Would you like to move to the beautiful Orkney Islands? It could be just the place your searching for, or maybe you've never thought of it till now.... 
We are looking to move as soon as possible and we are looking for a genuine exchange. We are willing to wait for the right property and location as we are wanting a place to settle down in.
The reason for the move is to get back to our English routes as well as being able to get vital support and help for my wife's complex illness from friends and family.
We are looking to move back to parts of England that we know and love, we have many connections down in England that we miss dearly. We'll also happily consider South Wales as we know the area from holidays and it also has easy connections to England.
We are looking for a similar swap between disabled tenants with the same size property and it must accept pets. Due to council criteria it must be a disabled to disabled swap, apologies!Location
We are looking for the Southern part of England or Wales, for our locations imagine a line from the top of London across the country through Wales to the sea. We are looking for locations below this line excluding London, although we may consider some outlying areas.
The places we are interested in are listed under Counties or Countries, all area's in the mentioned County/Country will be highly considered even if not mentioned.
Wales - Newport, Cardiff, Bridgend, Port Talbot, Swansea and Pembroke.
Bristol & Somerset - Area's of Bristol City, preferably South and East. Down to Somerset as far as Shepton Mallet and towards the coast e.g Weston-Super-Mare.
Bath & N. E. Somerset - Bath, Peasedown St John, Radstock, Frome, Midsomer Norton, Paulton and Faringtongurney.
Dorset - Weymouth, Portland, Bournemouth, Poole, Wimborne, Christchurch and Ringwood.
Hampshire - Winchester, Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford, Romsey, New Forest, New Milton, Milton on Sea, Lymington, Bishops Waltham, Hythe and Hayling Island.
Sussex - Chichester, Bognor Regis, Midhurst, Worthing, Hove, Brighton, Haywards Heath, Crawley and Eastbourne.
If your interested and your location is not mentioned then please feel free to ask as you may be in an area we forgot to mention or would happily consider.
Property type
We are ideally looking for a Bungalow or a property all on one level, it must be suitable for a wheelchair throughout. We would like 3 bedrooms like we have now although 2 bed properties will be considered, ideally we would like an adapted bathroom e.g a Wet Room with level access shower although if the bathroom is not adapted but is suitable for adaption we would consider taking on the work for the right property.
As for the Garden, we do need some outdoor space as we have pets. We would love it if we could get a garden with grass that could be (or already is) enclosed, it would be enjoyed by our dog but more importantly my wife who is often to ill to go out much so a nice garden to relax in would be a nice extra.
Area
Ideally we would like a location on the edge of a City (e.g Suburbs) or in a Town/Village with good transport links and access to amenities. We are not looking to be to isolated or rural as we don't want to be too far away from the doctors, hospital and amenities as this is the reason for our move.
We would love to be near the coast and in an ideal world would like to be within 30 minutes to an hours drive away. If not the coast we would like to be near the countryside, somewhere we can walk the dog and enjoy some clean fresh air.
If the property only meets some of this criteria but your interested please contact us as it will still be considered.
To find out more details please check out our website which has further information.Now onto information about our property up for exchange...Council House for Exchange - Rent £62.55 per week - Council Tax Band BThis semi-detached bungalow consists of lounge/ kitchen area, 2 double bedrooms and one single bedroom (The Single and 1 Double room has built in wardrobes), Bathroom with level access shower and storage cupboards. It also has a small paved garden area to the front and back of the property both with access ramps and handrails. The Property has electric total control heating and all windows are double glazed.
Key Safe Lock at front door - a safe way to store a door key for visitors/care workers, you just give them the code and they can get access to the key to open the door.Room Details (please note all sizes approximate - taken by the council)Living Room: 4.62m x 3.85m
Kitchen: 3.34m x 2.38m
Bedroom 1: 4.11m x 3.17m
Bedroom 2: 4.11m x 2.68m
Bedroom 3: 3.01m x 2.28m
Bathroom: 2.02m x 2.31m
Hallway (L shape): 2.03m x 1.85m and 1.00m x 5.09m
GardenThe Garden has one concrete shed provided in the back garden, made accessible with a wheelchair ramp and handrails. The back garden also consists of 2 drying green areas (two small patches of grass, good area to plant some plants - the rest of the area is concrete) with wheelchair access to and from the back door. The front garden area also consists of a wheelchair ramp with handrails leading up to the front door.
The Garden is private however the next door neighbours do have right of access. Basically they also have a back door onto their garden, the only way of access from the back door is through a gate in our connecting walls. They would walk through their gate, straight forward to our gate that leads to a public pathway. We've never had any problems with this and have never seen them use this way for access.Car parkingThere is on street car parking to the front of the house and to the back of the house is a public car park (used by local housing tenants).
There are also some council garages available for rent in the area, this is not included in the exchange however tenants can apply to rent a garage by completing a form from Housing Division, or a form is available online.
The AreaMeadowbank is a large scheme set in an ideal location in Kirkwall. The primary and secondary schools are within 10 minutes walk. The town centre is also within close proximity. There is public transport available regularly into the centre of town, the bus stop is just around the corner from our house so only a short distance away.
We have access to Bignold Park under a minutes walk away from the house, this is a lovely big area of grass and is the main park of Kirkwall. Their is a small bakers with a small supply of general stock within 3-4 minutes walk and a larger convenience store just over 5 minutes away. We are only 10-15 minutes walk from the centre of Kirkwall which has many larger stores including Tesco's,
Outer AreaOrkney has many great beaches, you'll often find you may be the only one on the beach as we are surrounded by coast and sea. Beautiful countryside and our coastline are all within driving distance, you could be at a beach/in the countryside within 10 minutes if you have a car.
We have good bus links and local taxi's so if you don't own a car its not a huge problem although certainly an advantage in Orkney as its easier to see all that Orkney and its outer isles have to offer.
We also have great ferry links whether you are looking for access to the Scottish mainland or to an outer isle in Orkney. You can also travel by Air to the mainland as well as to some of the outer islands, Orkney even has a flight plan/path which is in the Guinness Book of Records for the shortest ever flight - this is from Westray to Papa Westray.
Please Note: Most of the houses in Orkney are covered in Pebbledash and this can make the houses look gloomy. However inside you can make it into a beautiful home in whatever style you wish. It can take a while to get used to the Pebbledash look but you'll soon get used to it, its used to protect the houses from all the different types of weather we have.
Below are some photos for you, we'd made them into collages to make easier viewing. We have one of Orkney photos, all taken by us so you can see how beautiful the Orkney Islands really are.
The other is of the exterior Bungalow, photos of the inside are on our website and we will be adding more shortly.
Please note all photos show were taken just before we moved into the property so if you see any weeds then please know they will not be there when you move here and are not there now.These images are thumbnails, Click on these images and it will open a separate window where you can zoom in and out, basically you can get to see the image in its full size glory!
Please visit our personal website all about our bungalow for exchange plus some photos of the inside of the bungalow and much more at: http://www.exchange.island-doobsters.co.uk Thank you and we hope you enjoy checking out our website!
