Well, it’s taken six months and it all falling apart a couple of times for good measure, but we’ve finally done it. We’ve got a house! You may remember in March I mentioned that my girlfriend and I decided to buy a house together. It seemed to be going okay, but it eventually fell through (the seller pulled out of the sale).

So we were house hunting again. Then we remembered that a guy directly opposite the house we were going to buy was selling his (my girlfriend had gone for a look previously to see what it was like). He was selling direct and so was not using an estate agent. We went to see a couple of other houses that we didn’t like and then gave him a call to see if it was still for sale. It was and we agreed to just pop round (it’s the same village in which we live).

I’m glad we did because we loved it even more than the previous house, made him an offer there and then, he accepted it and we shook hands. By this stage we were veterans and didnt believe anything until it’s legally binding (which it’s not at a handshake). So we changed the mortgage details and did the searches and kept out fingers crossed. We tried not to think about it and agreed that if it fell through we wouldn’t buy until the new year. My girlfriend had already sold her house by now and was living with me – all her stuff in storage – but we were managing.

But now that contracts have been exchanged we know for sure that we’ve got the house and we move in on Friday. So just to summarise – and get it in perspective – we didn’t need to sell so we weren’t in a chain and were therefore perfect buyers, with a mortgage already agreed and deposit in place. You’d think we’d have little or no trouble getting a house but instead it’s taken six months, loads of legal fees, a hell of a lot of stress and I’ll tell you one thing, I won’t be buying another house again in any kind of a hurry! Anyway, as soon as we get in I’ll post up some pictures.

Now all we have to do is move all our stuff in, tell the electricity people, gas people, council, water, Sky TV… The list goes on…