Moving to the sticks (3 Viewers)

[rettucs]

Or at least out of/far (ish) away from Dublin.

Anyone have any thoughts of doing this? I'm currently 60/40 on it, specifically to Kilkenny. Already started looking at gaffs there. The idea being that theres 10 years left on the mortgage on the gaff in Dublin but there's enough paid off to be able to sell up, clear the rest of the mortgage and buy something outright, or close to outright. And, get a bigger gaff and live closer to the city.

In a lot of ways its a no-brainer. The only possible spanner in the works could be the work situation. I'm currently fully remote and will be for as long as I'm in this company. But its unlikely this company will be around a year from now. It'll either go to shit, or get bought out.

anyways, anyone else ever think of doing anything similar?

 

[JohnnyRaz]

one thing i'd love to do would be to buy a house with a load of land and have my own woodland.

but when we bought this place (in 2012) one of the primary rules i had in our checklist was that it had to be walkable to a shop, even just one you could buy milk or butter in. so we got a suburban (inside M50) house with a decent sized garden.

I'm deeply envious of both your shed(s) and garden. you didn't do too badly!!

 

[rettucs]

one thing i'd love to do would be to buy a house with a load of land and have my own woodland.

but when we bought this place (in 2012) one of the primary rules i had in our checklist was that it had to be walkable to a shop, even just one you could buy milk or butter in. so we got a suburban (inside M50) house with a decent sized garden.

I'm currently in a housing estate with loads around, but not that much is walkable. Traffic can be horrendous and they're still building a shit-tonne of stuff around. I'm by the M50 so thats great, and though I like the gaff I'm in (bought it in 2003) I have no attachment to the area (its not the area I grew up in).

I was thinking about what my requirements were for any new gaff and I realise I spend far more time indoors than outdoors, cos its Ireland, so its the indoor space thats more important for me.

And for context, my current gaff is a 3-bed semi-detached shoebox. It cost 375k in 2003. There are 5-bed gaffs going for similar, or not much more, dough in Kilkenny right now.

 

[magicbastarder]

I'm deeply envious of both your shed(s) and garden. you didn't do too badly!!

buying in 2012 played into our hands. i reckon we bought only about 3 months after the market hit bottom. buying this place now would be a whole different state of affairs.
we paid under 360k for this place. would probably be near double that now.

 

[Anthony]

Regrets, hmm. Not really from me because I always worked at home and even now my job is in the town. My wife has continued to work in Dublin and had driven a few hundred KM every day and that gets her down.
We were at a gig in Dublin last night and home by 11.30pm but we're not as far as Kilkenny.

 

[Anthony]

I'm also lucky that I knew a few people in this town and now have a decent local social life here too. There's tons of music here.

 

[Anthony]

Regrets, hmm. Not really from me because I always worked at home and even now my job is in the town. My wife has continued to work in Dublin and had driven a few hundred KM every day and that gets her down.
We were at a gig in Dublin last night and home by 11.30pm but we're not as far as Kilkenny.

yikes... the word "day" above should read "week". Navan isn't that far away from Dublin.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

every time I'm back home with my dad I consider moving back to the sticks.
would need to change job and potentially wife as she'd have no great desire to move.

 

[magicbastarder]

yikes... the word "day" above should read "week". Navan isn't that far away from Dublin.

i suspect it's the inconsistency of her commute which is the most maddening? you'd often hear about issues on the N3 between blachardstown and clonee (or does she go that way?)

 

[rettucs]

every time I'm back home with my dad I consider moving back to the sticks.
would need to change job and potentially wife as she'd have no great desire to move.

the thing about the job is that the one I'm in is seriously high-pressure and its taking a toll (although I can't complain about what they pay me to do it). With less bills I could take on something a bit less pressurised for a lower salary.

and herself loves the idea of moving out of Dublin. Shes fully remote too and would have better job prospects there than I would.

 

[egg_]

I've been living in the countryside for 15 years (surrounded by farmland, 5km outside Slane), and I've never really stopped missing the city. We're living Mrs. egg_'s dream here - chickens, vegetables, trees, near her Mam and sister and cousins - and I'm happy for her, but it's not my dream. I play music in a pub in the village and there's a few other old musos who I can go for a pint with, and Dublin's only an hour away if I wanna drive down to a gig or an open mic or something, or I can even get the bus down for an after-work pint with someone (last bus home is 9pm). Also the house is big enough that when the kids were little we could crank up the music in the sitting room and dance the night away without waking them (now they're teens and never go to fucking bed, and we don't really do that anymore )

If I'm deliberate about doing all the social/fun stuff I'm pretty content here, but if I don't (or can't for some reason) I can get a bit stir crazy.

 

[Anthony]

i suspect it's the inconsistency of her commute which is the most maddening? you'd often hear about issues on the N3 between blachardstown and clonee (or does she go that way?)

yea, back in the day the tailbacks started at the M50. Now it's Clonee.

 

[therealjohnny]

My office is in Clonee and the traffic is mental and the end of the working day. Glad I rarely have to go there anymore.

The stretch of the N4 by Maynooth\ Leixlip is a nightmare too

 

[ann post]

I keep fantasising about fucking off to leitrim

 

[therealjohnny]

Because it came into my head I now have to share it

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[rettucs]

aye well

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[therealjohnny]

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[flashback]

I'm struggling to find any downside to living far away from Dublin.

I suppose being close to an airport if you want to fly somewhere? There aren't natural gas lines by me, so heating is annoying I guess.
The fact that seemingly everyone knows who you are, what you're doing, and who're you're doing it with (whether this is true or not) can be annoying, particularly because it's sort of a one way thing in the sense that there's no way you can learn who everyone else is as quickly. But even that can be lovely, because you're part of a community which was a new thing for me.

I'm in a coastal village, so I'm walking distance to pubs / restaurants / even a decent venue. That's a thing I got lucky on, I didn't realise how nice being within walking distance of some stuff was before I bought this place. So I'd be in the sticks by some people's measure, but even within the village I've heard people say stuff like how they could never live out in the country, implying they aren't living out in the country.

 

[Unicron]

Always feel like I'm in a great spot where I am. Live in the countryside. 35-45 minutes from Dublin if I want to go to a gig or see a movie that's artier than what a local multiplex would screen.

Do want to move in with herself at some point but it's problematic as she's very much a city girl.

 

[egg_]

The fact that seemingly everyone knows who you are, what you're doing, and who're you're doing it with (whether this is true or not) can be annoying, particularly because it's sort of a one way thing in the sense that there's no way you can learn who everyone else is as quickly. But even that can be lovely, because you're part of a community which was a new thing for me.

New thing for me too - in the pub people often know my name and randomly chat to me, which is lovely. Downside is I often haven't a breeze who they are - I'd have to spend a lot more time in there talking to people (rather than playing tunes the whole time) to overcome that, but having to drive (and Mrs. egg_ having zero interest in hanging out in a pub) means it's unlikely I ever will

 

[JohnnyRaz]

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