I Run My Business From My £1,295 A Month House In Enfield & Here’s What It Looks Like

It was a Christmas miracle, moving into our lovely little two-bedroom house in Enfield last year. We got the keys three days before the 25th, moved in most of our stuff and even got a Christmas tree just in time. I live with my husband Michael and our two boys, Zach, 6, and Ollie, 3. We pay £1,295 a month for our house, which is, frankly, a steal. I’m a brand strategist, working on my business from home, and Michael is a brand manager for a gaming company. 

Before we moved here we'd been staying with my husband's parents as our last landlord sold our house (the only downside of renting as far as I'm concerned!) and I had looked at the property before. Michael was away so couldn't come and view it, so we left it and gave up any hope of moving in time for Christmas. We were really specific with the area we wanted to live in, so we used Draw a Search on Rightmove to select the exact area and signed up for email alerts so we were notified whenever something was listed in that area. Then came the week before Christmas 2018. Not only has the house been relisted on Rightmove, it had gone down in price (no doubt, apart from us, no one really wants to move just before Christmas) so we went to have a look, applied straight away and 4 days later had the keys! It was meant to be. The perfect little house for the four of us.

Michael and I have always lived a bit further out in Enfield – even before we had children – and although we don’t have a London postcode, it IS the London borough of Enfield, so I very much consider myself a Londoner for life! Every now and then I dream of cosy country living but I just love how easy it is to get into the city. Michael goes to Oxford Circus every day, and I go in about once a week, so it’s great to have a train station a 10-minute walk away.

There are lots of things we love about this area, especially the parks and countryside walks nearby – a haven for two little boys, full of sticks to collect and bugs to find. The five charity shops within walking distance are a great little perk, too; I often pop in to find extra bits for the house. We’ve found a lovely community here and although we’ve always lived in Enfield, this part feels really cosy. 

Our last house had four bedrooms. I used to have a stationery business (I sold it in 2017) so needed an office and a garage to store all my stock. Now that I can work from a laptop, we don’t need that much space and it’s so much easier to keep it tidy!

Everything was all packed away in storage while we stayed with my husband’s parents – I didn’t realise you could miss eating out of your own bowls until I unpacked it all again! We spent so long going through all the boxes, sorting and organising our stuff, then getting rid of a whole lot of it. The only hard thing was finding out that our mattress had soaked up water and gone mouldy. I still haven’t got round to replacing it. I also had to get rid of huge quantities of paper and cards and envelopes after selling the stationery business. Handily, my mum's a teaching assistant and runs art clubs so she took loads of it for her school, so it went to a good home.

We were really lucky that when we moved in we didn’t need to do much work to the house. Nice fireplaces, good ceiling height, nice layout – it had all the basics! What we did do was paint the chimney flue in the living room, and the TV stand. The chimney flue had an ornate damask brocade-style wallpaper which totally wasn’t us, so we asked the landlord if we could paint it before we even moved in. He said yes and it was just the go-ahead we needed to apply. The navy blue with the lamp and the chair in the corner is one of my favourite little spots.

It was really important for me to have a little nook or corner where I could put a desk as I primarily work from home, travelling into central London once a week or so for meetings and events. A dedicated space helps my productivity levels, so I was really happy to be able to set up my desk in the space by the stairs. I do have to remind the kids not to slide things down the bannisters and not to break my plants, but it’s worth it!

Choosing a favourite room is hard because I love it all, and perhaps one of my favourite things is how 'together' the whole house is. The hallway, living room, dining room and kitchen are all joined up and even the upstairs doesn’t feel cut off because of the open bannister. It really gives it a nice family feel to be able to see each other and spend time together even if we’re doing different things.

That said, I do absolutely love the kids' room. It’s warm and inviting but also functional, meaning they can find what they need themselves. I love using their colourful toys to decorate the space. We had the raindrop wall stickers in our old house, too. 

I can’t think of anything we don’t like about where we live right now. We really have been lucky, with a great landlord, lovely neighbours and a great layout. I always thought a downstairs bathroom would be a pain but actually it’s great to be able to tidy up after dinner while the oldest gets himself washed for bed. The only downside is perhaps the cold middle-of-the-night trip downstairs to get to the toilet, but apart from that we couldn’t be happier.

We really loved our old house; at the time it felt like a forever home, so we were sad to move. Now we can’t believe our luck to be living in a home that feels so perfect and reminds us again why we love renting.