Miss independent

Normally I'm pretty quick to put things about my life (meals I go on, recent purchases, holidays I book) on my social media and on my blog but I'm also a big believer in the power of the universe. So in the interest of not tempting fate or jinxing anything, I have treated me buying my first house in the same way as Kylie Jenner treated her pregnancy (a comparison that Katie gets credit for) and have kept it a secret. But now everything is official and I'm so excited to say I'm officially a homeowner! It was pretty fitting that the sale completed on July 4th; American independence day and now, mine too (it's also my lucky number and the day exactly 9 years since my first kiss but that's a story for another time).

Obviously these things don't happen overnight though. I actually started viewing houses at the start of the year and I think this one was maybe the 4th one (my lucky number again) that I went to see. When I first started toying with the idea of moving out a couple of years ago, I initially thought I wanted to rent a flat in the city centre and then as I grew older and understood more about money, I knew there was no point going anywhere until I could buy. So I then set my sights on buying a flat in the city centre but after weighing up the fact that I currently live in a big house with my parents and am used to a lot of space, plus the fact that I have a lot of crap, I started looking at houses instead. However, my desire to live as close to the city centre has never wavered and so my mission began to find a 3 bedroom house within half a mile of the city centre, that didn't have a totally minging kitchen or bathroom (because I didn't want any massive jobs to do), that had big bedrooms and a garden and that didn't have a front door that opened directly into the front room. Doesn't sound like too many dealbreakers but it was surprisingly hard to find.

I obviously had my Zoopla alerts on and when this house pinged through, I rang straight away to book a viewing and it turned out that the house was already so popular that the sellers were hosting 2 open house days, and that was it. So me and my dad went to see it a couple of days later and I could straight away picture myself living there! The open house style of viewing was very strange but clearly necessary because there were maybe 20 pairs of people viewing it that day! We were told that if I wanted it, I'd have to put an offer in that day so after some careful deliberation over what to offer (given that someone had already offered at asking price), I made the phonecall and then went out to dinner for dad's birthday (it was the last weekend of March by this point). While out, I got the super exciting phone call to say I'd got the house! Even though I hadn't been the highest bidder, the seller liked that I was a first time buyer and wanted to give someone the chance to get on the property ladder!

3 months later (after lots of dragging their feet from both of our solicitors, it seems), the sale completed on July 4th and I went out on a mad dash on my lunch break to pick up the keys and then headed straight to the house after work, with my mum, dad and brother, to show them around and start measuring up! The house was exactly as I remembered it and I have got all my pinterest boards at the ready to start decorating! I haven't included any internal pictures here because I'm going to wait and do a before-and-after when it's all finished.

I'm so grateful to my mum and dad (but especially my dad) because I could literally not have done it without them. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to understand any of the documents that came back or filled out any of the forms without their guidance and I'm so lucky to have had their help through this process. Obviously their help isn't done yet though because now it's time to decorate!

Obviously nothing major happens in my life without getting my girls involved so despite my house being entirely furnitureless, we spent the evening there last night, drinking prosecco, ordering takeaway and sitting on cushions on the floor! They're all so excited for me and I can't wait to have them round again (hopefully next time with something a little more substantial to sit on).