Midweek Musings: the house hunt is on!
I can't quite believe I'm writing this but, after being on the market on and off for nearly two whole years, Oli has finally sold his house. It's a long story but it was a lovely house in need of renovation and we ummed and ahhed about whether or not to move there (for about a year, no joke), but it was in NW London which was always going to be a bit too far from my family. Anyway it went into auction yesterday and about an hour before it was due to be auctioned, Oli accepted an offer from a buyer and the contracts were exchanged!
This finally means we are free to try to find a family home. The only problem is that neither of us is quite sure exactly where we want to live (well, Wimbledon Village would be nice but is sadly out of our price range). We both like being in London for the convenience and the fact it's near to our friends/work, but we also both hate London as a place to bring up Chip - too many people and too much pollution. I'm kind of exhausted just thinking about trying to make a decision to be honest. But still, it's so exciting because we can finally actually start looking at houses in earnest, and in a 'good' position which is so critical when the market is so competitive!
I was actually sent a press release yesterday with this nifty map attached showing the average house prices per tube stop - it's crazy how just moving one stop away from your preferred location can save you up to half a million pounds in some cases. Unsurprisingly Colliers Wood (where we live - I call it Wimbledon cos it's the same postcode and no one has heard of CW, and everyone in the entire world has heard of Wimbledon) is one of the cheapest areas on the Northern line. I actually think it represents really good value for money and would consider staying here if it wasn't quite so traffic-choked.
On another note, because there's always got to be some ying with the yang, this weekend my car started playing up. It's eleven years old now and possibly 'had it' - the last service was more than a grand and given that it's only worth £1500 I'm not entirely sure whether I want to sink even more money into fixing it. But at the same time, the idea of buying another car fills me with dread. Not only are most of them ugly these days (is it just me?!), they are ruddy expensive. I was a bit shocked when I started looking into over the weekend. I know a car is a luxury, especially in London, but I've always had one - ever since I passed my test - and there's something about the sense of freedom it gives that really matters to me. A couple of times over the past ten years I've been technically 'homeless' and my car was the one thing I owned and although it sounds silly that was really important to me. Because of this I'm reluctant to go car-less at the grand old age of 35. I guess I'm set in my ways, and I can't think of a nice way of getting the cat to the vet's without it. So... winning the lottery is required at some point in the not-too-distant future, please and thank you.