Finding A Home

We looked at many, many homes around the area of RAF Lakeheath Base. Initially I didn't want to live in Thetford; many people had told us bad things about this area. It's nickname being "Theftford." But we wanted to continue going to the ward in Thetford, and needed a house within our price range, and also with certain qualifications. The first house we looked at was by far the worst one we saw. It was an absolute dump. I think it had been unoccupied for several months. It had a moldy smell, and it was completely carpeted (even in the kitchen). The man showing us the house said that the carpet in the kitchen was such that you could dump a whole bucket of water on the carpet and it would be fine. I thought to myself that somebody had already done it. The smell of the house was horrible! After the first home, everything else looked much better. Still, we didn't 'feel' right about any of them. We needed a house with a big fenced-in yard and away from a busy street. We also needed a 4-bedroom with space to do homeschool. The best house we saw was in Ely. It was absolutely beautiful. The backyard was a little small, but there was a playhouse with electricity. There was also a huge deck, a conservatory (with heated tile floors), a 2-car garage, and the detail work of the hardwood floor was absolutely beautiful. But it was out of our price range, and a little too far from the base. The commute is very dangerous, especially in winter--narrow roads with deep, deep ditches on both sides. We would also have to commute to Cambridge for church, which we didn't want to do. We had one more house to look at in Thetford, and I had asked the letting company if we could drive by and see the outside of it. They gave us the address, and when we drove up to it, I felt instantly that this was the home for us. We got an appointment to see it on Monday, and when I walked in and saw the scuffed-up hardwood floors, I knew it was the house for us. It had everything we needed. I love the playhouse, the shed, the large yard for our kids to play, and it's in a very secluded cul de sac. We are close to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and have walking trails, and and old ruins of a nunnery at the end of our neighborhood (which they built the BTO on top of). Click here and here for more information about the nunnery. After seeing the house we told them that we wanted to take it. We were lucky we saw the house when we did, because they had another family coming over after us to view the house. They also had people lined up to see it that week. So, here we are, in our new home. We're still trying to find places to put everything, and our furniture doesn't really match with the house, but we don't really care. We love being here, and I feel like this is where we're supposed to be. We do school in the conservatory every day, and we get a great view of the back garden. We have a lot of birds that come in to the yard (especially pidgeons), and we love to try and identify the different birds we see. There's a great view of the playhouse, and Roger loves to play outside while we do school. Since I already posted pictures, you can click on the title above and see photos of the house.