Linden Homes Inspires A Change Of Plan - And A Change Of Heart
08 Jul 2015

Thomas and Margaret Walsh decided a couple of years ago to make some significant changes to their lives as they entered retirement. The first major step was to sell their five bedroom, three storey mock Georgian house in the market town of Coggeshall.

The second major part of the plan was to find a plot of land and build themselves a smaller home. Margaret says they’d got to a stage where they both wanted to do something new with their lives:

“We’d built a house before, so we knew we could do it again. We just needed to find the right plot of land. In the meantime we sold our Coggeshall house to free up some capital ready to buy the land, should it come up.

“Our daughter lives in Chelmsford so we went there while we searched for a potential plot. One brilliant day, while we were in the city, we came across St John’s. (We’d driven past it before and knew that the old hospital was being developed). When we went to have a proper look around, I thought it was so pretty and so well thought out.

“We liked it so much that we decided to buy something small at St John’s just until we could find our plot of land to build on. We bought a three bedroom house with a kitchen diner and a sitting room. It was perfect for us. Thomas really liked the mechanical heat recovery system, whereas I loved the look of the house and its situation framed by the lime trees at the front: And inside everything was so neat and tidy – so well laid out.

“We thought the way the development had been done was so clever – Linden Homes had managed to keep the essence of the hospital whilst creating new homes and refurbishing other buildings. There were other lovely touches too: Bird boxes and thoughtful play areas for children.”

Thomas and Margaret had always imagined that they would return to the peace and quiet of the countryside and were surprised by their change of heart.

“We were rather taken aback when we fell in love with the city centre in Chelmsford. We can just walk in from St John’s and there is so much to do – which really suits us both as we are very busy people and like it when there’s lots going on.”

Margaret says their new found love of city living combined with the fact that land prices were escalating led to them rethink their self-build project:

“Having built our own home before, we recognised the very high standard of the Linden Homes’ build quality. So when we heard Beeches Crescent was being constructed nearby, we went to have a look at the plans. Rather than build our own home again, we trusted Lin-den Homes to do it for us and we’re now hoping to sell our three bedroom St John’s house and buy a four bedroom house with a large kitchen diner, a study and a garage (we really miss our garage!) at Beeches Crescent.”

Thomas says the location, the builder and the dimensions all fit with what they need:

“The house is about 30-40% bigger than our current St John’s house. We hope to buy at Beeches Crescent and settle there – in a Linden Home with a bit more room. We trust Linden Homes and their after sales service, which we know from experience, is very good.”

There is currently a selection of two bedroom apartments available at St John’s in Chelmsford and several three and four bedroom houses available at neighbouring Beeches Crescent.

For more details of these homes and for other information about Linden Homes, please visit the Linden Homes website.

The sales and marketing suite for St John’s and Beeches Crescent in Chelmsford is open daily from 10am to 5pm. You can also call 0844 488 1738 for more details about St John’s and 0844 488 3293 for Beeches Crescent. (These calls will cost you 7p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge).

-ENDS-

For further information, contact Emma Cox or Fotini Efstathiou at Remarkable Group on 01962 893893.

References to “we”, “us” or “our” are to the part of the Vistry Group (including Linden Homes, Bovis Homes, Countryside Homes, Drew Smith, Vistry Ventures or one of Vistry’s joint venture companies) from which you are intending to purchase a new home. References to "you” and “your” are to the prospective buyer or buyers of a new home from us.

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