Not many people move from a bungalow into a house at the age of 75,” says new homeowner Bernadette Teague, but she thinks it’s the best decision she’s made.

Bernadette sold up her three-bedroom 1950s detached bungalow in Rainham, Essex, where she had lived for more than 40 years, when the property and its 150ft garden became too much for her to keep to the standard she wanted.

She has downsized to a three-bedroom semi-detached house with a more manageable garden, at Bellway’s Maple Creek development in the Essex village of Fobbing.

“I love it here, the house is very cosy, and feels lovely and clean. It’s the best thing I’ve done,” she said. “I kept my bungalow lovely, but I knew there would be more jobs to do.”

In fact, just a few months before Bernadette left her old home, she had to replace the boiler at a cost of £4,000. For a long time, she had been reluctant to consider moving. She said: “At the time, I couldn’t admit it was getting too much for me, but it was.”
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Her family encouraged her to downsize, and she came round to the idea while mowing the 100ft lawn one day, when she began to feel that the gardening work was starting to become a bit of a stress.

She also realised that while she had stayed put all these years, many of her relatives and friends had moved away and so last year she decided to join them and began her search for a new place.

Bernadette retired just last year from her occupation making curtains – which she did for more than 20 years from her workshop in the garden – and chose Maple Creek because of the location.

With her son and daughter, as well as other family and friends, living in the area, plus the open fields, parks and countryside walks on the doorstep, it has everything she wants.

She used Bellway’s Express Mover scheme to sell her house – where Bellway works with a local estate agent to sell the property with no estate agent fees to pay. The bungalow soon had a buyer.

“The customer service was brilliant,” Bernadette said. “They had time for me and that’s a major thing when you’re on your own. I still pop and say hello if it’s not busy.”

She purchased a home in Bellway’s Blemmere house style for £465,000, moving in at the end of July.

“Downsizing means I have a bit of money for holidays and doing what I want,” she said.
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Bernadette loves having an active life and is looking forward to a trip to Thailand with a friend next year. She regularly goes cycling in the country parks with her sister who lives on a farm nearby. She has done several charity cycles in the past and plans to do some more in the future.

She is also a keen golfer. In fact, she is so enthusiastic about the sport that a few years ago she rented her bungalow out for two years and moved into an apartment above the pro shop at Cranham Golf Course, in Upminster, where she could play every day. Now in her new location she visits various courses in the area for a game with friends.

It is the first time that Bernadette has bought a new-build home, but she was keen to have a warm house with no repairs or renovations to do. “I thought ‘new-build new time of my life’,” she said.

Her new home has a main bedroom with an en suite shower room and an open plan kitchen/dining room with French doors leading out to the garden as well as a separate living room. She has already had fitted wardrobes and shutters installed and plans to buy some new furniture for the lounge and get a media wall built in next year.

Having lived in a bungalow for so many years, moving to a house with an upstairs was a bit of an adjustment. “Because it’s a house, when I go to bed, I go up the stairs and really feel like I’m going to bed!” she said.

She has turned the third bedroom into a dressing room and set up a place in there with a kettle to make a cup of tea or coffee, so she can get ready for the day all on one level before going downstairs.

There are two, three and four-bedroom properties for sale at Maple Creek, with prices currently starting from £365,000.

To find out more, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/thames-gateway/maple-creek or call the sales team on 01375 265307.