Hi all,
After a bit of advice... We live in Milton Keynes (DH, 2 x DS - 2 & 6), hubs mostly works from home but occasionally travels to Reading, London and elsewhere around the UK. He's about to change jobs which won't affect office locations too badly but will mean travelling to Reading and/or London once a week with an overnighter - not too much of an issue as am used to this but just to give background info.
We like MK, have been here about 6 years. We have friends here, we love how much is right here on our doorstep, shopping, nightlife, activities, etc literally everything we could want is here! Except our families!! & coast which we both miss. We are also getting a bit more concerned with the increasing crime rates here in MK.
I'm really close to my sister and we miss each other a lot - she currently lives in Devon but is thinking of moving closer to Bristol or to Dorset in the next couple of years. My husband's family live in Swansea and West Wales and we'd like to see more of them too. We have very close family friends in Dorset who we'd also love to see more.
We'd also like to live somewhere with a bit more of a community feel, with a local pub, friendly faces, nice greenery etc. We have some elements of that where we are but not ticking every box.
So now we're wondering what to do! our options at the moment are...
Stay put and make our house work better for us (i.e. invest in improving the current house)
Move to just outside MK i.e. to a village type location so benefit from positives of MK but give community but still no beach or family!
Move to Dorset - close to family friends, beaches, longer work trips to Reading & London for hubs, bad traffic getting around, possibly a bit cut off and remote
Move to Bristol area - central point for friends and family but still not on doorstep, not too bad for Reading, further away from London, expensive house prices, both really like Bristol!
Move to Cardiff/Barry area - more property for our money?, longer journeys to Reading & London, closer to Welsh family, not too bad for Devon family, coastal, we both love Cardiff
Has anyone made this move before or have any input on living in any of these areas and travelling to Reading & London?
Of those places where would you recommend looking. We haven't really thought about budget in any detail yet but would probably be around £400-500k
Any advice greatly appreciated!!!!
L