...a room of my own!

[Deleted User]

Hi, MSEs! I'm not sure if we totally belong on this board, but it feels like the right place to be. We are (very temporarily) mortgage free....but only because we are also home free.
Years ago a tiny one bed had been the only way to get onto the property ladder for the first time, after finding myself a single parent who’d been renting since DD arrived (we were still at Uni). As she grew it wasn’t always easy to be in such a small place, but I’m still glad we did it. I overpaid the mortgage whenever we could, and by last year we’d cleared the loans and cc’s, and built up enough equity to be able to afford a deposit on the next rung of the housing ladder when we sold last autumn.
So here we are, shopping around, trying to find the right place to be the home I hope DD (now 9) remembers for the last few years of her childhood. The right place comes at a price...after so many years of being so squashed at first I was keen to go up the housing ladder as far as we could. Not that that was incredibly far, but anyway. Now I’m being much more cautious about our borrowing...the less we borrow, the less we repay, right? So, these two desires are competing inside, and its taking me ages to find home, sweet home, with the [now very much desired] bedroom of my own...no more sofa sleeping for me
In the mean time, we are staying about an hour away from work/school with an aged relative, for which we are paying a tiny amount in rent, but increasingly, quite a lot in patience. I figured it was time to start viewing this period as part of our mortgage saving in order to keep things in perspective, as the niggles of trying to parent in someone else’s house are starting to build up. Reading others posts on here has helped remind me that this is an opportunity, not an ordeal. We’re very lucky to have a lovely roof over our heads, its only for a few more months (hopefully), and I should really be grateful, and concentrate on saving every penny that we can. So, here is my diary...hopefully, any day there will be a mortgage to get rid of!

mortgage_girl

Hey crazy_lady. Good luck on your search for a home, i'm sure your perfect home is out there just waiting to be found

I'll be watching your post with interest. Happy house hunting!

Courgette

You don't sound crazy to me at all, you sound very sensible! Good luck!

mummalove

good luck and welcome!! I am sure the right property is waiting for you with open arms

[Deleted User]

Thanks everyone! I've lurked here on and off for a couple years. Last used the site to post back in 09 (hence the title) when we were getting ready to go on the market with our tiny flat. It took forever to sell! A quick loss/gain assessment shows since 09 I've:

Gained:
about 6k in deposit £, bringing it to around 15k (will do a proper SOA next week, payday!)
about 8 lbs making all clothes now very tight
An MSc all the cheese on toast that goes with studying late at night to blame for the above, me thinks!
A very miniature salary increase, but enough to help with the mortgage apps
Lots of fun experiences, a couple of adventure hols with DD
A slightly more reliable car (the old one directly contributed to several urban adventures with DD that were not quite so thrilling)

Lost:
credit card debt (never huge, but always found it very scary)
student loan, and made it through the MSc without taking out another one
another partner but not a very serious one. And anyway, he was more than a little reckless with my heart!
With the living situation, I can feel I’m losing my normal tolerance and may become a real grump!

Overall, pretty pleasing to remember how far we’ve come. I think I might look at the 09 in my nickname with a smile, instead of just thinking its become a little dated!

The point of the diary was that it helped me to keep my motivation, and my sanity...so today I’ve made appointments to see 11 places at the weekend. I stored a shortlist early last week, and was surprised that several of the places had since sold. Before that, it hadn’t seemed to vary much, so good news for the sellers, it seems things are moving...
I’ve also taken various friends and other family up on offers of dinner, their house for a few nights while they are away, sleepovers for both DD and I etc, which I think maybe I was a little too proud to accept we needed before. We have a lovely circle of friends, and it will be nice to be in a normal setting with them (where I’m the grown up, DD is the daughter, rather than where she is constantly laughing at me getting told off by my AR!). Plus, less driving (currently we are just over an hour from the area we used to live and still work/school) so this compensates for a bottle of vino to take J So, a little bit of packing and unpacking may help give us all some space, and me to feel a bit more like a mum! Luckily, I’m blessed with a DD who will sleep anywhere, and we’ve become pretty adept at homemaking in a variety of places.
Heres plans for the next few days:
1) Cancel two of the credit cards I paid off ages ago, have rubbish rates, don’t ever use, and don’t need.
2) Proper SOA on payday, so we can watch it creep up...
3) See friends for a sleepover x 2!
4) View houses and have a good look around some of the areas I'd discounted before
5) Research some of the home-buying threads on here....
6) Try and enjoy my AR company...and not take offence. Even when she goes through my bins! Its not for long and she loves me...I am a grown up and I’ll have a house soon! I just remembered I used to listen to music all the time at home, so I put this on *very * quietly, using my headphones, obviously! I love some of the sentiments, its going to make me smile all week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE5WaPqu5Ms&feature=related

OP2011

had forgot that song - thanks for the link reminder, just listened to it - its great!

good luck with your new adventures

dimbo61

Well good luck in the house hunting and two bedrooms seem number 1 on the list.
If you have the mortgage sorted out and know what you can afford thats more than many people do.
How safe is the job with the current government cutbacks ? some insurance companies wont even offer redundancy cover to people in secure? jobs