09-24-2023, 07:17 PM
I didn't move quite as far from the house I grew up in. I guess you could say I moved out in 2004 to go to university, but it was only 12 miles away from the village where I grew up, and I was back home during summer and christmas breaks, as well as some weekends! And after I graduated in 2007 I moved back there, though this time with my missus. We were saving up to move out but our plans were bought forward when we found out she was pregnant, so in summer 2009 with our first child due in only a few months, we completed on a rundown three-bedroom, semi-detached house which needed a good bit of work doing on a rather unfancied estate on the edge of the city. Structurally it was find though. It was ok for the three of us, but when our second came along it started to get cramped, so we embarked on our first project sticking a 7 metre by 3 metre single storey extension on the back of the house which opened everything up and gave us a load more space. Then when our third came along we embarked on construction project number 2, this time adding a garage to the side of the house with another bedroom and shower room/toilet upstairs. Then last year and latest project added an entrance hall to the front of the house as prior to the the front door opened to a tiny little 1.5m by 1.5m square space with the stairs immediately to your right and the door to the lounge immediately in front of you. Now we've got a nice space for coats and shoes that the front door opens into.
In hindsight, we were really lucky with regards to the property side of things. We bought in 2009 when the housing market was at it's lowest ebb on the back of the global financial crisis, and then we were able to fund our three projects by extending the mortgage when interest rates were incredibly low. Not sure what it's like in the US, but here you could get a mortgage on a 0.9% interest rate less than two years ago, now you can't get anything much lower than 6%. People are having to deal with gargantuan jumps in their monthly payments.
In hindsight, we were really lucky with regards to the property side of things. We bought in 2009 when the housing market was at it's lowest ebb on the back of the global financial crisis, and then we were able to fund our three projects by extending the mortgage when interest rates were incredibly low. Not sure what it's like in the US, but here you could get a mortgage on a 0.9% interest rate less than two years ago, now you can't get anything much lower than 6%. People are having to deal with gargantuan jumps in their monthly payments.