Bedroom Mood Board

Hello

Whilst enduring the agonising wait for moving day, I have been making mood boards for each room in the house. I've found that this is a really good way to build the look you want for the room and decide on matching accessories. With this one I started with the wallpaper. We were originally going to have this wallpaper in the flat, but we decided it would work equally as well in the house. The photo doesn't do it justice. The script is actually done in very light gold and silver so it catches the light beautifully. As you can see from the photo, NEXT have used heather coloured accessories to dress the shot. I think this colour goes beautifully with the cream, and purple is also my favourite colour. So I have used this as the colour scheme. NEXT also do a paint range that matches their wallpapers. 'Autumn Heather' and 'Calico Old English' match perfectly with this look.

We want to keep the decor quite traditional so it is in keeping with the style of the property (Victorian). So I have chosen old fashioned furniture. We love the traditional metal framed bed as it is cream with really nice brushed bronze detail. The furniture shown is all from NEXT but I don't think we will purchase it all from there. I like the style of the wardrobes, chest of drawers, dresser and bed side tables but I would like to get them custom made exactly how we want them. For example the wardrobe isn't big enough.

The overall look I was going for with this room is tradition, but light and airy. The flat we are currently renting can get quite dark at times and it can affect my mood in a negative way so I really want the whole house to feel really fresh and light. I think when the bedroom is finished its going to be a really lovely space to relax in. Incase there are any items here that you would like for your own home I have made a list below of the items, prices and where to find them-

PAINT- Old English Calico £2-£14

PAINT- Autumn Heather £2-£14

WALLPAPER- French Script £15

WOODEN FURNITURE- Isabella Range

BED- Leamington Bedstead £250-£450

CURTAINS- Mauve Ella Eyelet £35-£105

BEDDING- Vintage Wash Floral £35-£65

BEDDING- Natural Lace £25-£55

RUG- Sparkle Heather £45-£230

CUSHION- Faux Ostrich £16

BIN- £25

PAINTING- Lying Lady £80

GLASS BOTTLES- Set of three £22

FRAMES- Set of three £15

Mood boards for the bathroom, kitchen, living room and dining room are to follow. I will also post photos of the rooms once we have decorated them so you can see how the look came together.

Thanks for reading :)

Still Waiting To Move.....

Hello

I'm feeling very grumpy at the moment as we still haven't moved into our new home and its all because a piece of paper wasn't signed by the seller and neither of our solicitors actually noticed it *sigh*. We got the big pack of paper to read about the house three weeks ago. I read it all, signed everything and returned it to the solicitor two weeks ago, pointing out the missed signature. You would have thought this would be long enough to return the signed piece of paper, but no, we still haven't exchanged contracts or arranged a completion date. Argh!! To make matters worse, it is a bank holiday on Monday so we will lose another day.

I can't bear being so close, yet its still feels like so far away. I just want to be in my new home, making it look all pretty!!

End of Rant.

Hopefully I will have some exciting news soon.

TTFN

Leasehold Vs Freehold

Hello

I wanted to write a post about what leasehold and freehold mean. We came massively unstuck because we didn't do enough research on this before going ahead with our flat purchase. DISCLAIMER I am writing this as I understand it from reading the leasehold contract for the flat we were buying. Each contract might be slightly different. This blog post is written to provide you with a basis for doing your own research. Please feel free to add comments (politely) if you feel I have got something wrong. So here goes;

Leasehold

- Leasehold means that you own the right to live in the property for a set period of time (the length of the lease). When we were looking to purchase the flat we did some research that suggested it meant that you own a small box (flat) inside a larger box (whole building). This is not the case. The person who owns the freehold owns the land, building and each flat.

- The length of the lease determines how long you can stay in the property. Leases are usually 100+ years to begin with. As the length of the lease that remains gets smaller the value of the property reduces. Once you get down to 70-80years left the flat will be unsellable as no mortgage lender will lend on a lease this short. You can pay to extend the lease but this may cost upwards of £15,000!

- Leasehold applies to virtually all flats in the UK. Those that are freehold are difficult to get a mortgage for.

- You pay off a mortgage.

- Buildings insurance may be set up by the freeholder, rather than you having to arrange it. But it may not be the best or best value insurance.

- There are restrictions on hanging your washing out on balconies and getting your own satellite dish. There should be a satellite dish on the building that all leaseholders can use.

- You cannot make structural changes to the property.

- You will most likely need to get permission for pets and wooden floors.

- There are rules on how late you can play loud music (this is one of the few advantages of a leasehold)

- You will have to pay ground rent (approx £100+/year)

- You will have to pay service charges for the maintenance of communal areas. This is the killer. There are no guidelines or protection for tenants* with regards to how much can be charged for these services. The flat we looked at had a service charge of £130/month. This was basic, if the accumulated funds weren't enough for the work done that year they could ask for additional money from each tenant. You have no option but to pay these charges. if you do not pay you will be charged interest until you do.

- If you do not follow the rules set out in the contract you could be evicted.

- You may need to get permission to decorate your home.

- Structural issues to the building as a whole will not be your responsibility, but you will have to pay a share of the cost.

- You might be subject to inspections and the freeholder can enter the property if they so choose.

Freehold

- Freehold means that you own the building and the land that it sits on (once you have paid off the mortgage).

- Most houses in the UK are freehold.

- You pay off a mortgage

- Buildings insurance is arranged by you. It may be an essential condition of your mortgage if you have one.

- You can make structural changes as long as you get the correct planning permission and follow building regulations.

- You do not have to pay ground rent or services charges, but you will be responsible for maintaining the whole property.

- You cannot be evicted from the property.

*An organisation called the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal will look at disputes, but from my research they are not very helpful.

I hope you find this helpful if you are unsure whether to go for a leasehold or freehold property.

Websites Selling Beautiful Things

Hello

I thought I would share a couple of lovely websites I have found recently that sell gorgeous homewares. The first one I found by chance when googling pictures of clocks. Its called Mollie and Fred. It sells lot of vintage items from some bigs names such as Cath Kidson and they offer free P&P when you spend over £50. I haven't purchased anything yet as I don't want to add to the things I'll have to move, but I've got my eye on a few things...

I love this cute and unusual key hook. Price £16.99.

These photo frames will go perfectly in the bedroom. Price £18.99.

I heart (see what I did there) this Emma Bridgewater Biscuit Tin. Price £12.99.

They also have a gorgeous collection of door mats. Prices £16.99-18.99.

The other site I have found is Dot Com Gift Shop. This again has a lot of vintage products. Delivery is £2.95 or free on orders over £50. Again I haven't ordered from here yet. A few of my favourites items are...

This vintage sign. Price £3.95.

These really cute key fobs. They have got 'Front Door', 'Back Door', 'Garage' and 'Shed'. Price £1.95.

And these cute storage jars. Price £23.95.

If/when I order from either of these sites I will do a blog post (and possibly a youtube haul video) reviewing the products and service with lots of photos. If you know of any good sites please leave them as a comment. I would love to look at them :-)

Property Purchase Part 2

Hello

So what happened next?

Pulling out of buying the flat meant that we would only be looking at houses. All along we had wanted a house and a garden so we haven't regretted our decision at all. Once you factor in the service charges, the mortgage on a flat isn't much less than a mortgage on a house, so we felt we could afford it. We immediately started looking at properties and viewed about 10 in total. Most of them were pretty terrible but we did view two that we really liked. One was a three bedroom house with massive rooms, but a tiny garden. The other was a Victorian terraced house with two bedrooms and a large garden. I fell in love with the Victorian one and my boyfriend preferred the 3 bedroom one simply because of the space. Although he did like the Victorian one. Problem.

We viewed both of them again but the 3 bedroom just didn't feel right to me, luckily the boyfriend agreed that the Victorian one was lovely. Yes! I truly believe that for the big decisions in life you should follow your gut feeling. The Victorian house just felt RIGHT. So we put in a (low) offer, which was rejected, but it started negotiations. We put in a higher (more reasonable) offer, which again was rejected but the estate agent asked what was the most we could offer. We said we could add another £500 but that was as high as we could go. After a very tense few minutes he phoned back to say the seller had accepted! Yippee!

That was 6 weeks ago. The waiting is terrible, but we are nearly there (I think). I CANNOT wait to move. I've got plans for a lovely log burner, a vegetable patch and gorgeous bird cage wallpaper.

Property Purchase Part 1

Hello

For my first proper blog post I thought it would make sense to tell you about my house buying experience so far. I'm going to do it in two parts as its a long story. So here goes...

My boyfriend and I were getting fed up with renting for several reasons;

1. Its dead money. Only the landlord is benefiting from it.
2. We weren't allowed pets.
3. We were being inspected every 3 months, which we felt was a big invasion of our privacy.
4. We couldn't decorate the place.
5. Most importantly we could be evicted at any time. We had been in a nice little flat for only six months when the owner decided they wanted to sell so we had to leave. Then my sister was renting somewhere for a few months when the same thing happened to her. It is horrible to have to leave your home when it isn't your choice.

With all this in mind we decided the time had come to start looking for our own home. We had quite a good deposit saved up so we took the plunge. After some thought we decided that a flat would probably be the best option, as at the time we didn't think we would be able to afford a house, and the mortgage payments would be lower so we would have more disposable income. We weren't searching for long when we found a really nice flat. It had two bedrooms, an ensuite, was in a really nice area on the outskirts of a town and it was only 7 years old so very modern inside. After a couple of viewings we put an offer in which was accepted almost immediately (the owner had found a previous buyer, but we were told it fell through because the buyer's circumstances changed). We were encouraged to see the mortgage advisor at the estate agents that were advertising the property. We were happy with this as she was a really nice girl and seemed very knowledgable and efficient. On our first meeting she showed us this glossy book about the house buying process and said she would be there to help us every step of the way. 'Great' we thought!

So she arranges us a good mortgage,  for which we were accepted and put us in contact with their associated conveyancer. Lovely job. Everything was going smoothly. At this point we also paid their 'lifetime broker fee' of £349 which meant for any subsequent house sale or purchase were could use the estate agents services for free. This is when things started to change. On our next meeting with the mortgage advisor we talked about insurances. The standard ones offered are life insurance, critical illness cover and income protection. All of which are designed to protect you if something happens and you can't work/die (and therefore can't pay the mortgage). This is when our mortgage advisor started the hard sell. What a change in character that was!

In between all this we had emailed her with a question. The reply we got was very different to precious exchanges. She was quite blunt and basically said 'This isn't something to be asking me, go to your conveyancer'. Again this was quite a character change. It seemed like once she had our money the service dropped. Aside from all this the flat purchase was going well. We had paid the conveyancer for the searches and the mortgage company for their valuation.

After a few weeks we got 'the stack' containing the contracts, results of the searchers and any other information required about the property. This is where it all fell apart...

As you may be aware most flats are leasehold. Those that are not are very difficult to get a mortgage on. What we didn't realise was that you don't actually own the flat. You own the right to live there for an extended period. With this comes a whole set of other potential problems (I will be doing a separate blog post on this). Subsequently after reading 'the stack' we realised that a leasehold was not what we wanted. After much agonising and at great expense (£1300 in fees) we pulled out of the sale. We were also angry at out mortgage advisor as we felt she should have explained leasehold and freehold to us at the very beginning. Had we know we wouldn't have gone for the flat. As first time buyers we were naive and thought she would advise us, especially as we had explained our frustration with renting. But it seems she was only thinking about her commission.

As a result we lodged a complaint with the company in the hope of getting at least some of our money back. After a month of investigation they sent us a letter stating that our mortgage advisor had done a fantastic job- she had set us up with a mortgage. End of. They wouldn't be giving us our money back. We have since referred our complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and our awaiting their decision. I'll do an update blog with the result of this. Keep your fingers crossed :)

Welcome to My Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog,

I have decided to start writing a blog as I am in the process of buying my first home with my boyfriend, and wanted to share what I have learnt (and am still learning). It has been a long and stressful process with some pitfalls along the way, which could have been prevented with a bit more information. I thought it would be useful to share my experiences from first time buyer to first time buyer. As it can sometimes be difficult to get impartial, easy to understand advice from those involved in the process (such as mortgage advisors/solicitors). 

I want to explain some of the house buying jargon as I understand it (as a lay person), pass on any tips I have learnt, share my journey from agreeing a sale to moving in and decorating our new home, review homewares that I have bought and share shops/websites I have found that stock beautiful things for your home.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog,

Jemma

DISCLAIMER- I am no house buying or legal expert. What I write in this blog is based on my personal experience. If you have issues with your own house purchase always go to your solicitor that is what you pay them a lot of money for! :)