Easter house swap idea , Algarve for South East..............................!

[jmg1]

Anyone from South East area, Sussex/Surrey, ideally Brighton/Hove be interested in spending some time during the Easter break in our Vila in the Algarve.

Just an idea at the moment, would need to look into the practicalities in more detail.

[Yorkiegirl]

bummer you want the south east!

[jmg1]

fraid so, thinking of moving to Hove so need to be there or fairly close.

[spidermama]

Hi jmg1. I'm in Brighton. 3 bed, 2 recep Victorian Tce.
No plans for Easter as yet.
Interesting.
Do go on ...

[jmg1]

hi spidermama, I have 5 bedroom (all wth ensuite facilities) detached Vila, 10 metre pool.
How many of you?

[spidermama]

1. There's dh, dd(7), ds(6), ds(4) and ds(1).
   

How many of you?

[spidermama]

Do you know Brighton at all?

[jmg1]

Me, DS7, DD5, DD4. I have a live in au pair who may stay here, not sure yet. Also have two lovely dogs, they will be staying here.

[jmg1]

I have been a few times, was there last week for a day, looked at 6 houses in Hove. Tricky to decide where to buy when you don't know the areas and live overseas.

[spidermama]

We're near Seven Dials.
I love living here btw, and would recommend it to anyone, especially people bringing up children.
Have a think and I'll do the same. Feel free to CAT me.

[jmg1]

ok, you too.

[spidermama]

Realism is sort of kicking in this morning and telling me 'NO' jmg1 as I'm supposed to start my new job at the begining of April.

However, I'm not ready to let go completely as your vila sounds lovely (dogs and all - we're big dog fans) so ... if you fancy doing a swap some other time, half term perhaps, then I'd certainly be very interested.

Meanwhile shall I link this thread on the Brighton meet up thread in case anyone else is interested? They're a lovely bunch of mums around here.

I must now go and grieve the idea of an Easter break in the Algarve. (sigh!)

[jmg1]

ok, we can see how it goes, School breaks here don't always match up with the UK though.

Might catch up with you in Brighton if we come over at Easter?

If you do ever come here it is a convenient place to get to, 2.5 hours flight and no time difference to the uk.

Another sunny day today, the algarve gets well over 300 days of sunshine each year!

[spidermama]

My heart screams 'GO!' but my head says, 'No'. DH agrees with my head so that's that.

Do get in contact if you come over at Easter though as it would be good to meet you and I'm always up for a bit of local propery gossip. We could maybe rustle up a bit of a MN meet up.

Also, if you do fancy another trip over in the future let me know when your school holidays are as I'm not averse to the odd term time break (majorly contraversial it would seem ).

ATB.

[redshoes]

We might be interested, we are in Hove, near the museum (the best part . Have ds (13), dd1 (5), dd2 (3) and dd3 (1). Email me kerry at mifusion dot net.

[redshoes]

ps I am an expert on schools, etc if you want to ask anything!

[jmg1]

Hi redshoes,
Does everyone there have four kids! I only have three.
Ok which are the best schools and the nicest streets to live in?

[redshoes]

What kind of property are you looking for? Some lovely big Victorian houses around Pembrokes/Aymer area, but not cheap. Near sea, shops/bars/restaurants at George Street and can get decent gardens (for a price). Local schools there would be St Andrews which is incredibly popular newly-rebuilt church school with v caring ethos and gets great results (mine go there - had to attend church to get in) or West Hove which is fine and has improved a lot in recent years. It serves the areas off New Church Road - lots of decent houses there - and Poet's corner, which is smaller terraced Victorian, but good community feeling. Another good place would be area near St Anne's Well Park for Davigdor infants/ Somerhill juniors. These are v popular ie need to live pretty close to get in. They are more laid back and very arty 'brightony' schools.
What is your budget for a house? And what things are important to you? Re schools, admissions can get v fraught as seem to be more kids than places here. You can find out where the boundary area for specific schools fell in the previous year by phoning the LEA school admissions team.
Whereabouts are the houses you viewed? Maybe I can fill you in on areas they are in? HTH

[jmg1]

Red shoes, I will email you.

[cobles1]

Hello there,bit of a long shot and sorry if I'm being rude to op by adding to the message as its not to help with the hol idea but Redshoes, I'm lookihg to move to Pembrokshire and have been up today as hubby has a job offer. Might you or anyone be able to help me at all with anuthig to do with schools, and houses / areas :) ?
Any help would be brilliant please x