Actually, when I think about it, I almost didn't even go in to look at the house we bought. I pulled up out the front and my first thought was "Yuck! I'm not living there!! It's purple!" But the purpleness has grown on me and it makes it very easy for people to find
We bought ours in 1999 when the market started to shift. We bought because we had the deposit, we had finally arrived in the town where we intend to remain long-term, and because we were sick of the crummy houses that Defence were offering at the time. Really just wanted a patch of earth to put our roots down in.
Reasons we bought THIS house:
* nicest location we could afford within a practical distance to DH's work
* we made a wish list of all the features/qualities we wanted in a house (everything from an extra room which acts as a study, to fully fenced, has garage, pleasant aspect, etc).
* it was a very good buy considering we were buying at the low end of the market (purchase price $115K).
* we were able to move in and be comfortable without spending any extra $$ on renos (important because there was no room in our budget on one wage at the time)
* the house is modest, but with a small expenditure on landscaping, new pergola, bathroom reno and minor cosmetic improvements it will be worth a lot more
But the main reason - the energy up here is awesome. It is so quiet and peaceful and there is a real 'charge' in the area. I would love to be a bit closer to family but it would have to be a pretty damn awesome house to make me want to move. I just *love* it up here.
The house we were renting was HORRID. Orange bathroom. Green kitchen. (think 1970s colours.) Single glazed windows. Bad area.
Our current home is nice, airy, large (for a 2-bed maisonette), in a great village, near fantastic schools, near a mainline station to London (for selling purposes only as we don't use this!), affordable (as it needed a lot of doing up) and, tbh, DH said that we couldn't have children until we bought and he wanted to buy.
I think the last point had the most to do with it, tbh. The fact we have a nice place to live is good too, but it was all about DH wanting to buy and me wanting a family.
We got our place in a nice new area, brand new home, bargain price and repayments are cheaper than rent. We have worked our butts off (gardens, garage, fences etc) but have also put $80k on top of what we paid for it in 2yrs. It will hopefully set us up for a larger home in years to come.
I suppose I should answer my own question too. Location was excellent but I think I fell in love with the house. It felt homely. Had wider than usual hallway and a cute little bookcase in the living room.
It needed work but not immediately and I never liked the houses that had already been renovated because they'd never been reno-d to my taste and I felt like I'd be living in someone's house if that makes sense.
Location - needed to be close to my dad, but added bonus is my house is on the same road as the Kinder and the local P.S is 300metres around the corner. We can walk to either a lovely strip shop, or milkbar or the huge shopping centre.
It's also an 'older' area and I like everything established.
Affordable! House itself - yeah, its 1950's and needs ALOT of updating, but I never buy a 'finished' house, I buy them to make my mark on it! It has a huge, airy lounge with lovely windows, 2 of the 4 bedrooms are HUGE, it has a semi-contained unit out the back so I initially used it for my office (BIG PLUS), but its excellent for the teenrager.
It also has a huge 2x garage plenty of backyard. The front garden area really sold it for me.
So all those contributed, but overall its the size and location - and in one of the only areas that continue to grow in the slump!
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