Hi guys!
So this week I am talking about becoming a homeowner. Its been very interesting watching the debates on millennials buying their first home. We saved hard and borrowed money to get our first home, and will be in debt, however we really made it our focus to get our own home. We hated flatting and wanted something of our own. We were very lucky to get our house as you see below, however it is a real struggle to buy. Our friends have been hunting for a long time and have bid on a few houses, however someone always bids higher. It can get quite frustrating. I would like to see how the market changes and see how this changes for people of our age in the near future. Before, during, and after buying my first home I learned a lot, and also noticing how hard it is to buy a house now. This may be a series I get into, but this is what we are at at the moment.
So we looked into buying, and you do get quite excited at the market. There are so many cool/odd houses out there, so you have to make sure you know your price (deposit will usually denote this), your area or areas you are looking to live in, and if you want a newer build or a doer upper. Having lived in nice new flats and older flats, we wanted to have a house we could fully stretch our creative wings in, and do it the way we wanted.
We were a bit of a surprise, as we got for the first house we put an offer in for. We went about 15% above the price, which for the market in Edinburgh at the moment (and I’m sure many other places) is what’s happening at the moment.
We bought a two bedroom, semi detached house with a front garden and a backyard. The house also has an attic and a basement. It was the last house on the street to be the price it was, as the other houses are valued as much higher than that – that is the trick of getting the worst house on the best street.
We love the area we are in, and its close to where we first lived when we were in Edinburgh, plus its great for work for both of us. It has supermarkets nearby and a few great cafes and bakeries around for my sweet tooth.
Some of the decorating decisions in the house still tend to baffle us. There were about 5 layers of wallpaper in the lounge, each from a different decade – you can definitely tell by the print!
There is also a very handmade garden shed in the backyard filled with tools left by the previous owners. I spent a sunny afternoon ridding it of all the spiders and getting rid of the very old ant killers that probably would have killed a bear, they were so old.
It has a great rose garden in the front that I’ve not only managed to keep alive, but flourish. It’s been great having a garden as I find it’s very relaxing to do and you feel that you’ve done a proper job once you have finished.
We so have done our room, some of the spare bedroom, the kitchen, and are now starting on the lounge. We haven’t had a couch to sit on in two years (unless we want to go and sit on the spare futon bed upstairs, and also haven’t had a TV licence as well for that time, as life gets busy trying to sort the house and work. I am looking forward to the next step of the lounge, where we have now stripped the wallpaper and can start decorating.
In the kitchen we bought a display kitchen unit in B&Q, and fitted it with the help of my husbands parents. We have a butchers block, replaced the very old washing machine, and got a second hand oven from our friends. The next step is to install big glass sliding doors, to open into the garden, cover the floor with something more permanent, and replace the backdoor, which is just an inside door (another fun decision).
In our room, we painted it a very pale mint green, got a King Size bed, and moved in. I suspect it will be the last room in the house to get done.
The spare room we painted sunshine yellow, and chucked in the furniture to make it a decent spare room for when friends come to stay. However I definitely want to make it into a luxurious spare room for guests and hungover stayers. Like a nice hotel!
Our bathroom we have just finished, and its a doozy. We have white ceramic tiles with black grouting, and a line of green tiles in the middle. On one wall we have dark brown tiles that look like wood, and a bathroom suite that we also got ex display from B&Q (SUCH a bargain). We also know that we will redo the floor when we do the rest of the floors but for now, we got a grass print lino down and it actually surprisingly fits in well.
Owning a house is hard. When we first bought the house, I was unhappy in my job, and trying to make a change. Now, I have found a great job, but it’s hard to juggle that, doing housework, and then DIY on top of that. I often find I don’t have a lot of spare time now, but this summer it has been great to invite people over for BBQ’s and host, and people love coming to see the house and it’s progress.
I definitely feel like in one years time we will be even closer to being finished, and have started to add on features to the house to improve. We just got approved for our mortgage again, so that’s great to hear that we are doing a great job on the house.
I will probably post up photos at some stage, but because it is my home I know you’ll respect my space. However follow me on the links below and I may just pop up things time to time as a behind the scenes!
T xx
Read my other blogs!
Review: Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser
Are My Music Tastes Too Out There?
Currently Skin Products I am OBSESSED by!
Follow me on Social Media!
She Hangs Brightly. 