Day2Day

I've just had two phonecalls from my solicitor. The contracts have now been exchange and the completion date - 10th April - is now unable to slip any further. I really am buying a house. Two weeks from now it will be mine.

The fact that two people in the office are now humming my ringtone (the Tetris music) is entirely inconsequential.

Went and signed a contract today. This house thing is happening, it seems. Also endured the trains yet again - overhead lines blown down around Potters Bar this time. Delays of hours at a time both inwards and out. *sigh*

We're proposing an exchange date of 8th March to see what the sellers come back with. Guess I could be moving soon, but it's hard to get motivated to do the packing and such until it's all confirmed and definite. It's not as though there's actually any rush.

Right, my sleep is all caught up and I'm not that tired but since it's 1am I'm going to bed. I'm not messing up the sleep pattern again when I just got it under control.

It's been a long week, somehow. Perhaps because I was so busy last weekend. The mortgage is progressing - slowly but surely. I have documentation that says I've bought the place subject to contract. I have cheques going out to a solicitor and I have a bank that can't input my details because their computer systems are down. First an engineer cut a line he shouldn't have and closed down the whole branch, then when that came back up the mortgage part of the system refused to take any input from all the London branches.

I don't think it matters too much though - the sellers have to move themselves and I've no idea how well they're progressing with finding somewhere to live or what sort of chain arrangement we're going to wind up locked into. I'm not in a rush though as the longer I stay here the more money I build up for furnishing the new place.

Work... no, I don't wanna talk about it.

We just received an email informing us of the following: The business readiness meeting that was planned for this Thursday has now been cancelled. Well, it gave us something to laugh about for a while, anyway.

Meanwhile, I upped the offer I'd made on the house in Peterborough and had it accepted. I went into Halifax this morning (the bank, not the town) and initiated the mortgage application. I'll be finishing this off on Thursday and handing over the first of the vast sums of money you have to part with in order to buy a house. This, of course, is assuming that Egg do their stuff. They're not the fastest company I know for transferring funds, but they've said three to four working days for it to hit my current account. Meanwhile, of course, I lose the savings interest and they gain it but what can you do? I'm also looking into solicitors - or rather, a solicitor. The estate agency recommended them as they do a lot of work with this particular firm. It's a no-sale, no-fee set up and given that I don't have any alternative recommendations I reckon I'll be going with them. It's odd, though, I thought the whole thing would be more nerve wracking than this. Mostly I'm just feeling a vague interest in things and wondering how long it's all going to take. Plenty of time, yet, for things to go wrong, though.

I'm buying a house. I must have turned into a grown up while I wasn't looking. It's kind of scary.

I trecked out to Peterborough today, looked around the city some, found the Estate Agent Corner (why DO they always appear in clusters?) and got down to business. I registered with one agency that dithered and muttered and is meant to get back to me on Monday about seeing places next weekend.

Then I went to the only one that actually sent me info about the properties I saw on their web site. They were much more enthusiastic and I got to see three places today. The first was bloody awful and worried me. Is this all I can afford? I was wondering. There was no way I was going to show an interest in it - there was damp, it was in real need of decorating, the kitchen smelt of curry and the doors didn't fit into the frames properly.

My hopes weren't high after this, but I was given directions to a place around 20 minutes out of the city (20 minutes if you don't go in the wrong direction halfway there...) and I was shown around by the current owner. It is a little far from the train station, and the outside doesn't look great but the inside was brilliant. Great kitchen and dining area. Three bedrooms, a little on the small side, but perfectly adequate. Cosy living room. Nice small garden with a shed. Extremely well maintained throughout (uh-oh, been spending too much time listening to estate agents!). Suffice to say, I came away wanting it. Especially given the history - it was on the market and sold before Christmas but the buyers messed the owner around leading him to lose his potential property that was next along the chain. He brought down the price for the second attempt and it took it to just below the point where stamp duty kicks in.

Back at the estate agents' office we took a trip to property number three. Another guy in the place was really keen on this place, told us how we'd need to be quick on this as there was lots of interest and it was marvellously redecorated and ... etc etc ... So we went to check it out, me and Mr Estate Agent. The layout of the place was a bit weird, like the first one. The stairs are ultra steep and at the top there is a bedroom to the left and to the right. Going through the one to the left brings you to another bedroom. Who wants people traipsing through their room every night?! And the bathroom is downstairs and off the kitchen which I'm not too keen on. But despite being freshly decorated and newly carpeted, this place has some pretty nasty damp problems as well. At this was going for the same price as the really good house.

We got back to the office and I made a snap decision. Either Nice House is underpriced, or Nasty House and Okay House With Problems are overpriced. But the price is something I can afford, I can put up with (make use of, even) the walking distance as it's all healthy exercise and by putting in an offer I save the hassle of wandering through to Peterborough every weekend for the foreseeable future. So I did it. Made an offer, had it accepted, and Monday I get to do the scary solicitor stuff and start to work out all the finances.

I'm buying a house. A real one with walls and bedrooms and everything. Eep. Wish me luck!