Any advice for moving to a new area?

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Any advice for moving to a new area?
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jamsam

Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Posts: 2560
Location: erm....i dont know, its dark.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 2:26 pm Post subject:

Judith wrote:

Do your searching from October through to March. See the places at their worst, rather than when the sun is out.

i agree, always go house hunting at first in the winter, see the worst and the ask for pictures of the summer, and may sellers will want to be out for christmas so you may get a bargain. also flood maps and escape routes in case of heavy snow or floods are always goo...i wish i had seen that before we moved!

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 2:30 pm Post subject:
When we moved up here, I wondered why so many houses had one wall covered with slate - thought it was a decorative thing! Then I experienced several weeks of horizontal rain from the West battering that end of the house and working its way through the stone walls!

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18416

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 5:48 pm Post subject:

Think about the things that matter to you, but that you might take for granted in an urban area. Including

- Local council facilities (rural branch libraries are sometimes not very large or good - you may find you have read everything interesting quite quickly and are reduced to reading stuff that rots the brain; art exhibitions are often very 'safe' in content; likewise music and drama)
- Range of available evening classes
- Location and solvency of existing friends (lack of money / time will mean you see much less of each other).
- Opportunities for meeting and socialising with like-minded people - very important
- How easily do you make new friends, and on what basis ?
- Council winter road-gritting priorities (will you need to get a 4WD?)
- Will you need / do you want to move again when you get older ? (proximity to doctor, dentist, hospital, other services)

When you move to a different area, you don't stop being yourself and start being someone else. However absorbing and busy the new life, chances are that sooner or later some of your other characteristics / interests will reassert themselves.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 5:56 pm Post subject:
A good book with very down to earth advice, specifically about moving to the country is out of your townie mind, by Richard somebody (I'll look it up, when it comes back from MIL) It's a bit tongue in cheek, but makes you face up to any rose tinting issues, and really think about what you want from life in the country.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 6:12 pm Post subject:

marigold wrote:

Unless of course you intend making money from the visitors....

...which is no bad thing, as in most of the most desirable parts of the country, tourists are the biggest cash crop.
If you're looking at places with outbuildings, it might be worth sounding out how the local planners feel about self-catering conversions and the like - they can bring in some serious income, and for far less work than B&B.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 7:03 pm Post subject:

Thanks for all of the advice. As it will be a big move for us, Surrey to Cornwall is the nearest we're thinking about, I'm considering renting or buying a small property where we chose to move to while we sell our house. That way we can live somewhere while we get to know the area and find something. As for wages I intend to work a smallholding and hopefully Bugs can do something similar to her job but from home.

Milo

Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 342
Location: Oop North-ish.

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 8:17 pm Post subject:
Has anyone mentioned the times of day, as well as the times of year? Many aspects of a green existence are much easier to achieve in an urban setting, (joined-up housing, much reduced travel) but in urban settings you get probs which might never occur in rural areas - oiks hanging around on street corners of an evening, parking probs at different times of day, etc.

Leonie

Joined: 13 Sep 2005
Posts: 731
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Wed Dec 07, 05 8:56 pm Post subject:

In our experience of moving to a new country, it's a good idea to rent propery first before you commit to buy. It allows you to get a feel for the place first and make sure it's where you want to be, you'll learn the pros and cons of the area which is sometimes very difficult to know until you've lived and worked there for a while. And the most important thing we learnt is not to give up too quickly, moving to a new country or a place that is quite different to what you're used to is a huge change and very unsettling, it took two years before we felt settled.

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 05 8:57 am Post subject:

I had no intention of moving at all. I came out here to spend a few months with my son prior to his starting school, but had every intention of going 'home' again & starting back where I'd left off.

As it happened, I fell in love with the place and that was that.

Appreciate that mine is probably not a blueprint to follow as it's been half baked from day one. BUT, it seems to be working out so I've no regrets about it.

My advice would be to stay somewhere for a while & check out all the facilities before making any permanent moves. When my son hurt his arm recently I was completely gobsmacked to discover that the nearest X-ray machine was over an hour's drive away.

And other people have said this already, but consider the future mobility of family & friends, or your willingness to budget in the time & money to visit. My father suffered a stroke the day I returned to Portugal back in October, which brought that home to me.

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