WOULD LOVE TO LIVE IN A VILLAGE...SHOULD WE MOVE?

[noonar]

we have 2 dds aged 2.9 and 5. dd1 is v happy at school. we have lots of friends and live in a lovely area...but, we've been here 14 yrs and fancy a change. and our house is on a v busy road and we are sick of the traffic noise.

we have lovely villages 20 mins drive away, and i would so love to be somewhere more peaceful.

how can i tell whether this is a just a pipe dream, or a really sensible idea? would we be mad to give up our friends and life in a nice community, just because we're a bit bored? and i worry about disrupting dd1's schooling. she's v happy here she is.

have considered quieter streets nearby, but they just don't excite me in the way that a more to the country does.

am also worried we'd really regret it if we moved and didnt make friends easily etc.

any advice? anyone had a similar dilemma?

TIA xx

I lived in a village in East Yorkshire from the ages of 10 to 15.

Christ, I hated it [shudder].

tuesday and wednesday mornings

they sell things too

like flan cases and weirdly branded cheap chocolate

no milk or bread though oh no

I lived in a huge city as a teen.

At hated it.

Let's face it, any teen who doesn't have his/her own car and unlimited freedom and money is bound to hate life for a while.

Enid are you the black sheep of the village?

yes

the vet told me that people think I am 'avant garde' (eg weird)

If my teens don't like where I live, they're perfectly free to leave home at 16, get a job and support themselves wherever they like.

But I'll be damned if I'm going to alter where I live just for their socialising benefit.

ooh no, it means mysterious

expat, you're wonderful!

I'm sounding more and more like my dad every day, Nadine .

I can still him saying, 'Well, no one ever bought me a car. If you want one, get a job and get one.'

@ flan cases

Our shops sells homemade bread (would have a smug emoticon but it sells out in seconds leaving no bread until the next day)

They only order 6 pints of semi skimmed milk as "they don't like it" so the fridge is chokka with full fat that no one buys)

Orange juice is normally Estonian ? WTF ?

But .. they strangely never run out of fish paste, blamange powders or fly spray

quite right too!

and what you can't afford, you can't have
wake up and smell the coffee

My fav was his response to 'But it's not fair, Dad.'

'Well, neither is the tax structure in this country, but no one seems to give a damn about that, so too bad.'

Hello?

Bulk shop in Costco and get a chest freezer.

I went into a supermarket and found organic UHT whole milk here and I'm chuffed.

I'll be stocking up when we go for our monthly trip.

I think I might run off with your dad

expat, i am not stupid ta muchly, would prefer to buy in my local shop rather than costco, but due to them being league of gentlemen weirdo's I have weekly sainsburys delivery.. much to the grumblings so delivery driver having to go down little lanes

did i say you were stupid?

um, no.

i'll be 4 miles from a village myself in a few months time, but that's 16 miles closer than i was to any sort of human habitation at all a few years back.

just requires more organisation is all.

i live in a village, but it has a secondary school in it so never felt isolated as a child because all the kids hung about together. population is about 1200 i think so not very small. is also only about 3 miles to the nearest town. i don't think i could cope with anything more villagey though!

expat, I didn't know you were moving out of Edinburgh! Exciting!

expat .. agree

sorry i'm all flu'ed up and i'm just being a touchy cow at the moment

local shop does sell max strength beechums thank gawd

unfortunately, Coscto often restricts sales of pain relief products to 'trade only'.

this was true the last time I lived in the sticks, too, so I had to stock up elsewhere.

bottle of whisky is a good thing to keep to hand, too. i used to keep a spare one in the loft for those storm bound times. can make even a crowded tent downright homey .

yes, dino, we are at last leaving the city life for one that suits us better .

we don't mind extra driving. in fact, we both love our cars and driving.

that's great, expat

was just thinking of you this morning as I walked to work (as I know you are a keen walker too)

are you moving far away?

We are driving far less in our new village life than in our previous city life. That's going to vary of course but some villages do have OK transport links (and we cycle a lot, and the girls have an idyllic 5 minute traffic-free prance/scoot/cycle/skate across the village green to school and preschool).

Keen to see the progress of this thread. After 7 months mat leave watching Relocation, Relocation, Relocation and Hugh Fearnley So and So, I very nearly forced my husband to make such a move. Bought books on chickens and goats and stuff. Still haven't shaken it off although remain stuck in the 'burbs for the time being...

We're moving about 100 miles away, to the other side of the country. Argyll in the West.

Woods! Right outside off the back garden.

WALKS, WALKS and MORE WALKS!

Gawd, I love rambling and hillwalking.