We’ve been wanting to buy our own house for years now, and there always seems to be something in our way – right now, it’s Corona and the banks changing their lending to a max of 80%, leaving us to find a 20% deposit! That said, because we have been looking and lusting for so long, I feel pretty confident about some of the things I want, and what is a deal-breaker. For example, I really don’t want a full bathroom downstairs – it’s what we had in this room until my FIL kindly turned the box room upstairs into a bathroom and the downstairs bathroom into a utility. It’s much nicer to just take Roo from the bath to his bedroom, without having to traipse the length of the house.
A decent-sized kitchen
We currently have a galley kitchen and it always feels as though we are tripping over each other if there’s more than one of us in there. I’d love love love, a big open plan kitchen with an island, as I’m currently attempting to make Ruben a learning tower and it would be great if he had loads of room to learn to cook, and experiment with things while up on there. We are going to use it in our current kitchen but I’m worried that it will be hard to squeeze past! I’d love loads of worktop space because I spread out when I cook, and I know I’d really enjoy getting to try new recipes.
An easy-to-maintain garden
Our currently garden is ENORMOUS. Even with Steven’s cabin office taking up a large portion of it, there’s so much more in front and behind, and we are so not green-fingered, so it’s a waste! I love the idea of artificial grass, so that it’s soft for the children to play on, but doesn’t require much upkeep. I’m a big fan of Emily Norris and she’s is all about the artificial grass and it’s sold it for me. Her children can go out in all weathers and never get muddy, and she never has to worry about bald patches, or weeds – the dream! I’d love a little decking area for BBQs, a mud kitchen and a play house. In my dream home, I’d have big bi-folding doors out onto the garden to let the light in, and so I could potter around and watch the children play.
Storage
This is boring but necessary. I couldn’t have a house that didn’t have much storage because we have a lot of stuff. One thing we don’t have in this house is an airing cupboard and I just think they’re so handy for storing towels. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a deal-breaker in itself, but it would be important to us that we have a few Monica-stye messy cupboards.
Open plan
I’m not sure if I’d want the whole place open plan, because I love the idea of closing the door on a cozy living room in an evening, but I would like some of it to be more open than what we have now so that I could be getting on with jobs while Ruben plays, and I could still see him. I spend a lot of time at the moment, running between rooms to see where he’s climbed up, and then running back to fold some laundry, and back and forth for hours.
A fireplace
This is a random one, but I have romantic visions of pinning our stockings up at the fireplace on the mantle and it makes my heart burst. We do have a mantle at the moment but it’s a gas fire and it looks a lot older than the rest of the room so it never feels quite right. I’m not even bothered about the fire working, but a mantle to decorate would be the dream.
I’d really love to move into a new house before we have another baby. Don’t get me wrong, we’re so lucky with the house we rent, but I just want something more permanent and ours. It’s stressful that we’re going to have to consider things like school catchment areas, but also so exciting. So fingers crossed that 2021 will finally be our year!