Andrew and Linda are starting the next chapter in their new 3 bedroom home at The Orchards.

This is their Snugg Homes story…

Andy is 52 and I’m 55. We have a tattoo studio in Preston – Andy does the painful bit whilst I look after client enquiries.

We were renting a private house in Leyland; our landlords were three friends that simply viewed the house as an investment.  The rent was high and the house was falling into disrepair – it had mould growing in several rooms, plaster crumbling off a wet wall in the lounge, gaps around windows – you get the picture – but they accepted that we had three dogs, one old whippet and two Yorkies. 

Despite the houses obvious shortcomings, we spent a lot of money on it; we changed the flooring throughout, added new kitchen cupboards and worktops and landscaped the garden.  Andy and I are both house proud and like our home to look lovely inside and out, and we were just grateful to find landlords that accepted our beloved pets.

One of our little dogs is old, diabetic and blind so we needed to be close to the vet at the time (which this place was), but we were on a rolling contract and hated living without security.

We dreamed of owning our own home, and was told by an ex neighbour that Shared Ownership was a great scheme, when we looked into it, we loved the flexibility and freedom it offered.

I had an employment pension lump sum and wanted to invest it wisely.  We weren’t accepted for a full mortgage on our previous property (thankfully!).  Mortgages can be tricky for the self-employed, so we used the pension money to buy a 25 percent share in this new home instead.

This is much more affordable for us; we have no mortgage and just pay the rent; we plan to staircase up to 100% as soon as possible. 

From our first viewing, we couldn’t believe it was such a lovely plot!  On some other developments we had looked at, the Shared Ownership properties were all lumped together and fenced off as though they were lesser beings. 

The house is a lovely design with a quaint pitch roof above the front door, importantly, it doesn’t look any different to the rest of the development.  It is surrounded by a mixture of detached, semi-detached and mews homes which makes the development look like a natural community. There is plenty of space around us and the houses are not in tight rows. 

We both love the house.  The quality of the finish is lovely and it feels solid. The lounge is lovely and big with beautiful French doors and full length windows, which feels so light.  The garden is also surprisingly big, with enough space for us to have a hobby and storage shed and still have space for a bit of landscaping and a doggy play area.

The layout is lovely with a long hallway front to back and wide doorways, which means our friend in a wheelchair can visit us for the first time.  Even though we have moved in whilst other houses are still being built, site staff are courteous, friendly and helpful and the access roads are cleaned every night so we are so glad we moved in quickly.  We would tell anyone not to let the fact that the site isn’t finished put you off.

It is no understatement to say that moving here has truly lifted a huge weight off our shoulders.  We are happy again and smile all the time.

In our rented house we were embarrassed about having visitors and apologetic about the conditions, which just made us feel anxious.  That shame has now been replaced with pride.

Even the pets are happier; they pick up on us feeling more relaxed!  Getting to work is quicker too. We have both commented about how we are sleeping peacefully since we’ve moved in. We are living the dream for the rest of our lives!

I need to be at home to look after the dogs, especially little Flo, our blind but very smart Yorkie. Andy has a grown up son who comes to stay at weekends with his partner and they are planning a family which will be perfect once the small playground is finished across the road from our house.

Snugg Homes from the very first phone call have been second to none! Superb! They have a friendly manner, really down to earth and nothing was too much trouble when we needed to ask them anything. 

There was a really helpful file left for us with all manuals and contact information we might need.  The keys were left in a key safe which came with the house, which has been very handy.

As cheesy as this sounds, in all honesty Snugg Homes have proved that it really “isn’t too good to be true”. ?

Andy and Linda x