House Hunting... Trials, tribulations and celebrations!

It's been a while since I updated you all on our house hunt and that's because, for a little while, there was no news to update you with. We decided to take a break from the house hunting over the Christmas period because quite frankly it was making us both a bit grumpy. It began to feel like some huge, depressing chore with no light at the end of the tunnel. "When will we finally find 'the one'?" "Why is there nothing out there for us?" "Why can't we afford the beautiful house worth £648933363839303936?". These were all reoccurring rhetorical questions we asked ourselves again and again and again. A break was most definitely needed.

Then January arrived. A New Year. A good time to start afresh, I guess. Who sells their house in December anyway?! January arrives and people get the urge to sell up and move. Surely there would be somewhere for us on the market if we looked again...?! So we scouted Rightmove and drove down to Sevenoaks, in Kent, to visit a few local estate agents. It was in and around the Sevenoaks area we had our hearts set on. Frustratingly, as we began to speak to estate agents, we began to feel just as let down as we had done in October and November and December... There was nothing on the market that seemed to fit our budget.

Maybe our priorities needed to change? We both had an ideal picture in our heads of what it was we were looking for: a 2-3 bed house with a cute garden and a driveway, situated somewhere near a station whilst being accessible to beautiful countryside. The trouble is, with a relatively small budget as first time buyers, you can't have it all. It's a case of choosing a couple of the most important things and sacrificing some of the other less important things. In the end it was about being realistic rather than idealistic. We felt we had no choice but to narrow down our priorities. Rob and I both work shifts and often start work at silly o'clock {some days, Rob starts work at 6am!!} so for us, our biggest priority was transport. We needed to be in an area with reliable local transport services and somewhere not too out the way. Our next priority was size. Living in a one bed flat was great at first but now we feel cramped and it bugs me that we can't have friends to stay over as we don't have a spare room. We don't even have space for a dining table here!! Our final priority was parking, to safely house Bernard the BMW and Marvin, Rob's sexy motorbike.

Staying in London wasn't something we had previously considered, as we had been searching solely for houses. But in order to fit our budget we had found ourselves looking further and further out of London. Our easy 45 minute commutes were quickly turning into 90 minute commutes... just imagine doing that at 5am before working a 13 hour day! Yeah. Massive ouch. So, after much deliberation we began looking for two-bed flats rather than houses, situated in London rather than out of London.

To cut to the chase, we have found a flat!! And... it's only 10 minutes from where we are now! Hallelujah! {For those of you who follow me on Instagram or Twitter, or if you have read my Greenwich post then you'll know how much I love Greenwich and the surrounding area and will understand how overjoyed I am that we aren't having to move too far}. It is the most beautiful, two-bedroom flat in a peaceful gated development. We've sacrificed having our own garden {instead we'll have a shared garden} but you can't have it all. What's most important is that we will finally be on the property ladder, something we've both longed for for a while. 

Our offer was accepted and the mortgage has gone through successfully {the scary bit is over!} and we are now waiting patiently {or not so patiently in my case!} for the solicitors to complete things. Boy, these things take time don't they?! It has been one long roller-coaster of stress, happiness, elation, nerves... every emotion going! And it's not over yet. We've got a few more hurdles to jump across before we can breathe some sighs of relief and officially refer to ourselves as 'home owners' but all in all I just feel super lucky have such a patient, loving boyfriend by my side through it all. 

{how beautiful is my new kitchen?! I can't wait to move in!}

Lydia xxx