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One couple's battle with London's property market |
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December 21 Au RevoirUnfortunately, we're a bit too busy painting walls and fitting lights to write this blog these days. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who read about our rollercoaster flat-buying journey, and to those of you who took time to leave us comments and advice. Merry Christmas everyone, love Boy and Girl. October 18 FridgeBoy says:
Four weeks ago we were meant to complete "next week". As it turned out we finally got our hands on the flat last week. "Phew, time to rest", I thought. How naive I am. Now the real work starts. Apparently the place needs painting - looks fine to me. Apparently we need "shabby chic" furniture, not the cheap stuff from Ikea. You'd think something with shabby in its name might come at half the price. But they - people like some woman called Laura Ashley - actually charge double for it. I mean, I like a white, distressed set of drawers as much as the next red blooded male, but surely it isn't a priority?
No, the priority is the fridge. I've found the perfect one. It's retro, big and not too expensive. Who needs somewhere to put their clothes when they have cold beer? The veg drawer is normally empty, put your pants in there girl. September 23 Crash Bang WallopGirl says:
We've exchanged! And we're completing next week. Yey! I'm so happy and can't wait to finally be on the property ladder. The only slightly worrying thing is that we seem to have jumped onto the first rung just as it's been covered in grease. The banks are all wobbly, and the newsreaders keep predicting that the property market is going to go the same way. Have we bought our flat for a ridiculous price, right before a crash? Boy is very worried about it and keeps quoting things from the Financial Times at me. I don't understand most of them. He's even suggested we pull out but there's no way we're doing that. We might be making a terrible financial decision but we'll have our very own walls to paint! And our very own roof terrace to sunbathe on! And a toilet! Priceless. September 04 21st century coupleBoy says:
Girl and I have a very 21st century relationship. I know this because we have just had an argument on IM (instant messenger for those not au fait). This wasn’t something we were carrying on from last night, it was a fully formed electronic spat. It’s sort of fun watching the conversation develop from innocuousness and innocence to a full blown web tiff and I had a bizarre urge to escalate it – like the urge to jump when at the top of a cliff. I just couldn’t help writing more and more inflammatory stuff – and I didn’t mean half of it.
Another sure sign that we are a couple of the new millennium is the tiny one bed flat we are buying for a hugely inflated price – we are also not married. I’m hoping for a couple of illegitimate kids to complete the scene. I’ve always thought it would be fun to be able to justifiably call my son a bastard. What a dad I’m going to be.
21st century sign number three is our attempt to furnish the place entirely through ebay. This is Girl’s idea. Mainly because she gets the excitement of bidding frantically for ten minutes until the bid deadline hits – I had to get her to breath into a paper bag afterwards to calm her down – and I get the hassle of having to pick the damn thing up. So she buys a table, decides to go on holiday and leaves me to find the table owner in Maida Vale – he was a single man with five giant pin ball machines in his front room, and psycho written in permanent marker across his forehead. Having made it out alive I then spent 50 minutes on my own with the in laws’ as we carted the thing home. At least Girl was sure she was going to love it.
Turns out its legs are “too big” for our flat. I should have known. I’m going to try and keep the thing, I put my life on the line for that table. Girl is determined to get rid of it and has decided a car boot sale is the way to go – so last century. August 28 Two of a KindGirl says:
Our landlady/vendor reckons we're going to complete by the end of August. That's 3 days away. It could happen. All she needs to do is agree to give us £3,000 towards the cost of the £8,000 council maintenance fee and fix the bathroom ceiling which sprung a leak last week. Just do it woman! Give us the dosh! Although even if she does get a sudden streak of generosity, could we really complete in 3 days? How long do these things normally take? We should probably know that. I'm still amazed by how clueless we both are.
At least I can rest assured that boy is a lot more clueless than me. He thinks the flat doesn't need anything doing to it. What? I have a list as long as boy's leg (although that isn't very long - he's only 5 foot 6 even though he tells everyone he's 5 foot 7) of things to do in here. Painting walls, putting fireplaces back in, getting a nice builder man to build us a nice fitted wardrobe. Oh and the furniture that needs buying! I tried to do it on the cheap - I got completely over-excited when I 'won' a table on eBay, but when boy and my dad finally dragged it home from North London I hated it. So it's back to the Laura Ashley home department I'm afraid.
He's also a bit clueless about how to make girl happy. He went on a stag do to Newquay this weekend and guess what present he bought back for me? A magazine. And guess what magazine it was? FHM. A second hand lad's mag. Is this really the boy I want to commit to buying a house with? Well, my present to him from my weekend in Dorset was a pair of socks from Peacocks. I think we might be made for each other.
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