Stalemate

I do not think that we were being unrealistic, when we went away at the beginning of February, in expecting to find some changes to the lane, on our return five and a half weeks later. This is our lane taken from the end of our drive, looking towards the bottom end of the lane and the main road, which is really another lane.

It looks like a country lane, but we are not really in the country. We live on the outskirts of a village, a few miles from Chester. There ar just three houses in the lane, with a fourth house at the end of the lane on the main road. We live in the middle house - a Victorian cottage. It was originally two farm workers cottage, which have been knocked into one at some point in the past. Then various owners have altered and extended it. Both of the other houses are modern having recently been rebuilt. They have also both been for sale on and off over the last few years. Consequently we have been expecting that we would have new neighbours for some time now. Living next door to a house that is for sale is unsettling. Will the house sell? And if so when? Then there is the uncertainty of not knowing if your new neighbours will be to your liking. Would you be better off if the old neighbours stayed?

After a couple of sales had fallen through, the first house at the bottom end of the lane sold eventually, at the end of October last year. We had been given some brief details about the new owners and we were interested to see what our new 'lane mates' would be like. Husband has met the wife and two children and we have both met the husband, when they were making one of their many vists to the house, but seven month after they became the owners of the house our new neighbours have yet to move in. More than once they have said that they will be moving in in the next few weeks, but the house continues to stand empty and unloved. The garden, which has had no attention for some time, is fast becoming a wilderness.

Then turning in the other direction towards the top end of the lane and the farmer's field, again photographed from the end of our drive.

The house there has also been for sale, on and off, for about eight years now. We were delighted when we found out that the current owners of this house were trying to sell, as we have never got on with them and we know that the wife has never liked it here. This house has also had offers that have not proceeded to a sale, if we are to believe what we have heard from the neighbours. There is a bottle of champagne 'on ice' to celebrate when they eventually go, but it is looking increasingly as if it will be vintage by the time they move out. Before we went away in February we were told that this house was 'under offer'. Consequently we had high hopes that by the time we returned, the house would be sold and we would have some new neighbours. Imagine our delight when we arrived home to find a different car in the drive of the next door house. However, it did not take us long to realise that we had the same old neighbours with a new car! The sale, if there ever had been one, had fallen through and the neighbours had decided to take the house off the market and stay put, much to our dismay.

We have even thought about moving ourselves to put an end to all this uncertainty, but have not seen anything that would suit us and after all the effort that we have put into the cottage we really do not want to be starting again with another house.The lane is looking paricularly good, at the moment, with the hawthorn/May in flower and I am left wondering why wouldn't anyone want to live here?