NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS

Julie and David Thompson knew that with their children grown, they could follow their hearts to the countryside and find a forever home for Christmas and beyond

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Having spent her teenage years in a beautiful but very quiet Suffolk village, the last thing Julie Thompson wanted for her own children was for them to feel cut off from their school friends and reliant on their parents to ferry them around. So when she and her husband David were expecting the first of their three children, they left London to raise their family not in their dream home of a country cottage, but in a contemporary house in bustling Ipswich. 'We have such precious memories of that time, so many happy Christmases were spent there,' says Julie, 'but David and I both knew that as soon as our sons grew up and were ready to move out, we'd be free to follow our hearts and head to the countryside.'

After so many years dreaming about the move, the search for their ideal nest was not something the pair took lightly. 'Character was a must have,' explains Julie. 'We wanted an old property with exposed beams and brickwork, original walls and floors, along with a bigger garden than our townhouse. But at the top of the list for both of us was a view: we both craved an outlook that would ground us in the environment.'