We’ve begun the long process of house-hunting for a place suitable for us in our future old age, which sadly now doesn’t seem very far away. We want to downsize from the 3-bed house we now have to a 2-bed bungalow or a purpose-built retirement flat, and have picked the location of Diss – yes, the town of the unhelpful book shop owners.

You get more for your money in Diss (American buddies… it’s not as bad as it sounds!).  It has a nice high street full of shops, a lake and a park to walk around, a library, a swimming pool, 3 big supermarkets, a GP surgery, a bank, and a train station.  There’s no big motorway or hospital nearby however, and so probably that’s why Bury St. Edmunds’ prices are higher.  To drive to the hospital where I work from Diss would probably take me around 45 minutes.

On Saturday we braved Storm Dennis and visited 4 estate agents along the high street.  One made my day and told me that retirement properties were only for people aged 55 and over (we’re both 62), but all 4 stated that bungalows didn’t come on the market very often.  We said that we weren’t in a rush, and just to contact us when one did.

The reason we’re not in a rush is because we have 30 years of junk that has filled up two loft spaces, and it’s going to take ages to get rid of it all or sell it.  After our sons have climbed up there and claimed anything they want, we’ll probably have to rent a skip and pay for half our home to be carted away.  It’s heart-breaking, but to downsize of course means that only a certain amount of furniture will fit inside a smaller home.

Neither of us are very enthusiastic about moving home, but we know it’s got to be done.  We’ve seen too many of our relatives struggling up stairs and trying to cope looking after a large garden.  We want something on one level with a very small low-maintenance garden.  The one bungalow we were offered needed much work doing to it, which we weren’t keen on.  We want to move while we’re still hale and hearty enough to do it.

I wonder how long it’s going to take us to find somewhere suitable?