Rhubarb Cottage

I have written the day we found Rhubarb Cottage, but actually when I look back on it, it seems like it actually found us!

At the time we were renting a beautiful thatched cottage in a different town in Essex, having made the escape from London. We’d half-heartedly looked at a few houses but then we became pregnant and suddenly the nesting instincts were STRONG and finding a home before the baby came was all I could think of.

After another unsuccessful house viewing elsewhere, we walked past the cottage on a Sunday afternoon, having never visited the village before - there the cottage was, looking beautiful in the spring sunshine with its windows open and I actually turned to my husband and whispered “That’s a beautiful house” as we tried to subtly peek in through the windows.  On the Wednesday we had an email through from the estate agent with particulars of the very same cottage.  On Thursday morning we went to see it and we put in an offer that day. And by the Sunday, a week exactly to the day we first set eyes on the cottage, it was ours! It’s full of wonky floors and beams that creak in the wind like an old ship but it’s been a great home for us the past seven years.

From the very first time we saw it, the cottage has always had a benevolent feel to it. As you stand in the courtyard garden and look back at it, its L-shaped frame seems to hug you. I knew immediately it was the place for us to start our new life as a family of three.

A lot has happened in those six years - a second baby arrived, we’ve lost some of those we love most dearly, jobs have changed and new ventures begun.  My heart is still very much within its walls and in truth its a wrench to leave but it is time for us to start a new chapter and for another family to enjoy this very special and beautiful cottage.