I’m back on the housing ladder, and this time it’s for good. I’m never moving again. If my partner ditches me then we can just split the house in half or something; I’m staying put now, forever. The whole thing is just too stressful to contemplate.
Anyway, I thought I’d better write a post about the whole house buying thing, having gone on about it for ages – so here it is.
The house hunting bit
At the point my house finally sold, my partner and I had already spent the year on Rightmove becoming leading experts on the local housing market.
We had a strict shopping list; it needed to be big enough – or potentially big enough – to house us and our collective children, room to escape from them or shut the door on their mess was pretty important too, ideally it needed to be somewhere near the station and with room to work from home. We both preferred period properties over grey-box-new-builds but the space was more important than the look.
We’d seen a few and they ranged from ‘yea, it’s alright, I suppose we could make it work if we did X, Y and Z to it’ to ‘fucking hell, you couldn’t pay me to live in this shithole’ but nothing that set our souls alight.
My completion date went through, and a few days later our house arrived on the market.
Ta-da!
My first impressions of it was that it was insanely overpriced.
There was no floor plan, the description was daft, and the photos looked like they’d been taken on a potato during an earthquake. I text my partner and asked him if he thought the vendors were high for charging so much, but with so few houses coming on at all meeting our criteria, he persuaded me to go and see it anyway.
I’m sorry, house. I didn’t mean it.
We were the first people to see it, and it turns out that the listing really didn’t do it justice. There was so much more space than we’d imagined, the right number of bedrooms all of a good size too, and even a surprise office at the back of the house which wasn’t on the floorplans when they were eventually added to the listing.
It had all been looked after well and we could move in without having to rip anything out. It ticked every single one of our boxes – apart from obviously being so expensive we’ll be eating beans on toast for the next 25 years, but you know. There’s always a compromise.
The buying bit
The reason the listing was so shit is that the previous owners were moving into a new build, and had got some tossers called The New Home Group involved. They work on behalf of the house builders, and essentially chivvy along the sale of the house. I’m struggling to see what value they add, if any, to the process, but they certainly liked the idea of us being chain free so it may have worked in our favour.
The New Homes Group get the house marketed through two agents, who then compete to get it listed first – no matter how awful the listing – and score the commission.
The day we saw our house, we did four viewings in total. The other houses all sucked (two are still on the market, so it’s not just our opinion there…) which made us want it all the more.
The rest is pretty dull; we put in a low offer, they said no, we went up a little and finally, after a week of much agonising and chasing and second guessing, they came back to us. They’d accepted our offer.
Fast forward four months/forever, and the buyer’s house was finally built and ready to move into. We were given just shy of two week’s notice of the move, in time for the Easter holidays.
The moving bit
Given the house was so close to our rental houses, we decided that rather than pay two lots of moving fees we’d hire a van and do it ourselves, which was a bit stupid really given I can’t lift a chair on my own without complaining. Two houses worth; five beds, two indoor tables, two outdoor tables, two desks, four sofas, an unspeakable amount of Kallax units, and the rest of the of stuff that not only had to be packed and moved but then find a new home at the other end.
Honestly, we must have gone temporarily insane. Do not do this, people. Just don’t. Win the lottery, pay someone else to do it and go on holiday while they’re doing it would be my sage advice.
We also decided that we’d decorate the biggest room before we moved the furniture in there*, so it’s really been non-stop; moving by day and decorating by night – with kids there to ‘help out’ for all but two days. I didn’t go to the gym but I did do over 15,000 steps every day last week without actually going anywhere. Professional movers must be fit AF.
It’s now almost two weeks since the completion date and my partner is broken, I’m knackered, and I still have a rented house full of shit that I have to either bin or bring over at some point before May, but it’s done. We’re in.
*There was a small panic when we thought we’d accidentally painted the lounge in ‘hun grey’ as opposed to ‘antique white’ but thankfully it faded slightly and even if it hadn’t, we’d just have to live with it because we’re too tired to care now.
The van bit
The particular highlight of the move for me would have to be my partner parking the furniture-laden van our driveway for the first time. To set the scene, it’s a carriage driveway which is sloped at both ends; up (in first gear) to enter, park parallel to the house, and then down (veeery slowly) to leave.
We went to the house to open up, and upon returning to the van and opening the doors to get furniture out of the back, the whole bastard thing started to move forwards. Quite slowly at first, and then not so slowly. I started grabbing at it, which is an insane thing to do, but it turns out I’m not great in a crisis.
My partner on the other hand – when he realised what was happening – leapt towards the front of the van, flung the door open and dove head first towards the handbrake which it turns out that as an automatic driver, he’d entirely forgotten to deploy. Whoops!
The steering wheel was fortunately turned to the right meaning that rather than careering into the opposite neighbours, which might have put a bit of a dampener on the whole moving day thing, it came to a stop nicely parked at the foot of the driveway, with his legs sticking out of the van door. Fortunately no little old ladies or dogs were taken out in the process.
My heart rate – usually around 50 – did not come down below 80 for at least an hour. I am NEVER moving again.
The house
The house really is wonderful, and the previous owners left it really clean and tidy with everything labelled, which means the universe owes them serious karma points. I hope they’re enjoying their new home as much as we are.
Having lived in a small house with one room serving as the living room, dining room and office for over a year, I am absolutely loving the amount of space now. I feel totally spoiled and I still can’t believe it’s ours.
We have a real fire in one room, a stove in another, and a lovely downstairs loo which I’ve missed like you wouldn’t believe. Our bedroom is big and light and airy, my kids love their rooms in the attic because they can’t hear me yelling at them, and the children have their own bathroom to wee and snot all over and forget to flush the loo in.
There’s just one room that we’re going to completely overhaul. We really want to get rid of the Artex ceiling, paint dark walls, change the fire and add some wooden tongue and groove flooring instead of carpet. It’s going to be a bit of a project and we’ll get to it when we get to it.
It’s just so lovely, peaceful and spacious, and I’m so grateful to be here.
The crowning glory is the garden.
It is, in a word, massive. Bloody massive. It was formerly very well loved, and maybe less so over the past decade or so, but even so the view from my bedroom window is just beautiful. Unfortunately it has rained solidly since my kids got here from their dad’s so I’ve not been able to turf them outside to go out and play, which was my plan.
However I am writing this from my lovely new office which is very quiet and child free.
Stay tuned to see what we end up doing with the place!
Cheers xx
I wish I can buy my house too but it’s on the pipe line. I also hate moving about. My gosh I can’t move a thing lol. But I will elated to own my own home and not have to move too.