Last year I occasionally wrote about our house hunt but towards the end of the year Project Baby took over Project House. But only in my blog. In real life we were more motivated than ever to find a family home for us and indeed the day I went into labour (Dec 1st) I picked up the keys to our new house!
In March last year we sold the two bed flat in Shoreditch where we used to live in order to be chain-free buyers when we’d find a bigger place in a more family friendly area – somewhere greener and quieter but still in central London. We initially had a property lined up but we actually decided against buying that house having familiarised ourselves better with the area (the road was busy and noisy). We decided to complete the sale anyway and get a temporary rental flat for a few months as this would simplify the buying process once we’d find a new property. Well, a few months has almost turned into a year but we finally have a house!
Buying property in London is terribly slow and unpredictable business. Until the exchange nothing legally (or morally it seems) binds the parties to the agreement even if an offer had been accepted in writing. There is a shortage of supply of housing in London and the prices are inflated to ridiculous levels. Despite the looming Brexit it still seems to be a seller’s market at least for this category of property aka small three bed family house with a garden. There is no point in dwelling on what you get for your money here vs. elsewhere – it’s only upsetting and unhelpful if you’ve decided to live here and not elsewhere… Our jobs are here and mainly for that reason we will stay in London for the next 4-5 years at least.
After our disappointment in June (read Disappointments) we took a short break from viewing houses. Just before our summer holidays however, we got a call from a real estate agent about a house about to be listed, just a block away from the one we lost in June. We rushed to view it, offered on it and after a few weeks of tormenting wait we had our offer accepted. Two months later we finally exchanged on it, which meant that we could sigh in relief. Another month later we completed the purchase – we were finally house owners (with a huge mortgage)!! ☺️
This is so exciting! And it’s a very good timing. We are spending much more time at home now that we have a baby and it makes sense to invest in it. For Maia it is important too that the area is child friendly and that we have a little outdoor space of our own for her to play in.
Our new house is a typical small London townhouse, end of a three-storey Victorian terrace with a small garden. The area, although central, is green and quiet with the tree-lined streets. While the house was bought in a liveable condition, we felt that we could improve the space considerably by doing some more structural changes and an overall face lift with a refurbishment. The layout of the lower ground floor particularly was not ideal and we thought we could achieve a more light and airy feel as well as better functionality by changing it. We are also hoping to add a fourth bedroom using half of the terrace (space for a small pod room) but this is subject to a planning consent as it is a conservation area.
We hired an architect to draw up our plans and the builders started demolishing the old interior in December. In addition to changing the downstairs layout, we have removed the second chimney breast (really no need for six fireplaces in a small house taking up precious space!) and have taken out the master bedroom ceiling to build a vaulted ceiling with skylights. It’s very exciting to see the changes happening and our vision come to life!
The planning application has been submitted but there’s typically an eight week turnover. If we do get an approval for the extension, we’ll need to decide whether we want to go ahead and build that too now. Without it we should be finished in two months time, around the time our lease here comes to an end. We don’t need more space at the moment but it’d be more convenient to finish all works in one go, before moving in. Convenient but expensive.
On the weekends we like walk to our new house to see how the works are progressing. While I’ve been primarily responsible for caring for our baby, my fiancé has managed the building project. Team effort!
Sounds silly but it feels so grown up to have your own house! As does being a parent! But we’ll be 33 and 34 years old this year, perhaps it’s time we grow up!! 😊
Sometimes (often) it feels like quite an undertaking to be caring for a newborn, renovating a house, and planning a wedding during the same year. But it’s all exciting, fun stuff! 2018 should be a year to remember.
xoxoxo,
Sini