Christina Haack's Ex Ant Anstead Makes Major Move After Couple's Divorce

After almost a year living in a studio apartment following his split from ex-wife Christina Haack in September, Ant Anstead has moved into a brand new home of his own. The British TV personality moved with his and Haack's 1-year-old son Hudson into a waterfront house in Laguna Beach, California the last week of May, he told PEOPLE Thursday, after a long search for the perfect home.

"I probably looked at well over 30 houses," the Wheeler Dealers alum shared. Anstead first toured the house he finally ended up purchasing back in February, but it made went off the market before he was able to put in an offer. "I was heartbroken when it was no longer available, and I kept going into other houses comparing it to the one I loved," he said.

Anstead began calling the property the "Temple House" because it feels like a temple to him, and after months touring homes that didn't quite measure up, the seller came back "out of the blue" and told him he could purchase it. Moving into the beach house just a couple of weeks ago, Anstead and Hudson are already right at home enjoying the stunning ocean view, garden and sunlit home. The Brit's children from his first marriage, daughter Amelie 17, and son Archie, 14, live in the U.K. still, but will have their own bedrooms when they visit frequently.

The house is perfect for Anstead's family, but there's still a lot of work to be done, as it was built in 1929 and is "incredibly run down." The father-of-three admitted, "I'm going to have challenges with the house," adding that while it's "not falling down," it's not far from it. "There's no heating system, there's no air conditioning, half the wiring doesn't work, the plumbing is really bad, there's no insulation, there are multiple broken windows… so I've had to make some quick temporary changes to make sure it's safe for Hudson," he explained. "But the bones of it are perfect. In fact, I don't want to change that at all. I just want to update the house in a really sympathetic way."

Anstead plans to do the renovations himself, giving it an "industrial modern" look while honoring its history, much in the veins of his ex's role on Flip or Flop. "A lot of people don't realize I've actually hosted two home shows and restored multiple homes," he said of his qualifications. "I've done a lot of hands-on stuff myself, so I'm excited to kind of get in there."