New Year New Dreams
Wow, where did that year go? – last we knew it was early summer and we was in the process of buying our much-loved home and dreams finally were coming true.
You may or may not had noticed but our family blog has been on the quiet side for the past few months – this has been because we have been busy trying or hardest to buy our much-loved family home that our children had grown up in. Sadly this didn’t happen for the reason below.
We have needed time to adjust and come to terms with our dreams sadly NOT happening.
Some dreams are just NOT meant to be
How things have changed and time certainly don’t stop. We was happily putting our plans into action and preparing to become first time buyers. The forms needed was filled out and the necessary fee’s was paid.
All was going so well and was accepted by our housing association following all the necessary checks – eek it was all so exciting, we was so excited to be getting our foot on the property ladder and investing in our children’s future.
Word’s can’t describe how happy we all was.
The all important appointment was then made with our bank along with a few others just to make sure we got a good idea of mortgage rates on offer at the time. We found there wasn’t much of a difference in the rates so had chosen to stay with our own bank and keep everything in the one place.
Credit checks was done once we gave the go ahead, these went through no problem and the dotted line was then signed.
The surveyor appointment was then made.
It was all so exciting….
This is a moment we had dreamed of and worked towards for so long and it was finally happening.
Until…..
Bad News Then Struck
The surveyor arrived as planned to check the property – this being our home of 13yrs, he arrived and broke our hearts. Our home was made of prefabricated concrete and sadly no mortgage lender will lend on these properties…..Our application was then rejected by our bank for this reason.
Giving up was something we didn’t do easily, we went on to apply elsewhere and get second opinions but all the surveyors was saying the same and pre fab properties are not something to lend on.
Heartbroken and not knowing where to turn or what to-do, we even went as far as chatting with a broker where we didn’t want to give up on our dream – sadly a BIG NO came back there too!
What Now?
So we have been living in a housing association rented property, living there for 13yrs – 13 happy years in hope of one day being financially able to buy the property. It came to the point of having to have that horrid chat about what-to-do now?
It was then agreed that we was paying out dead-end money, something that was agreed that we didn’t want to do. The time had come to be realistic and start making other plans for our future, our dreams of owning the house we had lived in for 13yrs had sadly come to an end.
New plans was then made
A phone call to our housing officer was had to see what our options was from here. It was then advised if we was wanting to still use The Right To Buy Scheme to get our foot on the property ladder that we look for what is known as a home swap/tenancy swap. This is where two tenants swap houses.
We then signed up to a website called HomeSwapper and the hunt then began. We knew we didn’t want to move too far away from where we was in North London as we had all settled here and our day-to-day commitments was here.
It was a heartbreaking decision, we all had mixed emotions about moving but we pulled together as a family and knew it was something we had to do.
The packing began
The packing then began and the tears began to flow. We had a meeting the day before moving, this was to sign all the home swapping paperwork – signing over of the tenancy to our much-loved home and then signing to take on the tenancy to the new home.
On our way back home from signing the paperwork we stopped off and collected one of the removal vans….Deep breaths was being taken all day and tears was being held back, it was now time to let go, get loaded up and say our goodbyes to our home and neighbors.
Our last night was spent in our much-loved home, we sat reminiscing before saying our goodbyes to our neighbors.
The big day had now arrivedÂ
The moving day soon arrived, we hired two Luton vans, one we picked up on the Friday which we loaded on the Friday evening to make the move a little less stressful, mainly to get a bit of a break from the heavy lifting.
On the moving day itself it decided to rain…..Yes rain ALL day!
We are now in our new home and starting a new year with new dreams. We are still in North London close to all our day-to-day commitments. We found a house 2.5 miles from where we was which is good. We have had amazing support from friends and family for which we can’t thank enough.
We needed time to find ourselves again. We are now gradually getting back on top of things again, we know it will take time so for now we are thinking positive and taking things day-by-day. We moved back in November and it’s been hectic ever since. The last of the boxes are slowly being un-packed and routines are now taking place again.
Do we miss our old house? – yes, it goes without saying but we are now looking forward to the future.
