Enforced exile

Last Updated on 29/11/2023 by Alex Squire

This week, I will have to leave my house and live somewhere else for a while. The reason is that the house has more leaks than a sinking ship. There are loads of pipes underground that need changing, and the work required means that I can’t live there for a while.

Elms Farm Cottages

So after a long search, we found somewhere else to live last year, which looks nice. It’s a place called Elms Farm cottages, which is near Boston. They have ten cottages, which are converted barns and stables. Several of these are wheelchair accessible, step-free, with wet rooms.

The accommodation is set in 18 acres of grass paddocks with a nature walk around a couple of lakes.

It’s been a long and winding saga to get to this point. It all started last year when we noticed some leaks were appearing on the walls. So then they dug some holes in the floor (which are still there) by the radiators to try and fix them. It seemed to work for a while, but then they kept finding more leaks all over the place.

Eventually, they decided they would have to replace all the pipes, which meant they would need to dig up the whole floor. Then, they must change the floor tiles because the ones we have are not made any more, repaint the walls and sort the pipes out.

The insurance company recently didn’t want the workers digging up the floor at all, which was the whole point of the work – to fix the pipes

But we have finally reached a point where we will need to move out this week, and all the furniture will go into storage.

A removal company has come to pack up all the furniture today, so I am currently sitting in a very bare room, which is a novel experience.

I have a new laptop which I am going to be using for the next few months instead of my PC. It will probably remind me of when I was at uni and used to laptop all the time.

It’s going to be interesting to see how we get on living somewhere else. But I am sure we will adapt and make it work.

At least it will be somewhere new to explore. I’m not a great fan of Boston because it has a poor reputation for crime. Whenever I read the local news and see something bad happening, you can bet that it will be in Boston. In 2016, it was the murder capital of the UK! So I won’t be going there to visit very often. But the surrounding countryside might be pleasant to have a look around.

Saying that, it does have some interesting history. Fun fact: the pilgrim fathers first left the country from around the Boston area on their way to America, where they founded Boston, Massachusetts.

I will review Elms Farm cottages once I have settled in, so stay tuned for that. I have visited them previously, and they are very nice; the cottages have been rated highly on Trip Advisor too, which is a good sign.