OneGuyFromBarlick

Do you live there permanently now, Mel?
Haven't heard from you for so long!

No Maz, still toing and froing though we have given it more serious consideration lately. I have certain criteria that would need to be met before I could live there. That said, I don't think I could see it as a permanent move. It would only be for a few years at most. I'm not saying never anymore though

Lovely to hear from you. I quite understand about finding the ultimate settling place...I never say never either... Though I have been known to shake my head on many occasions and say " not in a million years"L I find that shortcuts a lot of misunderstanding and time wasting! Recently we have been considering a move toward water. Trouble is that his lordship fancies the river and I fancy the beach. ( I know all rivers flow to the sea so we may end up on a headland somewhere...)

May I ask how your Mum is?

Mum is fine Maz, thanks

We're thinking seriously about moving house now because the present place, where we've been for nearly 18 years, is too big and needs a lot of maintenance and I'm finding it harder to do the work than in the past.. Even it we pay someone else to do it, you get tired of always having workmen about the place! We're likely to stay in the same locality to be near my dad and with access to a main route to the south-east for visiting Mrs Tiz's parents. The village suits us well, a `working village' rather than a chocolate box picture. But as you get older you develop your idea of what makes the ideal home and then find that it doesn't exist! That's when it's time to start deciding what you're willing to compromise on, and what aspects could be changed to suit us and which ones (e.g. location) can't be changed. Perhaps we'll have to see if there is any suitable house in the village then knock on the door and tell them we want to live in it!

I have created this topic which is a little more relevant for these posts originally made in the Oradour thread.

Thread went off topic with a simple question from Maz:

"Is that where you have your "Place in the Sun" Mel?"

Mel's response:

"We are about 3 hours south of Oradour Gloria."

Good question and topic, Ian.

I think each place has its own attractions and I have been to many beautiful places. I would be happy to live in Earby where I was born, I think that is an idyllic place, but I wouldn't swap my current lifestyle in southern China, mainly because of the tropical climate, the low cost of living and the freedom I have here. Many visitors hate the humid climate, it doesn't suit everybody. My brother is coming here later this year and we intend visiting Shangri-La. We'll see if it really is Utopia assuming we survive the thin air at 10500'.

Sorry Panny, I knew I was getting off topic, but Mel pops up so infrequently that I thought I should grab the opportunity to see how she was...

My ideal home...on a remote headland with cliffs on three sides and a drawbridge on the other, where I can be left in peace. Maybe of log cabin construction. Big Veg patch. Big pantry. Wine cellar. Bath that sits behind floor to ceiling windows that face over the ocean.

No need to apologise Maz, lots of topics go off a tangent from time to time but Oradour is such a special place I thought it best to split off the posts so created this thread. Seems to have attracted a bit of attention so not too bad a result.

Your ideal home is a nice idea as well Maz although I prefer a shower to a bath but I can see where you are coming from.

No such thing as off-piste on OGFB, just different views!
Good topic. 25 years ago it was definitely the West Coast of Scotland. I even went as far as making offers on some properties, all next to the sea, all wooded for fuel and all having the potential for hydro-electric power. You would be amazed how cheap the Rhu Penisula at Arisaig was! However, my life changed and to cut a long story short I finished up in the position where I was sitting with Janet and Harry in their flat in London getting a good talking to for the way I had gone off the rails. (I had! In Spades!)
They made me make decisions and I said I wanted to get back to Barlick. Over the next three years I moved back into a rented flat on Albert Road and Janet told me to find a house I liked and she and Harry would buy it for me and I would rent it. It took a while but I found 10 East Hill Street. Janet came and looked at it and asked me why I wanted it. I told her, there was the outshut kitchen that would be my heated workshop, it was mid terrace so had only two walls and a roof to heat, it was sound and just needed a refurb and most important, the bloke next door was in an electric wheelchair and had access to the whole town, the Co-op was only five minutes walk away as was the town centre. They both agreed, we did the house up to make it heat efficient and I moved in. Best thing I ever did. Garden front and dead end back street so no traffic noise. Ten minutes to get anywhere in town on foot including open country. On a hill so no danger of flooding. Embedded in other houses so protected from wind. Mains services including gas and as I have proved over the last five years, you don't need a car.
Too many people buy their ideal home without considering what happens when they get old, Too late when you find you are on a steep hill, need a car to do anything and have to rely on non mains services. I often think about this when watching programmes where people are looking for their 'ideal country retreat'. My advice is view them in winter in three foot of snow!
So, I was lucky, I have my ideal house which I can manage easily. Thanks to my kids I was made to really think about it being a final move. Over the years Janet has been delighted because not only did she solve the problem of a wayward dad but she made an investment which has paid off handsomely. Only problem she has is what to do with all my stuff when I die! Everyone should have kids like these and be as lucky. My advice is look ahead and decide what are the really important things that will matter as you slow down and are no longer as active. East Hill Street is my idea of the ideal retirement home!
What was a disaster 20 years ago turned into a triumph and I have always said, if you want to find out what sort of a job you made of rearing your kids, get into trouble and see how they respond. That's one test I think I passed......

Great story, one lucky Dad.

I don't think we will be able to cope with living here for more than a few years, it would quickly become problematic if either of us lost the good health we enjoy at the moment. I like to think we could get a nice little house down in Earby where we could walk to the shops etc and still be able to get out onto the hills easily...Colin might take a bit of persuading though, he still has dreams of building a house from scratch or, like Stanley, finding a property where water power is a possibility. Hey Ho.

Wait while the arthritis kicks in....

We are the same Wendy. One of the troubles living where we do is you get used to your own space around you with no immediate neighbours. We will eventually move to a village with amenities within walking, then when we lose the will to drive we can still shop------hopefully not for yonks.
It is as you say these places need keeping up with, even if it is ONLY doing some fencing!!!! But we will keep trotting on as long as ------

You'd be amazed how easily you can convert to a town property if it's in the right place. I have been a relatively wealthy man since I gave up supporting a car!

Wendy that is one of the main reasons we didn't move to Anglesey when Bob worked there, and why we will never move to our house in France. Both lack local shops and facilities including Drs, that you can walk to and both have little public transport. Both beautiful in there own way, but a beauty to enjoy whilst able bodied. I would love to live in the Alps for the beauty but not the weather!

I love lakes mountains trees and running water( on land that is not in taps, although that is an essential too) but all those come with a tag of loneliness, isolation and inaccessibility when you have no transport. If we move it will be to somewhere like Warwickshire to be near the grandchildren, but only if daughter number 2 leaves the Rochdale area. Otherwise I am happy with my lot. France in the summer where we have space and time to indulge my love of rural and gardening, and winter here where we have loads of friends and activities.

I just wish Rochdale was a little warmer and drier and that we could see the sky more often

I've always said that Barlick could be improved by adding the Indian Ocean and the sound of the air horns of long freight trains at the level crossings during the night. Something quite wonderful about that sound.....

One of the features we included on the first year of Barlick Beach was a recording of seaside sounds; waves crashing on the sand, seagulls.

We could always consider having a permanent exotic soundtrack on the Town Square!

What sounds would people want to include?

My favourite (actual) sound was the noise of children playing in the yard at the former Rainhall Road school. It gave an extra dimension to the feel of the town. Now and then, you can hear children from York Street school, but that will soon be a thing of the past, too.

So tonight I was in the Leisure centre in Langdale, lying in the solarium, eyes closed , warmth beating down. I could here the splash of the swimming pool. I thought I was on a sunny beach and was waiting for the drinks waiter to come from the beach bar and get my order( soft drink of course because of my Dryathlon) the waiter never came! Ah well it was a nice place to live for ten minutes.

We were living a `town life' in the 1980s but then we had a holiday in an isolated bothy on the west side of Shetland and that changed it all. It was June and we wouldn't have been able to cope with the short winter days if we moved that far north. But it made us realise we were rural folk at heart and after searching several areas we moved to this Somerset village which gives us a good compromise between isolation and access to major routes. We've now explored all the possible options for making this house and garden suitable for us as we become older but nothing makes enough sense - it's got to be a move to a more modern, smaller house but - we hope - in this village which has a general store, bakery, post office and is at the crossing of two A routes going east-west and north-south. It's daunting because none of us wants to give up the good things we've already got, especially good neighbours!

Two people wanting to live in Earby - I knew it backwards when I tramped round it whilst working for Earby District Council!!
My ideal place would be New Zealand - Brown's Bay on North Shore looking across to Aukland!!

Good thread this.

I think it's fair to note I've never been unhappy in any of the places I've lived. I was happy in Barlick growing up; enjoyed college life in Leicester and Sheffield, and working life in Sheffield. I also enjoyed my 12 years in SW London enormously.

I do like it where we are now though. For several reasons and some touched upon already by others. I think we've realised we like having a city close to hand and whilst we might have the occasional designs on rural living if we ever did move to the 'the country' it'd be a big mistake for us.

Being in Hoylake, much like Barlick everything you need is 5/10mins walk away - butchers and greengrocers, little stores etc. You don't need a car. As a 'ribbon town' Hoylake has two Merseyrail stations and so we're 20 mins from Liverpool. Nice fresh air on the sea front here and views of the Welsh mountains. It's OK.

That said, I do like Scotland so somewhere round Edinburgh/Glasgow would be nice. And I was mightily impressed with Northern Ireland last year.

Richard Boughton

Hmm, out of all the places that I've lived or visited it would have to be a close call between North Berwick (View along West Beach in the picture - and I have been on that beach in a force 11) or Beziers (Languedoc)

North Berwick is 'my' Barlick by the sea

Moh, I'm interested to see you suggest New Zealand. Mrs Tiz's grandparents lived in Auckland from about 1950 and we went out there twice in the 1980s and travelled around and we had business colleagues out there too. We thought about going to live there but at the time couldn't cope with the idea of being in such an isolated part of the world and far away from the classical cultures and architecture of the Mediterranean!

Having spent 7 years in Liverpool I can understand Richard's wish to be near the place and the Wirral has attractions too. When I first met Mrs Tiz her parents lived in West Kirby on the Wirral. I wonder what it's like to live in one of those special houses at Port Sunlight?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight

There's a picture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery Port Sunlight . The Last Muster by Hubert Von Herkomer. Perhaps not the exact place you would chose to live but fits in with dropping your last anchor.