Well, quite a bit has happened since my last post so I am dividing it into a before and after over two entries. Here’s the first one.

After a lot of waiting, the sellers’ estate agent finally started getting some answers and we were able to move into a position to exchange. Our solicitor advised that as there were so many parties involved in selling the property, there might be some questions that would never be able to be answered.

At this point I was getting a little worried as our buyer had a move out date of 10th March and my bump was growing at an alarming rate! When the exchange date was agreed I then asked if we could have a quick completion date. So at the start of March our deposit came to us from the buyer and went straight to the seller (along with an extra couple of quid). We then had a furiously hurried week of packing and gathering before completing at 9.30am on our sale and then 10.30am on our purchase the following Friday!

With all the waiting that we had, it seemed crazy to have such a mad dash finish especially as we even had some work done by the seller on the property a day before exchange. In the end we could have done it all in 2 weeks….well maybe!

Stay tuned for Hannah’s final  blog, coming soon.

Before TOWIE there was Footballers’ Wives – the glossy TV drama that  turned the spotlight on the Beautiful Game – albeit a stylised version complete with love-triangles, brassy clothing, fast cars and glamorous Home County homes.

Elsenham House in Hertfordshire was used as a filming location for Footballers' Wives and is now for sale for £3.5m

Now, Elsenham House, one of the homes in which the series was filmed is for sale through estate agents Fine for offers over £3.5 million.

And as you might imagine, it’s heavy on the luxury – think indoor pool, gym, 10 acres of grounds, a stable block and four reception rooms.

The six bedroom home in Elsenham, Hertfordshire is owned by Shenda and Richard Maher. The home was completely rebuilt 10 years ago and is now decorated in an antique French-style.

The French-style drawing room was the backdrop for scenes of intrigue in Footballers' Wives

Shenda Maher says the sumptuous drawing room  might look familiar to fans of the TV series Footballers’ Wives because it was a regular backdrop to the show.

“It looked even grander on the television but it is such a beautiful room,” she said.

Perfect fot the WAG lifestyle: the indoor pool at Elsenham House

And while Maher says her property is a family home at heart, she  concedes it can lend itself to a WAG lifestyle – there’s an indoor pool, gym and spacious dining  room that’s suited to dinner parties and entertaining.

“We have a massive dining table and at Christmas we have the family over. We play music and then sit around drinking cocktails at the bar before dinner.”

But Elsenham House isn’t the only property with football connections that’s  currently on the market.

Daily Star chief sports writer Brian Woolnough is also selling his contempory five bedroom home in Webridge Surrey for £1.5 million through Hamptons International.

The home, called The Stradbury, is gated and part of the Whittets Ait development – a private island half a mile from Weybridge town centre that overlooks the river from a large private terrace.

Spare a thought for the growing numbers of people who are choosing, or in many cases finding themselves because of circumstances out of their control, living alone. Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show the number of people living alone in the UK has now risen to 29% of all households.

Not much room - the rise in single occupancy households means studio flats are in more demand than ever

From a housing perspective this demographic shift has coincided with restricted mortgage lending the result of which is that we’re just not buying homes at the same rate we used to. And this means more of us are renting a home, increasingly alone and predominantly in one bedroom and studio flats.

This demand for apartment living is making the rental market extremely buoyant and while that’s good news for buy-to-let landlords, it’s a challenge for renters, especially those who live alone.

The latest FindaProperty.com Rental Index shows the cost of renting a flat in the UK has now pushed up to record heights as tenants feel the effects of being forced to pay a premium for smaller properties.

The average monthly asking price for renting a flat in the UK has reached £833 a month – the highest on record – and 2.5% above prices this time last year. The average cost of a studio flat has risen to £713 a month, again the highest price on record; 5.9% greater than this time last year and 8.5% more than the current cost of renting a one bedroom flat.

Despite being cheaper to rent than a studio, monthly asking prices for one bedroom flats are also at their highest, averaging £657, which is up 3% on this time last year. This is not the case however for two bedroom flats, which saw asking prices fall 0.1% last month.

While it’s true that studio flats tend to cluster in urban areas where there is more demand for single occupancy, the drastic price increases are also telling us something about this demographic shift to living alone – a move that clearly catching on, despite its effects on the bank account.