julicorn's journey 2 - Moving Up

LadyGnome · 25 February 2022 at 6:54PM

Hope you feel better soon. I'm sorry you didn't get that house but at least you know there are other houses out there that compete with the twitten house. Something will come up soon.

julicorn · 25 February 2022 at 7:01PM

LadyGnome said:

Hope you feel better soon. I'm sorry you didn't get that house but at least you know there are other houses out there that compete with the twitten house. Something will come up soon.

Thank you! And I liked that house a lot, but it sure wasn't the twitten house 😂

There will be other houses coming along that I can look forward to us living in, for sure, but they're not gonna be the twitten house. (Feel free to quote this one to prove me wrong as and when I find the perfect house, haha!)

julicorn · 25 February 2022 at 7:03PM

Losing out on the twitten house genuinely felt like someone breaking up with me, it was weird. It's definitely made me feel more chill about losing out on future houses though, so that's good.

skippie · 26 February 2022 at 1:57AM

Don't think my post was helpful, so have edited it.

Do you commute for work or WFH?

My partner had clear expectations about where she wanted to live but when she saw the difference with what she could buy she had a change of heart and compromised.

In short we got more space and very quickly grew to love the area that we live.

Future proofing has also be beneficial, compromising on the location within the new area and type of property (e.g. not buying a designer Victorian property) has allowed us to avoid the trap of outgrowing our home and needing to move.

Karmacat · 26 February 2022 at 12:55PM

Oh julicorn! I've just got back online, and seen what happened about your *really* good offer being turned down. And now covid strikes ... so sorry to hear it. I hope you're tucked up nice and warm (possibly you in the living room and Mr Julicorn in the bed, or vice versa. Whatever, do take care, and I hope it passes lightly.

julicorn · 26 February 2022 at 5:02PM

Karmacat said:

Oh julicorn! I've just got back online, and seen what happened about your *really* good offer being turned down. And now covid strikes ... so sorry to hear it. I hope you're tucked up nice and warm (possibly you in the living room and Mr Julicorn in the bed, or vice versa. Whatever, do take care, and I hope it passes lightly.

Thank you

You're almost spot on, I'm tucked up in the living room atm while Mr julicorn is stewing in the bathtub. He's feeling a little better allegedly but still looks like death, while I'm just operating on very very short bursts of energy between sofa naps. We treated ourselves to a Waitrose delivery of smoothies, yoghurt and posh ready meals though, so definitely hanging in there.

julicorn · 26 February 2022 at 5:14PM

skippie said:

Don't think my post was helpful, so have edited it.

Do you commute for work or WFH?

My partner had clear expectations about where she wanted to live but when she saw the difference with what she could buy she had a change of heart and compromised.

In short we got more space and very quickly grew to love the area that we live.

Future proofing has also be beneficial, compromising on the location within the new area and type of property (e.g. not buying a designer Victorian property) has allowed us to avoid the trap of outgrowing our home and needing to move.

Thank you for your comment! Especially this one but also your original one (I did read it but didn't have the energy to reply initially). Mr julicorn commutes every day, I mostly work from home and am in the office about once or twice a day.
In terms of house hunting, we actually started off with a much wider range of locations, going out to Hangleton and Portslade on our first viewing weekend. We saw some really nice houses with plenty of space there, but just really weren't feeling it (and the commute for Mr julicorn would have been pretty horrendous).

However, we're currently looking into expanding our search radius again, although not exactly in the money-saving, sensible way you suggest haha! After falling in love with the twitten house I have had plenty of time to meditate on what I liked about it. Believe it or not, it wasn't really just the location (I mean, that's a definite plus but not all), but rather the charm and type of property and garden. There aren't many of these styles of houses in Brighton (a bit of a cluster in Patcham old village, a couple of fisherman's cottages on the seafront, but usually with super low ceilings which is a deal breaker for Mr julicorn), BUT there are a fair few up in Lewes.

Lewes is still silly expensive, but could actually work quite well for us. Our offices are based on the university campus in Falmer, so just one stop away on the train from Lewes, so the commute should work pretty well. I also quite like Lewes - Mr julicorn seems to have somehow only been for the bonfire night celebrations, so doesn't really know it well. He likes the idea of going cycling in the Downs though, and between having a Waitrose and an Aldi we should be pretty well catered for, haha!

So watch this space, we might go on a bit of an adventure around Lewes next. If anyone has any major Lewes red flags to share, please do so now