Lisa Lou wants to be MF!

LisaLou1982

Evening all!

This week has been an eventful one for us. First day back at work on Monday after almost 2 weeks off was hard going as i most definitely did not want to get out of bed!!!!!!! Tuesday was a hard day as we were at OH grandmas funeral so a 3hr drive each way to Reading was needed. As sad a day as it was, it was a fantastic tribute to a lovely lady and she would've been overwhelmed to see how many people had come to pay their respects.

We got some annoying news re our new house too which put additional stress on the day. It appears that there is an overage clause which affects the legal title that we werent made aware of when we first offered on the property. This is restricting the possibility of building on the plot which isnt so much an issue for us as we dont want to put another property on the land, but it is also badly written and at the moment is also alluding to any extension to the property too

Ive spoken to our solicitor today who is hopeful that the provision added into the transfer deed was simply badly drafted and he is waiting to hear back from them to confirm that the overage conditions are simply due to new development as opposed to home improvement - so keep your fingers crossed for me!!!!

On a more positive note, we have booked our May holiday today. As always, we like to make best use of the bank holidays so are going friday to monday for late bank holiday to Riga Cheap flights, and 2 free nights through our hotels.com rewards has resulted in us getting a fabulous 4* hotel and has made the holiday less than £300 total for the 4 days!!! Woop Woop!!

How is every one elses January going so far?

LisaLou1982

Hi all.

Hope you're all having a good week so far.

My week started with a call and email from the EA who advised that my buyer is requesting a reduction of 2.5k due to some essential repairs which have been obtained from his survey. Very annoying, particularly since one of these "Essential" repairs was to make good a loose piece of plaster in the lounge. If anyone wishes to come around and identify this loose piece of plaster then they are welcomed with open eyes as im damned if i can see it, which is somewhat of a surprise since i schedule up maintenance works all day long so youd think id be aware of it in my own lounge!

My suspicions are that this "loose hollow plaster" is in fact the result of him tapping on the wall with the internal wall insulation.....hmmmmm

A fair point came about re the chimney which i have agreed to fix as a good will gesture. The house has valued up for mortgage purposes and tbh if my ftb is expecting to buy a 120yr old house which has minimal upkeep then he should be buying a new build. Im waiting to see how he replies.

Anyway rant over.

We are still waiting on the outcome of the overage clause provisions from last week so fingers crossed some good news comes our way soon!

LisaLou1982

Evening

So the saga continues re the house purchase. As yet still no information is back re the overage provisions so hopefully something will come back this week but who knows?

My buyer is being a PITA at the moment so i am leaving it a couple of days before i respond back to my latest email as I think the response i want to give is less than polite!

OH is in Canada at the moment enjoying a boys holiday with a couple of friends so ive got the house to myself which is nice, but a little lonely sometimes. I do have to remind myself that i do like the peace and quiet tho! lol

Ive asked my solicitor to send contracts out for signing to my Ex as no doubt he will be far too busy Monday to Friday to go and see the solicitor and will suggest something ridiculous like going on a Saturday when he knows they are closed (yes, he is that way!). So we will see how long that will take. Hopefully not too long and without too much difficulty.

Lets hope this is a good week!

LisaLou1982

Hi Everyone!

Wow its been a while since i updated on here! Theres an awful lot to catch you all up on!

So...house first of all.

Well, the good news is that its all done and dusted! The Ex got his head out of his !!!! after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing and we completed on 11th March Unfortunately our purchase wasnt ready so we moved to my mums in the hope that it would be completed within a couple of weeks.

Alas, that was not to be...

As we didnt complete by the end of March 2016, we have now been stung for an additional £7k of stamp duty (ouch) and the purchase is STILL ongoing! Our solicitor has been fabulous but the sellers solicitor has been a nightmare from start to finish. Our purchase has now been ongoing for 6 months!!!!!!!! Completely ridiculous for the purchase of an empty property with no chain. Weve had all the excuses under the sun, and ive had to take a step back from it all to stop myself going into orbit. We made a decision whilst on holiday in March that we were going to continue with the purchase so have just left them to get on with it, our mortgage offer expires at the end of May so still plenty of time right...?

until last week....when we unexpectedly found out i am 5 months pregnant!!!!

We are thrilled about it although very shocked as id had no symptoms, and we thought i was probably only a few weeks. It was an almighty shock at the scan when i found out i was 19+4 i can tell you!!!

So all hands are on deck, the estate agents, solicitors and everyone under the sun have been informed that this WILL complete before my mortgage offer expires. There is no other option, and im not being homeless with a new born because someone couldnt be bothered to do their job properly!

We are now going in to sign today We are still outstanding one letter but that is on its way, and hopefully we will be in our new home very soon!!

So, i think that about catches up our lives over the last few months. Hope everyone else is doing well?! x

LisaLou1982

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have finally exchanged contracts on our house today!! Completion Thursday

7 months after our offer was acceped, and 2 months after we moved out into temporary accommodation (and found out we have a surprise little one on the way!) we will soon be moving which should give us a little time to get a nursery sorted and some building work started!

Phew!

cat04

Hello!
I've just stumbled across your diary and read it all tonight. You've certainly had a very interesting few years what with all the changes and holidays Congratulations to you on both your house finally going to completion and your pregnancy :beer: Lots of exciting times ahead, I'll continue to follow your diary to see how the new home improvements and impending motherhood develop Good luck with the move

LisaLou1982

Afternoon Everyone!

Well, welcome to my new (old) MFW diary!! Especially designed for our new house! lol

We have finally completed on our new house and obviously all of our well made plans have turned on their head and now need rethinking! lol

As i posted above, we found out i was expecting just before we exchanged contracts, so the last 6 weeks (is that all its been since i found out i was expecting?! It seems a lifetime ago now!!!!) have been somewhat of a whirlwind to say the least!

Our new property (3 bed detached bungalow) was purchased as we wanted to convert our 3 bed detached bungalow (with a spectacularly poor layout!) into a 4 bedroom house by converting the loft and adding 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs. Initially we had the money to pretty much pay for this from the sale of my house +some savings, however, that was before we realised we would be stung for the additional stamp duty (we own another property and didn't complete before 31.3.16 ) so that took the best part of £10k out of our budget, and OH van decided to break down twice just as we completed on the house and so we have had to buy a new one as couldnt take the risk of keeping an unreliable vehicle once the baby is here so another £10k gone! grrr!!

Normally, i would do internal decorating works myself, but being 6 months pg, and OH likely to go ballistic if im up on a ladder doing the painting, we decided that it would be best to get someone in, so we had the bungalow fully decorated (im a nightmare if things arent how i want them so id have never settled with a new baby and a house looking like a tip!) and cleaned, and the fireplace and built in wardrobes removed so the place is looking much better now!

We have started to get quotes for our loft conversion, which we will have to borrow money for now...i think around £30k on top of what we have saved already gutted as £10k would have been much more managable but still...! I suppose in 10 years time we wont even notice!

Has anyone had major works start with a baby? We are debating the toss between using a fixed price company (more expensive but complete the job before moving onto the next and no unforseen costs) or a standard contractor, but obviously this will entail estimates etc and wont be as tightly managed and has the potential to escalate on costs.

13 weeks til due date! eek!

chumpy45

Oh wow crazy times ahead. Congrats on the new house and the baby news! We had an extension some years ago in a different house. I had DS1 who was nearly 3, DS2 who was 18 months and was pregnant with DS3. For the last 2 weeks we just had a sink plumbed in with cold water only in the middle of a big empty extension. The builders finished on a Saturday morning and I went into labour that night :rotfl: Luckily mum and dad came to stay to look the two littlies and managed to empty boxed and put everything back in cupboards before I came home from hospital. I am smiling looking back on it but I can't guarantee I smiled that much going through it :eek: But it was all fine, just another adventure !! Just keep swimming ....... :rotfl: Look forward to reading your news and adventures in the coming weeks.