Welcome to our forever home!

Well, at least as ‘forever” as a nomad who’s lived in 46 homes in his life can be!

Our new home in the barn. It’s not the whole thing! Just the right hand side.

Hi everyone. This is a free post so that everyone can see the new house. This is just a taster. There’s much more to see. Do keep your eyes peeled this Tuesday though, as paid members of our tribe will receive the first video tour! On a practical note: EE, bless them, have totally messed up and left us stranded, so we currently have no Wi-Fi. I’m hoping my signal is enough to reply!

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WE’VE MOVED! 🏡🥂

After 26 years of renovating/remodeling nine homes, we’ve finally found our forever home. Or, at least as ‘forever” as a nomad who’s lived in 46 homes in his life can be! I’m not kidding! I lived in 16 houses before I left my final childhood home (thanks mum and dad for setting the tone), four cruise ships, 16 rentals and now ten homes with Mr C.

In 2020 we moved from my beloved weatherboard house in order to downsize and slow down a little. The complete opposite happened and we ended up totally transforming two homes in under three years: a ‘60s deckhouse on stilts, which is our holiday home to let and a Victorian townhouse. It’s now time to kick back a little in our new barn. We have big plans for it, but for now, we just want to settle in and live a little.

If you missed the reasons why we sold up and moved to the barn then click on this link.

Back to village life, but with a difference!

It’s pretty obvious from the photo that we have moved to a lovely village. But, now we have the best of three worlds, as we are still only a stone’s throw from the sea and only a few minutes drive to city life too. I couldn’t possibly ask for more. I love being so close to the beach, but I really did miss the village life and greenery we had when we lived in the weatherboard house in Surrey. Mr C really wanted to have all the benefits of being in, or close to a city too, so now everyone has their wish, albeit with a few compromises.

We wanted detached, but around here that comes at a hefty price. What we did get though is an incredibly unusual home with walls a foot thick! As soon as we both walked into the main living area we both knew it was the one. The garden is less than half the size of our last one, but I am totally down with that - more time for wine!

It’s the perfect size for our life right now. I can't wait to get designing and creating an oasis of calm and beauty. I’m thinking about the possibility of co-designing this one to make it the best it could ever be. At the moment, it has some fine specimens, but it's very overgrown and has a decidedly worrying amount of yellow!

Jo Thompson

you would be thrilled! There’s even a yellow shrub by the front door, but its days are numbered!

It’s surrounded on three sides by flint and brick walls and guess what? The annex is clad in weatherboard! Get ready for New England vibes coming your way, mixed with old England period charm and a big dose of rustic Scandi coastal vibes inside!

We own the right side, including garaging and an annex, which used to be a piggery, we believe! The sales particulars said the barn was 1600s, but we’ve been doing some reading and the original oak frame of the barn, which was a tithe barn, seems to date back as far as the early 1500s in the rein of King Henry VII.

Tithe means tenth. Back in the day farmers were obliged to give a tenth of their produce to the church. The barn was used to store that produce, one of the reasons our barn is raised up quite high from the garden, in order to keep the grain dry.

I’ll be going into more detail about the history of the barn in a future post, but for now, let’s get down to the reason you’re all here today: the photos. I’m getting to it, hold your horses!

This is the annex, which has black weatherboarding on the second half. That needs replacing and it may go a different colour! The garden is very overgrown and actually much bigger than it appears. Lot’s of cutting back to do!

Check out those beams! If you have followed me on Instagram for a long time, then you’ll remember I used to do a lot of styling and Tomfoolery in the bathtub. But, I haven’t had a pretty bath since we left Surrey in 2020. Get ready!

The garden is the perfect size for our life right now. I can’t wait to get designing and creating an oasis of calm and beauty. At the moment, it has some fine specimens, but it’s very overgrown and a decidedly worrying amount of yellow!

Paid members of our tribe have already seen this image from last weekend’s column. But, here it is for everyone. Yes, that pink wall will be painted a different colour ASAP! This is the estate agent photo. We have big plans for this space and a better layout, but not this year.

Who doesn’t love a front entrance? Well, actually this is on the side! I used to do lots of seasonal styling on my front steps. So looking forward to pumpkin season!

And finally…

This is a photo of the annex bedroom. It’s an estate agent photo, so ignore the furniture and styling. Look at the light though and those beams!

The entire house is filled with character and warmth. It positively invites you in and beckons you to stay for a spell. If there is one characteristic of a home that I think is the most important, it’s that it should make you feel welcome and want to belong. It should wrap you in its sun-drenched arms and tell you everything is going to be okay. Take a chair, I’ll fix you a drink and then we can have a good old natter. I’ve got so much to tell you!