It had been a hectic start to life as a couple, by the age of twenty I was engaged and had a mortgage tied to my neck, and married before the age of twenty two.
Life had been hard for Gemma and myself, we had bought our "little patch of paradise" as a reposession, and the previous owners had trashed the place, we absolutely gutted it from top to bottom.
After the purchase we spent 9 months working hard, if elbow grease was sell-able we would've been quids in, the work was hard but we had some fun along the way, most notably the time when my dad came to fit our new gas fire, whilst on all fours he decided to "break wind" as he did a 16 square foot patch of plaster fell off the living room wall. It took time but the house began to look like a home.
Middlewich seemed to be the perfect place to settle down, as Gemma was a Macclesfield girl and I was a simple Northwich lad, and so we were between both families. However, it seemed even more perfect when a letter dropped through our door on the 26th June 2009:
