“Not very romantic, is it?… spending our Valentine’s evening with a mortgage adviser sandwiched between us…” I exclaimed, only half joking.
“I am doing something that shows I want to spend the rest of my life with you” he replied, “what could be more romantic?”
I melted – how could I argue with that?
After more than two years of renting together, thousands of pounds paid to our landlord (on top of bills) and little change to our wages, we had excepted that it was unlikely we would ever own a home.
As 30 starts to creep up on you (next year! how!?) of course you start to think about children and marriage alongside owning a house – but where does all the money suddenly come from?
I love our little flat, it is our first home together for starters. We have a lovely little balcony that overlooks a beautiful lake and the rent is *reasonable* – particularly considering not long before moving in I had looked around a grimy room in central London that would have cost me more than £700 a month.
But, it’s not ours, not really.
Like most, we would like to own somewhere – get our feet on the first rung of the property ladder. However also, like many, we couldn’t see how this could or would ever happen.
Many, of course, resort to moving back in with their parents but with mine over 2 hours away – and in all honesty they would probably shudder at the thought of having me back after finally getting rid of me at the ripe old age of 26 and Dan’s fostering – this wasn’t an option for us. Besides, losing the independence that comes with having your own space, in your late 20s, isn’t ideal for anyone…
However, life has a funny way of making sure everything works out all right in the end, doesn’t it? We sat on the realisation that we could actually buy a house for some time, suddenly afraid to go ahead with it.
Despite the fact we both love our jobs and have no plans to go anywhere anytime soon, making such a big commitment to an area that we had both initially seen as a short term plan suddenly seemed very, very scary.
But, once we got the ball rolling, it rolled fast.
Within a week we had spent two hours discussing our options with a mortgage adviser, viewed our first house, spent hours searching RightMove and had countless phone calls with estate agents.
As for finding the perfect first home, that might take a little longer…
