Ever since moving into our new home, I’ve wanted to keep some form of log to chart the trials and tribulations of a house that everyone warned us not to buy. Inspired by my friend and work colleague Dave’s blog, I thought I would venture into the hitherto unknown realms of wordpress.

..and so with the obligatory initial “Hello World” post, here beginneth the story.

Having just finished the complete renovation (de 1970’sing) of our last house we decided it was time for a new challenge and to try and find the ‘forever home’. Our wish list would send Kirsty and Phil running for the hills, but at least we were flexible on area. With a pretty tight budget for London’s suburbs, the only saving grace was that at least we were prepared to do some work..

Estate Agents Picture

Lu found the house and initially I wasn’t even keen on going to look at it. Eventually, as is the usual setup with these things, to keep the peace we booked an appointment to go and look round together. I’ve always been a believer that you know whether a house is right or not the minute you walk through the front door, and stepping into the oak panelled hallway – we both immediately knew this would be the house for us.

Seeing as this would be a not insubstantial purchase, I booked (in a moment of insanity) a home-buyer survey through the mortgage company. If I could only offer one piece of advise to a prospective house purchaser, it would be don’t waste your money on a mortgage company home-buyer survey. The document came back helpfully colour coded in red – for severe, needs immediate attention; yellow – would benefit from maintenance and green – ok. Except it wasn’t – it was all red. Every section, every subsection – red. Walls, Roof, Electrics, Plumbing, Damp, red, red, red, red, red. Reading through the pages of horror, it’s a miracle the house was even standing. Only, every section was caveated with – “you should consult a specialist surveyor to inspect this area”.

Electrics and Plumbing seemed an absolute no brainer and I was expecting, but the damp and walls worried me so we found a local independent surveyor and asked him for a second opinion. I met him on site to run through his report. The news wasn’t great, but at least there was no damp and although I think the term ‘Money Pit’ was used he could at least sympathise with our immediate love for the house.

..and so with the sums worked out (cheated and manipulated) with surely our heart ruling our heads, we completed our purchase.