A few sensationalist News Stories...

"Young need to save for 14 years for a home, says Shelter"

"How do you prepare for a lifetime of renting?"

Just two headlines from the BBC this week, two among hundreds in the press over the last couple of weeks as various surveys suggest it's getting near impossible for people to buy a house in the UK at the moment. I'm sorry, but have I missed something?

On the 3^rd of January this year Joni and I were evicted from our rented home. On the 19^th of April we moved into our first bought house. That’s saving period of 105 days. We didn't win the lottery, haven't had a penny of help from either set of parents and no ancient relative has dropped off this mortal coil and left us a small fortune.

Joni and I are a pretty normal pair of young people. We are quite lucky in that we both have full time work, paying the region of £18k each. But, we between us we have 4 over drafts, 2 credit cards and a loan on a car that is to this day higher than the cars value, so not exactly a bank mangers dream. When we were asked to leave our rented house we had considered buying a house 'some time later in the year', but we hadn't actually done anything about it. But renting had gotten too much. Too many estate agents had charges a fortune for contracts, landlords have taken money from us, or just decided one day they want their house back because their daughter has fallen out with her mother!

We looking into these 95% mortgages, and New Buy schemes run by the government, but they involved buying a brand new house and we just didn't think it was what we wanted. We wanted space and light and a garden, and there were no builds in our area that offered that.

So we knew we were going to need about £15K or so for the deposit and fees. Now, it's this next step that separates us from everyone else, and I don't think it’s a particularly revolutionary step. I don't think you need two BSc's and an MSc to reach this giant leap of imagination.

We needed some money.

So we went to the bank.

And we asked for some money.

Ta dah!

We sat down with a bank advisor and 3 separate occasions and we filled out forms and we showed her our budget and asked politely and we convinced her that we could handle it. And she believed us, so she gave us the money we needed. Joni and I aren’t particularly good with money, if we were we would have the debt we have in the first place, but we managed to convince our bank that we could pay them back.

Now, the loan we got it going to take 5 years to pay back, which actually matches quite nicely with what one of these reports says – based on our age and location apparently it would take us 4.8 years to save for a deposit.

But here, really is my point. There is nothing special about us. If we can but a house in 4 months then I think a lot of people can. And what's most amazing is in the 2 months since we bought our house it has already gone up in price.  I wonder if perhaps the media stopped telling people they can't buy a house and told more stories of people like us who are loving our new home then perhaps the housing market would recover quicker.

Ponderings on age...

Recently I have been thinking a lot about age and what it means to be 25. I have a number of reasons to believe I am getting old, not least the fact that one of my closest friends takes the chance to call me boring at least twice every time I see him. Also there is the purchasing of the house, the 'career' (as opposed to just having a job) and the fact I think staying up till 2am is an achievement.

But let me paint you a picture of what happened this afternoon as I was driving home from work. I am fully resigned to the fact I prefer radio 2 with breakfast. I'm OK with this - Chris Evans is funny and radio 1 replaced one obnoxious DJ with another. So, with my phone still at home in a bowl of rice I was forced to listen to the radio on the way home too. Radio 2 was still on from the morning, and it was Patrick Keilty. He introduced Daft Punk like this

"Here is what the kids are listening to these days, apparently. It's about playing poker - staying up all night to get lucky"

I laughed out loud alone in the car, and then I stopped mid-giggle. Oh hell, I am not supposed to find that funny. And yet it made me laugh. I often feel like the oldest person in the room (even older than the boss). I find I can't help myself doing the dished when friends are round because I hate a messy kitchen, and I'm ushering people out the door at 11 because I have to get up for work in the morning. And I can't decide how I feel about this.

On the one hand I am happy. I love my home, I enjoy my job and I'm fairly happy with my life. I have no major problems to worry about. And yet I can't help but dread what future Fiona will think of the choices I have made. When I am 40 will I be glad I chose to buy a house aged 25, and that I built a decent foundation and I took the sensible options? Or will I just regret I didn't party every night, live at home longer, go on big holidays and generally live it up when I could? Am I growing up too fast?

And does anyone ever know the answer to that question before they are 40?

1 month on.

So, it's been one month since we moved into our house and so much has happened.

The house warming was the best we have ever had. The weather was perfect and we had the first trial of Dionysus bars. This turned out to be a terrible idea. Thank you for coming if you were there, but I have forgotten. I have forgotten almost the whole night. I was looking at photos days later trying to figure out what we had been doing and, to be honest I'm still not sure.

The day after I wrote up with a start at half 6 when I realised Joni wasnt in the bed. I went on a search of the whole house and found him in a tent, in the garden, with Tim & Stee. No one can figure out why this seemed like a good idea, but they really regretted it when Charlotte and I started banging plans together by their heads! I was still drunk at that point. It didn't last.....

The Sunday that followed was the worst hangover day of all time. 4 people spent the entire day sitting in the dark, groaning slightly and failing to eat. Tim fell asleep on his knees, Joni had to be put to bed in the middle of the afternoon and Stee refused to leave the house when we finally worked our selves up to a walk and MacDs at 7pm. I think we are getting old.

The next day we discovered 11 cans of out of date beer, and being good people we decided to recycle the cans. After playing beer bowling with them. We also went to next doors BBQ party and meet all the neighbours. That was fun, I've never met neighbours before. Not heard from them since though, I was still fairly hungover......

Since that weekend we have had a couple of BBQs, had friends round and started gardening, so all petty business as usual. I have started decorating because I am having a little trouble settling into this house. It doesn't really feel like home yet, but I think that might just be because its so unreal. It's all happened so quickly, and also we realised we have mostly bought a house because people said we couldn't. That's a good reason, right?

After a 3 month break....

So tonight is the end of our 9 day holiday and it has been a crazy busy week. As everyone knows, it started with picking up the keys for our new home on Friday afternoon. So off Joni and I go to the estate agent, every bit of documentation we could think of in one hand, id in the other. We walk into the agents and say its Joni and Fiona to pick up the keys and..... they just hand them over. No questions, no form signing, just here is an envelope, have a nice day.

And then it was a very short drive around the corner to our new home. And no exaggeration, we just walked around the whole house, just looking and smiling, twice before we were capable of doing anything else. Eventually we got it together and bounced off to my parents to fetch the essentials (airbed, TV, champaign) and spent our first night eating fish & chips and sleeping on the living room floor. Can't say I slept very much.

The next day passed in a whirlwind of energy and enthusiasm as a whole load of people turned up once again to help us move. I promise this time it will be for more than a year! I suspect even a free MacDonalds wouldn't get them all to help again if we declare we are moving again before 2015! I am particularly grateful to the guys who stuck around after our first BBQ and found a final wave of energy to t tidy the living room at 10pm. I'm sure the beer had nothing to do with it!

Basically all we did for the next four days was unpack. We lost an entire day (and a few years off my life I suspect) to an IKEA wardrobe. Special mention must go to Tim who came round every day to drill holes, build furniture and generally be the man about the house. He left his tools which was definitely a big mistake. Today we managed toll makes a fair cockup of hanging a spice rack but it's fine. The last guy left us half a tin of kitchen paint.

On Thursday we spoke up early but we realised if we didn't get away for the diy soon we were both going to lose it, so we went to Chester zoo and it was amazing, if a little cold. We then went home and Joni got really really drunk in or house for the first time. It was a good day.

We spent the rest of the weekend making sure the house was ready for us to go back to work. We've reached a pretty good stage now. Nothing more really needs doing, just the odd little job it would be nice to fix. Strangely I'm really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Tomorrow marks the official start typo the return to normality for me and Joni, and I couldn't be more excited.

All for one....

Following the success of the 2011 Bond Marathon, I think I have decided to embark on a new mission in celluloid. And it starts with spotting a DVD case at Tim's house, and getting a free book with my Nexus. These 2 things lead me to fancying watching The Three Musketeers. So we searched it on LoveFilm and got the longest list of films I have ever seen. At least 15 three musketeers films, and that before you reach the barbie version!

So that is the mission, To watch as many versions of The Three Musketeers as possible in one year, to try and work out why it is the most over-done franchise ever, and if any of them are actually any good. I will also attempt to read the originals book to find out what the story actually is.

So, I started this mission with the 2011 version, staring Orlando Bloom, Matthew Macfadyen and a whole load of other fairly famous people. This was a fully American version and it was given the Steam Punk treatment (for anyone who doesn't know, Steam Punk is a style which is set in the 19th or 20th century but with some 'modern' technology. Think the Robert DJ Sherlock style). In true American style everything was over the top, and all the writing budget was spent on lavish sets and dresses with some seriously tight corsets. But the plot just about held together and the acting was only a little over the top. And it was pretty enjoyable to watch. The biggest mystery to me was probably what Mas Mickelson was doing in this film, and why they bothered to put so much effort into setting up for the sequel which clearly was not going to get funded.

So first up was a typical American action film, but one of the better ones. Next Maybe to go further back in time... 

Solicitor-cide - is it a crime?

So on Saturday I agreed to buy the house for like the 10th time, and I suggested the date of the 12th for moving. The seller, being the total arose he has shown himself to be over the last 53 days took the best part of 4 days to get back to us and said... No. He suggested the 26th. I have to confess at this point I somewhat lost it. Actually,I lost it quite a lot. In a corridor at work. People in the next office heard. Vicky from marketing came to ask who had pissed me off.

I told the estate agent in no uncertain terms that the 26th would not do, and if he couldn't do the 12th, I can do the 11th. This time it only took 3 hours to get back to me - would the 19th do? The 19th will do, thank you.

And there, I thought we finally had it. We even celebrated a little. There was pizza and pop. And then came morning. And that quick call to the solicitor to organise the signing....

Yeh.

That.

Only my solicitor has gone on holiday all week. Without telling us. And the person she has left in charge is a full scale idiot. She had no idea what was going on with our file and couldn't get proper access to our solicitors stuff until the secretary was around. Most annoyingly, despite me calling 3 more times she didn't return my calls so I still cant confirm when I am moving. So I can't book my time off work. So I still cant sort my work diary out and confirm with my boss what I will be up to in a fortnight.

Not. Impressed.

Another birthday

Writing this on my favourite new toy, my nexus 7 just like I wanted!

Overall its not quite been as low key a birthday as I was originally planning. I didn't plan on planning quite so much but it was great anyway. My big night out was a success despite the snow! I am very grateful to batman, little red riding hood, Alice, danny & sandy, the captain, his gay pirate and my penguin for making it an awesome night. I've always wondered who buys those stupid photos in clubs- turns out it's drunk Fiona! I still haven't gotten over dogma turning us away,  they are well known for being the.....  let's say lowest- class club in town.  How can they turn away fancy dress? Mental! Still,thank you all for trailing through the snow with me and helping me get really drunk.  For those who missed it I feel obliged to report that when I slipped in the snow outside the hotel Joni had to physically pick me up and put me back on my feet due to my being unable to stand. 

The next day I crawled out of bed early and went for a walk around town in the snow and the peace of Sunday morning. It wasn't as peaceful as I thought actually,  although it did clear my head.  With Charlotte & Sean still around we took them to see the sights of Nottingham. This mostly involved being silly in the castle (photos of this will follow). It was fantastic to see have Charlotte and Sean around for the weekend.

This big weekend was followed by a fairly standard week at work.  My actual birthday was on Tuesday and my office treated me to a nice embarrassing round of facts about me (including discussions on why I was in Nottingham at 5am dressed as a zombie once and how you get uninvited from a wedding 3 days before it happens) and an impromptu Quiz about Denmark (9 out of 10, cause I rock).

The birthday celebrations ended with a family afternoon, with a buffet complete with party rings and jammy dodgers! And I got my last birthday present, from Jenny & Ben. Tea flowers, they are amazing! Just put them in boiling water and they open up into beautiful flowers and they make lovely tea. It was great to see everyone and my cake was awesome!

Overall a lovely birthday. Not exactly what I pictured when I thought of my grand 25th, but wonderful anyway.

Next week, on to a new house??