as I am hoping for a nice village or small market town, not much comes up in those, and many don't have rentals at all. The advantage of moving to a shared house is 1) it's cheap so can still save towards house, 2) I don't need to move all my stuff (hopefully ex will be OK about me just sorting that out when I buy, assuming it's not years away), 3) I only have to properly move once, 4) I will rent where my current season ticket goes from, reducing admin for me (I'm going to have enough to do) and yet saving me the half an hour it currently takes me to get there (and saving £100pm in fuel and maybe even saving the £100+pm parking fee).
I could spend up to £210k cash I think. That leaves money for decorating/repairs/moving/fees and SDLT. More than that and I will need a loan of some sort.
Mel