Welcome to Home Truths, the tell-all series where homeowners and renters spill the beans on what really goes on behind the scenes when buying, moving or renting a property.
Moving story at a glance
Age: 64
Job: Primary school teacher
Salary: £45,000 a year
House cost: £250,000
Deposit paid: Full amount
Mortgage payments: £0
Buying solo or together? Solo
What’s your home like?
It’s a terraced stone cottage with three bedrooms, an open-plan kitchen and dining area, a huge stone fireplace in the lounge and the kind of thick walls that mean there are window seats in every room.
It’s an “over-under” house which is typical of Hebden, which basically means it’s a terrace but there’s another house built on the back, so part of another house is built above my roof space.
Our entrances are on different streets and the windows are all at the front. I have a small yard out front, where I keep a bench and can look out over the valley, because it’s quite high up so the views down into the valley are pretty great.
I miss having a big garden, but I’ve got plenty of things growing in pots here.
When did you move in?
March 2021. It was quite the palaver moving during lockdown I can tell you.
I put the offer in last September and it was accepted, but the buyers for my old house fell through and I had to find new ones. There was a fair bit of toing and froing before everything got sorted.
Search for homes for sale in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
Why Hebden Bridge?
Well, my new partner lives here, so that was the main reason to move. But even if that wasn’t the case, I think I’d have been drawn to the community here because there’s a very strong arty feel, lots of creative folk and stuff going on.
I like the fact that it’s got a very strong identity as a place. It’s liberal and fun and the high street is full of international cuisine.
We even have a Tibetan café. I’m a Buddhist and I’ve been able to meet other people with similar practices and go for fabulous walks that are just a few minutes out of town.
What made you decide to move house?
My kids are grown up now and, in hindsight, I realised I stayed in the family home for a good 10 years longer than I should have.
We had a big five-bedroom place in a market town in Ripon, North Yorkshire and had been there so long the mortgage was paid off.
You get stuck in a place when your kids are going through their schooling. But, even when they left and I had this big house to myself, I didn’t find the energy to move.
Even before the pandemic hit, I was thinking about downsizing and finding a different kind of place to live in.
I love Yorkshire and would never live anywhere else, but I think if you stay in the same small place for thirty-odd years you can’t help but feel old and stale yourself.
Since moving I feel full of purpose and ideas and even commuting further doesn’t dampen this new lease of positivity I’ve found.
How did you make it work financially?
We’d already paid the mortgage off on the family home and I bought out my ex-husband when we split up around fifteen years ago.
The house sold for £390,000, so I was able to buy my place in Hebden outright and gift the kids some of their inheritance early, with the idea that they’ll use it as a deposit on their own house.
I think I gave them £50,000 a piece, and kept a bit back for my retirement fund. I’m thinking of stopping teaching in the next couple of years, so having a bit in the bank feels sensible.
Any regrets?
That I didn’t move here sooner, I blame my kids for talking me out of selling our old home!
But I think we’ve all benefited from doing this in the end, and they love coming to visit me in Hebden. In fact, one of them is threatening to move in!