Lillian

Lillian, Llanelli

I bought this place in 2016, it had been empty and derelict for 5 years. It was an old chapel originally. I wanted to make it eco friendly. And I just wanted to make sure this was going to be my forever home.

I wanted somewhere I could be warm and cosy, I wanted somewhere that was sustainable. But I was concerned about how much it was going to cost me to refurbish the whole house. I realised my budget was £30k over.

I started looking at lifetime mortgages when I was still working at the tail end of building this house.

One of the things I bought with the lifetime mortgage was an air source heat pump. It was an expensive item, but it was important for me because as a gardener that air source heat pump won’t take the heat from the soil. Ground source heat pumps do but air source heat pumps don’t.

I wanted to re-use everything in this chapel that I could, and to the best of my knowledge, that’s what I’ve hopefully done. Sustainability is everywhere here.

I feel that I’m part of the community and I’ve got a great group of friends who retired at the same time as me. I joined a walking group. Walking gives me an opportunity to meet other people socially.

Having a lifetime mortgage has given me the independence and freedom to do the house up as I would want, to make sure that it’s long lasting, that it’s eco-friendly. And it’s given me that freedom of not worrying about money.