Firstly I must apologise about the lack of personal posts recently. The last few weeks have been rather challenging. It started on a Sunday, Super Kid injured his ankle on a trip out to the playground so we decided to head home. When we arrived home and put the key in the door, it snapped, leaving us outside with no way to get in. Eventually we managed to get inside and all was well, until the next day.
Monday morning, never my favourite time of the week, and Super Kid couldn’t walk so we decided to keep him off school and run him down to the hospital to check it wasn’t too badly injured. Then Purple Dad popped out to his van, and discovered that over the weekend it had been broken into and all of his tools (Purpledad is an electrician) had been stolen. A phone call to the police and a a frantic week for him, trying to work whilst rebuying all the tools he needs. Luckily Super Kids ankle wasn’t broken and he was soon running around as usual.
Then finally on Friday we got a phone call from the agent from whom we rent our house. Our house is being sold! I was pretty fed up by this news as I love my house and the area we live in. We’re really settled and, with my health issues (I suffer from ME) and Purple Dad’s demanding business, now is not a good time to have to uproot.
That was two weeks ago and I’ve had some time to digest all that happened, and to make some decisions. We’ve decided it’s time to buy a house, if possible. Rents are rising, at a ridiculous rate, and we’d really like the security of our own home. Unfortunately I will have to compromise on location, as the area we rent in is ridiculously expensive and totally out of our reach. Hopefully we can find somewhere not to far away since the boys are at school here, and I don’t want to have to travel too far for the school run.
So as you can imagine with all this drama I’ve been only writing the commercial blog posts I’d already committed to, everything else has taken a back seat. The stress of house hunting, with the time limit imposed by the sale of my current house has been rather dragging me down. I’ve struggled to contain my emotions at times and I really need to calm down and go with the flow a little more.
If anyone has any advice on stress management in this type of situation I’d love to hear it. Equally leave me a comment with your top house buying tips.
Look at the house several times and different times of day. Get a feel for the area if you are not familiar with it and schools think ahead to secondary.
Always have your in built ‘home’ detector switched on and follow your gut feeling to what feels right. The kids are pretty tuned in to what is a good house, perhaps a risky strategy but while your looking at what may or may not need doing they are get the feel for the house. Though favourite colours on walls easily sway them!
Take it as an exciting step x I hope you find your new home very soon x x x
Thanks Ali, Will definitely be going on instinct.
Everything happens for a reason. Embrace the change with a positive view and all will be well.
Thanks Jen, really trying to adopt that mindset, hard though when everything is in flux.
Best bit of advice about buying a home was given to me by my mum, of course I ignored it and of course she was right! Speak to the neighbours. Unlike the vendor they will be only to happy to spill their guts about the house, the area etc especially if there’s a problem. Equally it doesn’t hurt to get an idea what they’re like, after all their going to be next door to you for the foreseeable if you do buy and you don’t want to be living next to a brothel or a meth lab!!! Good luck
Good point, definitely don’t want to be next door to a meth lab!
Sounds like you’re having a really stressful time. Really good luck with the house hunting. My sincerest advice would be don’t rely on the the property websites to ‘find’ your house. Instead call up all the agents who sell around the area and explain your situation so they get to know you and your needs. That way when they see ‘your’ house they will call you first to get you in to view it! Also remember you can change almost anything about the inside of a house in the end, you can’t change the location so keep it top of your list of priorities.
If we can help on our free website at all let me know, we have loads of locals who answer questions for people looking to move to new areas. Sounds like you are staying put but you never know if we might be able to help! Good luck. Bee
goodness you have had a time of it of late! it all comes at once doesn’t it? I love your house such a lovely area with a great garden but I am sure you will find somewhere to call home and love as much of not more very soon. Fingers, legs, arms and eyes crossed that you can buy somewhere and soon lovely x x
Thanks, keep them crossed.
I have no advice because I’m rubbish like that but just wanted to send virtual hugs 🙂 x
Thanks, hugs are welcome.