So today I come to you with more of a lifestyle post. My guess is its going to be quite a long one, but I hope some of you will enjoy this more personal style of post, and can help some of you who have recently/are about to move house. Lets start at the beginning. Summer 2013. My boyfriend and I had always talked about buying our own home together and it was something I had imagined for ages but I didn't think it was something we would be able to do in the near future. As it happens, we both landed our dream jobs and started within a month of each other which obviously we were ecstatic about, and it brought up a conversation which made me very happy. We were out walking the dog one day and my boyfriend mentioned that he had been thinking about us buying house together and thought that we should start saving up just a little bit each month. I was soo excited that he had been thinking about this too!! So from my next wage I put away a little into my savings with a little smile on my face (yay house fund!) Fast forward a\ month, we were walking the dog again ( this seems to be the most apt time for our conversations haha) and an idea was put forward to me. 'Ive been thinking about us moving in with my parents so we can save up more for our house and we will definitely have enough to buy next summer.' My boyfriend was living in a rented house with his friend, and we knew that one day we might have to move out for a month or so, during the transition to our house together, but didn't think it would be this soon. The truth was we really wanted to buy our own place asap and just weren't saving enough while still paying rent. We realised that it would be hard to move in parents and have some of our freedom somewhat taken away, and also felt bad for his friend as he would either have to find a new housemate or move out as well. My boyfriend chatted it over with his friend and luckily he understood where we were coming from, so 6 weeks later it was time to go back to the parents!! I was so upset to leave that house it held so many memories :(
By the beginning of 2014 we had been living with my boyfriends parents for about 4 months. Everything was going really well and we were managing to save up quite a bit each month. Even though we weren't looking to buy just yet, I had always been looking at house literally for about the past year, just to see what was out there. One morning my boyfriend had gone to work and I was just casually checking on Right Move on my phone, when I saw a house pop up that I hadn't seen before. I actually did a double look at it as I didn't expect it to be there. As I clicked on the details I looked through the pictures and thought oooh that's a nice one, read all the details and realised we would be able to afford it now, it seemed too good to be true. This got me excited. I rang my dad up and told him all about it and his advice was to go take a look, just to start the process off as people usually see all sorts of houses until they find the right one for them. So I text my boyfriend it and he said we should book and appointment. It was so scary ringing the estate agents, it all seemed a bit surreal, but the only day they could do was in a weeks time. That week was sooo long!! By the time we went to view it we had built our hopes up so much, I really hoped I wasn't going to be let down. The morning arrived and I had so much adrenaline running through me, full of excitement and apprehension I couldn't eat! We pulled up to the house and greeted the estate agent and he put the key in.
We loved it!!!!It was everything we had hoped and more! As we left we knew that we wanted to put in an offer, and we did so later on that same day. When putting in an offer on a house they now ask to see all your financial details and mortgage agreements to check you could actually afford the house, so we hot footed it over the mortgage advisers'. A day passed and we had not yet heard back from the agents, then on my way to work I got a call to say our offer had been rejected, so I knew we really wanted the house and knew what we were prepared to pay, so came back with a 2nd offer. Another day and a half passed, my nails were now all bitten down. Then I got a text at work from my boyfriend to say 'our offer on the house has been accepted!' I was so thrilled and just wanted to get things done as quickly as possible.
Lets just say it wasn't a quick process. Apparently buying a house is one of the most stressful things you will ever do in life is buy a house- I TOTALLY AGREE! Throughout the next 4 months which it took for our house to complete I was an utter mess of emotions. Some really down days thinking it was never going to complete, and other really excited going shopping for more home ware bits and pieces. Our sale was a mortgage repossession, but apparently not a straight forward one which meant that there were lots of complications along the way, delaying the process by a couple of weeks each time. I think the solicitors and agents must of been sick to death of us, as we were ringing up 2 or 3 times a week just to keep on at them! We were going on holiday in the middle of May and were told several times ohh yehh it will definitely be done for then. It wasn't. We decided not to let it affect our holiday and just go away and chill out for a week. Half way through our holiday, I got the best call of my life.
'We've had a meeting this morning and we can go ahead and complete on your house next week' HALLLEELLUUUJJJAAHHHHH!!! I don't think there had ever been a bigger smile on my face!
I hope I haven't bored you on too much but writing this I realised how much there actually is to chat about!! Further parts will be up in due course.
I'd love to hear about your experiences
Until next time
Loves, Chloe