Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

cazmanian_minx

OH is going to ring the solicitor this morning and formally withdraw our offer. I think we'll probably leave looking for anywhere else for a little while, see what the housing market does, save up a bigger deposit and maybe think about going down the self-build route.

On the plus side, the 'Hooray, I'm divorced!' holiday of a lifetime next year (assuming I *am* divorced, it's not a given at the moment!) is now a possibility again - and, in best MSE style, I've found 2 weeks in Mauritius at a 4.5* hotel, all inclusive, including flights, taxes and transfers, for £3,800 (that's for BOTH of us, not each!!). We're seriously considering paying the upgrade to a Prestige room (£480 in total), not only are they huge and much nicer but you can have a table taken outside to the beach every morning and have your breakfast brought out to you by the waves! And, even better, I can get 3% of the total cost back through Quidco :rotfl:

Caz

Kaz2904

Oh, I'm so sorry about the house caz. Looking at the positive side though, you will be able to get a very nice deposit set up over the coming time and have that lovely holiday.
I think I would splurge the extra money and upgrade but then I'm naughty!

catshark88

The upgrade sounds great. Could you get a CapitalOne cashback card and get another 4% of the cost back?

cazmanian_minx

Yay, we're back :j :j :j

OH hasn't withdrawn the offer on the house yet, the broker advised sending a copy of the survey to the lender on the offchance that they didn't want to take up the retention. I thought it was a false hope, but the survey went off to them on Thursday and they haven't said no yet, so you never know.

I had a bit of luck on the business front. One of my suppliers often uses the contents of their shredder as packaging materials and someone at their office had put a load of paper through the shredder horizontally instead of vertically so complete lines were visible - and one or two of them looked like they might be parts of addresses. After an hour on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor sorting through it and another hour on Google, I have full contact details of 11 of my UK supplier's suppliers in Hong Kong and China. I can't use the info yet, because minimum order quantities range from $3,000 to $5,000 and I just don't have the space, but it's very useful for the future!

On the not so good side: after turning down a lump sum and two requests to attend mediation sessions to discuss it, my soon-to-be-ex-husband has decided he does want money out of me after all and has suggested I write him a cheque for an unspecified amount in return for him signing the divorce papers. Unfortunately for him he's pratted about long enough that I don't need his signature on anything to complete the divorce and remove the home rights order on the flat, but after a long discussion with OH, my family and my solicitor, we've reached the conclusion that it's probably a good idea to get a line drawn underneath everything, because if it doesn't get sewn up in a consent order he can technically pursue me for money at any time in the future - so it's better to get it sorted out now while I'm broke and before I put my plans to become a multi-millionairess into action :rotfl: :rotfl:

Solicitor and I have agreed that there's little point in trying to negotiate through solicitors or mediation, we've tried both those before and been ignored, so it's being referred to the court to sort out. It's going to be expensive - South London prices mean that my legal fees will be around £1,500 if we come to an almost immediate agreement, but worst case could be £5-10,000 if it goes through all three hearings :eek: :eek: :eek: PLUS any settlement I have to pay him!

Unless there's a minor miracle, I'm going to have to remortgage to settle with him, which is going to put me back significantly :mad: I hope I can still complete the challenge in three years - in fact, scratch that, I'm DETERMINED to still complete the challenge in three years!

Caz

catshark88

With your (quite inspirational) motivation and energy, I am certain that if you decide that you are still going to pay off your mortgage in 3 years, you will find a way to achieve it.

Onwards and upwards (or downwards in the case of amounts owing!)!

:beer:

setmefree2

Yup onwards and downwards!!!:D

cazmanian_minx

You're probably all sick of me rabbiting on about this house now, but there's been yet another twist in the story. The lender said they'd definitely be taking the retention, so OH phoned the solicitor to withdraw his offer. The solicitor asked him to give her a couple of hours and when he spoke to her again said she'd done some digging around locally. As far as she could find out, this is the first time the house has been surveyed in at least 5 years and the sellers probably aren't aware that the problems are as extensive as they are. So she's recommended she goes back to their solicitors and says 'Look, my client and his girlfriend really love the house, but they can't afford to buy it with this retention. Anyone else getting it surveyed is going to come up with the same result and they're still keen to buy it despite its problems - so if you'll get the work done that's causing the retention requirement they'll go ahead...or you can drop the price by £25,000 and they'll sort the work out.'

I suspect it's going to be a short answer and the second word will be 'off', but she thinks it's worth a try, so I can't book the holiday just yet!

Since we're very probably going to be moving at some point in the next 2-5 years, I've started decluttering on my private account on eBay. It's a bit sporadic, but I start everything at 99p and most of it has been selling for unspectacular prices. But last night a slightly tatty paperback, which had been sitting at 99p with one bidder all week, went ballistic in the final 2 minutes and sold for £53 :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: I knew it was out of print and hard to find, but I never dreamed it would go for that much!! So if you spot a copy of Maxine - The Witch Queen, an autobiography of Maxine Sanders, on a book stall anywhere (I found mine on the book stall at St Martin in the Fields churchyard, a fact which always quietly amused me!), buy it, it's worth quite a bit!!

Caz

Helonearth

Probably the best time you could have ever picked to sell that, what with it being samhain/halloween tonight! Might partially explain the mad price!

setmefree2

Amazing news about the paper back - I never knew people would pay so much. Well done and keep us posted about the house:D

catshark88

I got a Breyer game last christmas free with the purchase of a horse rug. I stuck it on ebay and got about £30 for it. RRP was £12.99! There are MSE people and there are non MSE people....