A young couple decided to completely change their lives by trading their three-bedroom cottage for a motorhome.
While many would consider already owning a property at 36 a major achievement, Gem and Doug Beeston-Perry found they were starting to have “itchy feet” four years after having bought their new home.
As a result, during their honeymoon last year, the Cheshire-based pair took the daring decision to sell their £580,000 three-bedroom house and relocate into a £90,000 motorhome.
Explaining how they came to the realisation that climbing the property ladder wasn’t their ultimate goal, Gem told the Manchester Evening News: “Moving up the property ladder has always been the aim, we’ve just kept buying, renovating and selling, basically just building the pot.”
The couple, who met at university, bought their first house in Chorlton some 12 years ago with the aim to use it as their first step on the property ladder.
They eventually managed to buy and sell another home before moving into their last house in Mobberley.
Following their marriage in May last year, the couple – who run their own property business – felt they needed to step out of their comfort zone and explore.
Gem, who described herself as a “home comfort girl” rather than the adventurous camping type, recalled: “We’d been in our house for four years which is the longest we’d been in any house and to be honest we just had itchy feet.
“We sat on our honeymoon and thought ‘what now?’ We were just ready to move on and do something else, and it was then when we decided to sell the house.”
After selling the business in September and their home in October, the pair opted for a spacious motorhome as their next residence. And their adorable pooch Noah played a major role in the choice.
Gem said: “We’ve always wanted to go travelling, but our dog is one of the main reasons we’re doing it in a motorhome – so that he can come with us.”
Finding the right motorhome, however, wasn’t an easy feat, the newlywed recalled, as “they are like hotcakes” and there aren’t many of them around, particularly with the specific layout the couple had in mind.
However, Gem said they got “really, really lucky” as, despite many prospective buyers have to wait months before finding their motorway, they “stumbled upon a new” vehicle that a dealer had been given last minute from the manufacturer because another dealership had closed.
The pair made the vehicle their own by adding a few new features, including a water filter, outdoor gas BBQ point and an outdoor shower.
Now, the couple and Noah are ready to take their motorhome, which they affectionately call Lottie, around Europe for the next few months, and are set to return to England before the new year to attend a wedding.
Speaking about their travel plans, to begin later this month, Gem said: “We want to do France, northern Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia, and then back up through Austria, Switzerland and then probably back through France. That’s the aim but whether we cover all that we’ll see.”
Speaking about the future after this long holiday trip, Gem added: “We don’t really know what it’s going to look like when we get home at the end of the year, we don’t know if we’re going to buy another house or whether we’re going to love the travelling and stay on the road, we just don’t have any plans.”
Gem will be documenting their travels on her Instagram page @athomewithgem.
