Relocation - The Great House Hunt

They say #moving house is one of the most stressful things you do in your life, I don't know who 'they' are but let me tell you... they are correct! Well partially. We actually didn't find the moving part so stressful, despite the fact we were moving a business and a menagerie of #animals as well, it was the searching part that got us.

We had always said we would move wherever the right house was, location was on the lower end of the tick list, this didn't sit well with a few people but as the saying goes 'you've got one life, live it', plus the business was a non negotiable so it wasn't as simple as looking for a future family home and settling on that. Throw in the fact that we were suddenly given six weeks... yes weeks, to vacate the land we had our animals on and potentially the small annex we lived in with no means of renting, the search became time sensitive.

So, we viewed a few in our local area, rang estate agents, asked for smallholdings or equestrian... got sent bungalows with no garden... you know how it goes, until we finally found one that seemed to fit the bill. We contacted the seller, who said he wasn't working through an estate agent in order to keep costs down. Ok, not too much of a problem we naively thought, selling and buying houses is crazy expensive anyway so fair enough.

After driving just over an hour (seems relocation might be on the cards), we pulled up to a long unmade driveway which snaked up the side of the valley, right... we're used to access issues so this would be ok. The farm itself was so full of potential but needed a lot (like a lot a lot) of work but this was something we weren't afraid of. The idea of breathing life back into an old house and dejected land filled us with excitement. After lots of deliberation, we decided we wanted to put an offer in, que Hannah spending days writing up a business plan, running figures and binding documents, think 'The Apprentice' but with less power dressing. The hole punch became a lethal weapon.

The plan went to the board of #agricultural lenders who approved everything allowing us to make an offer on the property, which was accepted. Enter a run of issues which in short, heartbreakingly, meant we had to pull out of the sale. The currents owners did everything they could to avoid using a solicitor, had family in at least three different time zones who had wanted to be involved in the sale but could never coordinate and they even suddenly said that the current owners would happily complete on the property but would then house share with us (along with their numerous Shetland ponies) moving forward. Red flags were waving, our Spidey Senses were tingling and our solicitors were echoing our every thought of getting out of the deal.

Weeks were passing by, we'd gone over the six weeks originally given so luckily some kind friends helped us house the animals and we managed to negotiate some time on the annex (all with the provision of 'we'll be moving soon'...), so onto the next property... It was like a fever dream! We actually came away from our viewing and laughed the whole way home, what an experience we joked! Greeted by two chain smoking Germans, who didn't know what they owned and what they didn't, we toured the farm. There were horses everywhere... in the weirdest of places. I'll never forget looking around a barn and peering into the darkness to see three horses looking down at me from the mezzanine! We asked questions and tried to take everything in but somehow every answer came back to jet washing... yup, jet washing. 'When was the barn roof replaced?' 'Well, it had a jet wash the other day'. 'Is the house stone or brick or...?' 'Well, the bricks in the barn are easily jet washed'. 'The holiday cottages, are they continually booked?' 'Mmhuh, everything's easy to jet wash' as they lit up another cigarette. We thanked them for their time and made our way home. When the estate agents emailed to ask how our viewing went we couldn't really say a lot, other than it's good to know that things are easy to clean...

Next, was a beautiful Georgian property but as we were also looking for home suitable for multigenerational living it just wouldn't work. Then onto another property which turned out to be part of a commune... we finally took a leap and looked on Ynys Môn. Members of Han's family used to farm part of the Great Orme so it felt quite special to be heading back into Wales.

We'll never forget turning the corner and seeing the chimneys of the #farm and standing in the garden looking out onto the fields having battled the snow and ice to get there on a bleak January day. We went back to the annex that evening, jigged the business plan to make it appropriate to the property and put an offer in the next day. We eventually got the keys five months later!

Looking back on the search, we'll use it as massive life teachings with episodes of the huge stress that come with the very real possibility of loosing your current home, animals and business as well as episodes of laughter and resilience. Getting a #business plan approved to the extent that you can put an offer in on a farm certainly gives you a huge confidence boost and quietens down the imposter syndrome that can come with owning your own little business. But, it's also a huge life lesson, of trusting the timing and trusting your gut! Having gone through so much in our childhood and adult lives already, some days it felt like a 'here we go again' situation but we got there in the end!

Oh and it also taught us that horse people are certainly characters! Being horse people ourselves... we can definitely confirm this😉

#lifestyle #lifestyleblog #renovation #firsttimebuyers #farm #farmblog #smallbusiness