Daring Myself to do this

Kitten868

No idea yet.

chanie

I hope it's okay. Brace yourself for a scary read - they often read worse than the reality, as the Surveyor has to cover their own backs. We put in an offer on a house and the Surveyor wrote some ambiguous statements about the extension. The reports often say 'please feel free to call', so I did. The Surveyor said that he had been doing his job for 40 years and had never seen such a badly built extension (old house, New extension). Needless to say, we pulled out. I definitely recommend giving the Surveyor a call and asking for an unofficial opinion.

Kitten868

Sorry chanie I was replying to you last night when my phone died. I'm just worrying it's going to be unmortgageable. Next doors Bush is 12 foot high and grown into our garden. But I'm well aware of most of the issues. Structurally it's fine. The issues are the Windows need replacing and the fuse box is ancient. But we are going to focus on getting it safe and watertight first. So its going to be rather ugly for a while. Everyone is nagging about the carpet but I want to get floorboards sorted first. And before that get everything tested and serviced. It's a long to do list. X

chanie

Unless you get a new build, all houses will have something that needs doing. As long as its safe, the rest is just cosmetic.




Having to live with the house the way it is for a while, helps to avoid costly mistakes eg you may buy certain furniture and then find it doesn't quite work. Get to know the house and then decide what works for you.

Kitten868

I know! The temptation to take out a load of credit and kit it out is calling. But it's being ignored. We need to move in and get a feel for it first. Where the light is, where I want to sit and where to put the tv. We still haven't styled up the flat - we're still just working out what furniture works and slowly replacing what we were given by my mum. So I'm not a rusher on it. It's good knowing that the girls are sorted. They only need a wardrobe for the girls really. So going to make it work with what we've got for now.
Going to be weird having 2 weeks with no bills and all my house direct debits are cancelled so hoping to actually have cash in the account for getting services switched on and serviced. Feels very odd.
So I'm sorry ladies but I have no idea what's going on mse wise. I'm still trying my best. I havent bought any boxes - we are borrowing them so theres that. Haven't been very good at getting rid of stuff. We've done two boxes to ziffit and webuybooks but that's all. Everything else looks like it's coming with us.
I think we've packed everything except our clothes for this season and the kitchen.... and anything for the girls. I don't want to freak them out. And we've still got a week to go.
Keep going everyone youre doing amazing! Xxxx

Kitten868

Survey came back as we expected. Lots of jobs to do but nothing we hadn't anticipated. Been naughty and tried to reduce our offer. Scary as we don't want to lose the house but has to be done. Scariest part of the survey was that they estimated it would cost £130k to put the house in order. Hmmm. Structurally it's sound. My plan is to get quotes for everything and anything so I can see what things cost and what we can consider. What to consider in making it our dream house. Like for instance the porch is utterly rotted and falling off the house. I think it will cost £3k to get the one we want and we need to replace the Windows and front door so is it better to get large order discount now to save money longer term or rip down what is there and wait?
Talking to my lovely sparky friend and he said he can install nest for us which sounds amazing as I can never know how to work our heating and itll make us more efficient.
My mum can't understand that I am happy to live in an ugly house and do the jobs that matter first. I refuse to recarpet until we have sorted out the electrics and floorboards. Just common sense surely. But it is !!!!!! right now. So ugly. But I don't mind. It'll be beautiful one day.

Hospital wasnt great. The hospital itself was a nightmare. Concrete hell hole. The consultant suggested I was imagining my pain. I said you all say that then cut me open and realise I'm not making it up. He just gave me a withering smile. And apparently I'm not even a bad case.... Hmmm that's opposite to what anyone that's looked inside me has said. Booked in for surgery.

I feel like I sound flash. We are buying a nasty house so we can afford it and the work we plan to do is all necessary. I prefer it to buying a house that's too small for £50k more or one the same but someone else has fixed it for £100k more. I can't keep living in this flat. X

chanie

I bet your Mum has forgotten what it's like to be starting out and with a young family. It's likely that she would have lived in some rough accommodation at some point.


I think it's better to do a proper job the first time around, even if that means saving up and waiting, so focus on doing 1 thing at a time, but do it well. We found that, despite setting budgets, there were always extra costs. When we were getting our kitchen fitted, we were told that the electrics were dangerous, as all the Power points were wired to one socket, so we had to pay extra to have the job done properly. Personally, I'd rather focus on getting the inside done rather than a porch, as you'll spend more time living inside than staring at the outside.

When you get quotes, don't forget independent companies for products. Those chain carpet companies charged a fortune for our carpets, but the local fitter was half price.

Good luck with your operation

kirtsypoos

I think the house sounds lovely Kitten - You can really make it your own

Sorry about the consultant - some of them are absolute a-r-s-es! Fingers crossed op goes well x

AspiringButAnxious

I agree with you — your mum is mad! lol! On the bright side, you are getting a house and because it needs work, you can tailor it to your taste/needs. I would LOVE to be in that position.

Hope the op goes well

Kitten868

Oh thank you all. Helped me put things