House hunting

It's been all go here for the last few months - we've been on our honeymoon and finally found a house. We have been house hunting for a few months, but nothing has really stood out for us. Mainly because we live in an area where 60K will buy you a static caravan. House hunting sucks.

I have traipsed round countless horrendous properties over the last few weeks and it is sapping my soul. I think the problem in my city is that there is a thriving buy-to-let market. Which in effect, means squeezing as many matresses into one room as possible. Lots of properties up here are marketed as 4-bedroom; which effectively means that the lounge is labelled as a downstairs bedroom. Or the larger room has a temporary sheet of plasterboard pinned across the middle of it.

Part of our criteria though was to find a house that was a project. I have very clear images in my head of how I want this house to look, so we needed to find somewhere that "had potential", but potential that could be realised by basic DIY rather than by thirty litres of petrol and a house insurance claim.

It took a while, after seeing multiple houses with garages that have been converted to living spaces, dodgy self built extensions, places that smelt of animals/dead people and places where the fleas had moved out in protest, we finally found something. What sold it was the kitchen - it was the first place we'd seen where I could stand in the middle of the kitchen with my arms outstretched, spin round and not hit the wall. It doesn't have anything in it though, other than an oven which I am not even opening as I have no wish to disturb the primordial soup that is growing in it. It is taped shut for a reason.

And so begins the project... how not to renovate a house...