We’ve lived in our current house for over seven years now, and we’re getting increasingly tired of having no space for all our stuff. The only problem is (apart from not having the spare money for a bigger house) is that we love where we live and anywhere else seems like too much of a compromise. Assuming that we stay in the North West, I think we live in an area that’s almost perfect. We love living in a quiet area with a nice garden and great neighbours yet still having the ability to walk in to the city centre when we want to be more dynamic. Anywhere else would have to offer a lot.
We know that finding that right place is going to take its time so we’ve begun our search. We need to find somewhere that has a dynamic life of its own, but is still connected to the city. The one that everyone always talks about is Didsbury, and while it’s such a cliche for thirtysomethings to want to move there, we thought we’d go and have a look. We were suprised to find somewhere that still felt like its own place. Yes, it had lots of identikit bars, but it also had independent shops I’d actually want to go to – like the cheese shop that you could smell from the street. One to keep an eye on, definitely.
A few days later we went for a wander round Knutsford. On paper, it has it all: a park, transport to Manchester, a Booths, independent shops and lots of interesting bars and restaurants, and yet it just didn’t do it for us. It seemed very dead, full of people who knew what they liked, thank you very much. I couldn’t see either of us living there – or rather, I couldn’t see us living there while we have the life we currently lead.
The only problem with these places is that you don’t get much for your money because everyone else wants to live there too. We’re exploring the North next, see what you can get there. At least we’ve learnt that it isn’t just a question of ticking off must-have physical characteristics, there’s got to be a certain atmosphere too. Of course, this means that we won’t be moving in our lifetimes, while we search for the unobtainable.