About A Little Cornish Home

In the spring of 2012 we found a home for sale that we immediately went to see. On a Sunday night we drove to a village in Cornwall that we had never even heard of and had a nose around the area including the house that was up for sale. We loved the location and from the outside the house had potential, the description for the house had everything we wanted enough bedrooms, a garage, a driveway and a little garden and most of all it was within our imaginative price bracket.

When I say imaginative we weren't actively looking to buy, we had talked about getting on the property ladder and it was something for the future but without a deposit and not even applying for a mortgage we booked a viewing for the house.

When we went to look at the house there was something about it that we really loved. It wasn't the smell of damp and mould, the horrors of the leaking roof, the dilapidated kitchen or the hideous bathroom suite. We could see this house had potential and we wanted it. With phone calls to mortgage companies we were agreed in principle for a mortgage and where both utterly shocked. We'd heard horror stories on young couples not getting mortgages but once accepted we then had to go to the bank of mum and dad for help with the deposits. It was hard, our parents helped as much as they could and with both sets of parents, siblings and the selling of our cars and possessions we had just enough for the deposit.

It was a bumpy road to buying the house with it being taken off the market at one point after our offer had been accepted but a few months later with the house back up for sale we went in guns blazing with the deposit and mortgage in place the other was accepted and we started proceeding with all the necessary checks and surveys and in late September 2012 we exchanged contracts and got the keys to our very first home together.

After living in rented accommodation since living my parents home I was used to living a life of luxury and limited thoughts of interiors. If something was to break in a rented home a phone call to a landlord and things get fixed. Homes that we rented were always habitable and decorated to a simple magnolia landlord standard. Now suddenly I was living on a building site spending all my available cash on building materials and fixtures and fittings. Buying this house has changed my life but it has been a wonderful journey from not knowing anything about painting, decorating and DIY to becoming confident in the DIY store and picking colour schemes and design features together to make this old run down house our beautiful new home.

The journey isn't easy and it certainly isn't cheap each month we budget for a few jobs and bit by bit the house is coming together and is a really exciting to see our ideas on what we both want come together. It has been a massive learning curve and extremely hard work but the closer we get to completing the house the more it feels like our home and barely resembles the house we bought back in 2012.

To read about the renovation from start to finish this blog covers every step on our journey from full time renters to first time home owners.

No comments:

Post a Comment