We Brought Our First Home

The Start of a Brand New Chapter…

I can’t believe that I’m actually typing these words. We brought our first home! Eeek! It still doesn’t feel real. This journey, this dream has been something I’ve wanted for years, and for the longest time, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. But it did. I brought my first home. I own property. As a woman, I have equity in a house.

So, do you remember when I was been very secretive in my last blog post? Or the fact that I disappeared for the last couple of months, dealing with something. Well, this was the something. Buying a house is not for the faint of heart. Personally, I believe time off should be given to people so they can manage it. It really was a full time job getting everything and more importantly, everyone over the line to complete when I wanted to. I wasn’t even too ambitious with my timeframes, but it still felt like herding cats to the finish line. Not even my trained sheep dog Dash could have done better (well, let’s face it, he would have smashed the job).

The Timeline of Buying a Home.

For those who love details and being nosey, our timeline was reasonable for moving. We started looking in May, made an offer in April, completed at the end of August. I’ve heard horror stories of much longer timelines, and very much grateful for our speedy process.

I go through all of this in my latest YouTube video, but the main thing that held us up was the mortgage application. For those who are not aware, my husband is self employed. For those who are aware, you will sympathise with our situation. The house-buying market does not love those who are self employed. After the promise of our first-born, a blood oath and the bank looking into every nook and cranny of our bank accounts, it felt like we still weren’t good enough to be given a mortgage, even though we had years of proving successful income going in and being able to make payments on time. It’s unfair and completely backwards, but I’m not in charge of the system, nor do I have the will to change it. So, I will bend to the rules of capitalism, even though I don’t agree with it.

Overall, we got a mortgage, we got the house. It could have been worse.

Our New Home.

Now, you may be screaming at the screen “show us pictures of the place! We want to have a look around!” Well, you’ve already seen it.

In a twist that you may or may not have seen… we brought our rental house.

Yes, the house that we’ve been living in for the last nine years, we decided to continue to live in it, but as owners rather than tenants. The idea of us buying our rental home wasn’t a foreign concept. There’s been a back and forth, started by the landlord over the years of us possibly buying her home. Each time, for either side, the timing wasn’t right. It just so happened that everything was synced, universes lined up and we didn’t stop once we got the okay to do so.

You may be asking “did you not want a fresh start with somewhere new?” Yes, but in our price range, nothing felt right compared to the house we are in. We’re in walking distances of shops and cafes in our village. A 20 min commute to the city centre for work (for the husband). The house was also already decorated to a standard we felt comfortable to live in, even if temporary. It meant no lazy DIY fixes whilst we built up funds. The added bonus was no moving fees or conveyance fees, we knew the property better than the landlord herself!

For right now, and as a first home, our current living situation is ideal.

The Renovation Plans.

You didn’t think I was going to buy a house and not do anything to it? As loyal readers, I hope you like renovations.

This house really sparked my love for interiors, and now that we own it, I’m ready to take it to the next level. Again, as explained in my latest webisode, I have so many plans for the property. The main thing being that I want to do a lot of sympathetic restorations to the house, to bring it back to its former glory. My goal is to make my neighbours jealous and this be the best looking house on the street.

I will go into more detail about my plans to renovate the house in another webisode on my YouTube channel, and in a blog post. What I will reveal is that the renovations will be major, and you’re all in for a treat.

Full coverage of the home renovations will be on my YouTube channel. Photo diaries will be uploaded to Instagram, and I’m planning on doing ‘site visit’ catch ups on TikTok.

For now, the bank is getting fuelled back up, plans are being schemed and samples requested. I’m so ready to make our house into our first home.