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

themadvix

Morning all,

Haven't been posting lately as things have been rather busy and stressful. We had the survey back on the house and it wasn't good (neglect and potential for dry rot). We don't want to spend any more on it at this point but have asked the vendors to consider a specialist survey (and considerable renegotiation). We are waiting to hear back from them but not hopeful. With the PP saga and this (some of the issues we couldn't see because it had been (deliberately?) hidden for the viewing - i.e. leaky bathrooms), I have zero trust in the vendors and do worry what else might come to light. But we'll see what they say. Pretty sure if things don't happen soon we'll lose our buyers as well.

Took car for MOT this morning - remarkably it passed. Will transfer the £5 saving from budgeted pot to another pot. 

In MS news:
* 2 Olio collections this week with different stuff in them, so have acquired some crisps, veg and harissa paste, alongside the usual bread etc.
* Clicks and comps done
* £1 Populous survey
* NV survey
* YG survey
* We have people coming for dinner tonight and on Sunday, so went to Lidl for some of the food for their visits - not everything though as too much comes in plastic. It has saved us though, especially on the wine.
* Defrosted freezer as had had to abandon top drawer! So have used some bits up and hopefully it is running more efficiently now.

Gratitudes:
* Niece had an excellent report at parents' evening
* Car passed its MOT (we didn't have high expectations!)
* Weather has been gorgeous here the last couple of days

Have a good day all!

Karmacat

Oof, Vix, sorry to hear the prospective move is suddenly becoming problematic   I hope there are solutions without you having to back out altogether  

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Thanks Karma. I'm not sure it'll necessarily be us backing out, although that depends on what they might agree to. Haven't heard anything back, so rang the EA a few minutes ago and the right person will get back to me (the person we're meant to deal with is on annual leave this week). Suspect we're still waiting on a decision from the vendors, but it would be nice to know.

That aside, we had a lovely weekend. Had friends over for dinner on Friday night, DH met up with his uni friends on Saturday (and I ferried him to and from Milton Keynes for the train) and we had more friends and their children round for lunch yesterday. Loads of leftovers from both meals, so that fed me Saturday for my main meal (I had an IKEA breakfast as I was over in MK) and will do lunch for today. The rest is in the freezer for other meals. We have a recipe box either for tonight or tomorrow still to eat and other food in, so will probably cancel this week's veg box.

Today I've only had a tiny bit of work, so have been catching up on rather neglected housework. Because we've had people round, downstairs was pretty neat and tidy but upstairs was rather a mess (friends' little boy wanted to go upstairs yesterday and I had to say no!). It's all looking very much better now and my desk is clear too, which helps hugely! Still a few houseworky jobs to do, but I've got two loads of washing on the line and the sun is out, so I will also get a walk in this afternoon.

MS things:
* Comps entered
* Clicks done (will withdraw another £5 from HW, but need to add to account to change the bank account and I just cba this morning with faffing!)
* A few surveys done over the weekend, but don't think I'll be getting a payout from Prolific this month unless this week is substantially better!
* A couple of bits still need listing on Ebay/Vinted (Vinted update - it's all gone very quiet and I think my listings are probably so far down the rankings now that no one is seeing them - so might switch back to Ebay)

Gratitudes:
* Socialising with new friends and old this weekend
* A day of doing whatever I felt like on Saturday, guilt-free (and I enjoy the drive to and from MK as it's country roads)
* Leftovers

Have a good afternoon all!

Suffolk_lass

Bit of a catch up for me after nearly two weeks offline on hols. Just to add to the boots thing I email subscribe to Brantano offers and they regularly have Muck Boots on offer. I have some with neoprene (I think) legs that might suit you. Here's a link

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks SL. I clearly didn't come back and update on boots here. I managed to find some in a garden centre - sort of half height, which fitted well, so I've got those. No idea how well they'll last but at least they are a start.

However.... I had an epiphany yesterday and realised that what I wanted was for the vendors to say no to our requests and back out. So, after quite a bit of soul searching, I'm waiting a call back from the EA to tell her that we'll be withdrawing our offer. I'm gutted, but I realised that what we were getting was so far from what we thought we were getting that my heart just didn't love it any more and the negatives had reached the point where they outweighed the positives (which I'd had to try really hard to focus on). DH has been really accepting - he is disappointed but says he knows we can't move there if I don't want to and that's that. It's hard to let go of the dreams and ideas we had, but I'm realising that that is all they were and the reality was likely to be expensive, time-consuming and already felt like a chain around my neck. So the boots may not get as much use as expected.

I'm not sure what our plan is. I think we'll leave it up to our buyers to withdraw their offer probably. We're happy to keep looking, but both feel it's unlikely we'll find something - especially given how we'll be comparing it to the Norfolk house. However, houses like ours are easy to find if you're looking for a B2L (as our buyers were), so they'll probably want to just get on with it elsewhere.

Feeling pretty rubbish - on many fronts, not least that DH was so excited about it. I just hope that a few months down the line I'm not hugely regretting this decision.

Fortune_Smiles

What's for you won't go by you @themadvix.  And it's good that you've listened to both your heart and your head when coming to a decision.  Your new home is out there waiting for you - keep looking 🤗

Fortune x

LadyWithAPlan

Sounds like you had the wisdom to make the right choice, despite loving the 'dream'.
My flat hunting is also on hold - I am enjoying the rest.

Karmacat

Wow, that really is **wisdom**, as Lady says - I really admire you pulling the plug on it on an emotional level, rather than trying to logic yourself into continuing.  I hope you get you peace of mind back really soon.

themadvix

Oh ladies, you've all made me feel so much better. And actually as the reality sinks in, I'm feeling quite calm too. Thank you.

Our buyers have given us two weeks or so... so I'm fairly certain we won't find anything, but we will look (the lady at our agents was wittering on about viewings and things, and I'm thinking 'I doubt we'll see anything we like enough to view', but we'll see). If we do find something, we are in a strong position as our buyers are ready to exchange. 🙄

We've spent £1440 on the survey (worth every penny), £495 with our mortgage broker and £900+VAT with the solicitor (obviously, if we move £300 of this won't have been wasted). Definitely a case of 'it's only money' at this point. That said, if we don't move, we'll be looking to build this back up quickly (as some of it will have come from my buffer fund in the end). For the last couple of months DH has been paying the expected 'new' mortgage payment into the joint a/c, so there's some money in there that can be extracted.

In other news:
* A decent amount of work today - supplemented by a few jobs on the work platform.
* I won £10 from the RM survey! (in points for vouchers, but I *really* needed a win today, so completely grateful for this!)
* Clicks done (won 40p on the HW)
* Comps entered
* Lunch was free except the egg and butter (i.e. bread, avocado and crisps all Olio)
* Heating is still not on a regular schedule - it's been on for the odd half hour, but we really haven't needed it that much

Gratitudes:
* Work
* The EAs have been lovely
* I won £10!
* Badminton this evening, followed by our recipe box meal

Have a good afternoon all!

themadvix

I should add, that we've certainly learned a lot on the journey - about listed buildings, planning, not telling virtually everyone we know that we're moving before we've had a survey done, etc... so it has been useful in that regard.