Homes don’t come much more idyllic than the one designed by Pauline Cathcart, for her family in Cheshire. Spread across almost 465 sq m (5,000 sq ft), it featured a spacious living room, five bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms and a large garden.
“My brother-in-law and I designed the whole house, choosing everything from the bricks and mortar to the design of the windows,” says Pauline.
Having designed their dream home, the family moved in at the end of September 1999, and she and her husband Alan, now 74 and 78, assumed they were there to stay. But once their children – Naomei, 43, Natasha, 42, James, 38, and Richard, 36 – had left home and started having children of their own, the couple started thinking about downsizing.
“I thought we were going to be there forever,” says Pauline. “But nearly 20 years later, when everyone had left home, married, and bought houses of their own, we had to face the fact that there was no point in staying. Most of our children had moved south, and driving to London and back to see them and our four grandchildren wasn’t something we wanted to do frequently.
“The thought of leaving felt strange, as the house was full of happy memories. Even after our children had moved out, they all came home for Easter and Christmas with their partners and our grandchildren. We held Alan’s 70th birthday there, and James’s 30th. We also had lots of friends in Cheshire – I’d go to the gym, play bridge, and do ballroom and Latin dancing, so leaving was a difficult decision.”
During their time in Cheshire, the couple had paid off their mortgage, and their home’s value had also risen significantly, which meant the move from the north of England to Weybridge, Surrey, left them with equity to spare.
“The value of the house was a bonus, especially as it’s more unusual to move from north to south, where property tends to be more expensive,” says Alan. “I also think that as you get older, you should think about future-proofing your life as much as you can. Being in an apartment with a lift means we’re less at risk of knee, hip, and other similar potential problems.
“We also thought about what kind of activities we wanted to do in our new place, so we spent a lot of time choosing an area both in terms of property prices and making sure there was plenty to do socially close by. There wasn’t the same type of online assistance, such as Zoopla’s My Home, to help with this sort of thing when we made our move – but it would certainly have saved us a lot of time if there had been.
“Our new apartment is on the second floor of a block, and is less than half the size of the old house,” adds Pauline. “We’ve got a small balcony, two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, and a study that we use as a spare bedroom when our grandson comes to stay.
“We tend to have fewer big gatherings now, but when everyone stayed with us in Cheshire it would have to be for a week at a time, which involved a lot of cooking and laundry! Now, the children can just pop round to visit instead. Richard has since moved from London to Brazil, but at least we’re closer to Heathrow, so it’s easier to see him when he’s in the country. We’ve also got a communal garden, so we don’t have to look after it ourselves.”
Having chosen Weybridge for its multicultural community, Pauline and Alan have also maintained their busy social life. “Everyone in our block gets on really well, and we throw a couple of communal social events a year,” says Pauline. “We’ve also joined a club that’s five minutes up the road, where we go to the gym and play bridge, so we’ve met lots of new people.”
And, thanks to the funds released from their former home, Pauline and Alan have also enjoyed some exotic travels during their retirement. “We’ve managed to see quite a few places, including visiting our son in Brazil,” says Alan. “We’ve been to Russia, Colombia, Burma and Oman, and are planning holidays to Ecuador, Nepal and Bhutan. We’ve also given some money to the children.”
“We’re extremely happy here,” says Pauline. “Leaving our ‘forever’ home was a hard decision, but it was the right one for us.”
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