WHEN SHARON Lineham moved into her new Bellway home at Coed Derw in Llantwit Fardre, near Cardiff, her brother joked that she was ‘keeping it in the family’ having carried out some family tree research and discovered an ancestral link to the founder of the national homebuilding company.
It turned out that John Thomas Bell who started the company in the North East, was the brother of their great grandfather Albert. In fact, Sharon discovered that according to family lore, Thomas asked Albert if he wanted to come in with him into the homebuilding business, but he decided against it.
Albert’s daughter Mary Jane – Sharon’s grandmother – met and married a Cardiff man and so moved away from her native Northumberland and settled in Wales. Hence, Sharon grew up in South Wales, and has lived her whole life in the area, not far from Llantwit Fardre, where the Coed Derw development is now being built by Bellway.
It makes a nice link for Sharon, 54, and her husband Ian, 51, who moved into a three-bedroom detached house at the development with their son Alex, 31, and golden retriever Archie last July.
The family’s previous home was five minutes away from Coed Derw – a 1970s semi-detached house where they had lived for 22 years and brought up their three children.
But as renovations such as a new bathroom were becoming necessary at the old house, the couple decided to look around for a new-build home. “We wanted a place where we didn’t have to start doing work on it,” said Sharon.
Sharon, a nurse practitioner with the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in Caerphilly, and Ian, who is a mechanical engineer with McLaren Racing, like the area and felt that Coed Derw was not too large a development and was well located in terms of road links. For example, Ian can be on the M4 and heading to his workplace in Surrey, in around 15 minutes.
It is also well placed for family. Sharon said: “I can walk to my mum and dad’s house; my daughter lives up the road and we can walk to some nice areas from here.”
The couple used Bellway’s Express Mover scheme to sell their old house. Under the scheme Bellway instructs the estate agent and provides regular updates on how the marketing of the property is going. Their house was sold within two weeks.
They were able to snap up the perfect place – a house in Bellway’s Thespian house style.
Sharon said that once the purchase was under way, the sales advisor kept them up to date with news. They were also able to follow progress on the building of their property on an app. “The customer service was really good, and the site manager was absolutely brilliant and gave us updates,” said Sharon.
And as they reserved at an early stage, they were able to follow the progress of the build and choose the fixtures and fittings they wanted.
Sharon said: “That made it very exciting. It was exciting to get the keys and move in and have the kitchen we wanted and the tiles we wanted. We felt that Bellway had created exactly what we wanted.”
The couple moved in on Sharon’s birthday and celebrated that evening with champagne and a takeaway while sitting on the living room floor, as their furniture was coming in later.
The house is a double-fronted property with a kitchen/dining room and a separate living room. The design was exactly what they wanted as in their previous place the whole downstairs was open plan – a layout that suited life with a growing family. But now with all adults in the house, they prefer having a separate room for relaxing in the evening.
“We liked the fact that it had a separate lounge and it’s really cosy in there and we like the fact that it has dual-aspect windows, so it has a lot of light.”
The whole house feels bright, Sharon says. It’s the first thing they notice when they get up in the morning. And they love having an en suite shower room with their bedroom, which they did not have in their previous home.
They found the new house to be warm and cosy over the winter and Sharon estimates they are paying around £80 less each month on their energy bills. They also enjoy how quiet the area is. She said: “My husband says when he is working away, he can’t wait to come home.”
The couple used to own a caravan, which they used for trips away and which they sold around the time of the move with the intention of buying a new one. It’s an indication of how content they are in their new place that they have still not got around to buying one.
“We don’t feel the need to go away as much now,” said Sharon. “We are happy to be at home.”
There are currently three, and four-bedroom properties available to reserve at Coed Derw with prices starting from £264,995. To find out more, visit https://www.bellway.co.uk/new-homes/wales/coed-derw or call the sales team on 01443 349870.
