Finally I have a mortgage I can start to pay off!

newgirly

Sounds promising Vix 🙂

themadvix

In a random post-GP moment, DH has paid off the remainder of our OP allowance this year - £4,101.44.... bringing our mortgage down to £62,000 or thereabouts. This was money he’s been hanging on to for a couple of months from the sale of some shares. He’s able to take another £2000 of free shares next month (which is in addition to our main pile of work shares), so we’ll hold onto that for any unexpected moving expenses (we’d saved the money needed for moving including stamp duty a while ago, so have plenty of cash should we need it).

So, mission accomplished for 2020! Weird world we’re living in.

Suffolk_lass

Maybe the village has a FB page? even ours does. We also have a Parish Magazine covering church (Parochial Church Council, services etc) and civic (Parish Council) in addition to groups, social events and  adverts for local traders. You could check the local District Council web page for Parish Council details and email the clerk to ask where they publish their minutes (they legally have to) and if there is a Parish magazine. It might be on a noticeboard (or in the old phone box...). Looking through a few sets of minutes will give an indication of any issues for the Village and potentially any tensions in it. Attitudes to planning might be a factor so a quick search of the district council's planning portal and any comments (nimby objections?) can tell you a lot. You should be able to see where their 5 year land supply is, even ahead of the planned changes to planning.

Our big issues are not uncommon - traffic (speeding) and planning. In terms of recce I would also go and sit on the road at different times of the day. Little did we know that the speed limit apparently does not apply to people commuting to London from the local Station, who leave their houses too late to drive legally and get the train they think they are entitled to get. It is amazing how fast they drive through a 30mph village ("but I was only...") and it is so much noisier when they speed. Traffic volume is the other thing at certain times of day.

Cheery_Daff

Good ideas Suffolk Lass! Bizarrely our village had a website which included an extensive (but not very illuminating) history of our actual house (the woman was into history, and it included helpful things like what the Tudors ate 😂 ) Parish Council minutes are a great idea. I walked up and down the footpath past our house several times (in different seasons - it took us that bloody long to buy the place) 

Well done on your OPs Vix!!

South_coast

Great work on the OP, I remember you being excited at getting under the £100k barrier 🤣!

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks SL, lots to think about there. There is a FB page, but it seems to be just one man posting! I saw the PC minutes pinned to the noticeboard on the green (looking for evidence of community stuff) - didn't think to read them though, good point. Have checked the local plan which only allows for the development of 22 houses (10 of which have already been built) - the village is on the edge of a SSSI and ancient monument, so that's handy - and that lies between us and the expanding nearby town, so it can only expand so far. I'm pretty sure the road isn't on a route to a station (if it is, it would be a very circuitous route!), but will definitely go and sit for a bit - we were surprised at how much traffic went past when we were there on Saturday (I mean, virtually nothing, but more than we expected, IYSWIM!). The living room and master bed are at the rear of the property, so noise not so much of an issue, but busyness in terms of cats is.

Cheery, I can't quite work out how old this house is, but definitely older than our 1960s terrace. If we buy it, it'll be interesting to discover its history.

Second viewing is now booked for Thursday. If we have an offer on ours in the meantime, I'd be tempted to put an offer in - from what the EA says, £20k under might be doable (she's rejected offers for 450-460), which would be great! (Although, it's looking like I'm going to be around these here parts for quite some time!). I don't want to get shafted again because we were too slow to move. Tempted to put an offer in even if we don't have one - all she can do is say no.

Today I have lots of work to do, (our) estate agents to wrangle, worming tablets for the cats to pick up and an RM survey item to post. Hoping to combine walk to vets with some blackberrying.

MS things:
* DH and I had a nice meal out last night for the grand sum of £2.60 - we used the Leisure Vouchers up, which is a relief. The food and service were really quite good compared to when we've been to same establishment in the past (we'd stopped going because it was so poor). Clearly Covid measures have an effect on service!
* Forgot to say that the OP yesterday saved us £800 in interest 
* Qmee survey (now at £4.17). While they're poorly paid, I can do them on my phone at odd moments, which means they tot up
* Erm... I'm eating the iffy milk on my breakfast whilst typing...

Gratitudes:
* Lots of work
* Fish are all looking happier (There's still 10 of them, despite the deaths!)
* The sun came out briefly earlier and it's not raining

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

This is sounding great, madvix!  Very exciting. 

themadvix

Heard back from the estate agent a little while ago. No offers. The person who was very keen then saw another property that pipped ours to it, which is highly difficult to believe and very frustrating... hmm...

Doing well with to-do list, didn't blackberry on my walk to vets, but actually they weren't quite ripe for the most part (I did taste test a couple). Everything else done now except big work project, which I'd better do some focused work on now.

MS things:
* TGTG bag to collect later
* Qmee survey on my walk
* 1P survey
* PA survey
* Mysterious 'final bill refund' credits into bills account - could these be the elusive Tonik payments? They add up to more than expected (£109 rather than £79), and the data is non-existent in the joint a/c transaction info... will see if more info appears shortly. The balance on the Tonik account does now say £0, which it didn't a few days ago. If so, hoo-flippin'-ray!

Jessy103

Well done on the OP, vix! 😀

themadvix

Thanks Jessy!

 Picked up our tgtg bag, which was interesting as the boss clearly thought that there should only be three available per day rather than 5 (I must have been fifth?). After a bit of debate with her colleague she accepted it and filled a bag for me - I seemed to do well as a result! 

After that DH and I went for a drive to the potential village. Very quiet, even in rush hour, beautiful walks, views and footpaths. Read the PC minutes - sounds like quite a nice community, they’ve been looking after those shielding, and had to cancel planned VJ Day celebrations; visited the playground (always a good indicator of a place, I feel) and enjoyed a picnic tea courtesy of TGTG. I think we’d be very happy there - hoping that there’s people thinking the same about our house on RM as I type and we’ll be inundated with viewing requests tomorrow. (Forgot to say earlier we adjusted the price from £310 to oieo £300 - makes little difference in reality but changes the search bracket we appear in. Hoping that will help matters. (The purple bricks guy suggested this when he rang for feedback, which was kind of him as he knew we were going with someone else, but I never got around to requesting this from our EA, so although it’s not great to be changing it so early, it’s entirely my fault.)