Visit from the siblings

Cliff's brother (Paul) and sister (Kathryn) and their family turned up today. Kathryn made the most fabulous cake to welcome us to our new home, picture to follow shortly. Paul got the heating system working upstairs and the brother in law (Sean) helped Paul start stripping the lounge, again pictures to follow shortly. Thank you all for a brilliant day in the house! X

The Cake from Cliff's Sister (http://www.katacake.co.uk/)

Move date (finally!!)

......and we're in!!! (10 December 2010).  Phew!  Now the hard work starts.

All systems go, preparations for moving

Week ending 6 November 2010. This week, the mortgage has been approved and we have had agreement on yet another revised sellling price from the Vendors which we're obviously over the moon about.

We've given the solicitor a move date of Friday 12 November which looks likely but we're still awaiting actual confirmation.

We're both extremely excited and just can't believe we'll be the house within a week, especially after the roller coaster ride we've been on over the last 8 months.

Writing this blog sitting drinking some red wine with Paul in what is hopefully our last Saturday night in Home Avenue.  X Factor on shortly, our votes will be for Matt Cardle.

Temporary move from South Knighton to Thorpe Astley

Details to follow shortly.

It came back to us

It was toward the end of May 2010, after about 2 months after our offer on the house was rejected, we had a phone call from the Estate Agent to say that the previous offer that had been accepted had now been withdrawn.  The Estate Agent asked us whether we were still interested in the house and made a formal offer straight away and was accepted a short while later.  This now meant we had to work much harder and quicker to sell both Paul's house and Cliff's house for the move to go ahead.

The first offer

Around the end of March 2010, we made a formal offer on the property.  As the owners were beneficeries of Ms Deacon and lived in Canada, we had to wait a while for a response.  A week went by and we heard nothing, eventually we found out from the estate agent that another offer had been received on the house and this was higher than ours.  Eventually, a short while later, we had confrimation that the higher bid had been accepted, this was not surprising news to us.  This was really disappointing but we kept our spirits up and kept on looking.

The first viewing

After speaking with the estate agent to organise the viewing, the interesting story of the house started to evolve. The house was up for sale due to the owner sadly passing away.  Although the downstairs flat was still occupied it was only being rented. On completion of sale the tenant would obviously be given notice. The representative from the estate agency met us on site on 17 March 2010, let us in, and off we went exploring the many rooms. It only took a matter of minutes before realising it was perfect for us, despite what had happened to it over the years.   

There was an awful lot that may have put off any potential buyer, the first of which being the horrendous stench that hit you as walked in. The place hadn't been aired for years let alone days. The cooking of the tenant was not something to be desired. 

We started downstairs and managed to look beyond the shag pile patterned carpets and embosed wallpaper, fire places boarded over with gas fires stuck to them that resembled potential death traps as well as suncken floors and old sheets hung at the windows.   

The lay out was perfect. Downstairs there was a huge lounge, dining room and smaller breakfast room with what was formally a skullery and large pantry. Again there was plenty to look beyond including Sausage dogs, dirty net curtains and linolium you practicaly stuck to.  It was very dark which wasn't helped by the dirty net curtains at the window looking out onto what looked like the enourmous fire escape.

A door from the skullery then led to a courtyard area, just large enough to swing a kitten. There was an outbuilding with 3 blue doors and curiousity was certainly getting the better of us.  We checked out all 3, one was full of boxes, the second was a dirty old toilet which clearly hadn't been used for a very long time and finally a bunker full of coal.  (We immediately knew that would come in handy for a cold winters night!)

It soon became clear walking around the rest of the house that it needed a lot of TLC and some of the original features bringing back to life.  £ signs started rolling in front of our eyes, however, this did not stop us both feeling like this was exactly what we were looking for.  Our favourite room was the first floor bedroom with a view of Stoneygate Road and the large Sycamore tree because it had a very nice feel to it.

How it all began

March 2010.  We had been living together in Paul's place for just under a year. 

Paul's place

The extension was complete and the newly installed kitchen (by Alexander Lewis http://www.alexanderlewis.com/) was stunning.

Kitchen at Paul's Place

We now had time to relax and enjoy living together, only it wasn't long before we both started to get itchy feet and were regularly talking about a new project.  Do we move?, do we stay?, do we buy another place to rent?, do we stay in Leicester?   We kept our options open and started to look at properties in and around Knighton, Stoneygate, Clarendon Park. We loved this part of Leicester and knew this is where we wanted to be.

We had been looking on http://www.rightmove.co.uk/ and a few properties caught our attention on Southernay Road, Knighton Church Road, Knighton Road but upon closer inspection, didn't excite us or fitted what we were looking for.  To be fair, we were not sure what we were exactly looking for, but we hoped we would know when we found it.

Paul spotted a property on Rightmove for sale on Stoneygate Road but the details were very vague and the picture of the house wasn't great. The description read:

"Deceptively spacious peiod Victorian Villa, located within the heart of the desirable residential suburb of Stoneygate.  Originally designed by local architect Stockdale Harrison circa 1869 in a gothic revival style, the porperty still retains many of these original characteristics.  Currently the property has been partially converted into two good sized flats but could easily be converted back to a spacious family home.  Offering a weath of character features, internal viewings are highly recommended to fully appreicated".

Of course, we had to go and take a look and with no time to spare, that evening, we took a steady stroll round to Stoneygate Road.

We walked along Stoneygate Road from Stoughton Drive and when we walked around the corner and caught sight of the house, the only thing we could see were trees, lots of them! Upon closer inspection of the house through the trees, the house gave off this aura of sheer size.  It took us a while to walk around the boundaries of the house and it was quite difficult to work out where the house started and ended.  We were both taken in by the house and knew we had to organise an internal viewing.