Today marks 10 years since we sealed the deal on our home and picked up the keys to a home that was ours (well technically it will be when we’ve paid the mortgage!).
Back then we were young and unaware of what life would throw at us, just pleased to be on the ladder as it had been so hard to get there in the first place.
We were very fortunate to find a great mortgage advisor who helped us secure our mortgage for more than we thought we would get. It gave us the chance to move straight into a house rather than a flat.
Our purchase wasn’t easy though, our first house fell through just weeks before we were due to exchange with the buyer pulling out. This left us hardly any time to find a new home!
Thankfully our home was on the market and it moved fairly quickly as there was no chain. There was still some concern though as our mortgage was with Northern Rock who went bust just after we exchanged!
Now I know lots of people have negative opinions on Northern Rock and their infamous 120% mortgages however for us we will always be grateful to them for it. It allowed us to get on the market, it gave us a bit of financial freedom to allow us to have children too. Yes, it wasn’t an ideal situation however thanks to the housing boom, we managed to switch to a repayment mortgage and have equity in our home.
In the last 10 years so much has happened, children have come along, jobs have changed, this blog was born and we got married! There is so much more that we have squeezed in too but sometimes I don’t think we have really taken in just how much has happened!
This house (well technically this bungalow!) is so much more than that, it is our home. It’s the place where we have built so many memories over the years, the place we brought our babies home to, a place they have grown up.
It won’t be our forever home though.
We’ve been planning some building work for a while which we are hoping to start in the new year however we have decided to scale these back a bit.
Our plan is now to move north, once the kids have grown up and finished school we are planning to move up to Scotland. We want to take a bit more of a chilled-out life and get out in the great outdoors, away from the everyday stress and rush of living in a busy town. A place where we can relax and just take it all in.
For now, though, we have at least another 10 years in our home, another decade to make more memories and be thankful that our home came along and gave us the chance to create them!
