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Come in and make yourself at home :-))

I can’t believe it’s eight years since we turned the key in the lock and entered our house as its new owners.

It was just five days after my mum passed away and three days before her funeral. Bittersweet times.

I’m just so sorry these walls never got to hold her physical presence, but they certainly hold her spiritual one. I feel her all the time.

I’m thankful that she knew about the house though and had seen the many photographs I’d taken on our visits to work out what adaptations were required for Alan. “You are going to be so happy there” she said, every time the subject came up. “I can feel it.” And like everything else she passed comment on, she was right.

Our house is almost 120 years old and has seen so many changes to its interior and exterior, most recently our building work in 2016 when we put our mark on her. Hopefully she can relax for a while now.

Alan was 15 when we moved here. It was just at the point where we were looking ahead and trying our best to plan for a future that allowed Alan independence and his own space with the comfort of knowing we were there should he need us. Also to be flexible enough to meet his needs and provide enough space for his future expanded care team, when we’ re no longer around.

The very first time we visited the house we knew we’d come home. It was the strangest thing, stepping in and feeling like we’d been here a thousand times before. Every room a revelation yet feeling so familiar. Even stranger was that David and I both felt it equally strongly. We knew we’d found our forever home.

Thankfully Alan loves it too, and the dream we had eight years ago when we turned that key in the lock has come true.

So as I’ve gone about my ordinary day, my mind has been full of thanks for D & M the previous owners, who made this house their labour of love and restored it to its former glory, thankful that it became available just when we needed it, and most of all, thankful that our home welcomes us, keeps us safe and warm, provides peace and rest and has given us the opportunity to build eight years of fabulous memories with family and friends within its walls.


“Amid pleasures and palaces
though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble,
there's no place like HOME.”


Author unknown