Not necessarily THE house, but the town, anyway!
After many days of looking and driving and driving and driving....we think we've settled on Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes. As our new acquaintance, Matt, explained...it's the jewel of Milton Keynes!
When we drove in, I was struck with how clean and quaint it was...
As we visited further with our new "friends", Matt and Claire, we learned a bit of history that hails from Stony Stratford. The town is referred to as an
"historic coaching town" - think old westerns - the town where the stagecoach stopped to deposit passengers - yep, that's Stony Stratford!
There is a hotel in town:
An almost next door, there is another:
As the night grew on and more ale was had, the travelers stories were shared from hotel to hotel...and this is how we came to have a "cock and bull" story!
HOUSING IN STONY STRATFORD
The house we looked at was SMALL, doable for 2 years, but SMALL! ( I had an epiphany, standing on the landing of the 4th house we looked at on Saturday - I'm not looking for my forever house, I'm just looking for something I can be happy in for a short time - boy was that "a load off"!)
The house is on the corner. It's part of an old orphanage. It's just been fully refurbished. It comes with one parking space off the road. This is a much coveted amenity over here! Plus, there is a large restaurant behind the property where guests could park!
Just inside the door to the left is what the Brit's call the "reception room" - we call it the living room. Furniture in here would be a challenge. However, since it'll be just Chris and I 95 percent of the time, we can make it work.
Approaching the back of the house is the kitchen. There is no dining room, so we'd have to put a dining table in the kitchen - very popular over here! Ugh!
The cabinet directly under the "kettle" is actually the freezer and the one to the left is the fridge! Definitely downsizing! The cabinet to the far left is the dishwasher.
There is a small room off the kitchen designed to be used as a utility room. Shockingly there is room for both a washer and dryer. Dryer's are not popular here. Everyone hangs their clothes to dry! However, it is wired for a condensing dryer - they just shake the clothes until all the water is gone and the water is collected in a pan on the bottom. Takes forever!!! Most Brits prefer this kind of dryer. We are trying to figure out how we'd vent a tumble dryer out of this room!
Of course, all the bedrooms have ZERO storage which is EXTREMELY common in British homes. Typically, people have one of their bedrooms as a storage/drying rack room.
All the bathrooms are quite lovely and spacious!
The home two doors down is coming available Sept 1 which would be perfect for us! (The one with blue door handle, behind the car) It's actually about 15ft deeper than the house we looked at, so each of the rooms are a bit larger. The owner is moving back to the states and might even be agreeable to leaving some furniture! We are desperately trying to get in to see it before we leave!
There is another home for let that looks pretty awesome! We have a viewing there on Wednesday! It's on a walking path with a park behind it. Just a 100 yards from the river. And only a couple of blocks from High Street (every town has a High Street - this is where all the action is!!!)
It's a 6 bedroom - their bedrooms here can sometimes barely pass as a closet! But, what we've seen online - this looks awesome!
There's also a converted barn coming available in September. Trying to get a viewing of it before we leave.
HOUSING IN BEDFORD
The good news is, I'd be completely happy in Bedford, too. So, the storybook house we looked at last week has lots of charm. We could absolutely make it work!! The only downside to it...it's owned by a charity and they want a renter by August 1st. That's NOT doable.
This is just a couple of houses off the River Ouse. A beautiful area of Bedford! Chris lived just a stones throw away when he was here in 2010-2011.
The house was built in 1886 and is named Holly Bank.
There are two "reception rooms" - we'd use this first one as a dining room. Love the old mirror. Don't know if it's as old as the house, but it's pretty dang old!
This one would be the living room - I forgot to take the pic, but it has a cool curtain rod attached to the top of the door. When we inquired about it...she explained that during the war they hung heavy drapes over the doors to keep the heat in the room!
Kitchen's not done yet - hole is where dishwasher would go, they were putting in tile behind oven when I was there today. Fridge/freezer would go just to left of where picture taker was standing.
This is the first room off the kitchen - lots of storage! Room for a washer in here.
A second room off the kitchen - think we might be able to fit a dryer in here...
And finally, a small toilet room off the kitchen and patio
Patio area at back of house.
Pic of side of house leading to the front
There is a basement - I won't bore you with pics, but it would be great for storage!
2nd floor houses the master bedroom and a 2nd bedroom
Small 2nd bedroom - would probably put wardrobes in here and use it as a closet.
Huge master with almost no storage.
This is the master closet - it is the depth of my foot! Ha!
The two pics above are of the huge master bath - it's not attached to the master or "en-suite" as they call it here, but that's ok with us.
This is a cool feature. During the war, they installed glass in the upstairs to allow light in downstairs! They retained it when remodeling!
The "family bath" as it's called.
The two pics above are of a tiny little room that would be perfect for my crafting room!
Another bedroom
Another good size bedroom
Cute little nook at the top of the stairs.
Now we are at the mercy of the "paperwork people"! As soon as they "release" us to move over, we can make a move on something!They better hurry up!
