Bought a house and honestly hate it!

[IndigoA]

We spent months looking for the perfect house and to be honest we have ended up with quite possibly the worst house we could have found.

I’m so depressed our original house fell through and we bought this to meet stamp duty. We were living away from London at the time so didn’t explore the area and it’s rough and horrible. Miles from a tube and over priced.

The road is horrendous to look at. It’s only redeeming feature is the park next door. Help!!

What are my options?

I’m so devestates at the time of offering I was knee deep in iVF and had too much to thjnk about with that that I didn’t give this house the attention it needed! Now so depressed I can’t sleep.

I feel your pain. Bought a house in a rush for various reasons and hated it the day I moved in. I have been counting the days till I can move out and am still here 2 and a half years later. I now just can’t face all the upheaval of another move but know I will never be happy here. It’s awful. Planning on moving next year but don’t think I can cope with what’s involved.

I think your DH's proposition is fair. Give it some time, get to know some people ant the community. Decorate - improving the property including decor will only make it more saleable later on. If it's an upcoming family area it's only a matter of time before your street has more families too. If you still hate it in a years time you'll know more exactly what you do want. The good thing about babies is it doesn't matter where you are. They don't get unsettled when you move, you don't need to worry about school catchments or moving them away from friends. Can you use furniture to make your living area more cozy and less kitchen like? Divide the room a little with a screen or something along the lines of a large IKEA kallax?.

I’d also advise giving yourself 2 years, decorate properly, do it all nicely, then reconsider.
Chapel End isn’t the naicest part of Walthamstow, but prices in the area have gone loopy so you’ll have got much more there than you would closer to the high street.

AND
You should be easy walking distance to Lloyd Park which is really nice

You’ve got the Feel Good leisure centre close by which has a good pool.

10min (max) bus to Walthamstow Central tube (which is then only 20mins tube to central London, the Victoria line is so fast), so you can be in town for theatre, shopping, proper London stuff etc in three quarters of an hour from your door easy. W’stow high street for general shopping & the market, loads of nice restaurants and bars around central & the village, all really
close to you. Empire cinema as well. The buses are 24hrs too, or really it won’t be very far to walk to central. You can probably walk easily to The Bell which is a great pub.

20mins bus ride in the other direction to Chingford and you can be walking in proper ancient woodland at Epping Forest, literally the bus takes you right there.

For getting out of London in the car you’re really convenient for north circular/M11. If you have a car there’s a drive-in cinema 5 minutes from you although they’ve temporarily closed it says they’ll re-open later in the year. Plus you’re super close to things like Costco, massive Tesco, IKEA just down the north circular all super convenient.

Walthamstow is full of yummy mummy things to do, to the point it’s kinda irritating sometimes for those of us that aren’t parents .
If you like yoga I recommend East of Eden studio as a really lovely atmosphere.
Honestly just look beyond the few surrounding roads, you are in a great location overall and have probably got more of your own space, more garden etc because of choosing Chapel End rather than a more superficially visually appealing part of the area.

Make your own home your sanctuary, don’t overthink about your immediate neighbours and look at the wider area as a whole.

Can you put sun pipes in any of the ceilings ?

Decorating is not a waste of money if it makes it feel more like your own ?

Make to most of the garden ?

DH is right - give it a year and if you feel the same, move. By making this decision and knowing you have an out in a defined timescale, hopefully you will be less stressed with the situation and can concentrate on the pregnancy. Meanwhile, spending money on it (within reason) will make it more livable and homely and add value should you decide to move in a year's time.

@LemonViolet that was such a lovely positive post for the OP. You put loads of thought in to that, really kind of you. Xx

Hi IndigoA - so sorry to hear this. We were in nearly the exact same position when we moved. We are in Walthamstow (close-ish to transport but the street isn't the best), have been since mid-last year. We felt so trapped and claustrophobic when we first moved in, and were frantically looking for options to quickly sell and buy our next place, but in the end we came to the conclusion that we will do so at the beginning of next year, so we will have been in the house 1.5 years when we come to list it. The most important thing for us right now was not to rush into something again, and we wanted to make sure we'd have enough time to mull over what we really want from our next move. I'd recommend doing so and really getting to know the streets/areas you'd see yourself living before starting your search with the pressure to buy. We've now settled into our place a bit more but I still get the odd wobbly day where I question my life choices. Hope you find what you're searching for.

Walthamstow sounds fantastic from the way you describe it LemonViolet!

When you have a crawling baby you may be glad you can see them from the kitchen!

@lemonviolet also second East of Eden, it's lovely and really makes me feel better about the area. And @indigoa - you're close to a few nice places like Buehler and Co for brunch, Veghut for organic produce, and the village is not too far.

Honestly so much will change once you have a baby, you will be able to dial into a different crowd and will get connected to where you live, it will make a massive difference.
My advice would be to get started straight away, join a local NCT group, join a pregnancy yoga class, anything to start to make connection in your new area, it will make such a difference when your baby is born and you will find out more about what’s really going on in your community.
If you still aren’t connected after a few years move.
Congratulation on your pregnancy.

Walthamstow can be a fun place to have a baby or toddler, but not so fun to have older kids due to the ridiculously high crime levels.

When my DS was a baby it was fabulous, a different toddler group every day, tonnes of cafes to meet with friends, parks etc. One night I was walking back from an evening uni lecture and interrupted a drug deal right outside my house. A few weeks later a kid was shot 50 metres from our house. This was followed by a delivery guy having acid thrown in his face on the street adjacent to ours.

We moved away three years ago and haven't once looked back.

Most of the Walthamstow area is still rather mixed in terms of ambiance. Tottenham is another area which offers some good space for the price but can be variable in terms of neighbours and general ambiance.

OP - would it help to seen this as a renovation project before you sell up? If you make the house so others will desire it, there could be a profit to be made. Just don't go overboard with the quality of fittings - think Instagram chic not high-end designer as you might not get your money back.

Congrats on the pregnancy too btw.

I’m sorry that you’re feeling bad about it but honestly you bought a house in London(with a garden!) so it really isn’t that bad is it. Put some decorations and accessories you enjoy in it for now, focus on your baby coming. Breathe after the ivf rollercoaster (I’ve been there) and 1 year will pass before you know it. After 10months get looking for a new place! It’s London, it’s a house, it has a garden, will sell in literally no time!

Hi @IndigoA

I moved from Homerton to Walthamstow just over 10 years ago. My ivf baby was 18 months at the time. I can honestly say I thoroughly hated it. Although it was only a few miles away it just felt different and I had left my friends and felt miserable. Walthamstow has also changed alot in the last decade and I struggled to find local groups and make new friends and spent the first year here on rightmove thinking who really needs a garden anyway.

2 years in to living here I joined twitter and made a few friends who are now some of my closest friends I started getting out and about and it just got better. I stopped hating the house and started seeing all of the cool stuff around. 10 years on and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I'm down by Blackhorse road and don't know Chapel end well but I've always heard good things about it. If you haven't join walthamstow parents on Facebook and a few of the E17 Instagram accounts. It s a really great place to have a baby and school age children, there is so much going on. If in a years time you still hate it then you will have no problems selling but from someone who also really didn't want to be here give it a chance. Good luck whatever you choose and congrats on your pregnancy xx

Chapel End is where I grew up & I have friends who still live there.

It is not a particularly rough area, is very near Lloyds Park & William Morris Gallery & has good transport links - the tube is a short bus ride away!

Give it some time.

From experience, I would also say move when you can. I did not learn to love our “mistake” property - but I did make money on it as one consolation!

Is renting it out and renting somewhere you’d be happier an option?

Thank you so much for all your messages. I think you might be right that the hormones are playing a wild part in my emotions. I’m struggling to see any sense in my decision but I think I need to give it time. I appreciate all the recommendations I’m going to look them all up and will join the leisure Center tomorrow.

I’m only a street away from Lloyd Park too so will try and go for a few weeks this week and take it all in.

I have looked up renting options and we really can’t get much for our money so I don’t think my partner would go for that sadly. I think it’s going to be more a case of sit it out and if nothing changes then try and sell for a profit in a year.

I have joined Walthamstow parents as well so fingers crossed and I love Yoga so will give that a go as well.

I will update how it’s going eek

We had a tiny living room which we knocked one wall through and now it’s just one big open space so it feels like I’m always in the kitchen. There are no pockets for it to be cosy.

Can you create ‘pockets’? Maybe an Ikea Kallax unit as a room divider with a lovely arm chair on the other side of it as a reading nook?

Just to try and put a positive spin on it....Walthamstow is a great place and also a fantastic place to have a young family /maternity leave.lloyd park is great,role2 play,the toy library,new fountains in front of town hall,sunday social on the market,market in lloyd park. Lots of activities very cheap or free. I hope you will feel better once that baby comes. xx

It’s such a big thing moving, especially to a different area. Give it some time, make the house feel yours add the touches and it will start to feel like home. A park just around the corner with a baby will be lovely. Good luck.

Why do you hate Chapel End?! I'm literally about to drive there to drop my DS to summer school, and I quite like it! Mind you we live near Blackhorse Rd, which is not Belgravia either. The only bad thing about Chapel End is parts of it are right next to the North Circular. But then you're only 5 minutes drive from Higham Hill, which has a few nice Cafes etc, a lovely park and paths into the forest.

Honestly, there are lots of extremely nice families in Chapel End - you will meet them and you will settle in. As for the house, if it's too small you may have to move, but I honestly don't think you've accidentally moved to the ghetto.

And I have to say this, having worked at Homerton...it is not rougher here. By a long way. Such a long, long way.

I’m only a street away from Lloyd Park too so will try and go for a few weeks this week and take it all in

I know Walthamstow a bit as have relations there and it's ALL happening in Lloyd Park,yummy mummies everywhere! Looks a good place for kids BUT long term I think you might have to consider high schools but you're a long way off that yet.

Regarding secondary schools, they have Latymer on their doorstep practically - one of London's best schools!