In February I had a call out of the blue from our rental agents. They told me that our landlord would be selling the house we live it. They decided not to give us our two months notice immediately, instead waiting for an offer on the house and then give us notice. That suited us. Slowly I began thinking about finding somewhere else to live – not too bad, then about having to actually physically move – not so much fun. My original plan was to live there for a couple more years, then think about buying somewhere. In the end we decided that the 20K we might spend on rent in the next couple of years was probably enough to absorb any potential savings we might make by leaving it a couple of years and buying when the housing market has fallen a little more. Rather than having to move twice in the next couple of years we decided to start looking for a house to buy.
… Boring house hunting paragraph …
Anyway we made an offer around month or two ago which was accepted. There are so many things that can go wrong with all the surveys, the mortgage offer and all that stuff to be sorted out that I’ve been holding out on posting this catch up. Since everything seems like it’s going well, I decided to share the news.
Yesterday we exchanged contracts and we’ll be moving in mid-July. I won’t have to pay someone else’s mortgage anymore, but instead I’ll have to fix my own boiler – It sounds like a reasonable compromise. Of course I’ll probably change my view when the washing machine and the fridge break in the same month!
The place is an ex-rental, so it’s all very neutral and in good condition with not a lot of work required on it. However no one’s been living there for a couple of months, so I guess the garden will take a while to sort out! The previous owner is emigrating, so he’s leaving all the kitchen goods normally provided in rental houses. That means we don’t have to buy anything! It’s a 2 bedroom mid-terrace in the same estate as we are now. So there will, as always, be space for people to visit:).
I’m really looking forward to the simple things like being able to put up spice rack and a picture without having to remember to pollyfiller the holes before we move out! Of course there are bigger things too, maybe an apple tree and a conservatory, but there’s no rush for all that. Unfortunately there has been some muttering about cat flaps and such nonsense. I can only assume that this is leading toward getting a cat.. Any compelling reasons not to do this are more than welcome;)
Well, I’ve said enough for now. I’ll leave you with this thought:
Strangely, I still feel more grown up when I think about the Tesco Clubcard in my wallet than I do about the house I’ve just bought!