We bought a house!:)

[andypants]

I’ve been ready to move out of the city for a while, but the timing has just never been quite right.

I am very fortunate that I was able to buy an apartment early on, first in the city where I went to university and later in Oslo with the down payment from the first one. It has been a great comfort to me after I had to quit work and live on disability that I at least had my apartment (and bought it when the market was way down, it has nearly doubled in value in the four years I’ve lived here!)

My partner is an entrepreneur, and although he has been doing great for some time he now takes out a full salary for the first time. His income and my capital together allows us to upscale to a small house outside the city, close to my family and closer to his As a disabled person with limited income, I am grateful that his ability to buy was as reliant upon my capital as mine is on his income.

I’m also grateful that this came together way faster than I expected. I love my apartment, but being on the second floor limits my ability to get outside quite a bit. It’s also a modest size, which means I’m stuck in the same two rooms all day every day:/ now we’ll have a small garden and more space, which means I can divide up my day a bit more. An illusion of activity, but a good one

The house needs a lot of work, but not necessarily right away. It’s my third property, which helped in negotiating a very decent price (way below asking) and leaving us room to hire people for the renovations. I’m no longer able to do the work myself, which sucks because I love it, but I’m pretty experienced with planning and negotiating contractors and materials to get a lot out of a small fund so long as I have plenty of time to do it, that is still something I can manage.


The keys will be handed over on the 1st of September. We’re making preparations to sell the apartment now, and planning to put it on the market in late July/early August. Some small projects to be finished here as well, but we’re hiring my cousin to do some of it and my father in law will help us with the rest.

 

[andypants]

@Dechi consider yourself tagged!

We’re planning a full renovation of the bathroom as well as reserving some funds for some external pipe work planned before we bought (by the county). If the funds can be stretched we’ll also have someone strip and paint the whole inside, and renovate the kitchen. No big deal if we have to postpone any of it, it is completely livable.

I’m exhausted after getting everything into place and finding a realtor to sell my apartment, but now hopefully things will move along almost of their own accord except the packing...

 

[Allele]

Wonderful news, so happy for you!

 

[andypants]

@Allele thank you! Feels like my life is moving forward in a small way

I’ll soon panic because I’ll realize how much there is to do and how little of it I can directly contribute to

 

[Invisible Woman]

Congratulations @andypants! Great news!

I’ll soon panic because I’ll realize how much there is to do and how little of it I can directly contribute to

One thing at a time. One job at a time and allow yourself breaks between jobs even though you won't be doing the work yourself.

In my view, its better if you take it slow as it gives you time to work out how best you'll use the space. Which rooms get the morning sun and which get a bit warm in the afternoon? Which rooms are actually a bit dark or too bright? Then you can choose flooring and paint colours that suit you and the room best.

 

[hedgehog]

Wow, congratulations!

 

[andypants]

Thank you @Invisible Woman and @hedgehog I’m over the moon!

I didn’t think we would be able to afford something in that neighborhood, it’s so convenient with the metro close by and the forest paths starting right outside the door, but a lucky break let us find a renovation project that had somehow fallen out of most people’s register and so we were the only bidders

 

[MsUnderstood]

I’ve been ready to move out of the city for a while, but the timing has just never been quite right.

. . . now we’ll have a small garden and more space, which means I can divide up my day a bit more. An illusion of activity, but a good one

The house needs a lot of work, but not necessarily right away. . . . No big deal if we have to postpone any of it, it is completely livable.

@andypants Congratulations on finding a home outside the city. You’ll love it!

There are many similarities in our circumstances regarding housing post-ME. We also purchased a
“fixer-upper” — so bad our realtor tried to talk us out of it. Buying an unimproved place in a depressed market left funds for renovations. Like you, I had the skills and interest to be the project manager. This allowed me to chose each individual trade, which wouldn’t have been possible had we used a general contractor. And like you said, doing so saves money.

I wonder if you’ll experience the same surprise we did — that once our new house was cleaned up and our own things moved in it didn’t look as bad as we expected. This took the pressure off to make renovation decisions quickly.

I do hope you’ll save some funds for the garden. That’s one of the things I (usually) enjoy the most, as long as I keep my expectations realistic. Not being able to travel very far, it’s wonderful to be able to step out the back door into a private piece of nature.

Enjoy!

Edited: spelling

 

[andypants]

I do hope you’ll save some funds for the garden. That’s one of the things I (usually) enjoy the most, as long as I keep my expectations realistic. Not being able to travel very far, it’s wonderful to be able to step out the back door into a private piece on nature.

Oh, definitely! I LOVE gardening, and like you I find it’s one of my favorite activities that can still be enjoyed with ME. I have planned for this for two years already, my favorite plants have been planted in deep pots on the balcony so they one day can move with me and be planted somewhere permanently

 

[mango]

Wonderful! Big congrats

 

[Graham]

Oh, definitely! I LOVE gardening, and like you I find it’s one of my favorite activities that can still be enjoyed with ME. I have planned for this for two years already, my favorite plants have been planted in deep pots on the balcony so they one day can move with me and be planted somewhere permanently

When we did a "big" move across country (OK, in the UK that only meant 120 miles), I had a small trailer, which I lined with perforated plastic, added some compost, and put in cuttings and splits from my existing garden. But the exchange was delayed, and by the time we moved, the trailer was packed with greenery about 2 feet high. But they survived that journey (and the next).

It means that I still have plants that are from my father-in-law's place, and from friends, none of whom are still alive. So it's nice going around the garden with traces of their presence still there.

 

[alktipping]

congratulations I hope your new home brings you much joy and tranquillity . it is always nice to see good news .

 

[Dechi]

Congratulations @andypants ! It’s really great that your property gained so much value in just a few years and helped you upscale.

Renovating is such a pleasure, but it’s also very fatiguing. It’s a good thing you’ll have time and you have knowledge and experience with it. My new house will be my fourth and second I buy alone, and I’m grateful for that, it makes everything easier.

About packing, can you consider hiring movers that pack and unpack, like I am doing ? It’s not as expensive as you’d think, really.

 

[Milo]

Congratulations @andypants!

 

[andypants]

About packing, can you consider hiring movers that pack and unpack, like I am doing ? It’s not as expensive as you’d think, really.

I’m considering it. There’s not a lot to pack really, I got rid of a lot of stuff when I moved last time and have avoided getting more in. The biggest job will be sorting through everything to see what can be thrown out. We have plenty of young, strong friends to help us pack and move, and it’s only a 20-min drive so the move itself should be quick. My mother and girlfriends can help unpack, as they know where everything should go without me telling them

Probably we will manage on our own, but if it needs to by done in less than a week or two hiring movers is probably the better option. There’s a great service here where former addicts do all sorts of moving, waste collection and recycling as a stepping stone into the job market, they can probably help on short notice.

 

[ladycatlover]

Congratulations @andypants. I suspect you are going to have an immense amount of fun renovating, though it's very exhausting too. We've been in our new (to us) home about 6 years now (I think - never noted the date we moved in!) and we've still to finish unpacking! We did get in someone to do the renovations, he came highly recommended by daughter and son-in-law, who at that point in time had used him twice for work, including in a Grade II Listed Building - now that was quite a challenge!

But we had to wait ages for him to become available. Fortunately we were able to stay in our old home (of over 40 years!) until the work was all finished - the house was gutted plus we needed some new solid floors as well due to Concrete Sickness, it would have been impossible for even a fit person to stay there while everything was done.

The stuff I found most difficult was making choices over things like kitchen units, and bathroom stuff. It took us ages to find tiles for the bathroom and the shower room that I could live with. Involved a lot of trecking round various huge tile places, horribly exhausting. But in the end we found stuff that we're both happy with.

We ended up knocking down about a third of the ground floor (garage and a flat roofed extension) and building up 2 storeys. Husband took loads of photos as reno went on - I'll give the link to the albums I put on Flickr, but there are LOADS of pics, just to warn you!

House Renovation 2010

House Renovation 2011

We've lost the last few years of getting organised/unpacking over my PIP stuff and Tribunal, also Mum-in-Law was in nursing home, and eventually died. This year we're having problems over our new caravan, so we've been in Bwlchtocyn almost all of the time since beginning of Feb - just a short break for dental work , and will be going home for more dental work soon . Then back here again to try and finish sorting out the "garden" and make sure the pots don't dry out!

Good luck with your renovation, but above all try to have fun doing it, and fun choosing just what you want to turn the house into your home.

 

[MsUnderstood]

We ended up knocking down about a third of the ground floor (garage and a flat roofed extension) and building up 2 storeys. Husband took loads of photos as reno went on - I'll give the link to the albums I put on Flickr, but there are LOADS of pics, just to warn you!

@ladycatlover Oh, I love “Before and After” photos! What an amazing transformation — but all that scaffolding. That’s definitely something you don’t see very often in my part of Canada with our wood frame construction. I can see why you had to stay in your previous home while the work was being done.

Thanks for the photos — absolutely lovely. I especially like the unique staircase.

 

[Keebird]

@andypants Congratulations!

 

[Squeezy]

@andypants Congratulations! I'm so happy for you. It will be so wonderful to have a garden to step out into, and more rooms to potter about in. Your quality of life will improve so much! Enjoy every moment of planning the design and decor.

 

[andypants]

Thank you, @Squeezy