Friday 9 October 2020

5 Things I'll Be Looking For When Choosing Our Next Home*

AD - This post is in collaboration with Flooring365

 I've mentioned briefly before on my blog that George and I are currently in the process of saving to buy our first house and despite the absolute hell of 2020, I'm still hopeful that this will be our last Christmas in our current home. In November we'll have been renting this flat for 6 years and whilst we've had some great times here, we've outgrown it and now I'm on a countdown until we can really get the ball rolling with buying out first house. Whilst lockdown meant that we could actually save more than we intended this year, as I'm sure we all know it's had a real effect on the economy and because of that getting on the property ladder is proving even harder than it was before. 10% deposits are hard to come by now which is really what most young people rely on so it's not exactly a greattttt time to be thinking of moving. It's not stopped me scrolling through Rightmove most days of the week though. By doing that though, it's meant we're really starting to work out what it is we want from our next home so I thought I'd share some of the things on my house viewing checklist.couple sitting watching Harry Potter, holding coffee

Location, Location, Location

One of the most important things with choosing our next home is location. Ideally we'd love to find a house in a lovely neighbourhood close-by to a park, hopefully not on a main road, not too far from a supermarket and as we're likely to be there for quite a few years, we also need to consider the schools in the area. I'm aware we're unlikely to find the perfect house in the perfect location so I'm sure they'll be things to compromise on but it's good to have an idea at least of what we're looking for. We've got a few different areas in mind that we like the look of but we definitely need to do some further research.

Good Flooring

I have quite a clear idea in my mind of how I'd like our next home to be set out and I may already have several boards on Pinterest dedicated to my dream living room/bedroom/bathroom/kitchen but it's good to be prepared! One thing I'll be looking for when viewing houses is the flooring situation. Whilst it may be we need to change the flooring over time anyway, if we could move in somewhere and not have to take on a massive job like that straight away, that would be fab! I'd love wooden flooring downstairs, I love the dark wood style at the moment that I keep seeing and I already have so many ideas for how to decorate the living room around it. With having a dog, wooden flooring is just something that would make life a bit easier.

A Decent Sized Garden

We only have a small shared garden where we currently live so anything more than that will be a bonus. A decent sized garden would be the dream though so we can create a cute seating area, maybe on some decking - a place we can chill in the Summer and enjoy barbecues! I also think Bear would love the extra space a garden would bring, in fact I know he would and as we hope to get him a brother or sister at some point, having easy access to a garden for toilet training would be a dream. It was a bit of a nightmare this time round with several flights of stairs to go!

A Big Kitchen

The kitchen will probably be the main thing I look for when we actually get inside any houses we're viewing. It's where I spend a lot of my time cooking and baking and I just need more space than we have now. I actually quite like our kitchen now and it's not that it's even that small but I'm someone who always ends up using all of the worktops and by the end it looks like a bomb has hit so if there was a bit more space so that's no longer the case, brilliant! We're also quite low on cupboard space in our current kitchen so that's something else I'd have my eye out for.

Storage Space

Following on from my last comment, we're just generally quite low on storage in our current home. As it's a flat, it was always going to be the case but over the years we've accumulated a LOT of stuff and whilst we regularly de-clutter it somehow just never feels like we gain any extra room from it. In an ideal world I'd have a big pantry in the kitchen, they'd be storage maybe under the stairs and lots of wardrobe space but I think all of those things together may be unlikely. Just a bit of extra space in each room would be heaven compared to what we have now.

So, that's 5 things that are currently on my house viewing checklist! I have no idea what sort of house we'll end up in and whilst of course I have quite clear ideas in my head, I'm really excited to just be somewhere new, putting our own stamp on the place and it actually being ours. We're SO ready for it now and it's the natural next step so I'm just hoping the world sorts itself out soon and we can get started.

Have you bought a house before? Do you have any tips when it comes to choosing a home?

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11 comments

Beautylymin said...

It's good that you know exactly what you want and then you can rank them in importance in case you need to compromise on something. Good flooring and a good kitchen that you don't need to replace immediately would be great as it's so costly to move anyway! x

Beautylymin

Jenna H. said...

A big kitchen is also a must for me! My boyfriend and I's apartment has a nice renovated kitchen (with a walk in pantry too!), but we didn't realize that there isn't as much counter space as we'd like... We definitely need to look for that next year!
Jenna ♥
Stay in touch? Life of an Earth Muffin

jennyinneverland said...

I'm still living at home but I always think about what I would want / need in my future home. Big windows and lots of light is a must for me. Preferably a garden area and definitely wooden floors too! I'm not a fan of carpets x

Sarah Trademark said...

You can be so fussy when house hunting and often have to compromise but a must for is was a driveway xx

Little Miss Mel said...

That’s so excited and I hope it works out for you as you hope. Your first home is so great, making it your own and fitting your life.

https://littlemissmelanie.com/

Hannah said...

Wishing you all the luck for moving out. My boyfriend and I have just had an offer accepted on a house and it's such an exciting time. I found this hard to believe, but you will find the perfect house, it will come along xx

Hannah | https://luxuryblush.co.uk/

Kelly~Diane said...

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that you will be in your new home for next Christmas. I've never bought a house before but I know from friends just how stressful it can be. A good sized garden is such a blessing because you can do so much with it and really get to enjoy it in the summer.

Nic said...

Thanks for sharing, I have wanted to move out of my flat as I have had so many issues with the management company over the years, but hopefully, I will one day :)


Nic | Nic's Adventures & Bakes

Alice Anne said...

Flooring is definitely a must - nothing worse then realising how much it's gonna cost to replace if you hate it xx

Sophie said...

Good luck with the saving and moving plans, I hope everything works out for you. Kitchens are a huge huge huge deal breaker for me too (no surprises there) x

Sophie
www.glowsteady.co.uk

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