Put the verbs in brackets into the correct past forms. I. Last year, Tom and Fiona 1) ...decided... (decide) to buy a house. They 2) ……….. (save up) for ages, and by the end of May they 3) ……… (put by) enough for the deposit on a house. They 4) …….. (live) in a tiny flat at the time and Fiona 5) ………. (insist) that she 6) ……… (want) a house with a big garden. They 7) …….. (search) for only a few days when they found exactly they 8) ……….(look for) - a two-bed roomed house in nearly an acre of garden. Unfortunately the owner 9) ……… (ask) much more than they 10)……… (be) willing to pay, and when they 11)……… (look) more closely at the interior, they 12)…….. (see) that whoever 13) ……….. (live) there before, 14)……..(make) an absolute mess of the walls and floors. Still, Fiona 15) ……….(like) the garden and the location so much that she 16)……… (manage) to convince Tom that, despite the price, it 17)…….. (be) the perfect house for them.

1. decided
2. had been saving up
3. had put by
4. were living
5. insisted
6. wanted
7. had been searching
8. had been looking for
9. was asking
10. were
11. looked
12. saw
13. had lived
14. had made
15. liked
16. managed
17. was

Here's the full paragraph with all the verbs in the correct past forms:

Last year, Tom and Fiona decided to buy a house. They had been saving up for ages, and by the end of May, they had put by enough for the deposit on a house. They were living in a tiny flat at the time, and Fiona insisted that she wanted a house with a big garden. They had been searching for only a few days when they found exactly what they had been looking for – a two-bedroomed house with nearly an acre of garden. Unfortunately, the owner was asking much more than they were willing to pay, and when they looked more closely at the interior, they saw that whoever had lived there before had made an absolute mess of the walls and floors. Still, Fiona liked the garden and the location so much that she managed to convince Tom that, despite the price, it was the perfect house for them.