I know we have been moaning for ever about where we live - but with the advent of Tintin our cottonmill des-res is just not going to cut the mustard and we would both benefit from being on the right side of Manchester. That means Stockport - or more specifically the area around Woodsmoor and Hazel Grove. There are piles of reasons for this; being closer to family and friends, more convenient for transport, schools (oh god, the Ofsted website has already been visited....) Even though Stockport is probably as bad as Bolton for chavvyness - but beggars can't be choosers.
After much prevaricating we finally jumped in the car today for a drive around and good assessment of said areas of southern Stockport, and found some promising pockets. In fact we found an ideal house, but it is on the market for £185,000, so there's fat chance of that really. How very frustrating. Our only hope is that the owner is also advertising it to let, so maybe we could sneak in that way and have first dibs when the market crashes. Ho ho.
There are some cheaper possibilities with varying degrees of blight including one which backed on to a dark alleyway behind a raucous looking beer garden with one of those terrifying fibreglass-tree-slide things. Not living near that, it would give me nightmares. Anyway all in all it was a positive experience and we have come away knowing that there's a house for us somewhere...
