Sorry if this is a little rambly, I'm not totally sure what I'm looking for from this thread, but would love to hear from others in a similar situation to us I guess.
For a long time now DH and I have contemplated making a change as our current set up just isn't working for us. On paper we're aware we're incredibly fortunate, we both earn decent salaries and have reasonable savings and very little debt, but as a consequence we don't have much in the way of work/life balance thanks to a fairly grueling commute on my side and a fair chunk of international business travel for the both of us so we're always tired and don't really get quality time together.
We'd also like to start a family in the near future, but with our current set up this is little more than a pipe-dream at present sadly. If I'm honest I think we've reached a point where something has to give in terms of our lifestyle, especially as there's no way I could juggle having a family with my current work situation where I'm regularly away for weeks at a time with little notice.
We both grew up in the countryside, we're naturally quite outdoorsy people and absolutely love animals. We currently have 3 horses, 2 dogs and a bunch of chickens, although well aware that doesn't mean we're hugely qualified in terms of agricultural matters, but hopefully we're not totally clueless either!
DH is lucky with his job that he can largely work from home, mine is another matter but in honesty, after 6 years I'm probably ready to leave. That said, it's so hard to know whether I've just become disillusioned with my current job, or if I really am done with the long commutes, business travel and corporate politics that come with my industry.
So to the crux of the matter. We have found a smallholding in Norfolk that we've fallen for in a big way. It has plenty of land (maybe a little too much if I'm honest!), stabling for the horses, a lovely farmhouse which we're unlikely to outgrow and a huge barn that's just waiting to be converted. There are decent schools nearby, and we have friends and some family within an hour from us so wouldn't be completely on our own. Whilst it's rural it's not totally isolated, so hopefully I wouldn't go completely stir crazy, plus DH would be working from home a lot of the time.
This seems like the perfect opportunity to have the life we've always dreamed of for our future family (and have the horses in the garden!), but it's also a huge upheaval and quite frankly I'm terrified, albeit in a very excited way! I hate the idea of leaving our friends and parents, and do worry about going through pregnancy/birth without our immediate families nearby. Also, I'm incredibly independent so the idea of living off of my DH's salary, even in the short-term scares me as I've always been very career driven. On the other hand, I think nothing ventured, nothing gained and if it was awful we could just sell up and move back.
I have dreams of running my own business from home, and could very much do that from this property, alongside an air B&B setup once the barn is converted so that we have multiple revenue streams coming in, so whilst it might be tough going initially I think in the long-term it could be very rewarding, it's just tough to actually take the plunge in the first place!
So can I have your stories of those of you that have made the move and how it was? Any regrets or things you'd have done differently?