*This is a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Our mortgage has been confirmed and in less than a month we will officially be home owners!
You know when people say buying a house is one of the most stressful things you can do? They aren’t lying! There are so many things to consider and for first time buyers it’s a steep learning curve. We did some research, asked around and decided to get someone to do it all for us! We opted for a mortgage adviser who came highly recommended and did everything from finding the best deal to figuring out what was going on when there was a hold up.
Fortunately we weren’t buying and selling as doing both must take stress levels to the next level. In our case the sellers (John’s parents!) had already had their offer for their new property accepted so time scales were our main concern. If we had struggled to get the mortgage in place in time the sellers could have used a bridging loan to make sure they didn’t lose their dream home and reduce stress levels. The Bridging Loan Center offers alternative short-term funding solutions until a longer-term option becomes available. The rate is usually around 1% and you can pay the loan off before the specified time without any penalties. Normally these loans are used to buy a new property before the existing one is sold but you can use them for a range of other purposes like funding a buy-to-let investment, as short term working capital for a business or to pay unexpected bills.
Now we know we’re going to buy the house we’ve started to make a list of all the things we would like to do to make the house feel like our home:
- Remove wood chip from the ceilings – I don’t know who came up with it or why but wallpaper with wood chip in it is old fashioned and apparently it’s a nightmare to remove. Unfortunately it’s on most of our ceilings!
- Strip the walls, skim them and paint them – I’m not a fan of wallpaper so we’ll be stripping it off then having the walls skimmed to make sure they are nice and flat. We’ve been looking at paint samples but haven’t decided on a colour scheme quite yet. I’ve been scouring Pinterest for inspiration and I’ve found some beautiful combinations.
Top left, top right and bottom left: Design Seeds, bottom right: In Colour Balance all via Pinterest.
- Replace the carpets – I know it’s not practical but I want to replace the dark carpets with lighter ones to brighten the place up.
- Fit a new shower – The water pressure of the current electric shower is pretty poor so we want to plumb the shower directly into the boiler.
Here’s a little bit of an insight into the kind of style I would love to go for although John is worried I’ll make the house look too cold so I’m sure I’ll have to learn to compromise!
Top left: My Scandinavian Home, top right: A Design Ed Factory, bottom left: Stylizimo, bottom right: Remodelista all via Pinterest.
We’re so excited to have a home of our own and can’t wait to get started!