Your first home - first impressions?

Old_Git

first house ,I was getting the bus home from work ,got off the bus 3 miles early walked down the road turned right and said wow .
The street (old houses ) reminded me off where I grew up .
Then I spotted a houses for sale and I remembered seeing it in the local free paper about two months earlier .I even remembered the living room was 21 feet long. The house was a repo I had a nosey through the window ,arranged a viewing loved it ,viewed four others the same week for comparison but bought the first one.

Buying a new house now it didn't have the wow factor but will have when I finish with it.

Waterlily24

Ours was a 1930's semi and I thought the outside was nice but the inside was awful but that was what hubby to be wanted. When we had finished working on it we had a gorgeous house inside and outside.

LandyAndy

My first house was a thirties semi and I too was simply pleased to find something half decent that we could afford (this was in 1980).

But every other house I've bought I have known it was for me the moment I walked in.

phoebe1989seb

The *wow* moment for us was that it (Victorian semi-basement one-bed flat) had a 30'+ living room - that really made it stand out head and shoulders above anything else we'd seen. It also had a small courtyard garden and what seemed like a huge bathroom - complete with corner bath (yuck now, but great about 24 years ago!) - but the downside was that the only bedroom was accessed via gates (yes, 6' high wrought iron garden ones :eek:) from the living room and barely had space for a double bed and wardrobe! We lived there happily for two years but sold it when DS was born.

Fast-forward a couple of years and we found our dream home - the minute we stepped over the threshold I felt as though I was meant to live there. The layout and original features were amazing! Only problem was that someone (a friend unfortunately) pipped us to the post and we lost out. Amazingly another friend's FIL was looking to sell an almost identical (Victorian) house (there were only ever three built like it) that just happened to be next door.

We viewed it - well actually only the upper floors as the tenant living in the lower flat refused the landlord entry and the large garden was inaccessible due to shoulder-height brambles - and fell in love all over again, although many of the original features had been ripped out when it was converted to four flats. Nevertheless, it made me tingle all over

It was a long struggle to get that house - two of the tenants had to be evicted and the vendor was a bit of a slime-ball, but the day we competed on the purchase and moved in (September 15th 1997) was one of the happiest days of my life.......biggest regret was selling it ten years later

rosyw

Our first was a "wow"! A Victorian terrace which had been virtually untouched, no electricity, no bathroom BUT it had all the original black marble and tile fire places, gas lights, wash copper in the corner of the kitchen, beautiful coving etc. etc., etc.! The only thing we took out was the wash copper, everything else was restored, electrics put in, kitchen sorted and bathroom added, and we were the only ones in the street to have light in a power cut! :T

Goldiegirl

Not so much a wow moment, but a 'this feels completely right moment'

I wanted to get it right as I didn't want to be moving house all the time.

I think it worked out. We lived in our first house for 8 years, and have been in this house for 24 years

SG27

Didn't have a wow moment but knew it was what we wanted. As soon as we got in the car after the conversation wasn't about what we liked or didn't like as with others it was how much shall we offer!

Also this we the forth house we offered on. The others didn't accept or offers. But this was by far the best!

motherofstudents

Only had one wow house, I knew when I saw it from the outside and when we went to view it I wasn't put off by the inside. Our first house was far from having the wow factor, it was painted lime green all the way through but it was all we could afford.

quickbeam

Hello

I cant say I had a wow moment but the house did feel right whereas others even though they may have been better on paper did not.

A house is a big purchase so after the obvious checks affordability, structurally sound, nice area etc.. I had the following 2 mental checks

1) After a really bad day at work would going back to that house depress me more or would it cheer me up?
2) If my circumstances did not change would I still be happy to be there in 10-15 years time?

Those questions may or may not help you but good luck in the hunting.

Soot2006

I viewed about 15 houses and none caught my attention though we went back for second viewing on a couple and made an offer which got rejected. As we were decided whether or not to up the offer, EA called to say new house had come on market after owner deceased and family was keen for it to remain a family home and not go to LL or developers ...

Walked into this quirky old house and *wow* it hit me. Horrid 1970s decor and damp on the wall and stupid room layout and I just knew I wanted it!