Just about to exchange cold feet

verytired11

I did a pre-exchange viewing yesterday. I am moving out of London to start a new life in Norfolk.  The house is in the middle of nowhere so the lifestyle change is huge (I have lived in London for 30 years).  I am getting cold feet and would welcome any thoughts at all.
The main things I am worried about are:
1. The property did not sell for a long period of time despite being on the market during the stamp duty madness. I have never established why this was.  My hope is that it was just because it is a bit run down and was initially overpriced (it is a higher value property and we bought it £125k under the original asking price; but this was only £25k under the price dropped asking price). The surveyor said the price I am paying is good.
2.  The house is in the middle of nowhere, so no pretty village nearby, and it abuts a road that has no footpath.  This is my main concern - that I will basically have to get in the car every single time I leave the house. Has anyone lived in a house like this and what's it like and might this be the reason that the house was difficult to sell? I am not sure I can get my head round not being able to just walk anywhere.

Any thoughts, feelings, advice or ideas all very welcome.

lookstraightahead

Hello
i lived in London years ago in my twenties and gradually moved further away. My daughter is in her twenties and lives there now for work. I live in the countryside so have a direct comparison. In fact, I've just bought a 200 year old house with wobbly walls and we definitely have more weather and need a car .

Don't worry about the price - you paid what you were happy with.
You probably viewed the house in the sunshine and now the nights are dark, but hey, the stars that you will be able to see will brighten that up. It is different from London, but you will see the benefits and if you don't like it, move again.

We go into London quite a lot, it's a three hour train journey, and I still love it. But I wouldn't want to live there now.

Give yourself the best of both world. Live across the country, rather than in one place. It's great that you have the confidence of going to London and knowing it, yet the peace and tranquility of the countryside.

and lots of people have cold feet to start with - some people never move. Enjoy the experience.

verytired11

@lookstraightahead thanks it's such unknown territory for me, but if I don't do it now, I will never do it.... It's almost impossible to get my head round the idea that in 3 weeks time my life will be completely different.

boxer234

Why did you want to move to the country in the first place ? Do these reasons still stand ? Can you walk on the road to a footpath ? Get a high viz jacket.  Having cold feet is normal new is scary but nearly always worth it. 

Flugelhorn

it is hugely different lifestyle and some people do find it too much, but you won't know until you get there.

There will be lovely bits and not so lovely bits - the peace will be great and having nature all around you will be wonderful but it is a trek to the shops and they won't have everything you could get in London, the locals will be mostly friendly but also have bizarre grumbles that have been going on for centuries - you'll never get to the bottom of these so just join in whatever.

WoozieSioux_tse

I rent on a 60mph road with only one neighbour. We don't have pavements, but do have a massive garden (and farmer's fields that we have permission to walk around the edge of). Saves us getting splatted, there's a lot of agricultural and commuter traffic here!

Did you check internet speeds and availability of home delivery before you moved?  If you have those and you can cope with the driving, it can be very rewarding. It's great to have no light pollution so you actually get to see loads more stars at night. You'll probably also notice more wildlife- we see loads more birds of prey. When the traffic stops in the evening it is really quiet which can be great if you're decompressing after a stressy day at work.

My children are younger and home schooled, so not really bothered about the availability of shops and cinemas yet. (It would be an occasional treat anyway, we do venture into a nearby city at least once a month!). Being born in a city, having most recently lived on the outskirts of a town, I think this is the most peaceful we've ever felt in our surroundings.

The downsides are, as you say, not being able to nip out to the shop in 3 minutes if you've run out of something. If there are fuel distribution issues you might need to factor that into journeys you do make. If it's really the back end of nowhere and you get lots of icy/windy/snowy weather, the roads are unlikely to be clear until a local farmer needs to use them. If it's an isolated house, is your power supply protected, do you have a back up generator? Are you eligible for a place on a priority register? Is it especially windy in Norfolk during winter and do you have much in the way of trees? (We do, but both trained in the basics of chain sawing/tree management and have all protective clothing and take necessary precautions). Bear in mind also, that with the house being isolated, you'll want excellent insulation so that once you get your home warm, it stays that way.

Are you any good a car maintenance? I'd suggest trying to keep your car covered/ wrapped if possible in winter so that you don't have to spend ages defrosting it and definitely pay for the best breakdown package you can- basically, your insurance so that you don't get stuck if the car won't start.

Good luck. You didn't really explain your motivations for actually wanting to move out of your comfort zone. I can honestly say we're all really enjoying it here (though we are looking for a house to buy with pavements outside as a hopefully more long term option), we rented an extreme because we wanted to know what we could cope with it before we bought!

Flugelhorn

Just reading your first post again, also @WoozieSioux_tse ' s post  + thinking about some places I have lived or looked at to buy - I reckon what you really need is a house on the edge of a rural village where the utilities are more reliable and you can walk places including possibly a village shop.  OK it is not the really rural life but a lot more so than London and possibly more enjoyable

youth_leader

We moved from London to a remote house in Northumberland.  It's lovely to see wildlife every day, big quiet skies, hardly any traffic, hardly any crime, everyone knows each other.  There is also the bonus here of going to the beach every day. 

The main thing to know I think when moving to the countryside is that everyone seems to know each other, and they are often related in some way.  I was surprised at some of the relationships - my swimming instructor turned out to be my boss's Dad! 

I do drive everywhere here as the bus service is hourly.  Initially I found it frustrating the local shops were so limited, I had to travel 35 miles for retail.  On-line shopping supplied that need eventually.  I still miss easy access to theatres, cinemas and good restaurants, and travel 35 miles for those. 

I'd recommend you do buy a big chest freezer, you can freeze the basics of bread, milk and cheese. Keep your food in tins in cupboards, you might have mice like us.

Get proper waterproof winter clothing and good boots, Toggi/Dubarry/ or similar.  Not sure what car you have but I've got a 4x4, makes me feel safer on the windy country roads.  Night time driving here in the pitch dark was a shock, I carry a break down kit in the car.  Make sure you have candles and torches in the house.  If you have a woodburner, find out where to get the best and cheapest wood.   

Ask around before you employ any local people, we were caught out with a few rogues when we were 'new' to the area.

Enjoy your new peaceful life, I hope you are very happy.

kezzygirl

Can I ask where in Norfolk it is? I have lived here my whole life apart from short stints in Lincolnshire and cambridgeshire- are there train routes nearby?do you plan to travel to London for work?we do have lots of commuters who save money by moving here and commuting in.

verytired11

boxer234 said:

Why did you want to move to the country in the first place ? Do these reasons still stand ? Can you walk on the road to a footpath ? Get a high viz jacket.  Having cold feet is normal new is scary but nearly always worth it. 

So some context around the move - I am making a new start with my partner and we are moving in together.  I did decide I didn't want to live in London for the rest of my life and I really would like to move in with my partner.  However his daughter is 14 and so we need to be near her life (he has her half the week). Although my children are adults now, my younger son has a disability and may be reliant on us for a while.  He is my main worry as he is just starting to get some independence in London and he loves cinema, theatre etc and doesn't drive (and doesn't want to) so he may feel and become very isolated and even more reliant on me to get him around everywhere.  In an ideal world my partner would move in with me for the next few years and then once my younger son was more independent to make the move out of London.  Perhaps I have answered my own question and need to have more of a negotiation with my partner.

verytired11

@WoozieSioux_tse thanks that's a very full and helpful answer.