Let’s rent a flat, we thought. Close to a station for commuting to London, with two bedrooms. Oh, and space to park, too.

A month later we had bought. A house. That was almost derelict.

The call came from one of the many local agents we had been in contact with. ‘A property has just come back on the market unexpectedly. The sellers have got to move. We think it’s what you really want.’

What did we really want? We had started off looking at modern open-plan flats to rent. Yet here we were, rushing from work to see a 1930s semi-detached house clad in tired brown pebbledash in greater suburbia, desperate to get to it before anyone else.

Could we afford to buy? Were we really ready for a house of our own? Suspiciously, only half of the rooms had been photographed for the property’s original advertisement. Who cares, let’s see it anyway, we thought.

The agent was right. As soon as we drove down the road – past the nearby train station – the house we hadn’t considered ticked the boxes we didn’t know we had.

It was on the ‘right' side of the road, where the houses sat higher and seemed to have more space. It backed on to public woodland. And there was even a small driveway. No amount of fallen ceilings, broken doors and boarded windows could take those away.

What had been a lengthy project long since abandoned by the sellers became our reality as we viewed each room. With children starting school 150 miles away, they needed to move immediately. We did our sums, took a leap of faith, and made an offer there and then.

It turned out we had unwittingly bought a flat after all, as we embarked on eight months of living out of a bedroom and a bathroom, before spending every evening and weekend colonising it an inch at a time.

Six years on, it has seen us engaged, married and become parents. It took every favour we could beg, borrow and bargain for, but we made it ours. Ultimately, that’s what we really wanted.

The agent had made the right call.

WG, London

Further information

What makes a house a home and why does it matter so much? Our new series, 'Moving Stories', inspired by Savills new advertising campaign, explores the complex relationship between home and home-owner with funny, sad and bittersweet reflections on moving out, moving in and moving on.

We invite you to submit your own Moving Stories and we will donate £50 to Dreams Come True for every one we publish on Savills UK Blog. We'll also make a donation for every story submitted for consideration