Category Archives: House

We’ve moved house!

Toby writing this blog post

Toby writing this blog post

I’m sitting here on our new patio in the shade, the sun is shining, and finally I have been able to catch a breather… for a little while at least.

This post is a somewhat belated update. We moved back in January and have been in our new home in Terrington St Clement for 6 months. It has been a rollercoaster. We’ve finally had some electrical work completed ensuring our ~60 yr old chalet bungalow won’t spontaneously combust or electrecute someone (slight exageration).

The workshop (all 25ft of it, including inspection pit) is and was the selling point (for me at least) as well as garden with lawns worthy of a ride on mower. We managed to secure a couple of mowers with the sale, both in varying degrees of disrepair, but at the moment functioning. We’ve finally got space and a detatched property. I can play Slayer at midnight (only attempted once so far, but why not!) and can play the surround sound for films loudly without disturbing anyone. We’re in a cul-de-sac far enough away from main roads for our two cats and have friendly neighbours.

Frontage

Frontage

I wouldn’t recommend moving in January into an older property. We soon misjudged how much heating oil we were quite literally going to burn through to keep an older home heated. We had our front door and patio doors replaced with double glazing as a matter of urgency, for both security and heating purposes, but 90% of the others either need replacing or are still single glazed… so this is a priority.

As always my lovely wife has kept me on the straight and narrow, and my parents have been a tremendous help in clearing the garden. We’ve now got a garden incinerator bin and a garden waste bin, and the works continue.

In the house, much DIY works continue and I’m nearing completion of updating security features including CCTV and outside lighting.

Front and garden

Front and garden

I’ve been able to get out and about in the Mazda and my other German motorcar will soon be returning and have a warm place to live.

 

 

 

 

I should also add that both me and my wife have been able to move to Norfolk thanks to being able to work from home! If you have the opportunity to move out somewhere where there’s less hustle and bustle, and a more relaxed pace of life, then I would highly recommend it.

Modifying my house more than my car

I fitted a tap to the front of our house yesterday, totally exciting I know. Today I had a double glazed panel on our back door replaced with a clear panel, with a cat flap, so our cat “Berry” can enter and leave on his own. Two weeks previous, I had the old 80s era gas fire removed from the lounge and the pipe capped off…

My Mazda has been sat parked up over winter, which upsets me a little, but at the same time, and unlike previous years, I’ve really had no inclination to freeze my butt off outdoors wrenching!

The clocks go forward next weekend and the evenings will be getting longer and I have a little cash to spare. Tying in with my previous post (https://tobywhite.de/blog/?p=23182) I aim to finally complete my turbo MX5!

Before this though, we’re heading up to Sheffield to endure the snake pass in my girlfriends 1.8 Mk1 MX5. (My idea). And of course, it’s nice to get away for a couple of days. 🙂

Have I grown up too fast? Becoming a homeowner at 24.

House and keys

Not everyone knows but I own a 3 bed, end terrace house with garden and two-car driveway in Northampton.

I always knew renting was a waste of money and I’ve always been sensible with my money. Some people called me tight for not choosing to go on holiday or out on the lash every week.

I always wanted my own space to do my own thing, I didn’t want a middle man to get in the way and slow things down; at the end of the day if I’m paying £500+ on rent a month I’m not saving it. Albeit my parents were kind to put me up until a year or two ago, but I always knew that I wanted to spread out and have my own space.

Why Northampton? You can’t get a 1 bed flat in for £114,000 within 20 miles of Hitchin… I could have opted in for the Government’s Help to Buy scheme,  but the initial outlay was always a lot more. I had worked for 15 months doing shift work (4 days on, 4 days off) which enabled me to save a shed load. My parent’s were kind enough to match what I had saved, and that enabled me to take out a standard mortgage. I found a mortgage advisor (will update with details of the site I used), who was very helpful and got me a good deal. That is very important. Ultimately I am paying less per month at the minute than it costs to rent a similar sized property in the same area.

Since moving in it has been a nightmare to manage paper work. I am not going to lie on this, I am still updating details with various companies.

I found out around 8 months of moving in that I could be fined up to £1000 for not having the most up to date address on my driving license. Stuff like that people don’t tell you…

I am getting there now, but even after a year and a half I am still selling/throwing out/rehoming belongings that I had from my parent’s house. You soon realize how much junk you keep hold of.

I am beginning to settle in now, my girlfriend has moved in and it’s starting to feel more like home. Next year we’ll look to decorate and start modernising the place. Since moving in I had the storage heaters removed and gas central heating installed (not everywhere has this as standard, even though the house was built in 1985 – so remember to keep that in mind when looking). I let my girlfriend get a cat, but now the house is around as big as can be, and for me personally, a garage would be a necessity for the next one as I am currently renting one in the area.

So have I grown up too fast? Maybe, maybe not. I know I have full control of my living space and can’t be kicked out by the landlord, that’s for sure. Am I short on cash? Yes, quite a bit, no home is perfect and you soon realise that everything costs a lot of money. I would probably have a little more if I wasn’t a petrol head too (see garage)!

There’s probably a whole load I’ve missed, so I’ll wrap up and add bits when I come to think about it. If you have any queries feel free to ask me, and I’ll do my best to get back to you.

For anyone else who thinks saving is boring, check out what these “kids” did:

‘I’m 20 and I own a £250,000 four-bed house’