Moving out of town! Have you?

tanith

OH has this idea that we'll move to the country/coast when he retires in 5yrs (I have already) and have and idyllic existance in peace and tranquillity.. I'd love it too especially the coast.

A little background , we have both lived in Inner and Outer London and loved it all our lives , we have children and grands who all live closeby also other family. Now I have serious misgivings about moving out to what could be perfect peace or living hell....

So have you done it , moved from the town to the country/coast? did it work out? Please give me your thoughts or experiences because I so want to make him happy but I dread it all going wrong and being isolated from my family or one of us becoming ill and having to travel distance to hospital etc.. or worse being left on ones own miles from family because this would be a one way journey once we sold up and moved out we'd never afford to move back should it prove a disaster... I hope to hear some positive posts and that it could be done and not prove a disaster... what if we couldn't drive anymore ? what then?

Mojisola

It's a huge step to take, especially as it will take you away from all your family.

Have you stayed in the kind of area you're thinking of moving to during the winter or do you just have lovely summer experiences to go on?

Could you have a trial run by renting out your place in London and renting somewhere rural? You would then have the option of moving back if you hate it.

moonrakerz

tanith wrote: »

So have you done it , moved from the town to the country/coast? did it work out?

No, we did the opposite !

We lived in a delightful village on the edge of the Marlborough Downs - white horse and all. Over 20 yrs there.
No shop, no garage, two buses a day with all the school kids !, 3 miles to town, 10 miles to a train. All very nice while we were both fit and healthy !

Now we have retired we have moved into town. Have a car, both still drive. When the day comes that we can't drive - free buses everywhere, station 5 mins walk away. Doctors 5 mins. Morrisons, Lidl, Iceland, Library, 3 chemists, oodles of other shops, couple of nice tea rooms.

I really would think long and hard about your plans - and look into the future !

Savvy_Sue

Before we moved here, people kept saying "Oh, there are some LOVELY little villages around there." Villages? What would I want to move to one of THEM for? I'm a townie, and I know it.

However, my parents moved from London to a small town in Berkshire, and they settled pretty well. I think they missed some things to the end - getting to hospital appointments was a bit of a nightmare, for example, because even with hospital transport (they don't drive) it meant really early pickups or late returns.

I don't think that they did think it through enough beforehand, however, they bought a massive and over extended house on the wrong side of town to one of my siblings, and Dad was really struggling to cope and wanted to move into a home in the last couple of years. Which Mum wouldn't hear of, and actually I don't think Dad would have been happy in a home, but they could certainly have done with something more convenient and not so large. They did look at sheltered housing, but Mum hated them.

Dad died last year, and Mum's pottering along OK in her massive house. There's an excellent day centre which she goes to most days (as did Dad), and that organises minibus shopping trips each week and similar 'jaunts', she uses taxis and the excellent volunteer car service a lot, and sometimes the bus, although she prefers to be taken door to door.

But without those kinds of services, I think it would be a different story, they would both have been quite isolated and Mum would now be really struggling.

So, my advice, think it through, including the 'what if we can't drive, what if we're ill, what if we lose mobility' questions, and try to find out what services are available for older people in the area.

The suggestion of renting on a trial basis is also a good one. You should DEFINITELY make several winter visits before committing yourselves.

pollypenny

I'd never move to a place without a bank!

Here we are in walking distance of bank, surgery, cottage hospital and the town shops. Pity Tesco has sucked the life out of it, though.

Savvy_Sue

pollypenny wrote: »

I'd never move to a place without a bank!

:rotfl: I work in a bank free zone, it's a good 30 minute walk to a 'proper' bank. There USED to be a PO just over the road, but that's now closed so we're a 10 minute walk from one of them too.

There is no bank within 2 miles of where I live either. Nearest PO has closed, but the one a little further away has survived, after that it's 2 miles again.

Country? No, one of the UK's largest cities, I work in the inner bit and live in one of the leafy suburbs.

Errata

Rent a place for six months in the winter in the place he wants to move to. It could prove to be money well spent, and far cheaper than selling up and buying, and then selling up and buying again.

hethmar

One thing,you seem to think it would be an extreme and you would be isolated in deep country? Surely you could check out some lovely little market towns near the sea or countryside where you would have good community facilities and yet not the hurly burly of London? Not everywhere outside cities lack facilities/shops/doctors and so on. We live in a lovely market town with transport, a small train station, doctors surgeries, dentists, a decent range of shops, clubs/associations etc.

There are some lovely small towns all over the UK where you could have the best of both worlds.

tanith

Errata wrote: »

Rent a place for six months in the winter in the place he wants to move to. It could prove to be money well spent, and far cheaper than selling up and buying, and then selling up and buying again.

This is sounding more and more like a good option, it will have to happen after he retires but I think its a good starting point we had planned to take short breaks to areas we like over the next couple of years..

Sagz_2

If you move to the coast and get a house that has a spare room (or two) you'll see plenty of the family

zygurat789

Coashttp://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/barteros.htmts tend to move!