The Road Trip - house fifteen, another no

Setting off from Mallaig we headed south towards the next house along the route. It was a long drive (over 5 hours!) and we hadn't had much sleep the night before due to the ferry timetable change. We'd passed many familiar places along the way down to Glasgow then some new territory as we headed out south west towards Ayr. It's a fast road and quite busy/populous with folks going about their work and shopping. After Ayr, Liz suddenly recognised the town and the cemetery by the road from a previous house of interest. It was a small house with a lot of wood that needed a lot of care, but a lot of charm to go with it. Before we could get too invested it had been taken off the market again. No loss as the location was not right for us. See the photo below with house with a lot of wood on the hill with a view over the headstones of Kirkoswald cemetery.

The long drive gave us plenty of time to continue our musings on what it would be like to uproot our lives and move 500 miles (like the famous Scottish band, the Proclaimers!) away from everything we have known for the last 20-30 years and set up afresh in a new location. So, not only would we be in a new phase of our lives, but also a new place, surrounded by new people and disconnected from all the conveniences we have been so used to being close to in a town. Will we feel cut adrift and lonely? Will the locals welcome us, virtual foreigners with funny accents, into their communities? Will we miss being able to pop to the shops for a pint of milk at 9pm, or to a music concert 10 miles down he road, or the cinema on whim?

John had been averse to moving to the islands, or any further north than the Caledonia Canal, because he was convinced it would mean isolating ourselves from people and from a normal life. It is fair to say we were both scared of moving away from every single part of our lives - work, friends, church, hobbies, everything familiar and comforting. But, we also realise we are in a rut, a treadmill of busy life, and that we want to change it...for the better. Having spoken to the people we had met throughout our trip we were starting to be cautiously optimistic about being able to assimilate a new found lifestyle in Scotland. A lifestyle of freedom, of exploration, of embracing the unknown, of new community where people help and support each other with a likeminded enthusiasm for their towns and villages, a fierce pride in their heritage and a wish to protect and promote it. We want to be part of this lifestyle, to enjoy it and to give back to it. Yes, it will be new and it will be slightly harder to get things we want, but that just needs a little bit of planning. And it will be SO worth it.

Eventually, many miles down a freshly surfaced single track road, over moorland in Western Dumfries, lined with young pines and gentle, green, rolling hills we reached the next potential. Along that 10 miles, we had met one car. John had already decided it was too long since we have seen habitation, but I wanted to give it a chance. If we approached from the other direction it was closer to civilisation. New Luce - £170,000, a 1 bedroom cottage.

Detached, renovated cottage in peaceful rural location some 10 miles from Glenluce. The property offers spacious accommodation with potential for additional bedrooms in the boarded attic. Large open plan living, dining, kitchen with stone floor and open fire, double bedroom with patio doors to walled garden, bathroom. Substantial floor and lined loft space. Double glazed. Electric under floor heating. Walled garden area. Stone outbuilding. Private water and drainage. Mains electric. Stunning location with open views.

So here it is: New Luce in a nutshell. The property is set on a hill overlooking the wide valley. It's pretty isolated and about 200 metres up a farm track. Definitely a doer upper, definitely 'exposed', not John's cup of tea - he couldn't really see the potential - what would the hard work and effort get you? A house on a hill overlooking moorland but so windy and exposed you'd never be able to sit in the garden - proven by all the wind turbines another half mile down the road. Strangely the property looked like it had been lived in up until recently and had brand new under floor heating and good quality stone floor, but everything including the kitchen sink had been removed. Everything has its price and the price of this property wasn't cheap, just reflective of what it was.

So, we peered through the windows as the estate agent said it was too far to come out for a viewing and we didn't have time to collect and return the keys. We checked out the barn, which could provide the potential income of an Air BnB should anyone want to come and stay in this location. We stood with our backs to the house and surveyed the fields with sheep and a tractor in mid-plough action. It wasn't as pretty as I had hoped, and it wasn't an attractive place for a holiday cottage either. We also knew the barn had an asbestos roof. The house had damp issues (as so many do) but the inside was newly done. However, the front door had a gap beneath it showing daylight and it was basically a micro-house. I am baffled as to why the previous owners would have painted the whole thing red inside - bit of a headache!

And yet, I loved the idea of the walled garden, sheltered from the elements. And I loved the idea of throwing open the doors to the bedroom and wandering into the garden to catch the morning sunshine with a coffee in hand. It definitely had some charm. But, John asked the usual question - is it your forever home? And I had to answer honestly - no, it is not. And so, back in to the car for one more property before home, and resuming our seemingly unending discussion on whether we were doing the right thing.