julicorn's journey 2 - Moving Up

South_coast

I guess the other thing to think about with any "project" house is how you would feel about not making any OP's while you spend on the house? You've made such amazing progress with this mortgage, I don't know if you might feel a bit sad to not see the new one going down? Or would you be OK with that, as the current mortgage was always a stepping stone to buying the forever house 🤔?

julicorn

South_coast said:

I guess the other thing to think about with any "project" house is how you would feel about not making any OP's while you spend on the house? You've made such amazing progress with this mortgage, I don't know if you might feel a bit sad to not see the new one going down? Or would you be OK with that, as the current mortgage was always a stepping stone to buying the forever house 🤔?

Definitely more the latter. We'll reduce OPs a fair bit either way and probably invest more moving forward, it was mostly a way for us to build equity / get to a bigger deposit. Although having said that, it's definitely been slightly addictive, so I reckon I'd still keep overpaying a fair amount haha! With a proper project, we'd want to take out a big enough mortgage to fund most of the renovation as well I'd say. 

julicorn

Alright, here's today's report!

The blue house is an old fisherman's cottage, and it was super cute. I really liked it. However, the garden was way smaller than it looks in the photos, the kitchen would not allow us to ever cook together, and Mr julicorn was too tall for the doorframes on the top floor The school opposite was fairly noisy, but with an office at the back of the house that wouldn't really be a problem. I really liked the character, but I think this one's a veto from Mr Julicorn. 

The house in Hove - it was big, and in really good nick, but I just didn't like it that much. The garden was really small, the bathroom utterly miniscule, and the things there are done up just aren't really to my personal taste (feels bad ripping out a new kitchen just because it's not my style). Mr julicorn liked this one more, but also wasn't super blown away (luckily!). 

The one in Hanover that's a bit more of a project - we both really liked this one. There's lots and lots that needs doing with it, but it's definitely habitable as it is, and the garden is absolutely adorable. You also get such a great view from the roof terrace! This is our definite front runner so far. Will have to have a think whether we're up for doing the work it needs, but we both really liked it and got quite excited about it. 

Scores (Mr Julicorn is clearly the harsher critic, haha!)
Blue house:
Me: 78, Mr: 48
Hove house:
Me: 66, Mr: 61
Hanover house:
Me: 80, Mr: 68

Karmacat

Loving the scores, that's such a good start to the weekend, coming back from Center Parcs and getting to it straight away.  So good!

ElmoR

We used to live in Hanover!

Pluses - nice area, good pubs, great takeaway, easy distance to beach/park, nice neighbours. Negatives - walking up the steep hill, dog eat dog parking, cats pooping in the garden despite every mitigation measure we could think of!

Hettyhound

Hi Julicorn, glad I’ve found your new diary!  I did think about you the other day when we finally got our allotment after 4 years!  My favourite house is the doer upper, so much potential and something you can do over the years just so long as the basics are in place (electrics, plumbing, roof, heating, damp oh dear quite a long list already 😂)

Karmacat

ElmoR said:

We used to live in Hanover!

Pluses - nice area, good pubs, great takeaway, easy distance to beach/park, nice neighbours. Negatives - walking up the steep hill, dog eat dog parking, cats pooping in the garden despite every mitigation measure we could think of!

No nice neighbours when I lived there  on one side I had a drug dealer whose clients called between midnight and 3am, on the other a married couple who screamed at each other constantly, and over the road a pub that I could see into from my bedroom.  And in my street alone there were half a dozen squats.  Of course, that's an unimaginable amount of time ago  and I guessed the wrong way about how the area was going to fare, grrr!  Even though I moved to a nice area, I lost out on the uplift that Hanover has had.

julicorn

ElmoR said:

We used to live in Hanover!

Pluses - nice area, good pubs, great takeaway, easy distance to beach/park, nice neighbours. Negatives - walking up the steep hill, dog eat dog parking, cats pooping in the garden despite every mitigation measure we could think of!

That sounds pretty glorious, and yeah we're trying to not get a car if we can get by without one haha  

julicorn

Hettyhound said:

Hi Julicorn, glad I’ve found your new diary!  I did think about you the other day when we finally got our allotment after 4 years!  My favourite house is the doer upper, so much potential and something you can do over the years just so long as the basics are in place (electrics, plumbing, roof, heating, damp oh dear quite a long list already 😂)

How exciting, congratulations on getting your allotment finally! The doer upper is very much still in the running, although we have a new front runner now - will update in a minute.

julicorn

Karmacat said:

ElmoR said:

We used to live in Hanover!

Pluses - nice area, good pubs, great takeaway, easy distance to beach/park, nice neighbours. Negatives - walking up the steep hill, dog eat dog parking, cats pooping in the garden despite every mitigation measure we could think of!

No nice neighbours when I lived there  on one side I had a drug dealer whose clients called between midnight and 3am, on the other a married couple who screamed at each other constantly, and over the road a pub that I could see into from my bedroom.  And in my street alone there were half a dozen squats.  Of course, that's an unimaginable amount of time ago  and I guessed the wrong way about how the area was going to fare, grrr!  Even though I moved to a nice area, I lost out on the uplift that Hanover has had.

Dare I ask how long ago this was? The Hanover house still has a pub virtually opposite, but that's hard to avoid in the area.