Our property on Earle Street is a three bedroom house. The property itself is spacious, but I do think if there were more of us living here things would begin to feel a little bit cramped.
We have had ongoing issues with our downstairs toilet having a really poor flush, which have been highlighted to the management team previously and so fixing it is an ongoing issue (the other toilets in the property are unaffected). The kitchen is spacious and modern and comes with built in appliances (fridge freezer, washer/dryer, oven and hob), the dining room is attached onto the kitchen so it’s nice to entertain and have people over.
Through the door is the living room, which has large windows and door looking out onto the garden. Our garden gets the sun throughout the day which is fantastic, however it does struggle to drain properly after heavy rains and our small paved patio bit easily goes under a few centimetres of water if we have a few days of rain.
Upstairs both the landing bathroom and our ensuite are lovely and having a large second room has really helped when it’s come to working from home and having a home office. I’m also a fan of being able to have the heating on upstairs but not downstairs and vice versa!
As for the development and management team themselves, they’re fantastic. Always putting on events like Ice Cream Vans, Pizza Ovens (with beer!), Father Christmas comes round in December I think – they really try to field this community feeling. All our neighbours have also been fantastic and friendly and everyone seems reasonably respectful when it comes to having people round and keeping the noise down in the early hours!
Overall, if I had to rent again in future, I’d definitely be looking for a Simple Life Home.
Please tell us what you like and dislike about this area:
Earle Street is just a 5 minute walk from Earlestown Centre, which has quite a few big brand high street shops (Wilkos, Home Bargains, Boots etc.), as well as a load of small and local shops like Butchers, Florists, Coffee Shops, Pubs, Bakers, Pound Shops, Clothes Shops etc. A bit further away in Newton there’s loads of bars, restaurants etc. which would cost you about £5 in a taxi home. In Earlestown there is a reasonably large Tesco, McDonalds and Weatherspoons, plus a pharmacy and a doctors all within easy walking distance of Earle Street – we’re even blessed with a cricket club across the road!
There are two train stations, Earlestown is only a 5 minute walk away and Newton station is about a 5 minute drive away, main bus route into St Helens and Warrington. There are plenty of open green spaces, parks, rural walks and they’re all accessible on foot – fantastic for taking the dog for a walk.
Earle Street is a main road, so traffic can be busy at certain times throughout the day, but due to the large driveways on the development, you’re not right on the pavement/road, which is really good. In the time we’ve lived here we’ve only really had one instance of people coming home from the pub across the way loudly, which is fantastic.
Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:
We actually didn’t get to have a viewing before we moved in due to the pandemic and us pretty much moving in right after the previous tenants had left. We were also looking round a similar Simple Life property in Clock Face, St Helens, but decided it was too remote for us. After moving to Earlestown we are SO glad we chose this development. Plenty to do locally, lovely little community and really close to St Helens/Warrington/Liverpool/Manchester.
If there is one thing you would change about your flat or property what would it be:
The drainage/flush for the downstairs toilet is poor. This can cause embarrassment when we have people visiting and the paper from the last person to use the toilet hasn’t flushed. I believe the toilet was put in with this kind of flush to maybe use less water when flushing and ultimately save a little on the water bill, but the result is that you can’t use anything further than 2ply paper.
I would also address the drainage issues in the garden. If it was my property, I’d place a channel at the back of the garden where the drainage is worst (over winter this never dries and is a complete mud bath) so water could drain away properly rather than sit on the soil.