No Regrets

Hello blog fans - I do apologise for not blogging for 2 weeks - I have been busy (it was my birthday last week) but ... it does NOT mean I am running out of things to say........ as if ! 


In fact, I seem to have more and more things I want to blog about - just have to figure out which ones to start with!


ANYWAY today's blog is about our old flat. The story behind the flat has followed me since I was a little girl. This is a long one but bear with me ......


2 old Victorian houses were owned by my Godfather. They were huge, 3 storey houses. My Godfather died when I was quite young but we still used to visit my "Aunt" quite regularly. My memories of the house then were that it was very dark and I used to be a little frightened of the long, dark, cold hall landing. Eventually, she decided to move ... and sell both 54 and 56 Bedford Road.


Dad mentioned the 2 houses to my brother initially - he was 2 years older than me and, with a friend, did consider buying them  - I am not sure why he backed out in the end - it may have been because there were sitting tenants (my "Aunt" had been renting out rooms in both houses).


So ... because my brother did not want to buy, my Dad mentioned it to me - I never really THOUGHT about it properly. All I thought was that sitting tenants could be a problem and why would I want to be a landlord at 18 ... with all that responsibility ? The whole idea of buying houses hadn't really hit me -  home ownership seemed much too grown up to me !


Now ....... I may need to be corrected on this ..... but if I recall properly - the asking rate BECAUSE of the sitting tenants - was either £12,000 each or (even worse and I seriously think this was the figure) £12,000 for BOTH 3 STOREY HOUSES !!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG - I know this was in the early 80's but ARGGHHHH !!!


I did not look at the long term prospects - I did not think about the opportunity of starting out owning 2 houses - I did not have any idea of what it would be like to be a property "mogul" (how different life could have been ????)


I turned it down - so - my Uncle bought the houses and converted them to 6 flats - all modernised - new kitchen and bathroom units, nicely painted and decorated.


Well that took him several years - 3 or 4 I think - The tenants had to leave first and he was doing other jobs at the same time so this was a slow project.


GUESS WHAT - by the time he finished converting the houses - I was with Mark and looking to move out of home ........ a nice flat or maisonette would suit us just fine ...... We bought one ... yes .... one of the flats my Uncle converted - and we paid 3 times the original whole house figure !!!!


As most who know me will know, we were generally happy there and it was great that the flat was spacious. It was really only the arrival of Dan that made us reconsider the space. We overcame that problem by buying a sofa-bed so Mark and I slept downstairs and the kids had the big room upstairs ....... well that was the plan ...... except that less than a week after buying the sofa-bed ... came the accident...........


I think that is what coloured my view of the flat - At the time I used to think that I should have bought the houses when I could, but I certainly did not have the skills or time or money to have converted them - I would just have sat on them and probably not made much money on them, so I was able to dismiss that. It was what came next, that I spent too much time regretting.


The whole aspect of Mark's death made the flat become our security blanket - the kids and I hid ourselves away there and, even though I dreamed of moving so I could have a garden, - truth be told I NEEDED the stability of staying put, at that time. The kids bonded incredibly well - because they HAD to - they shared the bedroom ...... 


3 years after Mark died we moved ....... I kept the flat - it was nice being able to move out gently - again I think I needed that - it was another grieving period.


I did a lot of work on improving the place - although my Uncle had converted it, it still had the old Victorian Sash window (that let in a gale in the Winters) it had damp,  and, after 7 years of hard wear and tear with 3 children plus others I looked after, it needed decorating and new carpets.  I engaged a painter & decorator, laid new carpets and replaced the windows with double-glazed, sash lookalikes.


Anyway - I rented it out for a few years until I needed the money for school fees ........ Then I sold it !


THIS was my big regret - I joke about the regret being that I didn't buy both houses to start with but in reality, my regret is selling it, once I had done it up ...... YES I needed the money but I kept hanging on to the idea that I could have carried on renting it out and then been able to pass it over to the kids when they needed it.


That regret has been with me for the last 13 years! It even intensified last year when both Jess and Gina wanted to move out .......... Until last Saturday! The flat is up for rent so Jess called to ask for a viewing. The owner is still the girl I sold it to, back in '99. I tagged along to the viewing!


It was nostalgic, emotional and very therapeutic. 


I realised that the flat was dark, as I recalled when I was a little girl - it IS an old Victorian house - it was cold - I know it was not currently lived in but it just seemed cold - the bathroom had been redecorated and was no where near as aesthetically pleasing as when fresh and new in 1988 - AND they still had a problem with HUGE house spiders from the cellar !!!!!!


Jess won't be looking to rent it as they are not allowed the dogs. As a freehold flat there is a consortium of all the flat owners to ensure the general maintenance for the whole building is kept up. One of the new rules is that they now won't allow dogs. 


So even if I had continued to own the place ..... I would probably have had to agree to that.


It just seemed unloved, paint peeling off the bannisters, wallpaper bubbling, carpet a little grubby - and I know that's because it has been rented out but it was a real REVELATION.


This revelation is, that I was looking at it through fresh eyes, not rose-tinted glasses. The reality back then was that I needed the money at that time. If I had continued renting the property out, I would have to maintain it, replace anything that needed replacing, deal with the further damp problems that the current owner has had to deal with AND go through the hassle of actually renting it out. 


I know that if you have 3 or 4 flats to rent out, you can make some money - but this was just the one flat .......... and I think I have finally, after 13 long years, laid that ghost to rest ...........