Up For Sale
Posted: Sun 22 September, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase, Norfolk, People, Weirdness Leave a comment »Having just done a random search, I’ve found out that the house in Norfolk I had with Herself is back up for sale.
It’s kind of weird, seeing the changes that have been put in by the new owners – some make sense, and are things we’d talked about doing. However, others are – somewhat mental.
As a prime example of the latter, the new owners have brutally trimmed the cherry tree in the front garden, and completely removed the huge weeping willow that was in the back garden. (and was one of the factors that made me like the place) I can see why they would have got rid of it – it was a pain in the tits to mow around, and dropped crap on the grass all year round – but it was such a fantastic tree, I’m actually kind of sad to know that it’s gone.
Interestingly, despite the work the new owners have obviously done, the price isn’t actually any different than we paid for it six years ago.
Progress, eh?
Mortgage Guff
Posted: Tue 10 February, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »It’s nearly two years now since we bought the current house, and the fixed-interest period is coming to a close. So it’s back to the grind of renewing the mortgage.
As part of that, we had a meeting last night with an IFA from the same company that sorted out the mortgage last time. We’ve also contacted another IFA who was recommended by friends, but the useless git hasn’t got back to us at all. Makes you wonder whether he actually wants the business.
Still, it’s all looking like we should be OK this time round, so we’ll see how it goes.
Last Year
Posted: Sat 26 January, 2008 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since we made an offer on the house we now live in. (In fact it’s slightly over the year but I only looked back and confirmed it this evening)
This time last year, we were actually meeting the architect for the first time, to discuss our plans for the extensions and so on – and now we’ve finally had a quote from the builder to cost out those self-same extensions, so we can start to get things going soon. Happy Day.
Five Year Plan: 20% done
Part One – What/How I’ve done
Posted: Sun 4 November, 2007 Filed under: Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, House Purchase, House Work, Photography Leave a comment »
So, I’m now one year through that five year plan. Which means that – fucking hell! – I must now be thirty-six. The last six months haven’t been quite so productive as the first six, but that’s because there also turned out to be a lot of other stuff occurring that wasn’t on the initial set of plans. You know, things like “buy house”, “work on house”, “work on garden”, that kind of thing. It’s meant that in some ways I hit a bit of a pause, but in others I’ve been productive as hell.
Of course, the first year was always going to be about groundwork, getting a load of the basics out of the way so that the next two or three years can make more progress. Well, that’s the concept. Whether it’ll work out like that or not, I don’t know.
Anyway, here’s the list that I wrote up for last November 5th, so let’s see how it’s all gone – the comments are in italics, in case you hadn’t guessed…
- Photography
Get a Macro Lens- Get a Wide-Angle Lens
still deciding whether I really need one. Maybe soon. Finish the Portfolio website
Completed, and with extra uploads on a fairly regular basis- Sell/Publish some stuff
Working on it, submitting it, and had one used in the Killarney page of an on-line guide to Ireland, although not for any money. - Join a local club
Still haven’t really found one. There’s a local club, but *shrug* I dunno. Get a decent flash
Done, a Speedlite 580EX- Start aiming to get work and projects
Started, and ongoing. I’ve sent out some initial letters to a couple of places regarding projects, and I’ll be sending out more over the next month or so.
- Writing
- Finish at least one piece of writing
still working on it, although not all that quickly - When a piece is finished submit it to the right people
Reliant on #1 being completed - Just see how things go
- Write more on d4d™? Maybe.
- Finish at least one piece of writing
- Work / Websites
- Build and work on the other ideas I’ve got in my head
working on it, and getting some of them sorted - Work (as always) on smaller sites, and do as many as possible
so far, three new sites launched, as well as the photography portfolio Sort out permanent job for the first part of ’07 while we’re house-buying etc.
All done, and no need to get that nasty ‘proper’ job after all- Redesign d4d™? It’s about time…
Merge lots of hosting accounts into one reseller account, and onto one server
done- Start getting better at invoicing for work done
in progress, and all being done a lot more efficiently - Develop some ideas in partnership with others, and see how they do
In progress – I’ve formed a couple of small collaborations, and they seem (so far) to be working well
- Build and work on the other ideas I’ve got in my head
- Education
Sign up with Open University
initially for a refresher course, and work from there- Look at an official course/qualification in Photography?
Yeah, OK, ‘Education’ is going to be the category that falls off the radar for ’07/’08, I’m afraid – mainly due to motivation issues, but also down to the fact I’m permanently busy doing other stuff. As such, any progress on this one is going to be a way off in the future
- Other
Restart the Archery once we’ve moved
Made all the enquiries, booked to go and do it, but not yet got round to attending. I suck.Move to NorfolkSort out work in NorfolkBuy houseStart work on house, garden- I must say here, Herself has been the prime organiser of most (if not all) of the stuff below. We’ve got a long way so far, and there’s still a long way to go, but most of it is down to Herself’s organisation rather than mine
Wood BurnerWood PileMaking house initially liveable-inInitial sort out of garden, lawn, veg patchDealing with various electrical issues etc.
Get Planning Permission for house alterationsGet Building Regs for hourse alterations
all doneBuy a car
Bought, insured, taxed, driven it for about 10,000 miles already
One Week To Go
Posted: Fri 18 May, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase, House Work 1 Comment »This time next week, we’ll be moving to the new house. And about bloody time, too.
The time between completing the purchase and actually moving in has been well spent, though – as detailed previously, there’s been a lot of work done, with workers in and around the house pretty much all the time – if we’d moved in before all this, we’d have been living in a bombsite for the last month, and Hound would be absolutely orbital. So it’s for the best that we’ve delayed moving ’til now.
But at the same time it’s been hard work, and it’s felt like being in limbo. Just about every night, and pretty much every spare moment, we’ve been up at the house dealing with stuff, or organising stuff to happen. It’s been enormously busy, and I can’t deny that I’ll be happy to just be in the place – at least we won’t be having to travel between houses (even though it’s a short distance really, only about five miles each way) every day, and so we’ll have more time to get things done ourselves.
Oh, and more time to walk Hound round the local fields – in that context, we’ll be back to how we were in Bracknell, with the poxy idiot getting taken out pretty much every morning at some ungodly hour before I go to work. On that score, Attleborough is bloody horrible for dog-walking (again, as I’ve said before) with no decent places for a stupid collie to run, without either a) walking for half an hour first to get to the playing field, or b) getting in the car to go past the railway station to the playing field.
From next Friday, though, we’ll be moved in, and will have a field roughly 30 seconds away. (Five seconds, if Hound ever escapes…)
I can’t wait.
Four Days
Posted: Fri 6 April, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase, House Work Leave a comment »The completion of the house purchase came in just in time.
It’s meant that – oh, lucky us, oh frabjous day – we’ve got the four-day Easter weekend to do some of the initial work on the place, before we actually move there at the end of April.
It’ll mean we can get rid of the horrific carpets in the place, the manky wallpaper, and the truly horrendous little faux-stone ‘ornaments’ in the garden. Oh, and whatever’s been left in the garage (apparently they ‘didn’t have time’ to clear it out. *ahem*) can go in the skip too.
Yes, we’ve managed to hire a skip already. Impressive service – ordered at about 10am, and there by 6pm same day.
And that is what we’re going to be doing all weekend.
Halle-bloody-lujah
Posted: Wed 4 April, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase 2 Comments »At long last, I’ve just had word from the estate agents that we’ve completed on the house purchase.
And about sodding time, too.
Happy, Happy Day.
Work/Life Balance
Posted: Sat 31 March, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, House Purchase, Introspective, Photography, Thoughts 1 Comment »One of the things that’s always being blethered about in TV programmes like “Relocation,Relocation” and the like is ‘Work/Life Balance’. It’s not a phrase I usually like, as it’s one of those things that’s usually indicative of someone who’ll spout every buzzword known to man at any given opportunity – but then at the same time it’s something I find myself thinking about more and more.
In fact, that was the exact motive behind the move to Norfolk. It’s also something I need to think about a lot more for the future, and how I want to plan things.
Of course, the real ‘balance’ side of things still isn’t going to happen this year – and possibly/probably not until even this time next year. There’s a lot that’ll need doing to the new house once we (finally) complete that process and move in. The garden needs a lot of work too, although I think Herself is going to do the majority of that – her fingers are far greener than mine. But there’s still going to be a fair amount of heavy labour involved. So over all, yes, I think it’ll most likely be April ’08 before we really start enjoying the place, rather than just working on it.
Work-wise, Norfolk really isn’t a great place for a web techie – well, not in the context of normal business stuff, anyway- unless, of course, you want to work in the IT department of Norwich Union. Which I really, really, really don’t want to do. It might mean that I end up working away from home during the week again, although there’s still some decisions to be made on that score too. But at the same time, and pretty much on the same timescale as the house stuff (i.e. over the next 12 months) I’m also aiming to get my own business up and moving, doing a number of smaller local sites, as well as that plan for launching my own sites, and seeing what works and what doesn’t with them.
At the same time, I’m also going to be working fairly hard on building up the photography portfolio as well. While Norfolk and its surrounds aren’t great for a web techie, they’re bloody marvellous for a photographer, and I wholly intend to take advantage of that over the coming months. Some of the ideas I’ve got on that score will have to wait now ’til Autumn comes around, but at the same time they may be all the better for it. Others really start coming into their own now, and would work less well come Autumn, so it all works out, one way or another.
In the end, I currently think that it’s going to be this time next year before things really settle down. There’s a lot to be done in that time, and it’s going to be a lot of work to get it all sorted.
But – and this is the thing – already we’re far, far happier, and more relaxed, than we were in Bracknell. Yes, the pace of some things (fucking house purchase) takes some getting used to, and in that kind of thing I’m still probably far too driven and impatient with buffoons, but well, that’s life.
Hound is definitely far happier out here – if for no other reason than that she gets to go to the beach fairly regularly, or on big long walks through Thetford Forest, or Knettishall Heath. But she’s more relaxed about other things as well – fireworks, jet planes, loud noises and so on. Of course, Hound being Hound, she finds other things to be stressed about instead – like the phone ringing – but we’re working on those. And once we’ve finally moved, we’ll have fields all around us, she’ll be able to go for decent walks on a more regular basis (for example, the morning one will be across fields, instead of the current use of the local recreation ground – if there’s one thing that Attleborough is bizarrely shit for, it’s places to walk dogs. On that score, Bracknell was far more useful)
It’s not just Hound, either. We’re (probably) more relaxed, allbeit in different ways. My commute takes a lot longer than it did from Bracknell to Wokingham (although nowhere near the shitebag day that involved working in London from Bracknell) but I get t sit on a train and usually see deer, hares, rabbits, and the occasional fox. (Of the four-legged russet-coloured variety, pervs) Or alternatively, F15s, Chinooks, or Blackhawk helicopters. (What can I say, I’m a geek) The train isn’t jam-packed with Blackberry-wielding tosspots, nor is it standing-room only. A good 95% of the time, I get to sit at a table, and either do some extra website work, or bash out rubbish like this. Or read. Whatever.
Herself has a job that is – in general – OK, and she seems happy with how everything’s working out. Or at least she will be once the fucking house purchase has completed. (Can you guess yet what our current main stressor has been? Thought not. I’ve avoided mentioning it so well.)
Yes, life at the moment is actually pretty good, and it’s beginning – just beginning, mind you – to feel like that elusive balance may not be so far out of reach after all.
Easter-rific
Posted: Fri 30 March, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »Yes, at long last the house purchase is close to completion. We exchanged yesterday, did all the money transfers, and it looks like we’re going to be completing next Wednesday.
Of course, what this does mean is that it looks like we’re going to be pretty busy over the Easter weekend, getting the first bits of work done before moving in. Should be fun.
Personally, I’m just glad that it’s all finally happened, and that we can stop having to deal with wankhand slowcoach solicitors.
Weight Loss
Posted: Sun 18 March, 2007 Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Health, House Purchase 3 Comments »When I had my medical a couple of weeks back, (which reminds me, I really must write about what fuckwit scumbags Friends Provident areHell, and most people who read D4D™ on any kind of regular basis) know, I’m never going to qualify as a lightweight. Or even a middleweight. Unless I opt for at least a double-amputation, I will always be large, and heavy. It’s unavoidable.
Back at the start of ’06, I did lose a fair amount of weight, admittedly – about three or four stone. I felt a lot better for it, and I managed to keep most of it off. But when the doctor weighed me, I was 21 stone. (That’s about 133kg, for the metric among you) Nowhere near what I used to be (roughly 24 stone) but heavier than I’d expected to be, if I’m honest.
So when all’s said and done, yes, I know I should lose some of that, and at some point I probably will. But right now, I’m just at a point where I can’t be chuffed to do it. Some of it is down to the entirely crap experiences with Holmes Place at the arse-end of last year, which has left me with a pretty negative perspective on the entire fitness, gym, and health-club thing.
Some of it is down to the way everything else in life is going at the moment as well. In short, it’s chaotic – there’s the move, the house-purchase, the wondering what to do next when it comes to work (of which more later in the week) and more importantly the where of that work, and it all just puts the gym and weight-loss things into perspective at the ‘lalalalalala-can’t hear you’ end of the spectrum.
But really, when all’s said and done, and if I’m being completely honest, at the moment I just can’t be bothered with it. I’ve no heavy motivation to lose the weight, and I’m having trouble finding any motivations. Again, if I’m honest, I’m not actually looking all that hard, either.
Even the life insurance and so on that caused me to hae the medical in the first place isn’t a sufficient motivator – at the end of the day, when they decide my premium should go up because I’m a fat bastard, that’s what the premium will be. They won’t change it in a couple of years time, if I’ve lost the weight. Even if I baffled medical science and dropped down to my so-called ideal weight of 13.5 stone, the premium wouldn’t change. I’d still be paying fat-bastard-rate, regardless. Hardly a motivator, is it?
Contracts
Posted: Thu 15 March, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase Leave a comment »Hallelujah.
After eight weeks of chuffing about, we’ve finally got the contracts through for the house purchase.
They’ll get signed and sent back this week, so we’ll hopefully be exchanging before the end of the month. Yay!
It’s still a bit of a scary step, but at the same time I can’t deny, I’ll just be happy when it’s all over and done with.
Organising That Health-check
Posted: Sat 24 February, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Health, House Purchase 1 Comment »So yes, the healthcheck that finally happened on Friday was an utter nightmare to organise.
It started off with being told that I needed to sort one out, and that the insurance company had engaged a third party who would contact me to organise an appointment at my convenience.
Yeah, right. What actually happened was that the company called me up and said “We’ve made an appointment for one of our nurses to come and see you at home on Tuesday at 4pm”. Which is hardly at my convenience. So I called them back and told them so.
Them : “But why don’t you want an appointment at home on Tuesday at 4pm? We’ve made all the arrangements”
Me : “Because I’m not going to be at home at that time. I’ll be at work. If your company is willing to pay me to take half a day off work to come and see you, I might consider it”
Them : “No, we can’t do that. But we don’t understand what the problem is with this appointment, it’s at your home at 4pm”
Me : “Amazing as this may seem to you, I work. Maybe I’m the only person you’ve ever dealt with who works, but there we go. So 4pm on a weekday is not convenient. I’m home for about 7pm, if that helps”
Them : “Oh no, our nurses only work 9-5”.
At which point I ended up going back to the insurers and telling them they could stuff their business. The people they engaged would have problems discerning between an arse and an elbow, and there was no way I was using them. So they promised to organise something else, a proper medical at a proper doctor’s surgery. However, it would still be organised through a third party.
And then I got another call about a week later, from the first third party, still trying to make a ‘convenient’ appointment for me on a workday at 4pm, and which for an appointment ‘at my convenience’ was strangely immovable. This time they got told to sod off.
When the second third party finally called, the first thing they said was “So, you need an appointment in Norfolk?”. At which I think I growled. The woman at the other end certainly seemed surprised. I re-explained the situation (actually, that’s probably more like re-re-re-re-explained, but there we go), and they finally discovered a surgery that was close to the workplace. Halle-bloody-lujah.
But all told it’s still taken four weeks to organise a poxy medical. But if my blood-pressure is too high (I doubt it will be, but still) I’m going to blame it all on the poxy fucking insurance company and their medical third parties. So there.
Health Check
Posted: Fri 23 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Health, House Purchase, Sweary Leave a comment »One of the real pains (and one I haven’t yet written about on D4D™ – believe me, it’s coming) with our house-buying process at the moment has been that as part of the entire mortgage malarkey, we’ve both been advised to get some proper life-insurance, that’d cover the whole amount of the mortgage should one of us suddenly develop a ‘critical’ illness or drop dead. Of course, that also means having to deal with another load of financial scumbags – insurers.
Back in Jan 2005, I got one lot of cheap-ass life insurance on Herself’s insistence (in fairness, she got some too) which became not-such-cheap-ass insurance when the insurance scumbag underwriters at Norwich Poxybollocks Union decided I was overweight, and whacked an extra amount on my premium. Not a lot, to be honest, but still rather more than the initial quotation had been. Bastards.
Since then, I’ve lost a fair amount of weight, although (as I’ve commented many times) I’m still never going to be 12-15stone without going through at least one limb amputation. That’s a fact of life. I’m not unfit – OK, I’m not fit either, but there we go – and… oh, chuff it, you all know the score by now.
Anyway, with the mortgage application and insurance guff, the scumbag insurance underwriters have – again – thrown a wobbly. And they’ve insisted that this time I don’t just pay extra, I have to have a ‘health check’ too before they might deign to take my money.
So while you’re reading this, I’m in a random doctor’s surgery, having a basic medical and healthcheck for scumbag dirtwad insurers . Whoopee Doo.
Fuuuuck
Posted: Mon 19 February, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, House Purchase, Sweary 3 Comments »Well, we got the mortgage offer through this weekend, so that’s the first big hurdle out of the way, at least.
But Jesus, when you look at the details, it’s fucking offensive.
For every pound you borrow, you pay back £2.30
Fuuuuuck. That takes the piss. How does anyone get away with that?
Basically, for a £200,000 mortgage, we get to pay back the princely sum of £440,000. If nothing else, it reinforces my opinion that the financial industry are, in fact, an utter bunch of cunts.
Recovery
Posted: Mon 12 February, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »OK, most of the panic and potential stress has been alleviated – and thank chuff for that.
I’m sure I’ll explain more about the causative events at some point, but for now well, I’m just happy that things appear to have been sorted out without too much in the way of hassle, bureaucracy, or fighting.
Progressing : 2
Posted: Wed 24 January, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, House Purchase Leave a comment »So, we’ve now engaged a solicitor, and all that paperwork has gone off, including copies of all our ID. I know they need some kind of proof that we are who we say we are, but still, it seems a bit odd to be able to send copies of ID documents – surely that’s no real proof of existence?
Paperwork has been flying around the place – solicitors guff, estate agents guff, mortgage guff, insurance guff, and payment protection guff.
And we see the architect about our potential plans for the new place on Friday, which should be fun.
Also, supposedly the mortgage company sent out their valuing surveyor yesterday to check the place out, make sure that the building exists and so on. It’ll be interesting getting their report – I’ve paid £560 for a ‘Homebuyer survey’ so it should tell us about anything medium-to-major on the property.
So yes, things are coming through pretty smoothly so far.
Progressing
Posted: Mon 22 January, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase 2 Comments »Tonight, we’re filling in the second of the really big forms regarding the house purchase.
First came the mortgage application, and all the joys that come along for the ride with that one (three hour appointment, shitloads of paperwork, all that guff) and we’re still waiting to hear the results from that one. (Which reminds me, really must give the IFA a call today or tomorrow)
Tonight is the stuff for the solicitors – we’ve appointed some, but we now need to fill in all their forms, provide copies of ID (although quite what that proves, I don’t know) and all that shit. So that’ll be fun, then.
Winded
Posted: Sat 20 January, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »We went over to the new place this morning – we’d made an appointment, so that Herself’s Mother could see the place, and we could do a full second viewing and so on. In addition, well, following on from Thursday’s foul weather and wind, it was best to check whether there’d been any damage to the place.
As it turned out, we’d only lost six fence panels, which was a lot better than we’d expected. Even better news was that the flying fence panels hadn’t destroyed the greenhouse, and everything else was pretty much intact. Even more impressive was that the pile of leaves and junk in one section of the garden hadn’t moved one bit, despite the winds – which is quite a stunning achievement.
As for the place itself, yes, we’re still cool with it, and loking forward to getting everything sorted out so we can (touch wood) get started with it all. And we’re back there on Friday, seeing an architect this time!
Paperwork
Posted: Thu 18 January, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Getting Organised, House Purchase Leave a comment »So, tonight we’re going to be meeting back up with the IFA, so we can get the finalised mortgage application under way. And we’re going to be taking one hell of a lot of paperwork with us. This includes :
- Proof of ID (Passport)
- Proof of Address (Driving Licence – both parts)
- Property Address
- Solicitor’s Details/Address
- Estate Agents Details/Address
- 3 months of payslips, plus last P60
- Bank Details (for both of us)
We’ve already got the Agreement in Principle (AIP), so it shouldn’t be too much hassle to get the main thing. However, I’m still not convinced – after all, there’s a lot of paperwork to go through, and I still think they’re going to shit all over us for me being a contractor, regardless of everything they’ve said leading up to this point.
In addition, we’ve sorted out to meet an architect at the new place a week on Friday, so we can discuss the plans we’ve got, and see what’s going on. That should be quite interesting – I’ve spoken to three or four now, and the one we’ve gone with (initially) appears to be quite cool, and not too up himself. Which, in my opinion, is always a good starting place.
But basically there’s going to be one hell of a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy over the next couple of weeks, and I’m not looking forward to any of it.
Still, at least I’ve got Inland Revenue out of my hair.
Solicitation
Posted: Wed 17 January, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase, Thoughts, Weirdness 1 Comment »Maybe it’s just because I’m new to this property-purchasing lark, but I find myself utterly gobsmacked by the charges from solicitors.
OK, the majority of the bill cost is actually the stamp duty for the property purchase, which amounts to £2,400 , but still, the quotes we’ve had so far have all added another £1,100 or so to that price.
Mind you, it does make me glad we didn’t go for Property One (as discussed here) where the stamp duty would’ve been £7,800 or so because of going over to the 3% band – so all told, including solicitors fees it would’ve added about another £10,000 to the price.
Oh, and then let’s not forget the estate agent’s fees too. No idea what they’ll come to yet…
All the same, it just seems like more fuckin’ expense. We can handle it, but jesus, this process gets damn expensive damn quick.
Unexpected
Posted: Tue 16 January, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), House Purchase, Thoughts 5 Comments »I used a phrase today that, quite honestly, I’ve never expected to say.
Yes, we intend to borrow £200,000.
It hit me just afterwards, that’s one fuck of a lot of money.
On the Way
Posted: Mon 15 January, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Purchase Leave a comment »Fucking hell.
They’ve accepted our offer. £5,000 less than asking price, so it’s come in at £240,000. But blimey, it’s all going ahead.
Decisions Made?
Posted: Sun 14 January, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Green, House Purchase Leave a comment »So, we ended up seeing two ore properties today, even though we’d already made a decision about the place we’re going to make an offer on. Why did we still see other places? Because by the time we’d seen the one we wanted, it was too late to cancel today’s viewings, the relevant estate agents had closed, and so we decided to be decent human beings, and still go see them.
Thankfully, neither of the properties today changed our minds about the ones yesterday.
However.
Now, I could gloss over this, and make out it never happened. But I won’t.
So, yesterday we saw two properties (Well, we saw way more than two, but we saw two particular ones) that we really liked. We’d made a decision on one, a fantastic place we both loved. We also had a second choice, which would be a bit more of a project, needs more work, but also ticked all the boxes. The difference between the two?
Property One is the more expensive one, by about £15,000 at the max price – but that puts it over the £250,000 stamp-duty threshold – which means we’d pay £7,800 in stamp duty instead of £2,500 on Property Two. Property One would need a small amount of work, but it would’ve been done quickly, whereas Two needs a lot more work – it’s fine to live in, but there’s a lot we’d want to do. Property One is an old place, whereas Porperty Two is 60s/70s, and has all the ‘character’ of a dead sponge. Oh, and Property One’s garden is OK, but small – and Property Two’s one is feckin’ huge, and sits on a plot of about 1/3rd of an acre…
We revisited both properties today, and did a lot of thinking.
And while last night it was Property One that was going to get the offer made on it, it’s now going to be Property Two. With it we get a huge garden, and a massive potential to expand on the place, increase its value, and make some serious changes. It also gives us the opportunity to add in some green energy stuff, as well as doing a lot more of our own vegetables etc., which Property One just wouldn’t have had.
So yes, we’ve made a decision, and Herself will be making the offer in the morning.