From a rented flat in Walthamstow to a historic detached house just outside of Cambridge, Sarah and Arthur Smart’s lives have changed beyond recognition over the past few years.
Housing aside, the couple have started a family and Sarah has a new career as an illustrator.
Their nine year journey up the property ladder began in 2014, when Sarah, now 39, was working as a picture editor. Arthur, 41, is an architect.
Despite having two salaries and no kids, buying a home in Walthamstow, where they had lived for around four years, was not an option. Instead they looked further out, towards Chigwell, where they were able to buy a “very small” two bedroom house for £262,000.
The house suited them well until their first daughter, Sidney, now seven, was born.
“Childcare in London is extortionate, and we started to think about moving further out into Essex where we could get support from my family,” said Sarah.
In 2019, having put Arthur’s architectural skills to good use on doing up the Chigwell house, they sold it for circa £400,000.
Their next step on the property ladder was a rundown fixer-upper just outside Saffron Walden which they bought for £350,000.
They fully renovated the property and built a studio in the garden, but once their second child, Stella, now four, was born it began to feel too cramped – particularly as the couple were both keen to spend more time working from home and being able to spend more time with the girls.
They began researching their options and in 2021 found their idea of perfection – a Grade II listed redbrick detached house with a walled garden and a private woodland.
The four bedroom house, which is just outside Cambridge and was built in the 1700s, was in need of a cosmetic upgrade, and has huge potential to expand.
“We are thinking about a woodland studio, and an office each,” said Sarah.
The work they had done on their Saffron Walden house meant it sold for £665,000 and the Cambridge house cost them £685,000, although bringing it up to scratch will cost a hefty sum.
“It is a lot of work but we don’t mind, because we have no plans to move any time soon,” said Sarah. “This feels like a place where the girls could grow up, so the property ladder stops here.”
Being close to Cambridge – the house is around half an hour’s drive from the city centre – has been great for the couple, who had felt too isolated in rural Essex.
Now they have fast trains to London, and a cosmopolitan city on the doorstep.
“What we missed the most was the convenience of living in a city – in the country you have to drive everywhere and there is this strange thing where every café is shut on a Monday,” said Sarah. “In London there is always something open, and we got a bit spoiled.
“London is so creative, and I missed that buzz. But since we have been in Cambridge, I have met a lot of interesting, creative, like-minded people, most of whom seem to have moved out of east London.”
