Stacey Solomon has revealed that her young children with Joe Swash find their new £2million mansion 'creepy', calling it a 'ghost house' as they settle into the family's new chapter.
The Loose Women star, 36, shocked fans last week after revealing they were leaving their beloved Pickle Cottage in favour of a larger home, which comes with a bigger plot of land to grow crops and allows them to rehome more animals.
Speaking of their kids Rex (seven), Rose (four) and Belle (three), Stacey told her 6.1million Instagram followers: "Kids are doing really well, they're settling in, they're starting to get used to things. They do think it's a creepy house, they keep saying it's a ghost house! They keep saying it because obviously it's older decorations and there's a basement and they're like, 'Oh, a scary basement!' So last night we were up quite late reassuring them that it's not a ghost house."
First glimpse of 'Pickle Project'
Stacey sent fans wild last night as she shared a first glimpse of the new family home, dubbing it "Pickle Project". One sweet photo showed herself and Joe sitting on the steps of the house with their children. In another picture, she simply held the key in front of the white front door and patterned tiles, with the caption reading: "Home is wherever I'm with you… Pickle Project, Here We Go."
It has been an emotional move for the couple, who share children Rex, Rose and Belle - while Joe is also dad to Harry from a previous relationship, and Stacey shares Zachary and Leighton with her ex. The former X Factor star previously described their 'Pickle Cottage' home in Essex as her 'dream home'. However, they have now uprooted to somewhere 'really, really different'.
Details of the new property
While it is not clear where their new house is, it has been claimed that they have swapped the 'cottage' for a £2million countryside mansion. According to insiders, the home comes complete with eight bedrooms and six reception rooms, as well as stunning gardens and a swimming pool. Sources say that Stacey's rising bank balance means the family are able to buy a property even bigger than their vast Essex abode.
In a video posted to Instagram last week, Stacey explained the move and the reasons behind it. "Pickle Cottage is our dream house," Stacey had said. "As soon as we moved there we fell in love with it. I still love it so so so much. It's a really special place to us - I gave birth to both of the girls there, we got married there. Like it's just so, so special to us."
Emotional reasons for the move
However Stacey explained that "for a while" they had "wanted to rescue more animals, grow more vegetables". "[My vegetable patch] is actually on Farmer Scott's land," she said. "So if he ever decides to do something with that land, it's gone. So we've always been thinking if there's ever a chance to move further out and get a bit more land then we would consider it and we saw somewhere and I was like, 'Oh my god, we could have a massive vegetable patch and we could offer our land to animals who need it' and stuff like that. And we could bring the horses back there, the ponies and we went to see it..."
Joe continued: "We fell in love. It wasn't an easy decision because like we said we're leaving behind somewhere we've built our lives together. But we've found somewhere where we can see our family growing and really flourishing. And this is the place I think it's going to be."
Sighing, Stacey added: "So, it's come to a point where it's actually time to say goodbye to Pickle Cottage, which feels so weird. And yeah, move everything across to our new chapter. You know, it's a project, it's a project! We're moving somewhere really, really different and it does need a lot of love and what I can say is I loved bringing Pickle Cottage back to life. I got so much joy from that and everything I did there I loved, so I'm excited to do that all again somewhere else but I will truly miss Pickle and I will be forever grateful for everything we got from Pickle."
Among those responding to the news was Alison Hammond, who wrote: "Pickle farm here we come." While Stacey's sister Jemma commented: "Soooo excited the sleep overs are going to be crazyyyyy."
