Plan B

Are you sitting comfortably?  It's catch-up time. This is a backblip that waited for a few things to happen...

We're buying this house.

Apart from the obvious fact that this is no ordinary house, this is no ordinary event.  We are both giving up our full-time jobs in Cambridge and taking over this guest house at the foot of the Malvern Hills!

We're pouring everything into this, heart, soul, and really rather a lot of cash.

This is no quick decision.  The plan (which I've always labelled "PlanB") to do this has has been at the back of our minds for decades - for 'when the boys move away'.  A couple of years ago we recognised that that was beginning to happen and started scouting.  

Blipwatchers have, unknowingly, been on that journey with us.

Our original target was the peak district, primarily Matlock / Matlock Bath being well connected towns, but also Ashbourne.

For a long time we considered one with 2 acres of woodland.  That blip being the first textual hint of the search...

It wasn't until we attended a B&B course in Ludlow that we really started to consider other locations, including Ludlow again that year and Church Stretton and the Long Mynd.

Come September 2013, and a necessary trip to Falmouth, we managed to fit in visits to Ludlow, Malvern, Coventry (for practical reasons only!) and Matlock on the way home.

This was the B&B in Malvern that caught our attention.  It was expensive but perfectly located.  We put an offer in, which was rejected; so we looked elsewhere.  One on this scene was promising for a while - an opportunity for refurbishment but with great possibilities; but an intransigent seller.

Eventually we went back to the 'expensive' one and put in another offer. This wasn't rejected but was held off until we'd sold ours.  The day before we sold ours a cash buyer turned up...  in the subsequent bidding we lost out but were oddly relaxed about it.

The hunt continued, but then this one came on the market - at a price way over our budget...

...but it was just perfect; and what's money for, eh?  Yeah, OK, so food is on the same level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as shelter.

We rummaged down the back of the sofa, eventually sold the Coventry house, and yea!, our offer was accepted.

We move at the end of August (hence all the packing blips...).  Watch this space.

www.thedellhouse.co.uk