Anyone want to be my Phil and Kirstie? (Essex)

[startingoveragainagain]

We've finally gone under offer woo! So now I need to start looking for a home for my dog, my cat and me. I need to be commutable to Chelmsford (max once a week), and I have family and friends in South Essex / London borders so would like to be close to them as they'll be able to help with dog care. I'm currently near Halstead.

I'm sort of thinking Billericay, Rayleigh, and Leigh but I have no clue what these places are actually like

I can probably afford to pay about £420,000, happy to do work - although will need to be liveable, needs to be on a very quiet road as my cat has only lived in the countryside with her own land, needs to be near a good walk for the dog preferably off lead walking as she has never needed to do much lead walking. I need somewhere to work from as I work mostly from home. I'm going to be downsizing and I'm looking for my bachelor pad, which'll be my forever home as I want to grow roots and lick my wounds.

Suggest away :)

This is compact but very nice. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/86695815#/?channel=RES_BUY

Large garden https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142692908#/?channel=RES_BUY

There's a bungalow in little bursted that seems to meet all your requirements, have a look

@CormorantStrikesBack Thank you. I think i'd prefer something that needs a bit of work. Agree re detached, i'd prefer that as I'm used to detached properties but to get that I think i'd need to consider moving out of my target areas (Billericay, Leigh, Rayleigh) which is why @SgtJuneAckland Leavenheath is there.
@Twiglets1 it probably does look a bit random, but I'm not that fussed on area really, I just want somewhere that's nice, quiet, good for my animals etc about 45mins of less to Chelmsford and preferably not too far from sth essex to help with doggy day care. @MyHouseToday this is a good point, thank you. @BighairandIdontcare the only one I found in ingatestone backed onto a railway, but i'd like ingatestone if I could find something. @Popetthetreehugger Writtle is definitely a possibility but I couldn't see anything there. Similarly @Express0 couldn't see anything in Sth woodham either. @PrincessOfPreschool that's definitely something to think about, my bills now are horrendous but I share the load with my husband will be very different when I'm on my own!

J, U, C, T, AB, O, I would be my viewing choices and go from there

I'm in Eastwood, it's lovely. Close to Rayleigh and Southend and there are so many beautiful places for dog walks. Cherry orchard and gusted woods and if you don't mind driving for 10 or so minutes there are some fabulous river walks.

I grew up in Danbury which is a beautiful village. Not sure of house prices there but when I lived there it was quite expensive.

I don't hear the planes where I am, and Eastwood has loads of bungalows. I'm in a 3 bed bungalow, it's probably worth around 375k so you could def get something for your budget around here. I lived in Rayleigh for about a year but I hated the traffic trying to get to work into Southend. I much prefer Eastwood to Rayleigh but that's just my personal preference.

I'm working my way through your list although I know nothing about the areas!
Garden size- I have a big dog and a small garden which has been totally destroyed (turned to mud) by him as he runs out at an absolute rate of knots ( lurcher). Could your dog do the same? And if so is a bigger garden better (less wear per square foot possibly)? Having said that DM has a huge garden and if lurcher runs in it unsupervised will always find something to roll in...
In fact, thinking of that, in our current house the garden opens off our sitting room ( with ( now muddy) carpet). Our previous house had kitchen access to garden which helped with muddy paws. Is that worth considering?
Also, re bungalows... could having some stairs to walk up and down be healthy at the moment, even if you're future proofing by having bedroom options downstairs?
Agree with PP re bills. We used to live in a detached house and bills were significantly more than in our current semi. (Although no noise from neighbours etc.) Good luck with your house hunting!

@Gardendestroyedbymydog they currently have an acre and a half, but tbh only really keep to the edge unless I walk done to the end, then they follow. But who is to say what they'll do with a smaller space. I would prefer the garden to have access to the kitchen or utility / bootroom and have a shower or large sink so that I can wash them if I need too (one likes a roll in random animal poo) - but based on my budget I doubt that'll be an option! ha!

@startingoveragainagain Just popping on to make the following comments:-

1. Brentwood - avoid The Pilgrims hatch area, it is not a great place, and definitely not rural. Can be some anti-social behaviour. The rest of Brentwood is quite expensive. Have a look at Hutton maybe?
2. Doddinghurst/Blackmore/Hook end/wyatts green/kelvedon hatch are all the more far-flung suburbs of Brentwood but more rural. You’d need a car. Parking generally not a problem. Commute to Chelmsford is fine, but a bit of a schlep to get to one of the feeder roads.
3. Norton Green area - avoid, it is near the insanely busy A414 and your cat would be at risk.
4. Coxtie Green area is dominated by the amenity tip. No shops. Near pilgrims hatch. Personally, I’d avoid.
5. ingatestone - the affordable housing is often ex-LEA so not desperately glamorous. There are lots of cute cottages but parking is a massive issue with them especially those near the Anglo-European school. Lovely high street though. Getting to Chelmsford is a doddle.
6. Stock - lovely rural area. Very few shops, you definitely need a car. Getting to Chelmsford is very easy.
7. Lots of places marked ‘Langdon hills’ but are not really. They are Laindon. Cheap housing, but no local amenities. There are lovely rural properties but few bungalows in your price range. You definitely don’t want to live in Laindon!
8. leigh-on-sea is a vast area. The loveliest part is old Leigh. Home to all dog owners, but very busy, especially in summer. Lovely amenities/high st etc but parking can be an issue. Not sure your cat would love it! Commute to Chelmsford would be a PITA. Other parts of ‘Leigh-on-sea’ are very Southend adjacent and whilst there is some lovely old housing stock, there are pockets of the area you would not want to live in as a single woman.
9. Rayleigh would not be my first choice as it is a bit no man’s land. Not really rural either. Ditto Hockley.
10. billericay - not sure for your budget that you would get something rural, but it is a nice place. Good high street. Very easy to get to Chelmsford.

Have a look at the surrounding areas of The Bursteads (little and great) margaretting, great baddow, galley wood. Not as highly sought after, not much in the way of amenities but plenty of bang for your buck. Easy commute to Chelmsford and London.

Good luck!

I think Hatfield Peverel might suit your requirements and, although not very pretty right now, this bungalow is well within budget and would leave you a decent renovation fund. HP is a 15-minute drive or one-stop train journey from Chelmsford, it has a nice small community feel but decent amenities too.

It's very green with lots of really good walking options on the doorstep including woodland (bluebell woods!) and river walks. Plus the back of this property opens onto greenspace. Terling, just down the road is stunning and worth keeping an eye on but there are no appropriately priced properties there right now.

*The pictures of the front don't do the location justice, Street View will give you a better feel for the lovely setting.

What's Thiftwood (hutton / brentwood) like?

@CoffeeAndEnnui my hairdresser suggested HP yesterday. Although she said about the new builds.

@Netaporter this is so useful, thank you for your time doing this. The bit about areas of Leigh is interesting, I had something horrible happen to me years ago, so feeling safe as a lone woman is paramount to me.

needs to be on a very quiet road as my cat has only lived in the countryside with her own land

This doesn’t sound like many places in Rayleigh or Leigh!

Oh wow! I'd go for this one. How cute and perfect is that!

I also liked this one in Billericay - near the woods and looks like a quiet enough road with lovely garden. Nicely decorated so you could live with it and put your own stamp on it over time, and have a big second bedroom as study/guest room.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143919233#/?channel=RES_BUY

That is really cute. It’s right on a road though-I would want to check that cars aren’t bombing down that at speed. I know too many people who have lost cats on country roads like that :(. No cars for ages, so the cat gets complacent and when cars do appear-they are driving way too fast.

The Ryde and Thorndon Park Drive are nice areas of (north) Leigh. Calm, close to woods but just a short drive from the main Leigh amenities. I prefer south of the A127.
Olive Avenue is also nice but it could be too busy for the cat.

There are pretty much no areas of Leigh I would avoid as a single woman, a bit confused by that comment.

@startingoveragainagain Thriftwood is an estate built in the 1980’s. Parking is an issue and the houses are never easy to resell. I did like the Hattie P one posted upthread but I couldn’t comment on the area.

@Chewbecca I did say that some parts classified as Leigh on sea are what I would say are Southend-adjacent. Very different to living in old Leigh in a cute cottage. But the OP wants a rural feel and no traffic for her cats which pretty much rules out the whole area.

@AmaryllisChorus lovely cottage indeed but next to a very fast main road known for crashes. Not the place for a non-streetwise cat…!

What about this one https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142875572#/?channel=RES_BUY

That’s a nice area. You can walk to the station, shops and using the stock road you could get to Chelmsford and London quite easily. I’d go and see it.

Burnham is awful and one road in and out is totally impractical.

I'd live as close as you can to where you work. Traffic is an absolute pain as Essex is basically full and people are usually very rude on the roads.

Do an area on the map covering the places you want to be
Then tweak price, number of bedrooms and maybe even type of property.
You can then look at the properties

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/map.html?locationIdentifier=USERDEFINEDAREA%5E%7B%22id%22%3A%228440442%22%7D&minBedrooms=2&maxPrice=450000&minPrice=350000&numberOfPropertiesPerPage=499&propertyTypes=detached&viewType=MAP&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&keywords=

This one has a nice view
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144199040#/?channel=RES_BUY

:)