Moving day approaches!

I have had my eye on this house for years, so I am not sure when you can say when this journey/ love affair with this house began...

Highfield House

I first spotted it on one of my weekly walks with my neighbour.  It is on a hill - a beautiful double-fronted Victorian detached house opposite a field with horses.  So, it is not a 'shrinking violet' of a house, but it is bolder than that as attached to the old house is a fantastic, modern extension contrasting with the traditional brick house with its expanse of glass, metal and wood.  As I passed it for the first time, I noticed what a lovely house it was and my first thought was that it would make a wonderful family home.  I then discovered from my neighbour who is a font of all knowledge on all things local, that it belonged to a council and served as a care home to those with learning and mental difficulties.  So, it was not meant to be at that time - a home for my family as I dreamt about, but served a worthwhile community purpose.

Years later, after viewing many houses ourselves, and finally admitting that I would stay in our local area if we could find the right house -  I spotted the above building for sale last August, 2012.  So after thinking that what we needed was countryside views, a remote location and a cosy, country cottage, when actually my heart was still with Victorian architecture: the high ceilings, spacious rooms and beautiful features such as the picture rails, fireplaces etc. as our current (soon to be old) house displays :

The Armstrong's family home since 2006

 For me, that was it - Highfield House was the home I was looking for: for me and my family.  My husband didn't have the same 'love at first sight' feeling that I had, but after seeing it advertised on the internet a few times agreed that it would be a lovely home, and was extremely reasonably priced.  I viewed it as perfect - plenty of room, the Victorian features that we love, a modern extension that would enable us to have fun and experiment with décor  countryside steps away from our gate yet still in familiar surroundings and within walking distance of town, railway station and leisure centre.

Little did I know that this was not going to be any normal, usual house-moving process and here we are with March 2013 approaching, still waiting to move into our dream home!