What I Own: Business owner Rachel, who bought her £1million house in Crowborough

What is the monthly cost of living here now; both mortgage and bills?

The monthly cost is huge. Our mortgage is the biggest single outgoing of about £3,100 a month. Add fuel and gas, electric etc and the monthly costs are about £5,000.

How did you save up for your deposit?

We bought our previous house to do up, but never actually managed to get it done. We had saved and saved for the work over a period of several years and had bought nothing for the house in that time, because we were planning major renovations. None of this ever happened, but meant we’d saved quite a bit to put towards our new house.

What was the process of getting a mortgage like for you? Did you find any parts challenging?

Getting a mortgage was a nightmare. Because we hadn’t sold our previous house and were asking for a large chunk at a time when the banks were being extra cautious due to Covid, it was a battle. 

On top of that, because I set up Tiny Box Company and am the major shareholder, even though I am classed as employed – as far as government guidelines are concerned – the banks still treat me as self-employed. We therefore had a whole host of hoops to jump through.

Where did you live before this?

Our old house was a ‘doer-upper’ in Uckfield, on the edge of town. The décor was 1960s, but because we were intending to completely renovate, we never modernised anything. It was horrific, with swirly carpets and bright red ancient curtains, with bamboo kitchen units. Until lockdown, we hadn’t realised how overlooked we were. 

Suddenly with everyone at home it felt as though we were living in a goldfish bowl – a very old, dated goldfish bowl.

What made you want to buy rather than renting?

I saw the location and garden of our new house and asked my husband if we could have it. I had fallen in love with the idea of having no neighbours and no ‘curtain twitching’ around us. He said ‘no’ because it was too expensive and we hadn’t sold our house. It took a week to persuade him.

How did you find this property?

I found the house purely by accident on the May bank holiday, on Rightmove. I was sitting in our horrible sitting room and dreaming of where I could be instead. I had seen the house before, but the drone picture overhead showed a hedge. 

I had assumed the hedge was the partition to the neighbour’s garden so had ruled out the house on the basis of neighbours being too close. So my husband went on Google maps and laughed. He said the ‘neighbour’s hedge’ was actually the hedge protecting the swimming pool and the ‘neighbour’s house’ was the outdoor annex and office.

How have you made the property feel like home?

Because we bought nothing for our last house, even though we lived there nearly four years, I told my husband I was not going to wait for us to do decoration and extensions before we made it feel like home. 

John Lewis and Barker and Stone House sales boomed the month we moved in.

What’s the inspiration for your interior decor style?

I like simple. Minimalist and coordinated. I buy lots of house magazines, like Interiors, and tear the pictures out to then add my own style. We have a lot of decoration to do and a lot of updating, but we’ll hopefully get it done over the next couple of years. We’ve actually only decorated our bedroom, the dressing room and a toilet so far.

What’s your favourite room and why?

My favourite room is actually the conservatory. This is because it’s lovely and light and overlooks the beautiful garden.  The downside is it’s cold in the winter so we do plan to knock it down and build a big light kitchen diner.

Do you feel like you have enough space?

Our house is 3700 sq ft, with six bedrooms, and it’s only my husband and I – so we definitely have enough space. 

I love that the downstairs is bigger than upstairs, but it means if I’m one end of the house and my husband the other, I have to phone him if I need him. It’s too far to shout.

Do you have plans to change the property?

Loads of plans to change and update. We want to put en suites in the two bedrooms upstairs and create a big modern space in the kitchen.

Are there any problems with the property that you have to deal with?

When we moved in, the first thing we discovered was that the boiler for the swimming pool was broken. Having never had a swimming pool before I naively thought it would cost around £1,500 like a domestic boiler. But £7,000 later…

We also have unexpected damp. This didn’t come up in the survey, but came to light one day when I opened my wardrobe doors and found all my shoes had gone mouldy. We are now looking at damp-proof options.

What do you want people to know about buying a home?

Make sure when buying a house that you’ve really thought it through. We are really remote, which means if it snows, we are snowed in. Many people think they might like a lifestyle and then realise very quickly that it’s nice for a holiday, but not for everyday life.

Also, think hard if it’s got a swimming pool. The work and maintenance never occurred to me. It can be fine one day, then you fancy a swim the next, roll back the covers and find it’s turned green overnight.