Self-Sufficiency in Style

Self-Sufficiency in Style

the house

What do we need to consider when looking at the actual house?

We have already talked about swapping a larger house for a smaller house with more land and outbuildings, see Capital.

But that does not mean that you should not have a comfortable life indoors.

You need to think about all the things you would normally consider, but perhaps with a few changes of emphasis.

Rooms upstairs are unnecessary.

Your visitors are going in a caravan in the meadow, see Capital again.

Your kids find you an embarrassment in your new life. They won't come home anyway for fear they will get roped into something energetic or disgustingly muddy.

And by the time you have done the work outside, you won't have enough energy to climb the stairs more than once.

You need fewer bedrooms.

So a bungalow, or a house bigger downstairs than up, sounds good.

You are going to need some rooms you hardly knew existed

These are better on the ground floor with direct access from outside.

Since you may need to make some alterations, listed buildings and conservation areas are a bad idea.

You will want to do some of the work quickly and perhaps yourself - and you don't want the extra problems of seeking additional local authority permission.

But please, not too pretty or old!

Easy maintenance would be an asset.

A 1930s to 1960s brick built bungalow is probably ideal.

They are very easy to maintain and can be easily extended.

Now, you are going to have to look at the Outbuildings and the Locality.

...and the boring, but rather vital, Services, but before you do, you might like to take a quick look at the Extra Rooms you will need downstairs.

What else do we need to consider?

"choosing a house"

just as we did with

the impossibly named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.

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