Morning everyone! Today’s blog post is a reflective one… long term planning. Do you have plans for your future? Is buying a house next on your list after getting married, or do you already have one? And is it your home for life?
Planning a future together… the dream
I don’t talk much about me on here (the little men in my head are already shouting “booooooring”;) but I’ve spent the last few days in the Lake District where I grew up, and yesterday on the journey home we were thinking — as we always do! — about moving there for good one day.
This is the village I grew up in — photographed from a bench at the top of the hill you can see the sea in the distance. Turn around 180 degrees to see the mountains… it’s beautiful.
Cheshire is all very well, and Gareth’s lived here all his life. But as a couple we’re ready to think about our future together — long term. Gareth has a thing for Devon and Cornwall, while I love the Lakes. The more time we spend there though, the more he loves the mountains and quiet countryside — and maybe one day we’ll make our home in the hills.
It’s funny how you settle with someone and as the years go by your plans seem to converge very naturally: we both love the countryside and can’t stand the city. We both want to move somewhere isolated, rural and quiet — so long as there’s broadband, a post office and a shop we’ll be happy!
In a few years’ time when Gareth’s kids have flown the nest we’ll be setting out on a new adventure — to find a peaceful little cottage away from the traffic and light pollution, with a cosy kitchen, room for a comfy sofa and a little art room and music room. We’ll sell up and literally skip away from our house in the town to somewhere we can feel a little more freedom, enjoy our garden and a bit of the good life!
The perfect country cottage? This one’s a bit big for us, but the location is perfect. One day…
We’ve lived together for about twelve years now, and rather than being in the first stages of an exciting adventure it feels like we’re strolling through life together and as a little family. Our path onwards is smooth and settled: we’re both self-employed and can make our home anywhere — and there’s nothing to tie us to the city.
Perhaps it’s because we drifted into living together and moved house a couple of times that we never really sat and thought through our future together. Maybe if we’d had a wedding (there’s still time but it’s as likely to happen when I’m 60 as any other time!) we’d have thought harder about where we lived and where our life together would take us. I don’t know.
The funny thing is, neither of us are planners… we take life as it comes. It’s only now (as I reach the grand old age of 35!) that we’re really considering the years ahead of us. I thought of asking brides and grooms: do you have a long term plan for your future? Where will you be in 30 or 40 years from now? And has getting married got you thinking and making your own life plans?
Claire xx