About

In February 2021, we moved into our wonderful 17th century Sussex Long House with two young kids, a dog, three chickens and a huge pile of dreams and ideas

Meet the OPs

I’m a biologist by training, and work part time in London as a research scientist currently studying latent tuberculosis in the UK. The rest of the time I'm pretty much either making a mess or tidying up a mess. I’ve recently finished a City and Guilds in Patchwork and Quilting, and am now knitting my first ever cardigan.

MrEOP is a Chartered Surveyor running his own practice, lecturing at a London University and undertaking a PhD in hurricane-proof buildings in the Caribbean.

We’ve got two young kids who fill our days with glorious chaos and questions.

So. Many. Questions.

A change of lifestyle

After lockdown, like so many people, we wanted change. We wanted something more. We wanted freedom.

We were incredibly lucky with where we lived during those early months of COVID; we had a little cottage in rural Sussex, a big garden, lovely dog walks on our doorstep and a supportive school to guide us through the horrors of home-learning. But what we really needed, we decided, was a radical change of lifestyle. Somewhere we wouldn't be tied to the house and garden. Somewhere that we could lock up and leave, or - even better - rent out, allowing us to travel for longer periods, possibly to a second home somewhere sunny. Somewhere we wouldn't have to commute to London. Somewhere we could walk to the beach, and keep our 24' yacht nearby.

So we sold our cottage, found a townhouse on the Isle of Wight, enrolled the kids in a new school and found a home for our chickens. Then the valuation surveyor declared (incorrectly, may I add) that house we wanted was unmortgageable.

My ever resourceful and positive husband set up a viewing for the next day to see a house on two acres about half an hour East of where we lived. We'd always imagined that to get a house with land we'd need to move to somewhere like Wales (we'd previously tried and failed to buy a smallholding there) so to find something within our budget in Sussex was incredible.

Two months later, we moved in to our home; somewhere we are tied to the house and the garden, somewhere we could never lock up and leave or rent out as a holiday let, somewhere we can easily commute up to London, somewhere a 40 minute drive from the beach and somewhere we have neither the time nor the money to keep our boat.

Here's to a radical change of lifestyle.