Back on line - Part 2

So. Off we went to view the compromised Mill, thinking we'd just pop in & carry on with the 4 other viewings we had that day. But no. Even though we knew about the river & the flooding we were simply overwhelmed by the house. This was Grand Designs, the kind of house you dream about. It was huge. Beautifully finished! But the river... the floods?? On further investigation & chatting we discovered the house was built specifically to withstand flooding. The "ground floor" was in fact the first floor ... and there was a walkway built specifically to ensure access when the floods were at their worst. And then we realised The Mill was easy walking distance to the village, a village that offered pretty much all you need to live a comfortable life .. and was only 15 mins drive to a lovely market town ..  hmm ...

Our heads full, we went off to view the 4 other houses. The next was VERY rural, hard to get to yet completely surrounded by other properties. That's a no then. The one after that was old & creaky and too much of a project. The next had an annexe but was upside down & very close to the main road. Nope. And the final one felt - well TINY - in comparison to The Mill. So off home we went, thinking hard.



Once home we couldn't shake The Mill. So we went back 2 weeks later dragging the FSTeens with us - we needed another opinion - were we mad? As it was right before Christmas we were greeted by an 18 foot Christmas tree in the entrance hall - and a VERY swollen river. So we donned boots and coats and went outside. It wasn't nearly as bad as we imagined (but to be fair it then got horrible and the owner took photos to show us). Again off we went home pondering. And then watched the news and saw villages all over Cumbria & Lancashire swallowed up by floodwaters; we saw houses we'd looked at with water sloshing around their now ruined kitchens, villages we'd considered with water coursing down the main street and we looked at each other and thought - hang on. And so we made a VERY big decision. With some to-ing & fro-ing it all fell into place.

Reader, we bought The Mill!