So here I am finally getting round to telling you about our trip to Lewis last week. I'm going to cut to the chase - it was not a success. The house itself was pretty much as we expected, if a little unkempt due to it not having been lived in for a while.
The first problem arose when Harry said he didn't like his room as it would have been in the extention and slightly away from the main part of the house.
Then as we looked around the areas outside it transpired we could not do as we had hoped with the land. It was so boggy we would have been unable to have pigs/sheep on it long term so there were pens closer to the house than we would have liked. Plus the field across the road had common grazing rights and we would not be able to put services across for anything like toilets if we hoped to us it as a small camping area.
However the killer was that Harry got very upset. After talking to him he explained he wanted to do all the exciting things like climbing, fishing, beach-combing etc, but it was just too far out of the way for him. We think it was very brave of him, as an 8 year old, to say what was on his mind, even though it was a tough thing to do. We would never try and make the boys think it would all be ok, just because it had been a dream of ours for everybody.
So on our return, and after a few days thinking, we know we have made the correct decision for all of us not to move to Lewis.
Most people go an hour or so down the road to look at a house they may buy. We took the risk and made the commitment to go that little bit further! If we had not gone we would have regretted it we know for sure; you regret more the things you don't do that the things you do.
So onwards and upwards. We have hit the ground running, though, and are preparing to go see some properties very soon. We still intend to live our Good life of growing and making our own food, keeping a few animals and chickens and try to give our boys the best childhood we possibly can.
So watch this space. xx
