A MAN has told how he quit his job and sold his house in the suburbs to move into a 150-year-old crumbling pile of bricks in the middle of nowhere.
Jude, 33, decided to escape the rat race and move to an isolated tiny Scottish cottage after his mum and dad both died from cancer.
Jude, originally from the East Sussex coast, first moved to the East Coast of Scotland in 2019.
But he is now moving again, this time 100 miles away into the wilds of rural Scotland.
“This is the first place that I decided I liked, like I knew it was the one before it even got out of the car”, he chuckled.
Jude explained life prior to the move: “I was recovering from surgery and I was working all the time to try and keep the bills paid at my small business.
“I kept reminding myself that life was short and that I should strive for a better work-life-balance and I should take weekends off, but we were in a post Brexit cost of living crisis.”
Jude, who shared a tour of his new home to YouTube, sold his previous house on August 25 and has now lived in his 150-year-old cottage for two weeks.
“When I bought my last house, I was moving from the box room at my parents house and it took quite a long time to acquire things to make it feel more homely, which wasn’t the case this time” he says.
“It’s amazing how easy it is to make a house a home when you already have loads of stuff to add to it.
But, there is a lot of work to be done.
The hidden gem is surrounded by farm and woodland, and includes a barn, an acre of land and as many as six outhouses
The cottage includes a living room with an open fire, a dining room, kitchen, bathroom, plus three bedrooms.
Although some parts of the house are rather small, Jude explained that the removal men were able to get both of his sofas into the living room.
He admits there isn’t much wall space in the living room but since he doesn’t have a TV, he can use the space to hang his wall art.
He also has a built in bookshelf to store his and his mums handmade quilts in.
While living 25 minutes away from the nearest supermarket, Jude has stocked up on canned goods and bottles of water.
The cottage is fully functioning with electricity and water.
He added: “I have listened to enough podcasts and read enough post-apocalyptic novels to know that having a little bit of a supply is never a bad thing.”
Although Jude thinks it could be an issue for some, he lives quite happily without a TV.
Jude has plenty of plans for his new yard, starting with converting the barn into a living space and in time, he’ll tackle the cottage.
“I know on social media a lot of renovation projects look really quick – this one will definitely not be! It’s quite a big project.
“I have never undertaken a big project like this before and I will talk about all of my skills and lack thereof experience at a later date, but I definitely don’t have a family full of trades people.
“I don’t have trades experience, so it’s going to be a big job and a fairly expensive one so I will need to spread that out.
“It definitely won’t all be done in the next six months, it probably won’t be started in the next six months.
“In the meantime, I want to make it cosier and a little bit more like home. I’ve done quite a good job so far.”
