March 2021: Finding the perfect home that suits you both can sometimes be a challenge. One of you may be looking for a more traditional, older property, whilst the other wants something that is lower maintenance and easy to look after.

For Neil (59) and Valerie (53) Shortman, finding their forever home as a married couple was really important. Valerie explains, “I moved from Washington to London nine years ago to open an office for the communications company I was working for and met Neil, who worked for one of the clients. I eventually moved into his home near Uxbridge, but we knew we both wanted to work towards getting a home of our own when Neil retired.

“I really liked the older, more established style of home, whilst Neil preferred a new build which would mean less work needed to be done to it. Neil retired four years ago and after deciding to leave my role two years ago, we felt it was time to start looking but hadn’t made a lot of progress.”

Neil continues, “We were keen to move to the countryside and had been looking at properties further out of London towards Oxford, but the prices were quite steep for what you got. On the first weekend of launch we came across an advert for Deanfield Grange in Shipton Under Wychwood. It was a little bit further out than we were looking at but on a whim we decided to drive out and see what it was like..”

Valerie carries on the story, “As soon as we walked into the marketing suite, we received such a wonderful and professional greeting from Sarah and started to feel that may be this wasn’t a wasted journey. She spent time with us answering all our questions and showing us around the beautiful show home.

“When we got in the car to leave, we both looked at each other and said – it feels like this is where we are meant to be. Even though we had different tastes in what we were looking for in a home, Deanfield Grange just ticked all the boxes.. It was the first house we had actually gone to look at, but we knew it was the right one.

“We particularly liked the small development and how well the layout of the homes had been designed with the traditional Cotswold look but all the benefits of a new home. Inside the show home we could tell it was finished to a high standard with Bosch appliances included and built in wardrobes, and attention to detail throughout in the quality of the workmanship.”

The Shortmans reserved a four-bedroom detached Dunsmore at Deanfield Grange in late 2019.

“As we reserved off plan, we were able to make a few changes within the house which Deanfield Homes were so accommodating with,” said Neil. “We loved the kitchen and the south facing garden, but really wanted to open up the ground floor of the home even further, so they were able to take some of the wall between the dining room and living room out to allow the light to flow through to the front of the house.

“We were expecting to move into our new home in August 2020 but then Covid hit and understandably everything was delayed. It was a stressful time as we had to delay our buyers, and eventually we made the decision to move into a cottage for a month, so our sale didn’t fall through.

“Deanfield Homes were so helpful and kept us up to date throughout.  We very much enjoyed working with our Deanfield contact Annette and the Site Manager Mark. nothing was ever too much trouble and they always followed through on everything we threw their way with patience and professionalism. They were just as interested as we were in making sure we had the house we wanted and have continued to support us after moving in. We visited when we were allowed to during the build and   got the keys to our new home just before Christmas.”

“We walked in and just thought wow!” Valerie continues. “When you walk around a shell of a house it is hard to sometimes envisage it, but it felt amazing and the garden was bigger than we originally thought. We just love it. We can’t wait to explore the village and surrounding area further with our two dogs, Logan and Natasha and get to know our neighbours.”

Located on the edge of the sought-after Cotswolds village of Shipton-Under-Wychwood, in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, features a stunning collection of three-, four- and five-bedroom family homes, built using local materials to create attractive street scenes. All the homes are now sold.

Deanfield Homes has just launched its show home at its latest development, Deanfield Place at the start of March, in Cholsey, Oxfordshire. With 80% already reserved off plan ahead of the opening, Deanfield Place features a collection of sixteen quality, two, three and four bedroom homes which are ideal for young families, first time buyers and downsizers alike. The new Government Help to Buy scheme will also be available on specific plots, subject to Ts and Cs.