Our house in the middle of our street

I've made no secret of the fact that 2020 has been far from my favourite year (as I'm sure is the case with most people) but I'm very excited to be ending it on a high as I've now officially moved in with the love of my life. I say officially because we've actually been living together all year but between our two houses, as a result of coronavirus. Not the best circumstances sure, but it did give us a nice test run at living together (a test run that obviously went very well)!

Timing is a funny thing. The last time I wrote one of these blog posts was on July 6th 2019. My miss independent blog post was all about buying my first house, how I'd found it, what I'd been looking for and the whole buying process in general. I completed on my house on July 4th 2019 and wrote the blog post in the day time a couple of days later before heading on a work night out. A work night out where me and Ollie then got together. When buying my house, I only ever saw myself in the picture. And within 2 days of buying it, I've never again imagined a picture without Ollie in it. 

We've actually been talking about a house together since September last year and we initially planned to have 2020 be the year of holidays and day trips and fun fun fun, with 2021 then being the year of the house. But the universe had other ideas and cancelled all of the fun, fun, fun and so we decided to move up our timeline and do the house this year instead.

At first, I was really sad about the prospect of selling and giving up my house. It's been my first house, a project I'm super proud of and I've not had all that long in it. All I can liken it to is when you wake up early and can't get back to sleep. Sure, you might've wished you went to sleep earlier but once you're awake, you're awake. Once I was in love with Ollie, I was in love with Ollie. I loved my house and wish I'd had longer in it but ultimately a house (and a life) with Ollie was what my heart truly desired.

So my house went on the market, got a lot of attention and was SSTC only a week later (I got lots of compliments on how I'd done the place). And the sadness at selling subsided when instead of focusing on the things I'd be losing (like being super close to town), I started to get excited about all the things I'd be gaining! Like a bigger, more private garden, a driveway, an open kitchen diner and an EVEN bigger dressing room than I had before (a non-negotiable aspect when talking about a house together). Plus, I'm looking forward to being in a detached house again - I've grown up in one and haven't ever really gotten used to sharing walls with other people living in a terrace (especially since my neighbours were constantly crashing and banging around as if they were trying to break some kind of loud-and-annoying Guinness world record). My house has again gone to first-time buyers; a young married couple with their first baby on the way who are already from that area, so I feel happy that it will be even more perfect for them than it was for me.

Initially, me and Ollie were both going to sell our houses and buy a new one together, but after looking at around 8 or 9 houses, we couldn't find anything that nearly matched what we were looking for. Actually, we realised what we wanted was essentially Ollie's house with an extra bedroom and about 10 minutes further east. But buying a house is expensive (even with the stamp duty holiday) and we decided that those parts weren't so important afterall, so we pocketed the money from my sale (I managed to sell it for 13% more than I paid for it, even after only a year) and here I am, having crossed into the Derbyshire border!

Funnily enough, the first time Ollie knew I was interested in him was when I stayed behind for an hour after work chatting about ideas on how to decorate his house (he's not so much into interior design and his house has looked like a blank canvas since he bought it 2 years ago). Who knew then that the best idea of them all would be for me to move in and decorate it with him! And decorate I have! Obviously the transformation deserves a blog post of its own (which will follow) but I've certainly been a busy bee for the last month or so, decorating this place and moving out of my old one. I can't wait to show you my new and improved dressing room!

Like I said before, timing is a funny thing. I've always been very sentimental about things, especially dates (weird, given I am/was such an ice queen). Like, I loved that I completed on my first house on July 4th because it was my lucky number and also independence day. So it feels very fitting that I completed on the sale of it exactly 2 years since the day me and Ollie first met, when he interviewed me for my old job. Who would've imagined then that we'd be here now?