Novice house renovators - the start ***UPDATED***

[parisdisneyfan]

So we visited our,hopefully, new property yesterday. Some things were better than we remembered, however some were worse The owners are lovely but definitely need to be in a smaller one level property closer to all they need. We felt quite guilty about saying no to all the furniture etc they wanted to leave for us but we have more than enough of our own and although we didn't say it, it wasn't our style. It was quite sobering as seeing them gave us a glimpse into the future but luckily/hopefully we will get 20+ years in it as well!

The garden is beautiful, the laurel hedge I was concerned about being dominating in the front isn't. The whole house is neater, cleaner and a bit bigger than I remembered. Whereas my original notes said new bannister etc, now I think possibly if they were painted instead of red/orange stain they might be ok. The kitchen is slightly better than I remembered and the bathrooms are actually white but still dated - not sure which house I was remembering The fireplace again we want to replace eventually but it wasn't as bad as I remembered.

Downsides are, damp patch by chimney in master bedroom is worse than we thought so must get it sorted immediately we move in. Dh thinks it is just pointing or flashing on the chimney according to the drone footage he took of the roof. Windows are dated but actually only one blown. A large part of the garden with the wendy house, fruit cage, log store and compost area will really need to be cleared and probably patioed and turfed. The wendy house and log store are rotten and falling apart as is the fruit cage. The compost area is flooded and sunken slabs in the middle. Hopefully just a big labour job until it is cleared but will cost to extend the patio The gate posts are serious size, didn't measure but is there such a thing as a 6 x6 inch post? They also don't open fully and are jammed in the driveway! Think that will be a visit the first night we own it to lift them off the hinges, too much to hope the removal lorry will take them out for us The garage conversion we think will be harder (ie more expensive) that we first thought but we will just have to wait and see!

However all in all we are still very happy and just can't wait to get started. I am really going to have to be disciplined and take it slowly and do it properly.

One thing neither of us expected was the emotions we felt about the new house. We are expecting to feel sad leaving this house but not sad about the new one! Dh went very husky and almost broke my hand squeezing it when he was in the workshop as his dad would have loved it, and this is a man who does not show emotion. I was similar with the garden and general area as my mum would have loved that. Dad had done his National Service in Tidworth and Devizes in the 50's and was always telling us about it. It is very similar to the house I was born in in Kent as well.

[jackster14]

Sound like it is all moving along.. Exciting times.

[parisdisneyfan]

Still no actual date, hoping it will happen this week!

However we have just had the window panel replaced that has been chipped for nearly 20 years with no problems but our buyers insisted was replaced! I have also had the first estimate for our roof repairs, less than £3000 inc VAT for the following work :

to demoss all areas of roof and spray moss killer
to replace dislodged verge tiles and repoint verge tiles where needed
to repoint main open fire chimney stack and apply new cement crown boiler chimney stack to remove 2 courses of damaged bricks rebuild crown supply new bricks and new cement crown repoint chimney stack to secure roof

Can anyone tell me if that is a reasonable price? I am waiting for the other roofer I contacted to get in touch but would be nice to know if that is in the right price range. I deliberately didn't tell him our budget!

Also sorting out the garage is going well when I do it but not so much when dh goes out there I am hoping that the local tip will let me ditch various packets, bottles and tubs of well out of date chemicals etc that we haven't touched for most of the 20 years we have been here!

[catherinesian]

I am glad you are progressing and have ironed out a few niggles with your buyers. I was a bit shocked they asked for money off due to the kitchen, that's a bit much if you ask me

We have now sold ours and have our eyes on a house, we have viewed it twice and going to take my dad around at the weekend (he's a surveyor). Then assuming all goes well we will have 3 days to sort out getting an offer accepted before we go on holiday. Exciting times

[parisdisneyfan]

Originally Posted by catherinesian

I am glad you are progressing and have ironed out a few niggles with your buyers. I was a bit shocked they asked for money off due to the kitchen, that's a bit much if you ask me

We have now sold ours and have our eyes on a house, we have viewed it twice and going to take my dad around at the weekend (he's a surveyor). Then assuming all goes well we will have 3 days to sort out getting an offer accepted before we go on holiday. Exciting times

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Lucky you, really pleased for you. We are still waiting for our buyer who went on holiday still harping on about the kitchen but not saying what he wanted😡 The agent has said she will be pushing for it to get sorted this week, but the longer it goes on the more I think he will pull out😓
Good luck and enjoy your holiday x

[catherinesian]

Originally Posted by parisdisneyfan

Lucky you, really pleased for you. We are still waiting for our buyer who went on holiday still harping on about the kitchen but not saying what he wanted😡 The agent has said she will be pushing for it to get sorted this week, but the longer it goes on the more I think he will pull out😓
Good luck and enjoy your holiday x

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Oh no

We had our house on the market last year and had two sales fall through. So every time the phone rings I pick it up dreading it's our new buyers pulling out. I hope they don't as I've really fallen for this new house and I had enough heartache last year losing the house we originally bought. I really hope you don't have more trouble with your buyers.

People say everything happens for a reason though and I can see that re our previous sales now. The house we are looking at now was on the market last year but we couldn't afford it, we've had payrises since and the house sold, fell through and has been remarketed with another agent at a lower price and all of a sudden it's quite a bit under our budget

[parisdisneyfan]

Everything now is in place and we were hoping to exchange today but our buyer and the owners of the house we are buying can't agree a date to complete. Our rather stupid (and that is putting it politely) buyer has apparently handed notice into his rental and needs to be out by the 12th October. Our sellers wanted 4 weeks between exchange and completion and everyone has known this since the beginning. That leaves a 2 week gap and I'm sorry but we aren't going to be homeless or shell out for rental/storage etc. I would also end up losing pay as I haven't handed in my notice yet, in fact we haven't done much as thought we were putting it back on the market at one point!

And to cap it all apparently our seller has also been admitted to hospital (elderly overweight gentleman who enjoys his drink and is not that mobile!) I feel a bit guilty for the stress the move is causing but we have always said they could put it back on the market. Anyone know what happens if the worst happens to our seller?

[parisdisneyfan]

Finally, the end is in sight!

It took a bit of compromise on our side but unfortunately our buyer has got his way He always knew that our sellers needed 4-6 weeks between exchange and that I wasn't handing in my 4 week notice until we had exchanged - both valid we thought. So he hands in his notice to his rental and wanted to be in on the 11th! He thinks he has compromised as he can "apparently" stay until the 16th. We think he wants to do work etc before moving in (wouldn't we all like to do that) or else he is stupider than we thought as he risked being homeless with children! I'm sure my neighbours will tell me if he actually does move in as we move out! Although we did look at seeing if we could rent, it was only going to be 3 weeks, 1 of which was half term and the costs of renting holiday properties or hotels and putting our stuff into storage was stupid. We had previously looking at normal renting while we had the work done but that was also quite expensive and as we had nothing in place re builders etc several months could be wasted just waiting for all of it to get started. Anyway our poor sellers have agreed to move out for then if we don't mind them leaving stuff they haven't got rid of. We have agreed with the caveat that they have booked and paid for skips or house clearance. Don't mind helping but not paying to get rid of their stuff!

Our buyer has paid the deposit, and a lot more as he is having a very small mortgage compared to the property price. We would have exchanged on Friday but his solicitor was obviously so shocked that it was all going through that she needed the morning to recover and the solicitor for the property our sellers are buying went home early! I tell you, you couldn't make this up! So we are all set for exchange tomorrow with completion on the 16th - 9 days Yes I know you can do it on the same day (we have done before) so this weekend has been spent packing!

Unfortunately we lost our preferred removal company but have managed to find another who isn't too much more expensive. However we will have to be in a hotel for an extra night and have also had to pay for the boxes from the original remover Once I have heard from the solicitor that it has gone through I will have the unenviable task of telling my Head that I will be leaving in a weeks time Not sure how he will take it but he has known for several months and I did offer not to come back in September but he said no. Luckily the child I was working with has left the school and my class is quite an easy one so although we are still short on LSA's I'm not really dropping him in it! Not quite sure what happens, I know I will only get paid for the time I work but I assume there is no other financial penalty?

I have a list of calls to make tomorrow re insurance, removers, booking the immediate work of drains, roofs and ordering a washing machine (ours is built in so being left). Now just want it all over with and get settled in our new place, just keep thinking - in 2weeks time it will all be over, and the real work will start! Wish me luck and thanks for reading!

[parisdisneyfan]

Originally Posted by catherinesian

Oh no

We had our house on the market last year and had two sales fall through. So every time the phone rings I pick it up dreading it's our new buyers pulling out. I hope they don't as I've really fallen for this new house and I had enough heartache last year losing the house we originally bought. I really hope you don't have more trouble with your buyers.

People say everything happens for a reason though and I can see that re our previous sales now. The house we are looking at now was on the market last year but we couldn't afford it, we've had payrises since and the house sold, fell through and has been remarketed with another agent at a lower price and all of a sudden it's quite a bit under our budget

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How is your move going? Hope the holiday has buoyed you up for the stress of it all !

[Feebee2]

Well pleased to hear it's all going ahead. I think you've remained very calm throughout it all.