‘Bitter-sweet’ move to Davidsons Homes’ Alexandra Place for Louise and Chris
Two years ago, life changed forever for the Meldrum family when daughter Lara and her best friend Jennifer were killed in a car crash while on a trip to the seaside. It’s a horrendous tragedy which sparked a home move eighteen months later for mum Louise, her husband Chris and their son Ross – a ‘bitter-sweet’ shift for the family to Davidsons Homes’ Alexandra Place development in Mapperley. They moved into their new home – a four-bedroom Winchester in December last year.
Louise said: “It became just too hard to stay in the house in Arnold that we lived in with Lara, so we started looking around for a new property. We’ve always bought newbuild homes, so we went to one of Davidsons Homes’ sites in Leicester to look at the housetype we thought we wanted. When we got there though, we realised that the Winchester next door was actually the perfect layout for us – we were completely blown away. We were so excited when we found out that they were building one at Alexandra Place in Mapperley, which is a great location for us.”
Initially, the family went through some additional stress when the buyer of their home pulled out of the purchase, so they decided to use the housebuilder’s Part Exchange scheme instead.
Louise said: “Part Exchange completely removed the stress for us of buying a new home and we feel we received exactly what our old home was worth. The process was so smooth and so brilliant, and we eventually moved in on 8th December last year. The support from Louise, our Sales Manager, was particularly invaluable.
“Our son Ross had moved out of home but after losing his sister he moved back in with us, so it’s great that both of the largest bedrooms have ensuites, and Ross also works from home so uses another one of the bedrooms as his study.
“I use the fourth bedroom as a gym and keep all my free weights in there. Lara’s ashes are on the windowsill in this room and so I like to spend time in there with her – she always makes me do that extra rep!
“I just love the house. We have a void in the entrance hallway where a beautiful chandelier is hanging – it’s a real showstopper. We do a lot of entertaining and you can often find us on a Friday night with friends over. The men tend to gravitate towards sitting on the sofa and all the women drink wine at the bar, then we have an area in between that quickly turns into a dancefloor!”
Alexandra Place is located to the north of Nottingham, with great transport links into the vibrant city.
Louise said: “I don’t drive, so having good transport links for me is a must. Fortunately they’re fantastic here. I can easily get the bus into Arnold or the city centre, and we are located nicely between a really good pub and a lovely country park. We really make the most of being here and try to go for lots of walks.”
There’s one more member of the family that loves life in the new home – Lara’s eleven-year-old cockerpoo Jet.
Louise said: “At our old home, Jet would wait for Lara every day to get home from college, which was very difficult. Now, he has a comfy spot right in front of the Georgian windows, where he can survey everything going on in the neighbourhood – he loves it.
“Our journey through buying has obviously been more emotional than most but I can’t fault the Davidsons staff – they’ve really taken care of us and gone the extra mile. Dave the site manager has been particularly wonderful, he always takes care of any problems quickly.”