Sunday 1 December 2013

And here it is...























It turns out that there are lots of decisions to be made when doing up a house. Lovely decisions. We feel incredibly lucky to be able to make a home pretty much how we want it (within budget of course).

When it came to finding a property to buy, we had an idea of what we were after. Light was of utmost importance. Having lived in basements during my student time in Bath made me extra appreciative of being able to wake up with sun bouncing off the walls. We needed a second bedroom, and somewhere to work. In our last flat, we turned the hallway cupboard into a decent workspace so we're pretty adaptable.

Over the six months we were looking, we watched as our budget allowed us a beautifully finished three bedroom period property, to it looking more likely we were going to have to bid farewell to our dream of a staircase and go for a much smaller flat. The market went crazy and prices jumped by about 60k on houses we'd seen. We made offers on all manor of 1960s, 1930s and Victorian properties and were outbid time and time again by cash buyers who would put down way over asking.

Whilst the panic set in, we appreciated that while we may not get what we envisaged, we were still incredibly lucky to be in this situation at all.

One day however, in the batch of estate agent emails, I noticed that one house we'd passed up months ago due to being waaaaaay overpriced was still being advertised. This was odd, as usually things were only lasting about two days on the market. Phoning the agent, he confirmed the unexpected, that nobody was interested in this little house.























We could kind of see why at the price they'd given it. It went against our dream of light filled ceilings, as somewhere in it's history the original Victorian windows had been replaced with led panelled peepers about half the size. It was dark. There were beer cans scattered across most rooms. There was damp. My mum even noticed a paw print in a left-over casserole dish  (this must sound very bitchy as these photos were taken on the first viewing when a perfect showhome effort had been made by the tenants. To be fair, we did tend to have our other viewings first thing on a saturday morning... We must have been pretty annoying).

Hopefully, though, we've managed to see what it can be. It's an ugly duckling but it's got bloody good spaces. A lovely garden with what one day can be a studio. It has stairs, and storage - two lofts!! No longer will we need to keep Henry the Hoover inside our bed. Whilst it may not be the coolest area of West London - far from it - the commute isn't too awful and our road is full of young families our age. There's a park and the river a short walk away. Plenty of places to push a little buggy.

We were pretty pleased with ourselves. Usually known for being meek and mild, I became a stubborn bargainer and we managed to get it at a price which allows us a bit of creativity in making it our own. Starting, of course, with those windows ;-)

So, everyone, this our new home. And tips and ideas would be much appreciated!













































1 comment:

  1. How exciting! It looks like a great space and lovely garden. I'm sure you'll have loads of fun making it your own. x

    ReplyDelete