Hi. thanks for reading. I need another perspective!
Dh and I have friends and family in north Devon. We love it and visit often (not just for tourism iykyim). I have 2 children 6&8.
Their Dad sees them alternate weekends and would be very unhappy with such a large move (3 hours in the car).
Our reasons for wanting to go are as follows:
Children are young enough to adapt to new school
We are a very outdoorsy family - so much for us to do there.
Our wider family don't require us in any practical way at present (may do in the future)
We could have a slightly bigger property and be mortgage free 
We're not having any more children so dynamics should be stable
We are both in healthcare and have very stressful (but high earning) jobs.
If we don't have a mortgage we can work more flexibly and at a lower grade - maybe even part time.
I can't see the downsides apart from their dad. Do I really have to consider him in all this?
I think twice a month the dcs would cope with the journey on a Friday night after school then return when they're asleep on the Sunday.
Right any points of view very gratefully received 
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Please come and help a decision regarding big move to Devon.
Karatedoormat · 08/01/2016 22:05
Thanks all. We're going exploring, but I think I take on board journey consideration. Google maps say one thing but reality can be different. I did live in Devon without children so the journeys were very different.
I don't think we're ruling anything out yet, but actually coming more east does sugar the pill slightly.
X unlikely to be ok with anything I do. He's fine as long as everything is going ok and he gets his way but can be an utter arise if he feels slighted in any way.
He hates me having child free time and grumbles about the fact he doesn't get the 'luxury'. Probably shouldn't have moved in with a girl with a 2yo then 
I am not sure whether anyone has mentioned this as I haven't read through the whole thread but if you both have parental responsibility for the children (I.e his name is on their birth certificates when they were born, married etc), then you are not legally allowed to just up and move them and move their schooling etc. He could make an application to the Court for a prohibited steps order to prevent you from doing so. You should be seeking his permission really or, you should be making an application to the court to move them without his permission, you would need to provide things like schooling reports of where you propose to send them, suggestions of how contact will work i.e scheduled face time/Skype etc.
Just didn't want you to be oblivious to the fact that he could throw his rattle out big time. If the children were teenagers it would be easier as their "wishes and feelings" can be taken into consideration but as they are still littlies it is considered by a court that the decisions made should be by both parents - they no longer refer to it as "residence orders" and the like as that would insinuate one parent has a stronger imbalance of power in decision making than the other which isn't the case even if he does only see them fortnightly.
It is my dream to move to the country one day too. I would like a little house with a couple of acres so I could have some donkeys :-)
Traffic heading down that way has a habit of changing from 3 hrs in the winter to 5-8 hr trips during summer / holiday periods 
'I used to do similar , alth only as far as Somerset , and that was bad enough!
Right. I can't imagine you're all hanging on for the next instalment, but I always like a thread update.
We went and explored. We looked at new builds, and areas. Poked around a bit and have done some dry run journeys.
We're not moving.
We're not comfortable with the Dc doing such a long journey every fortnight. For us, it's too far. The logistics and sheer relentlessness is too much (for us/the dcs). They're fine at travelling but then one falls asleep and one whines, they get bor, hungry/thirsty etc . They might get used to it, but I think we'd all come to dread it.
Having been on some Facebook groups of areas were looking at, I think there are some of the same issues that are on our fb... 'To the person who let their dog poo outside the school...' There might not be any more sense of community/belonging that we were coveting.
We also really like new builds. This might make us akin to hitler. Unwanted incomers moving into unwanted developments. I can ride it out in our own town, but moving somewhere where we knew we'd be unwelcome might be more than we'd cope with.
The schools we have here are good, and the children are settled. They have already been unsettled when their dad left. I don't want to be responsible for more uncessary upheaval.
So there it is! We're staying put
Thanks eye guess you haven't seen my last post 
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He wouldn't have them longer in holidays.
Tbh the kids genuinely miss him as it is. He's dropped contact and it's not going well. I don't like jollying them along and trying to champion him (whole other thread!)
I think he's an absolute sell out, and that's another reason for not moving. I actually don't want contact to be made any harder than it already is.
It's is always nice to have an update, thanks sounds like you've made best decision for you all for now; doesn't mean you can't revisit the idea in the future. Just make sure you check environment agency flood maps before you move anywhere in the west country!
Hope things settle with the kids and the contact, not nice for them I'm sure
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