Monday 25 August 2014

We've found the one!

You join us here at an exciting time in that we have finally found a house to buy.

We've only been looking for a year, seen 70 plus houses (yes, really), spent whole days on Rightmove, put offers in on two, pulled out of one, sold a flat, changed our budget and expanded our search area.

I didn't think we were that fussy as the must-have list was as follows:

  • 4 bedrooms (or the ability to extend to create this)
  • nice village location (village preferably with a pub/shop and primary school)
  • not on a main road
  • decent sized kitchen plus utility
  • decent sized garden
  • commute to work under 30 mins and in the direction my parents live in
We didn't really want a new build (I really wanted a period property) or anything that needed a huge amount of work. Budget £400,000 and the search area was huge.

I'm not even sure what the problem was or why we've had to view so many! It has certainly been hard work and if I had a pound for every time someone said "you should call in Kirsty and Phil"...

We've also seen some shockers as well - a bath with piles of hair around it comes to mind!

After all this, what have we ended up with? Well, it's a 4 bedroom house built circa 2000 I think. Certainly not the period, red-brick double-fronted property I had in mind. It's also not got the large garden Mr MP in particular had wanted (despite the fact he loathes gardening and has to be nagged to mow the lawns we've got at the moment!).

However, it's in a village we just absolutely love and which is highly desirable (to give you an idea, we were the first people to view it and 10 other viewings had already been booked!). It's on a small cul-de-sac and has been done out really nicely so we'd not have to do anything straight away. It feels like a lovely family home and a warm and safe place to bring up a family. On the downside, it's top of our budget (of course!) and there's probably not much scope to add value in the future as it's not a big plot and it's already done out (but given that we are not the most practical couple in the world (Mr MP hates DIY with a passion) and have a newborn baby, that's probably not a bad thing).

Solicitors have been instructed and it's all systems go.

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