This year we have been in our home 10 years, I really cannot believe where the time has gone, it only seems like yesterday we came to look at the house. We had sold our house and after two houses had already fallen through, we decided to rent for a while and take our time to find the perfect house!
This house came up for rent, it was only 10 minutes from our previous house, so the school run wasn’t going to be that much more, in fact Xene was about to move to middle school which was halfway between this house and our old one.
As soon as we walked through the door, I fell in love with it, (it was actually my perfect house) there was so much space for the six of us, and the garden was enormous, thankfully we had come prepared with the deposit, as there were four more people booked to view after us, so we signed the paperwork there and then, initially for a 6 month tenancy, but how things can change, within the six months, the owners had decided to sell the property, which was way out of our price range, however they obviously liked us as they agreed to split the land in half and sold us the house and half the garden, then sold the attached barn with planning permission and the remaining land to someone else, which meant that we could afford the property and I didn’t have to contemplate packing everything up and moving again!
When the house became ours, we decorated throughout to our own taste (something you struggle to do when it’s not your own property), however we knew that eventually the roof would need replacing, they replaced two of the worst windows as part of the buying deal, and put in a second hand boiler, which we have had no end of problems with.
I am taking part in the #SagaHomeImprovements campaign, so here is the ways that we have improved our house, that will hopefully increase the price of our property.
Towards the end of last year we made the decision to get someone to come and check the roof, as we had a couple of leaks and the old tiles had started to come loose, so he came round and delivered the verdict, the roof was actually the original one from when the houses were first built (our house is two cottages, knocked into one) around the late 1800’s, and there was no way of just doing a slight repair, it would need an entire new roof….
I was amazed how quickly it was taken off and replaced, less than a week, so I now have a shiny new roof, that I hope will last as long as the last one and no more water dripping through my lightbulbs!
Not content with just that, we then had an oil tank that had a split in it, and the boiler that was slowly dying, next job, a new boiler.
We looked at all the options and decided to get rid of the oil and to go for a Calor Gas Tank and new boiler system, this was all done before Christmas, but it did mean we had a very toasty warm house during the festive season, although the upstairs of my house now resembles a sauna!!!
At the present time we have no plans to put our house up for sale, and the thought of moving is way too scary to contemplate with this family of nine, but the barn conversion next door has just gone up for sale and it is currently prices at nearly three times what he paid for it in the beginning, so I have o doubt that we would definitely see a large increase from when we bought it.
But now I have looked at this, there is SO much more I would like to do, so what’s next, loft conversion, new bathroom, new kitchen or a conservatory!
Maybe win the lottery first!
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