MISTAKES WE MADE BUYING OUR FIRST HOUSE | LUCY WOOD 

"He is a very kinda chilled out, reasonable person, and I am.....neither of those things." my relationship & personality in a nutshell oops

"Hope you're doing!" Hahaha

My boyfriend had the foresight to fix the popcorn ceiling before we decorated which was good, he didn’t have the foresight to not rip out the only working toilet on the day we got the keys, that was fun

I'm a decorator, my husband a plumber, my mother an accountant who deals with mortgages and father in law is a carpenter who has built his own house and renovated lots of hones and I can safely say after buying our first house in September I still get overwhelming waves of thinking Oh my god I don't have a clue how to adult and own my own house with all the expensive responsibilities! 😂

So glad you mentioned the romanticising house buying process. Every video I’ve watched on RU-vid makes it seem very sunshine and roses. Great video! x

Looking to buy our first house in London and found a perfect one recently - went for a second viewing today and my mum noticed in the neighbours garden about 8 huge cat sized rats on the bird feeder - estate agent said it was pet rats but I knocked on the neighbours door to ask and they weren’t 😭😭😭 I’m realising buying a house is like dating and you have to be patient and people lie. So my mistake is never believe the estate agent 😭

Loved this!! Pleaseeee do a process of buying! Eg. Looking, lawyers? Mortgage people? How do you even go about buying haha

The worst thing is you don’t have much control on seeing your home before you move, lots of properties get snapped up quickly and if you’re not fast you’re last and can miss out! I move into my house tomorrow and I’ve only seen it once haha

Lucy I swear if you did a video of you cleaning your shed roof, I would still watch it! You are so friggin loveable xx

Thank you Lucy, great tips!!! We've been in our house for just over a month now and your advice has made me want to hold my horses and re-establish how I want the house to 'feel' and what it 'suits' before i make any big purchases. There's no rush! I have a similar style to you, laid back neutrals, pops of fun, dark woods, plants and some retro touches. Have loved your updates. Very envious of your big ornamental leopard!! 🌠

Pools of condensation... "I always wanted a water feature!" This is the kind relatable content that I needed to see today. Makes me feel better about the windows in our flat 😅 it's a constant battle, us VS water.

Ooh, the hair is looking extra lovely today!

What I've learned is A) first thing is make sure all the electrical, plumbing, roof, structure is good to go (or get it fixed), then B) live with the house for a while to get a feel for it before really changing anything. Obviously B is contingent on it being livable. If a house is livable, then take all the time you need to make it a home... it doesn't need to be done all at once. Plan, plan, plan.

Our first ever flat together (13 years or so ago) master bedroom had a huge built in cupboard against outside wall of property, lovingly put my shoe collection in there and coats, yeah it was a magnet for damp and cold, cue throwing away all my stuff as it was covered in mould and mushrooms!!!! Dehumidifiers are the way forward, especially on water soaked window cils, also if you can bare to have windows on air vent year round that’s a good tip for mould and damp,and don’t push furniture right up against exterior walls (we lost the back of a wardrobe to the same fate in house number 2) and be mindful of the room you air your clothes in too, have that window open, don’t close the door of that room etc etc, all things I’ve discovered the hard way but hey some of the species of mushrooms 🍄 were actually quite beautiful! Every cloud ☁️ lol

Thank you so much for this! My fiance and I bought our first house last year and your house vlogs have been so inspiring :) It's so reassuring to see a realistic look into decorating a first home, struggles and all! I look forward to seeing how your house changes over the years :D

I’m not even in the process of getting my own home yet.. 😂 but i’m all about learning for my future house🤞 something to strive for! ❤️

Always love your videos Lucy, you're so relatable and down to earth whilst staying super funny as well! Definitely feel the weird insta reno pressure, nowhere near buying a house myself but fell down the rabbit hole of diy renovations on instagram and have all these dreams in my head of getting a fixer-upper....but I know its so unrealstic, expensive, and requires experience of this stuff!

We got the keys to our house in march and didnt move in untill june. That was great because we had time to do painting, wallpapering, changing the flooring etc. When we moved in we only had a few things left to do inside so that was great.

My partner and I are currently saving for our first home and this was sooo helpful! Especially prioritising decorating based on the least destructive, I was ready to dive head first into just what I wanted to do!

We bought our first home in London around the same time as you and I have been watching all your homey videos with so much interest ever since! We made a lot of the same mistakes you did tbh 😂 we’ve got furniture that’s too big for rooms, rooms that are now too full of furniture for us to replace the carpets (that desperately need replacing!!) floor we laid ourselves that definitely looks like we laid it ourselves, one room is painted in a colour I loved at the time and now hate etc etc I could go on. Anyway, you aren’t alone (and apparently neither are we!) so thanks for sharing. Your home is beautiful and I’ve really appreciated you sharing the process 😊

This is a great video! A lot of what you said was true of me in my first flat - wanting to do lots and it being unnecessary. Now on second home which is modern so magnolia walls and some choice flooring options was all we’ve had to address (personal choice of course). Living with things for a while really is the best. Good luck with your bathroom. It will be worth it. 🥰😊 xx

Moved into our first house in August. Totally agree with taking someone wiser to viewings with you! We managed to squeeze in enough time to paint two rooms before moving with the help of my dad. He started getting frustrated not being able to keep a straight line between the wall and ceiling... Looked up and realised he could see the tape for the plasterboard 🤦‍♀️ all the rooms in the whole house are the same. Our external walls have turned out to be brick that has just been covered with lining paper and painted 🙈 found out the hard way when I realised how cold the walls were at beginning of winter... 😅

I'm just starting a refurb of my current office/spare bedroom, and have been pondering a click clack sofa. Seeing yours in the video, I'm now sold on the Haru sofabed. It looks exactly the right one for us. Just need to decide on the colour!! You're right about storage being necessary, and both the metal cabinet and the rattan shelves can be painted. I'm a great one for ebay and charity shop bargain pieces and have painted everything from glass vases/tables/cupboards etc just to get the right vibe for our house. The beauty of painting too is that if a few years down the line you fancy a change, a quick sand, a new colour and you've got a whole new look. Good luck!!!

I feel you with all of this! Same situation. We're trying to do two bathrooms now, and it's such a minefield! I would say though that we're extending/moving our toilet waste pipes. I'm also putting the bath half into the under stairs cupboard to make it fit! But I was definitely told I couldn't do these things... I can! It will cost me more money... So I would just ask around and make sure you know exactly why it can't be done. Also, don't trust bathroom shops 😂 i had helpful ideas and brand suggestions, but if I'd just bought what they said I'd have a shower screen that's too tall and a toilet that doesn't fit/work with our waste pipes. Only became clear at the last minute! Essay over :) good luck! X

I haven't had a whole lot of time to be watching youtube recently and I've just started to catch up on some of your stuff. I just want to say watching this after being away for so long has felt like a warm hug and a catch up with an old friend. Thank you for always being honest on this channel

this was so lovely to watch i've missed your home/chatty videos so much!! this was also super useful and i will be noting all of these tips down for when me and my gf buy our first house. thank you!!!

Well done on a really helpful video Lucy. I’m on house two and agree with your points. My suggestions: go in the roof space as soon as you can and certainly after the first heavy rain. Then call roofer...... Bring a good torch on your viewing, check round all toilets and other prospective water features. I have had a total of four leaking toilets, two sinks, and two baths in the houses I bought. Including needing to replace the floor boards in the bathroom as they were rotted. And some kitchen cupboards. Main advice, look hard at what you can’t change, ie direction of the sun, and what is expensive to change and buy the house that you can live with those things in. My last house had the most amazing light. Current house is dark like a lower level of hell. Live and learn!

Super useful video, made many of these mistakes on my first house. Definitely get that inspection/survey done, it saved me from buying a home with a laundry list of issues. Don't risk it, it's the biggest purchase of your life and you deserve to make that educated decision when doing it!

This is so handy Lucy! Nowhere near ready to buy but I would absolutely make all of these mistakes so thank you for helping my future self x

Thanks for this- re mouldy windows buy a dehumidifier/ use bathroom anti mould paint everywhere and make sure air can circulate around the windows/ leave windows bit open. I agree it’s so hard to renovate and stressful. I am super impressed by everything you have done but also feel better as was feeling really inadequate when you walked round the house and initially had all these amazing expensive plans!!

Aww Lucy, everyone makes lots of daft decisions when buying their first house. I made loads including getting a heating system installed that brought water pressure too strong for the old Victorian pipes in this house so I’ve had a few burst pipes and leaks, really need to replace the whole plumbing system but that’s way too expensive at this stage 😫 about one of the only things I did right was ordering a sofa months before moving in ... but I was only able to do that and have to delivered because the house was empty before I moved in and my estate agent was absolutely lovely and gave me my keys weeks before the sale had gone through

Great Video Lucy!!! - I totally agree with everything you've said! We took my dad with us when looking at houses & at the time it was heart breaking when you had fallen in love with a house and he points out everything thats wrong with it - but looking back we didnt buy any of those ones so probably a good thing! Do you think you will replace your wooden windows with plastic frames?

I loved this so much. As someone who spends way too much time on pintrest and following a million home accounts watching this was an amazing reality check that my own house is unlikely to look as shiny/ perfect. Loved the real talk!

Looking to buy a house this year and this video is the perfect level of great tips that I'm am deffo making notes on without being patronising or stressing me out that I know nothing (bc I have no clue). 💜 one nugget of advice I got off my parents is that you can have a meeting with an initial meeting with mortgage advisor for free so see if you're even in a good position to buy!

We did everything in the wrong order too so I totally relate to this 🙈 2 years in and we are still slowly upgrading things as our savings build back up. Window condensation and mould is an adult problem I didn’t expect to deal with 🙈

Thank you for this honest video! Just moved into my first home and have realised how hard it is to afford or DIY the big interior renos you see on Instagram, I’m not alone!

These are all so helpful!! Thanks for sharing Luc

I'd like to give some advice regarding the sofa situation. I moved into my home December 2019, I think at the same time as Lucy and I bought a sofa and armchair from a charity furniture shop the same month I moved in. I have only just purchased my new sofa but at least we had some seats before I made the order for my new sofa. What's great about making some mistakes is that we can learn from them. Thanks for the video Lucy 😁👍

This was such a good video! I feel the same about buying our first house too. Ours is a massive fixer upper and we have no DIY experience, so it's a big learning curve for us. One thing I did think watching this was that pre-house me would have watched this and been so loved up with the idea of getting the house that I (stupidly) wouldn't have listened to all this good advice 😭

My partner and I have bought a fixer-upper and hes very handy - he's done most of the work himself and we have done a lot. But I relate sooo badly to this video. I have so many ideas and wishes, but as you said the designs aren't for my own house and so much of what I thought I wanted is impossible!! What you've done is amazing, dont be disheartened and as you say, save the ideas for the next house 😍😊

We had a month overlap between the rental and our own house, we booked a plasterer to come in the week after we got the keys to do the ceilings cos I couldn't cope with living with popcorn ceiling!

My fiancé and I were looking at buying before Miss Rona hit and that put our plans on hold. But honestly like you said we're so glad it did. We're now looking at totally different houses than we were before; we're now looking at living further out from our city and having more space and garden space in general. Taking this time has really reprioritized what we thought we needed vs what we actually want now.

Such a gorgeous video and fair play for being so honest 😊 lots of great advice and just lovely to sit and feel like we’re all having the chats 😃

We didn’t view the house at different times either. Turns out we can hear the school playground noises when it’s playtime. Definitely got damp in bathroom and possibly kitchen 😐. I’m crap at measuring stuff too 😂. Needed to replace the shower as it was leaking. We got rid of your old sofa and then the new one got delayed 😬

Loved video! So informative 👏 only wish you'd include snippets of the things you were talking about (e.g. living room fridge, sofa, popcorn ceiling...). For someone who is not watching regularly it would help to paint the picture xx

My husband is the only reason we didn’t make a lot of these mistakes when buying our house, firstly we got a new build so thankfully a lot of this we didn’t have to worry about but things like the area and so on he is just the most picky human alive, he is so particular about everything so even when we were renting he would look at everything possible to make sure he was ok, like the estate agents would give him the weirdest looks as he goes round checking literally everything but it always worked out! I am much more like you, not logical and just want the romanticised version of making things pretty to happen. Also definitely recommend the cheap furniture until you know what you want to do with the room. We did this and a year on are replacing a lot of our furniture to make the house work better for us and it is the best decision we have made!

Loved this video as an older homeowner I remember watching some of your and thinking OH no but everything can be rectified including spray painting that cupboard. When I look pictures of my hand me down items used in my first home, two bedrooms sets of drawers with a board across them was my living room unit for a year or so. Then you buy your "Good Stuff" years and life moves on and you realised I have got to replace this, but you no longer like what is current. It is a constant process of good and bad decisions. However I try to enjoy what I have and you have the blessing of a garden what if you had still been in the flat.

Lucy: Maybe you're not planning on buying a house soon but you just like talking about house stuff me: Ahh yes that is me

We were in a bind for ours. Living in a pilot crew house, minimal rental options that were hella expensive, a lot of houses selling over asking due to an influx of miners (woo mining town lol) and needing to move before winter got to -40. I definitely think we chose a house that we wouldn't necessarily have chosen otherwise if we hadn't missed out on the other options we preferred (sketchy sellers changing things at the last minute). Definitely a lot more work and we potentially paid too much for it, but we are definitely learning lmfao. My boyfriend also has ADD so he will decide to research and learn how to do something, sometimes coming up with extravagant ideas and I have to be the one who says "I think that may be harder to do than it looks" without smashing his dreams lol.

Never felt that opening statement more than today doing the exact same thing with my work trousers 🙄 this video is perfect thank you so much for sharing!! x

Thank you for talking about the London aspect. I was born and raised here and always said I would never leave. I’m very soon about to start my buying process for a flat 30 miles outside the m25 as I am now working from home a I just cannot justify buying a very expensive box in London. You get sooo much more for your money outside the m25 it’s unreal. If I need to travel in, it is about a 90 min journey either by train or driving, pretty much the same as travelling from South London to North London xx

This is a very reassuring video, thanks Lucy! Good to know we weren’t the only ones blindly groping our way through the process 😂 our sofa took 14 weeks to come! We also accidentally painted our bedroom walls in wood undercoat for a casual 5x the price of base coat - paint is confusing!!

I love your personality- makes you apleasure to watch!!!!! I partially feel the same as a first-time buyerb going through the process too!

Re your point about the little details - my big mistake was doors, plug sockets and storage. In our bedrooms because of where the sockets are and the way the doors open we can only have the furniture around one way really. And we have literally nowhere to put things like the hoover and ironing board, they get moved from spare room to spare room. This is not an easy thing to fix so definitely something to consider!

I’m waiting to get my exchange and completion date through for buying my first flat. I potentially compromised on more things than I would have liked to but it was all to get the right location so I’m hoping it will all be good! I’ve played the risky game and ordered my sofa 2 weeks ago because it has a 15 week lead time 😅 Also ordered my bed but that’s meant to arrive at the end of February! So keeping everything crossed my paperwork goes through soon!

Hi Lucy, When we first got married we ordered a beautiful, expensive 3-seater sofa. When it arrived it wouldn't go through the door into our flat I was crying. Thankfully my Dad was helping us paint our kitchen and he had to take the Victorian sash windows in our sitting room out to get the sofa in. Then of course when we moved to our house the windows had to be taken out again. I've never forgotten that sofa, long gone now but we always measure any door frames, spaces and new furniture three times to be sure we never make the same mistake x

Love this. I bought a small bungalow Sept 2019. My 'spare room' was kitted out with a large sofa bed for guests, ha! Now I've changed jobs, work from home and now I need the 'spare room' as an office and no guests for the foreseeable. Sofa bed now resides in the garage. Fail!

Hi Lucy, just had a thought that you could spray paint the locker a different colour with metal spray paint? Maybe when the weather is more reliable so you can do it in the garden! I’ve done this with second hand frames and mirrors before (not quite the same scale I know) and they look like new

Don't feel bad love. I am in my 50's and had to get the movers to take a double window out to get my four poster into the bedroom. And that was in bits (so was I!). This was my tenth move!

Thanks for this! Planning to buy this year and there’s some great pointers here. On a side note, a karcher window vac will change your single glazed window life. Trust me. Plus they’re great fun!

Really useful video, I bought my first house over 2 years ago and it has given me some things to rethink - Thanks Lucy!

Yes to all of this we bought our first house last year which need major renovation. I was 6 months pregnant when we moved in and have another child, then the pandemic .. it’s just not gone how I though. Made mistakes , not quite as fun as I thought it would be. Wish we waited... had a bigger budget then we would have to do this bugger up with kids round your ankles out of school ! I liked this video thanks Lucy

My tips are 1. Live within your means. Look at what you could afford if you lost your job and had to do temp work. Worrying about paying a huge mortgage is no way to live. Yes it's tempting to take all the money banks offer, but you'll be paying back an insane amount of interest. Look at spaces that are smaller but that you can do something creative with the space. 4 bedrooms for a young couple (unless having a large family) just isn't necessary a first home. 2. Don't just buy because it looks nice. You can find some places with potential but old fashioned carpets can put you off. Don't let someone else's home style put you off. You can make it look exactly how you want. Imagine it as a blank canvas. 3. Go for a fixed mortgage. Interest rates can go all over the place. I got a 5 year fixed rate because of Brexit. I didn't know what would happen to the house market, so I wanted to have the same amount every month. 4. Overpay as much as you can. It's tempting to shop etc but overpaying now means more money to yourself in the future. I managed to knock off £35 from my monthly repayment and it makes a big difference. 5. Don't think everyone is going to stay over. Buying a house with more rooms because you want people to stay over isn't the best. People will get cabs home and if they do stay, a sofa or an airbnb is a lot cheaper than an extra 20k on a house for a guest room.

Honestly wish I knew so much of this before we bought our place. I've made so many of these mistakes too, so glad to know its not just me! Definitely going to view the place multiple times and looking at the small details is my biggest regret for not doing.

Good advice. I made plenty of mistakes, expensive ones too. I think it’s part of life really. Your pink locker would take spray paint very well..job for the spring outdoors maybe?

When I lived in Wandsworth I actually used to walk into central 😂 might sound mad, as it takes a long long while, but damn, stick on a podcast or audiobook and you feel so accomplished! Maybe give it a go if you get any winter sun and see what you think 😂 there must be something so weird and cool about seeing London so quiet right now- maybe low-key peaceful !

Get a window vac! Hoover up the condensation in the mornings. The first winter in our house I was so unprepared for how damp it would get. One bedroom was literally covered in mould spores and needed repainting. A year down the line I'm an expert in dehumidifying.

Hi Lucy, I don't generally comment on videos, but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents :-). I'm in my 60s and have moved (bought and sold) house several times in the US. My first recommendation would be to prioritize the necessary repairs. For example, replace or repair a leaky roof first, replace or repair anything that's broken like furnace or windows etc. While it's understanding you want to create a perfect home right away, it's best to live in a home for awhile as you'll probably change your mind a few times on what you want to do or sadly find more things that need repairing. I've always taken my "old" furniture with me and left appliances as-is at first. Then over time, I replaced the furniture and updated the kitchen and bathrooms being careful to keep them neutral/simple as you'll have to live with it a long time. Make sure to keep a list of the lessons learned list for "next time" ;-) ! Bottom line is: take your time and enjoy your new home. I'm sure being a youtuber you want to show progress quickly...

My partner and I are about to start the process of saving / buying a house and this was so helpful!!!

We got the keys to our house the same time as you, and the sofa issue is one that hits hard! We had 13 weeks to wait, thought it was fine, we can cope, then COVID hit... Took 6months to get the sofas delivered and ended up having to get the window removed to get them in because we didn't think to ask if the sofa came in 2 pieces. Very much feel the back pains are here to stay!

Best video I’ve watched in ages! I love how you keep the first home renovation but real!!

Rewatching this video as we’re now in the position to buy our first home and have to say I do disagree with the first section talking about not looking for homes before your ready, yes it’s devastating to see houses you seen as your own be sold but I did this for about 2 years 😅 and then it gave me a really clear idea of what we did and didn’t want because I was pretty much a house scouting expert at this point rather than going in blind, also we deliberately looked around a few houses we didn’t want mainly because my partner didn’t know what a good house for us was until he saw what he didn’t want, as we sadly lost out on the first house we saw aswell through hesitation 😢 so I’d advise look as much as you can and make a list of what you like about all the houses you’ve seen and why, then when it comes to looking you’ll know what you want and also what’s a good deal

This video couldn't couldn't have come at a better time... Watching this after one of those nights spent organising viewings for every dream house I have seen on right move haha Thank You Lucy xx

In relation to your first point, I have alternative opinion in that I don’t think it’s all bad looking at houses online until you’re 100% ready. I’d say it’s worth doing some research maybe when you’re 80-90% ready, especially in areas where properties come to market then go quickly (like London). I think looking at the market enables you to build some level of knowledge to value of properties, if there’s properties that seem to stay on the market for a while, you have the ability to watch it and see what is does go for (was the price too high for the size / area? Etc). This is with the view of looking at the market to understand areas, value and what is worth paying when you do come to buy, not looking for YOUR property until you do have finances in order. When you do come to buy you won’t be forced into paying asking price if you’ve scoped out before hand that it’s too high and not worth it when you know something else will come along that’s more in line with what you understand about the area.

Thanks for this my hoping to buy my first house in South Wales this year and you've given me some good tips to look out for 😊

This is actually really helpful for renting too tbh, although obviously not as big of a commitment as buying a house, I'm definitely going to take a lot of this with me when I'm looking at moving into a rented place.

Made a big mistake yesterday with one of my art pieces.. can't be salvaged 1.5 hrs of hard work gone... But... Will hopefully never do that again! Yes, always bring someone with you who has bought before. We are looking for land to build... SO different to buying a house! There will always be unforseen things that come up, especially in older homes, but you learn with every one! 😁

This was so helpful! I do aspire to purchase our first home in the near future, so this gave me a lot to think about!

I work at an furniture upholstery warehouse and the lead time on furniture is often 8w. All our pieces get made to order and so the big furniture companies like SCS and DFS will take your order, and then order it through a company like ours to which it will then be made. Then on top of this lead time you have to give or take a couple weeks as you have to account for delays and delivery time from the factory to the store, and then from the store to the consumer home.

We viewed our house once! Put the offer in, then the whole process took 7 months (xmas, chains, covid, blah blah)... and we couldn't see it again until it was ours and we moved it. I agree, retrospectively it sounds crazy! Oh, also, our sofa did not fit in the house! 🤣🤣

My fiancé and I are moving from Chicago to Pittsburgh this spring because our jobs are now remote and we want to buy an actual affordable house in a city (that is not at all feasible in Chicago but yay for Pittsburgh). This video was so helpful. Thank you!

thank you for sharing your experience

In the process of buying our first house so I am now binge watching your house videos. Picked up 2 huge tubs of stuff to get the artex off the ceilings when we move in, that will be job 1!! As its a 1950s house it's also likely got asbestos in it so budgeting for masks and goggles! It's not really in liveable condition (not dangerous but it hasnt been redecorated since the 70s) so I agree with your advice to use between time wisely. We've got about 8 weeks rent/buy overlap (we think!) which is horribly expensive and now unavoidable lol (we probably were looking a smidge too soon) but hoping we can take some holiday from work within that time, and lots of evenings to use it well.

When I was packing up my house I totally get trigonometry thing.... taking the bed down the stairs whilst still assembled was never going to work however I still tried. I was in the house alone, with the door locked and the key in the back of the door on the hottest day of the year in fleeced lined tracks and couldn't get it down or back up... just think Friends with Ross and the sofa so had to disassemble the bed on the stairs and strip off hoping the old neighbours didn't see xxx

I really appreciate the honesty and transparency in this! I feel that pressure to have an IG worthy home too!

My husband and I bought his grandma’s beach cottage outside of sf in CA and even have lived there for 6 years there are things that ALWAYS come up. Especially with an old house. It’s a constant process fixing and maintaining things. And people said buying a house would be fun!! 😜🤦🏻‍♀️

Loved the video. Do you ever think you’d move back north for a less expensive house, or you prefer London or it’s better for work reasons and Adam’s family? I’m on the Wirral and prices in the south blow my mind!! I think the romanticising thing for me was being in charge of my own destiny owning a house and paying off my own house, not paying a landlord. I run a small business from home and it would be a big upheaval to have to move if it was not my choice, to find a place big enough, nice area, that allowed a dog... I ended up buying the house I was renting from my landlord, the mortgage is way cheaper than the rent was. Was good that I’d lived in it 5 years and knew it inside out and what work it needed.

I am saving for a house with my fiancè and we literally went through months of looking on right move, as soon as we decided we'd start to save for a house together 😂 definately years in the making but still the video I needed 👌🏻🌸

also completely agree about the Pinterest thing & watching lots of people on line doing up homes! Pinterest homes are often not first home buyers, it’s home makers well into there middle age who have a bit more disposal income & more years behind them to have saved! Also so many influencers earn a lot more than the average person in the 20s or 30s (no shade, good for them!) but watching them can set unrealistic expectations or ideas of what most first home owners can do in terms of buying new furniture or renovations! Super good video as always xx

Taking a lot of mental notes for sometime in the future :) Lovely video! x

Love your videos Lucy, very real and down to earth. Love it. X

Loved this will deffo come back to this when, if I ever move out🤣🤍

We bought our first house almost 3 years ago and you made it feel much more normal that we're still working on it. It's easy to feel like people just move in and get it all sorted from what you see on social media. I have to say putting in an offer was the most terrifying thing I've ever done haha. This was the first house we viewed and we had to do it on the day we saw it for the first time because of other offers already in and the owner wanting to make a decision. I was so torn about buying a renovation project and there were some jobs that did almost put me off but my dad insisted it was a good opportunity price wise. I do think we did the right thing but oh boy was that a stressful day.

HELL YES it is NOT a competition!!!!!!!! Sweetie, nobody has a clue in the house buying process it's a case of fake it till you make it and assess things with common sense, you forget it all due to the pain the next time you move & it's always exciting so you always get somewhat swept up. & Don't feel like you're not making progress I've been in my place 3 years and still haven't done all the bits (big & little) I wanted to do to it. If you can't view at different time you can always do a drive/walk by at different times. My house is newer than yours with double glazing & I get condensation on the windows too you can't get rid of it completely, mop round in the morning and get the worst & set a dehumidifier going for a while. So is the extension completely shelved? I did have some ideas of kitchen/bathroom layout you could potentially do a while ago if there was going to be an extension x

If anyone is viewing properties I would suggest to always be wary of freshly decorated properties and utilise the Rightmove sold properties function which can often show you the price and sale history of the house and sometime older photos than are currently on. We viewed a lovey freshly decorated house, but turned out all it hid was lots and lots of damp! Bent doors and a damp cellar were a big giveaway. It had also been bought only the year before for half the price they were now selling for.

So glad I watched this video this today.... literally going to homebase to buy paint today and so nearly went for a colour that doesn't suit our flat just because its trendy

Super video that I enjoyed while sitting on the living room floor, awaiting the arrival of a sofa!

This was definitely a video I needed! My other half and I are currently saving for our first home, and it's sooo hard to be realistic about it all! We live in a city that's very expensive to buy in any decent location, and it's hard to get into the mindset of "this is our first place, it doesn't even need to do us for 10 years, just calm down" 😂

Thank you for this I am looking to buy in the next 12 months and I'm doing the Rightmove surfing too! I need to speak to a mortgage advisor and get my finances sorted so I can start looking properly!

I will never move out on my own because I’m pretty severely, and openly, mentally unstable. I can barely live with my mom and I’m 30. But I loved watching this. I live vicariously through your aesthetic because I love it so much. Thank you for sharing what you’ve learned!