We fell in love with the house at first sight, it had a really good atmosphere to it, even though it had not been lived in for over 10 years, the windows were falling out, the rain came in (as well as did various wildlife) and the place was black with soot.

Our parents thought we were mad when they saw the photos of the house for the first time and we think they were very worried! After visiting the house they changed their minds.

Our neighbours were lovely, we would find gifts of fruit, vegetables and salad on our doorstep, in the winter when we had no heating and were working hard an elderly neighbour would come round with hot homemade soup, and we thought things like this only happened in stories!

We would like to thank our friends and family who have help us through the hard times, Jane’s parents for their constant support and encouragement, Helen’s parents for all the advice and visits to help with the work, Richard, Helen’s brother who has designed this great web site and a big thanks to the ‘Crew’; Helen’s father Colin, Ron, Brian, Cliff, Richard, Steve and John, who have helped us enormously.

There is no going back for us; the quality in our lives has changed in many different ways. We would encourage anyone who is thinking of making a huge change in their lives to read a book written by, Jo Hampson and Georgina Perkins. They have used our experiences as one of the case studies in their book called, Life Swap; it is the essential guide to downshifting.