The last twelve months has been a time of upheavals for everyone.
We’ve all had time to reassess our priorities and for many of us it’s not likely that we’ll be going “back to normal” once lockdown finally ends. Working from home made me really value my living space and I decided back last spring when I realised that the lockdown wasn’t going to last just a few weeks that I was going to renovate my entire home. Hence the “house that chaos built” project commenced in to being.
Pre lockdown I didn’t spend too much time at home at all. I was out working full time Monday to Friday, driving up and down the country commuting for business meant that I wouldn’t even be at home for breakfast and to see the sun come. I would end up socialising with friends in restaurants when I had time, and then the weekends were always dedicated to having adventures with Arlo.
Suddenly I began to reassess our space and decide to make some changes. One of the first things I did was to swap all of the bedrooms around. As fun as it seemed to be able to work from my sofa, it didn’t help with productivity and I found it hard to switch off in the evenings. Then I also made sure to turn my living spaces in to relaxing environments for both myself and Arlo to enjoy.
I wanted to make sure that as I was working from home that I allocated the space accordingly and so I turned the spare bedroom in to a home office for myself. This was important, I needed to have a specific space so that work didn’t encroach on my home life. A place for the laptop to remain and a space which I could shut the door on and forget about to enjoy some down time in the evenings.
For many the lines became blurred and the work life balance was out of kilter, people balancing childcare were squeezing in emails between meals and the bedtime routine and I felt permanently attached to my tech. I found myself checking work emails in bed and flicking through sales reports instead of watching a movie. When I realised that many companies were doing away with their offices permanently I knew I was doing the right thing by allocating a home office room. If anything, I needed to have a better background for when I used zoom.
I also wanted to change my kitchen and reception rooms – reconsidering my living space entirely. I was so used to a lifestyle full of social gatherings which revolved around meeting friends for meals in restaurants that transitioning to being at home all of the time was a major change. I decided to make the most of lockdown and plunged myself in to learning new recipes and spent a lot more time in the kitchen than what I was used to, and so of course this space ended up having a makeover as a priority. I found my love for DIY during lockdown and there’s not a single space in my home which hasn’t been changed in one way or another.
I was lucky enough to have the space I needed and so I’ve been choosing new paint colours and repurposing furniture. Some friends have used the last year to make some enormous changes to their homes. Adding an extra room through a loft or garage conversion has been the approach taken for some to increase the living space. For this type of major change theres obviously huge costs involved and so it’s useful to be able to use a remortgage calculator to help look at the figures and work out affordability to make these projects spring in to life.
Now we know that working from home isn’t going to disappear I’m glad I made changes to my home, and feel lucky enough to have had a spare bedroom. My home is a place I’m happy to spend most of my time in. I’m looking forward to entertaining friends from home and of summer evenings with barbecues and watching my son play in the garden as the sun sets. In fact the joy I have experienced from renovations has inspired and motivated me to look at a career changes for myself.
For many friends the need to have separate working/living environments and a more comfortable living space has been the driving force for a decision to relocate.
For so long the decisions about home location have been based upon the commute and distance to transport links. Now that working from home is a viable solution for the majority of the working week, friends have been able to look for larger family homes – happy with being further away from the office, commuting only for a couple of days a week in exchange for an extra bedroom, a larger garden and a larger space for dining and entertaining away from the main commuter belt suburbs. Being able to work from home has provided many people the opportunity to find larger family homes outside of the often over priced popular commuter areas.
To buy or not to buy is the main question.
With so much uncertainty the property market has been interesting and making huge decisions about relocating when the job market is also unstable has been a real challenge. Renting for many seems like a simpler option with less commitment when there’s so much upheaval. There’s so many things to factor in to choosing a home.
“When the chancellor announced the changes to stamp duty thresholds it spurred many people in to making life changing decisions.“
Assessing affordability is the main concern for anyone planning to relocate and it’s difficult to know where to begin when it comes to making such important decisions especially now when you have to factor in unanticipated personal circumstances, especially if you’re a first time buyer and used to paying rent.
Home is most certainly where the heart is, but it’s also where the office is and where pretty much everything else is for the foreseeable future so it’s now more than ever important to make the right choices and It’s great to have a wealth of information accessible via online resources to help make important decisions.
Last Updated on 4 weeks by Lavania Oluban