“You feel like you’re really living up here" Couple move 130 miles from Oxford to Derbyshire to buy four-bedroom dream home

The move to Derbyshire for Lauren and Max Barber and their three-year-old son Charlie meant they could have a much larger house for their money.

The couple wallpapered two rooms, decorated the rest of the house with pictures, and new furniture, and unpacked all 62 boxes in three days.

Lauren said: “Charlie walked into his new dinosaur decorated bedroom and said ‘wow’.

“By the end of that day it looked like we had been there for months. We sat down with a glass of wine and thought ‘we’ve done it!’”

Arranging the move had been a long-distance process because the couple were moving 130 miles north from Oxford to be nearer to Lauren’s family.

They purchased a four-bedroom house in Jones Homes’ Hollin design at the Cavendish Park development which features a wide kitchen/family/dining room, a utility room, study and living room, and four double bedrooms, bathroom and en suite shower room.

Now the family, their Bengal cats Percy and Penny, tortoises Phyllis and Myrtle, mice Betsy, Patty and Ginger and a fully stocked fish tank are all moved in they said the effort had been worthwhile.

Jones Homes’ Agency Assist scheme, allowed them to select the home they wanted and have the housebuilder hold it for them while a buyer was found for their three-bedroom semi-detached house in Oxford.

Their new house gives them much more space. Max said: “The way this house is set out is really practical for us with a toddler.” Lauren added: “In our old house we were always looking for space saving ideas and it got to the point we couldn’t live comfortably there. But here we have more space than we know what to do with. We are not on top of each other, and we have nice breakout areas if you need quiet time, or if Charlie wants to do something loud it doesn’t disrupt the whole house.”

In fact, the couple looked at a larger five-bedroom house on the development, but decided that while they could have afforded it, the four-bedroom property was quite large enough.

They have found their new area to be very friendly, with the Derbyshire countryside on their doorstep.

Lauren said: “The nice thing about Bolsover is that within 15 minutes we can drive and be climbing the peaks or at the reservoir. Any Derbyshire landscape wouldn’t take long to reach, and Poolsbrook Country Park is perfect for Charlie.”

She added: “We have slowed down a little bit. People are more relaxed here and having more space and less stress and more support from family, means life is much more relaxed. We don’t plan to move.”

“You feel like you’re really living up here,” said Max. “It’s really worked for us being out of the city.”

There’s currently a choice of three, four and five-bedroom houses available to reserve at Cavendish Park, with prices starting from £239,995 for a three-bedroom semi-detached house.