I stood in the HOUSE that had been my home for twenty years, and mentally said Goodbye. We had finally done it – bought a house in the hills of Derbyshire. Ever since we had begun camping in the Lake District and discovered the magnetic character of the hills and mountains there, we had vowed that one day we would live amongst the hills. We envisaged spending our retirement there. In fact, we were not yet retired, but the very week after my father died, we took a break in Derbyshire to find some peace after his death.
We were never impulsive people, and normally everything had to be worked out in the finest detail. We were most definitely not risk takers. But death changes you. You realise that you are not on this earth for ever, and that, life being short, you have to take what you can, when you can. You have to MAKE things happen. Yes, take rsks even. And so, we went on holiday the week after my father’s death, subconsciously having made the decision to change our lives dramatically, and to make our dream of living amongst the hills, come true.
Neither of us said much to the other, but quietly, inside of ourselves, in an almost unacknowledged way, we were looking out for cottages to rent long term. Thus it was that one day, we were on the outskirts of a village, and we saw a “To Rent” board outside a beautiful stone cottage, with the romantic name of “Rose Cottage.” We looked at each other, and as one, we knew what we were going to do.
And so it was that we found ourselves, within half an hour, looking round the cottage. We had never decided to move consciously, for finances would not allow it. We had not sold our house, and had no intentions of selling it. But by the end of that day we had taken a cottage in Derbyshire, and the move was to take place four weeks later.
Life takes strange turns at times, and, after some months in rented accommodation, we had sold our home of twenty years, and were about to move into a house in Chapel-en-le-Frith in the High Peak. We never thought we would ever have enough money to buy a house in Derbyshire, but my husband sent me off one day with the brief, “Find us a house. And if you find one that we can afford, make an offer on it.” What a responsibility THAT was! But I DID find one. A very small one,
but nevertheless, a HOUSE!
It was not long before the day of the removal, and on that day we closed the door on our old lives, and began a new one. The life of our dreams.
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I remember hating the first house we bought as soon as my feet went over the threshold. It had been empty for about a year and no-one had secured the cat flap. It stank, yet had been cleverly masked with air freshener when we viewed.
The water and electricity wasn’t on, and the broken window that had been promised would be replaced hadn’t. It cost us nearly £50 to have the electric put on as an emergency as the B/Society had forgotten to arrange it. Six months later we were living in a property that was worth less than the mortgage on it. We were stuck there for six years. Still, it was just a house, not us, and we were happy which is what mattered.
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Gosh Di. We ince bought a house in Wlathan Abbey near to hubby’s new job in London, and it too had been empty for a long time, but it was all we could afford. A huge old terraced hoyse. When we mived un ut had rats, mice, dry rotm wet rot – you name it. I didnall the decorating though, once we got rid of the rats and mice, and in fact it became ablovely home, ni was proud of my work!
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