Owning your own home

Unsure. Can't afford to live in central Cambridge - at least not in the sort of family home with decent garden we'd like - so may be using car more, maybe two cars... Parents will be closer to soak up some childcare costs, hopefully, but anywhere within a few miles of the south City boundary with decent transport links looks savagely expensive...

the wooden bits under our windows just above the sill (outside) are in a bit of a state and could do with replacing. who the cock would be best qualified to do that? any forum recommends?

When do you need to move?

You might want to consider Northstowe. It's currently being built, just north of Cambridge. It is built around the new 'Busway' which is pretty quick to get into the centre of town for commuting and, as a new build place, will generally have much lower cost than more established villages.

Edit: to be clear; first houses are likely to be available from 2017 so you'd need to rent somewhere for 12 months first.

Move to Norwich. Cheap as chips.

Currently going through the same thing, Sarah Beany recommends these guys, am currently trying to get them to come in and have a butchers at my wooden windows.

http://www.ventrolla.co.uk/

Not a forum recommendation per-se but worth a shot for a guide price, have heard good things about them!

Cambridge area is very variable but there are some cheap(ish) properties about.

3-bed semi for £300k with reasonable garden in walking distance of Gt Shelford station and the Addenbrookes cyclepath: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49330928.html

cheers fam!

i found this chap on the interent. he looks the business.

http://www.thepolishhandyman.co.uk/windows_frames_and_sills_repaired.html

Thanks for heads-up. Really need to be south or south-east as my job is at Capital Park, Fulbourn, and my wife is likely to be working at Addenbrookes Hospital; getting around or across Cambridge is a right fucker during commuter times. Start work on 4th Jan but going to be commuting and staying with parents during the week till our lass gets a job. We could feasibly rent for 6-12 months before buying to get a feel for areas, though we are both originally from south Cambs so have some knowledge... Just didn't realise it was so expensive till now.

@chrisbmx116: Norwich is nice, but way too far. Really want to keep cycle-commuting and would tolerate up to 10-miles or so each way.

@Greenbank: Thanks. Good start. That house and garden is a bit small, but location is great. Forgot to mention we are also massive snobs. Coming from a huge 3-bed period garden flat with garage in Zone 2 - so have quite high expectations.

Needless to say I have rinsed Rightmove...

Move along, nothing to see here, move along ladies and gents.

So the council have agreed our completion date and we are waiting for the seller of the place we are buying to do the same. Just had an email from my solicitor to say the seller's solicitor has suddenly resigned today and buggered off. Great. She's now trying to get hold of the new solicitor to sort.

You really aren't having much luck, are you?

It's ok, new solicitor has sorted it. We've exchanged.

FUCKING TOP BANANA!

Congrats! Now go and drink loads of beer!

as much as i appreciate your confidence in my skills, i'd only arse it up. see bike repair threads for more.

So relieved

We have loads of stuff to freecycle and sort from now until then so best start sorting!

Sssshhh. I prefer to remain ashamedly in the closet.

@Timmy2wheels Looking at the mis-matched neighbour on the Shelford one @greenhell linked to I'd say it's a bricked-up Airey house, so non-standard construction. Only worth the complication if you are utterly desperate to live in Shelford and £300k is your budget.

What is your budget?

That was ludicrous. Opposite solicitor walks out on the day we want to exchange. Nothing to do with our case. No indication the day before. Bare jokes.

And yes - all the beers!

Kat I might go out for one with today's qualifiers and pretend I'm celebrating their success. But really i'll be celebrating the exchange of contracts. But really i'll be celebrating both because i'll actually be very happy about them qualifying too :-D

Had to Google Airey house - thanks for the tip. Currently two schools of thought: bail out of London for good and throw everything (~600k) at a bigger/ nicer/ closer-to-town house; or remortgage, let the flat out and buy somewhere more modest/ further away.

We have a good budget and options - a very fortunate position to be in - but I was hoping to have a smaller mortgage out of London. Might just be a case of expectation realignment...

I'm a young family and live I Her Majesty's Socialist Republic of Trumpington. It's about 2 miles south of the City centre so 10 mins bike pootle along a traffic-free bike path beside the guided busway. 15 mins down Queen Edith's Way to your work, 5 mins to Addenbrooke's. Near enough to town to feel part of it but far enough out that £600k will get you a decent semi with a garage. It's a multi cultural middle-class paradise where everyone is called Dr or Professor So-and-so, has multi lingual kids, did their PhD at Copenhagen and has no driving licence, never mind a car. Any closer in and you'll be in a London-esque Victorian terrace with no parking and a small garden at your budget.

If you don't want to spend all that look at Chinton, or Cherry Hinton as non-locals insist on calling it. It's a bigger suburb with lots of 80s houses so you get more choice and therefore better value than the centre or Trumpington and it's 5 mins from your work. A modern 3 bed detached is about £400k, £600k gets you something very decent. There are more plasterers and fewer a neuro scientists, but there's only so many times you can be made to feel intellectually inferior before it gets tiring, so hanging out with a few plasterers can be quite a nice break. There's also an annoyingly twee craft pub in Cherry Hinton so as a London Fixie Hipster you'll feel right at home: http://www.rhodeislanduk.com

Norf of the river, Chesterton is good value and isn't too bad to Capital Park, nipping along Newmarket Rd and Coldhams Lane on a bike, but in a car it's an effing disaster as there's only one bridge over the water and it can take half an hour to cover half a mile.

If you don't mind a bit of village life, look no further than Fulbourn. It's right by your work, has pubs, shops and that and isn't too far from town. The only downside is that it's maybe 5 miles from the nearest station, so getting back to that there London is more of a faff than from Chinton or Trumpton.

Who will you be working for?

^ Crumbs. Look at all those words.

Rent the flat out...

there's only so many times you can be made to feel intellectually inferior before it gets tiring

that's alright, you're among fellow mouth breathers here

A few months ago I posted a crack den in Forest Gate on here trying to illustrate that you can still just about get a big house round here for less than £290k.

Said crack den is now a 'nicely' refurbished family home for £500k:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-37965456.html

Fuckin 'ell. I hope the future owner doesn't mind former clients turning up at all hours looking very confused/angry they can no longer fill their prescriptions.