After splitting their time between rental properties in lively London during the week and the luscious Kent countryside of a weekend, Chris and Jason grew tired of moving back and forth between the two, and began looking for a home that ticked both boxes.
Chris says; “We found we were getting the Sunday blues, and didn’t want to go back into the city. We love the countryside but with work in central London, we needed to be on a good trainline.
“We did some research and started looking at Cobham and the surrounding villages, and just absolutely loved the area. It had everything we needed, and the train into Waterloo only took 41 minutes, so unlike Kent, commuting there and back in a day was definitely an option.”
With a property portfolio in their native US and having rented since they moved to the UK almost eight years ago, the couple knew what they were looking for when it came to their next home – but the search proved harder than anticipated, with a lack of properties meeting their criteria.
Jason explains; “We love to cook, so we really needed a proper cook’s kitchen. We make a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner every year and often have over 30 guests to host for, so we needed a fantastic entertaining space for big gatherings, to comfortably fit everyone.”
Coming across a recently finished, 12,000 sq ft, 6 bedroom, three storey Octagon Bespoke home in Cobham, the couple were instantly impressed. Complete with gym, sauna, cinema room, billiards room and wine cellar, the superhome also boasts a large garden and outdoor swimming pool.
While the house had originally been built by Octagon Bespoke for the owner to move into, due to personal circumstances, the home went straight onto the luxury rental market – and was quickly snapped up by Chris and Jason.
Chris comments; “In all our years renting, we’ve never moved into a brand new build home. When we looked around there were no curtains or light fittings, and there was still some standard snagging to be done, so we had to deal with the builder directly. But we had nothing to worry about – Octagon were on hand from day one.
“We got the full Octagon After Sales service, even though we were tenants. Laura and Gordon introduced themselves, talked us through how everything works and helped us to arrange what we needed to move in – from lighting through to a washer and drier! They were so helpful and really went above and beyond, nothing was too much trouble.
“After living in a lot of historical properties that needed lots of maintenance, it was so nice to have everything working as it should and finished to a really good quality. We felt at home instantly.”
Now having spent the past nine months in the house – including lockdown and self-isolation after a trip back to the US – the couple have thoroughly enjoyed settling in
Jason says; “We have a lot of furniture that we’ve collected from our travels around the world – including a lot of antiques which look fantastic in the house.
“Over the past few months, the garden and outdoor pool has been amazing, and we do use every single room – especially the cinema room, where we enjoy movie nights in. The big entertaining has of course been scaled down, but we’re really looking forward to being able to welcome everyone over to enjoy the house with us.”
Chris adds; “We were so lucky to find our dream rental home and feel very lucky it was an Octagon – as tenants, I really don’t think we would have got that exceptional level of service with any other builder. We can’t thank them enough!”
