Topic

Born and Grew up in a little Village - Tylers Green in Buckinghamshire, but moved to Bicester (not an idyllic place) for cheaper houses. Managed to get a 2 bed i End Terrace for half the price we paid for my Nan's 1 Bed ground floor flat in Tylers Green!.

Moved to Brackley as we had an 18 month old and needed more space.
They authorities were talking of opening an asylum processing center in a village to the south of Bicester and with all the bad press this got we feared the prices would plummet so looked at Brackley which was the next town up the A43 towards Silverstone.

We got a 4 Bed for the same price as a 3 Bed in Bicester, the reason being it was a single carriageway road between the M40 and Towcester before the Dual carriage way lined to the M1. So wasn't a realistic commute to London as you had to get to Banbury or Bicester for the Train.

I was working in Maidenhead so needed access to the M40. They then started dual carriageway-ing the A43 from the M1 to Towcester. It took me longer to get the 8 miles to the M40, as it did from M40-J10 to Maidenhead at times, but after they finished it, the house prices went up 50-60K before the slump again a few years ago, so can't complain. I also left that job for a company based near Caerphilly, so my commute to the office went in the opposite direction.

Why this house- I liked the nice long garden and long driveway for 3 to 4 cars (which is unusual as these houses were all built with 1 drive one garage or 2 drives double garage and no off road parking)

My Wife wanted the house "..'cos I like the lovely lavender bush along the front garden" !!!! I did try to tell her we could plant a lavender bush in any front garden of any house - but No. It had to be this one.

Been here 10 years now, Have a great network of friends, superb neighbours with children the same age and are best friends. Great schools and wouldn't want to move even if I won the lottery.

So I think I count myself lucky:- as as David proved. You can have a dream house but with awful neighbours your life is a a nightmare, or you can have a tip with great neighbours and you feel the luckiest person around.

I was born in Redhill, Surrey - my father worked near there after completing his degree and had digs in the town. He then moved upto London when he changed jobs. He met my mum and they got married 9 months later - as they were both getting on in age for the 60's for starting a family (both in their 30's) it wasn't long before they started for a family, they decided London wasn't good for bring up kids so moved out, as papa new Redhill and it had good commutor links to London they went back there.

We lived in Redhill until I was 6 when we went up market and moved 2 miles to the much posher Reigate in October 1973.
Lovely 4 bed house with split level open plan downstairs with veiws of the northdowns, decent sized garden and one of the best primary schools in the area at the end of the garden (although the entrence was around the corner).

I moved out in 1988 when I got married and moved to Horsham, we couldn't afford to buy in Reigate, Redhill or Dorking, Horley was run down and Crawley is, well if you know Crawley you know............When we started looking we could have almost afforded a house in Redhill but with the property boom we ended up a year later with a flat in Horsham, we got it for £52,500 just before the top of the market and sold it for £49,000 as the prices fell 15 months later, effectivley we paid £3.5k rent over that period.

While we were there my eldest arrived and my ex decided it would be a good idea to have another soon so decided to fall pregnant before we moved! The house we bought was in an ok state and cost us £70k, 6 months earlier it had been on the market at £90k, a year later next door sold for £50k! That was in 1989 and I'm still here.

However in the meantime our family grew to 5 kids, we split up, she moved out and then back in, I moved out and rented a flat for 6 months/£3k and still paid the mortgage, she trashed the house apparently doing it up to sell, she moved out, I moved back in with my new woman.

When I moved out it was a home, when we moved back in it was a squat, we slept on a blow up bed in the dining room for several months until we managed to sort things out, we didn't get the living room for 18 months due to the ex being a pain and exercising her right to keep stuff at the adress as her name was on the deeds.

Since then kids have slowly moved in and out until we have the youngest 3 left, of the 7 between us we've had as many as 4 at any one time!

In my time here we have done so much to the house -

Had the old lean-to bathroom demolished and replaced adding a lobby space.

Replaced the kitched with an ex display one.

Had a loft conversion adding 2 bed rooms,
unfortunatly we had to seperate the 2 downstairs rooms that had been opened up in the 70's.

Split with my ex.

Replaced the kitchen with one from my sisters house when she had a new one.

Replaced and rearranged the bathroom.

Removed the new partion wall again.

Had a consevetory built and bought a new kitchen, brand new and fitted by a pro this time!
This also meant moving some doors around downstairs.

............................................................................................

In my time here the front and back gardens have been completly re-landscaped twice, back by the woman of the house at the time, front by my ex father in law and then we payed a builder to install a drive, just enough space for a Rover 100 and an MGF side by side if you don't use the front door or need to get into one of the cars.

I've rewired the house, some of it twice, moved the boiler, redesigned the heating system and later changed parts of it.
In the last 8 years we've replaced all the floors on the ground and first floor except our bedroom, that will be this year.

I almost forgot that the week after I married Mrs TC I took out the wall on the stairs that seperated the lower and upper staircases, feels like it was always there now.

There is a lot more detail but you wont read this far anyway..........

Only one room left to do - ours, later this year the chimney brest goes, walls replastered, floor replaced and built in wardrobe rebuilt.

So why here -
initially it's what we could afford
then my aging parents didn't want us to move further away
then a matter of principle (and to give my one stable thing in the kids lifes lives)
then I moved my parents just around the corner
(sadly my mum has since died and my dad is now in a home near my sisters in Milton Keynes so my son lives there).
Now both Mrs TC and I work locally and the kids are in senior school locally.

The youngest is 18 in 4 years - that will be time to move...............to the seaside..........or southern France...........or both!
Maybe even retire (at 54 - I wish).

I'm originally from a complete toilet of a town in Suffolk called Haverhill, lived in a tiny little village called Sutton Bonington in possibly Leicestershire or Nottinghamshire (seemed to vary depending on which computer spat the address out) for a year, then moved to Bedfordshire.

Main reason being my wife-to-be is from Bedfordshire, and I was offered work in Bedford, lived in my current house for about 6 months in a little town called Flitwick. Very pleasant area, no problems, nice house (just me and my parter) have a garage for the MGF and parking for three cars. Quite expensive around here though compared to "the middle of bum-f**k nowhere" that was Haverhill.

Regards,
Andy

I moved around with mum and dad due to dad's job and ended up in Nuneaton. When I was 18, I enrolled at Portsmouth University and one of my summer jobs was in Petersfield. I found it to be a small, friendly market town. After Uni I moved back to mum and dad's until I met Helen. We lived together for 6 years in Nuneaton, until I got head hunted for a job in Havant. Given the choice of towns or cities in the area, we liked Fareham, Petersfield and Chichester.

Prices in Chichester are ridiculous, and Petersfield was next on the list given my liking for the town when I was a student.

Rent a nice little 3 bed detached bungalow on the outskirts of Richmond (the proper one, in North Yorks) driveway for 3 cars, double garage with one half converted to home office for my business, 5 mins walk for the school (one of the best independant church run schools in the country according to offsted!!) everything you need in the town centre for day to day (bank, PO, shopping etc) fantastic local archutecture and leisure amenities (cosy cinema, pool, cafe's and restaurants) its a 5-10 mins drive for wifey to work and the stables, but best of all we are short driving distance to some fantastic roads and area's, Buttertubs pass (Clarksons favourite) Hartside Pass, The lakes, Northumberland, NY morrs park, Whitby etc etc, and plenty of nice places for me to go walk the dog and relax. Cant think of anywhere else I would rather live tbh.

I live about 4 miles from Russell, surely that is all the reason I need to stay where I am

OK, the SE can be a bit cramped, flat and featureless compared with what our Friends of the Border Patrol have on their doorstep but it's where work, family and St Russell lives ...