The hunt for a house

I know it's been quite a while since I have posted on here. Between working long hours, a visit from my family and house hunting, I haven't had a chance to sit down and gather thoughts.

I have been looking at houses in many villages all over the langkloof and surrounds for the past 2 months. I've looked at beautiful houses with no garden, not such great houses with lovely gardens and much in between. I even saw a stunning house that had everything I wanted except that it had major water problems.

But eventually I found something that was just right for me.

It has a lovely big kitchen with space for a big kitchen table.  There is a main bedroom with dressing room plus a guest bedroom. A spacious lounge. And a lovely little sunny room which  will become my office.

The garden is huge. And when I replace the ceilings with wood ceilings, I'll then have a attic which will be big enough to turn into an art studio or a guest room.

Here are the pictures of the house. Unfortunately there are none of the 2 spare rooms or the bathroom.

There is a lot of work to be done on the house since I want the kitchen and dressing room to have wooden cupboards. I'll probably have to settle for wooden veneers over the current chipboard since new cupboards will cost a small fortune (especially with the amount of cupboards that will need replacing).

I also want to put a shower into the bathroom. And possibly re-tile the bathroom. Although I cannot remember what colours where in the bathroom, it was pretty nondescript and certainly nothing to write home about. Thankfully it was a decent size with adequate space for both the washing machine and the shower I want to install.

I'm still trying to decide on colours and style for both the bathroom and kitchen. With the kitchen, I also have the option to leave the layout as is and just put my kitchen table in. Alternatively, I could put a centre line of cupboards with a big work surface in, effectively breaking the kitchen into workspace and dining area, putting the kitchen table on the other side so that it would be more like a smaller open plan kitchen with a casual dining area on the other side.

As for the bathroom, I need to decide what type of shower, what colour tiles, if I want any layout changes or not.

And then of course, I want to replace all the ceilings with wooden ceilings (except the master bedroom which already has wooden ceilings. And Bourne Gleam all the wooden floors. And I'm seriously tempted to put carpets into the bedrooms since they have tiled floors currently.

Of course I also want to repaint inside since most of the walls are not a colour I would have chosen. And I need to put new fascia boards on plus redo the gutters. And I definitely need to get a fireplace installed.  Thankfully not everything has to be done before I move in, since I'm on a limited budget. 

I'll start with the gutters and fascia boards and then see how much I have left. Thereafter I will be able to tackle one project every month to three months depending on how much money I can scrape together and what the cost of said project will be.

And the garden needs some more trees, possibly a few fruit trees. Some herbs, my veggie patch.

So it looks like my next year or two is cut out for me. With lots of projects to keep me out of mischief.

The search for the perfect home continues

Today I went to look at 3 houses. 2 unfortunately had very tiny gardens although stunning houses and the other one was a very tiny house even though the garden was adequate. I could buy it and build on an extra room. But I think I will first look around for other options.

I'm sure when my dream home presents itself, I will actually recognise it. 

And on Sunday I'll be looking at a few more properties. This is all very exciting. My only worry is that I do not find something I fall in love with before my lease runs out. I really do not want to buy a house that doesn't tug at my heart strings.

At the end of this weekend, I'll try and post some pics of the houses I've viewed.