David and Katherine Goodwin

After procrastinating about things a bit, Joe and Hannah getting their car vandalised last weekend sort of made us decide to get our acts in gear and start moving on the whole house thing.

Last week when I was child-watching in Bromsgrove, I went with my brother to see a mortgage advisor, to see if it would be possible for us to get a mortgage. Long story short, we can get one (although not at high-street rates, not too bad either). So we started house hunting again. I looked at one that day, and later in the week I booked in two more viewings that we attended yesterday.

The house on Tuesday and the first one yesterday were just way too small (for the money at least), but when we got to the last, we had that feeling again. The house is just around the corner from where David and Jenny will be, has a huge enormous garden, and plenty of space.
Its three bedrooms (was 4, but they moved the bathroom upstairs) with good sized rooms, and plenty of space downstairs. The kitchen has almost no storage installed, but plenty of space, so we would either have the option of just having a nice kitchen fitted, or possibly knocking down the wall between the lounge and the kitchen to make a huge kitchen-diner, and to turn the dining room into a smaller lounge. I wasn't sure about that idea to start with, but its really growing on me, especially as what was the downstairs bathroom would be ideal for all those noisy appliances that make the idea of a kitchen-diner less appealing.

David wants to have a study downstairs, but certainly if we made a kitchen-diner that wouldn't be feasible. There's plenty of room upstairs for one in the second bedroom though (or room for a 1-person study in the box room). David also has plans for a small conservatory to replace a ramshackle lean-to structure out the back (which would be lovely, but something we'd have to save up for!)

The best thing about this house is that we can see it fitting us for the foreseeable future - for our plans for the next 10 or 20 years - as its got enough space for all the things we want to do. All we've got to do now is sell our house and sort out a mortgage - the latter being more complicated as things are more difficult when you're (especially recently) self employed.

I've booked a valuation for our house for wednesday, and the estate agents have someone already looking for properties in Beechdale, so we've got a good shot there I think.

This is all very exiting, but stressful and nerve racking too. The owner already has an offer, but wants to sell ASAP so she can stop paying the mortgage, so she'll basically take whatever is the best deal. If we can sell up quickly, that might just be us!

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