Getting a mortgage and then becoming mortgage-free!

Kittenkirst

Morning all!
Called the mortgage brokers yesterday and annoyingly Leeds Building Society have pushed out their response SLA by two more days; she is due to call them to get the answer today so fingers crossed we can stop worry!

In a very lovely gesture girlfriends mum said to her that she can loan us more deposit if we require more equity or anything like that to get it through- hopefully it wouldn’t ever get to that (we’re putting £88k in from our current home sale) but a very lovely thing to offer to try and help put our minds at ease,

Prolific seems to be slow on the survey front; one small survey but some were approved so £6.69 sent to the mortgage last night, alongside that £84.70 cashback that cleared last night & a little Tilly tidy of 56p. So £91.95 extra monies sent to the mortgage yesterday which isn’t bad at all!

We’ve brought Oscar over today to spend the day getting used to the house; I think this is the 7th day we have done this over the last month or so. Joey still seems perturbed by the interloper, Oscar is getting bolder but just wants to be friends with Joey as runs up to him when he sees him. Joey just hisses & growls. Hopefully they can coexist here for the few months without too much trauma/distress for either boy.

We have the feliway diffusers on in the house (not sure if doing anything but we have them so worth a go), his bed is next to me and we’ve brought his food and litter tray too so he’ll have some home comforts. Fingers crossed!

SandyShores

That's so nice of her, hope you get through the next step soon.

I can't remember introducing new cats, it was so long ago that we did this.  Jackson Galaxy has a page on his website about it https://www.jacksongalaxy.com/blog/the-dos-and-donts-of-introducing-cats/  Might be helpful, he does wonders.

Feliway do a spray as well, but it sounds like Oscar is quite happy.  I was so worried about my cat coming to a more urban environment, but he is adapting really well.  

Kittenkirst

@SandyShores that weblink is fantastic- thank you so much for sharing. We have been doing the feeding part already but not with a door, just the other side of the large kitchen so they know they are both in there but its positive.

Will have a good read through tonight with the girlfriend and absorb some more. This morning Oscar was very snuggly but as soon as we got dressed he went out and sat the other side of the cat-flap! I think he was waiting for us to leave and not take him with us today, poor chap! 

Ive woken up with two large swollen bites- one on my upper arm, and one on the side of my finger. The finger one is very itchy and swollen so have taken an antihistamine and hoping it calms as its very hot and irritable

Kittenkirst

Good morning all! 
What a beautiful weekend we have had! We managed to get loads done with the packing/ decluttering and had an unexpected few hours in our garden with some friends; the couple popped over to drop some large gousto boxes off for us (perfect for clothes packing), so we ended up having a few socially distanced beers for a few hours in the sunshine ☀️ 

It was really lovely, and showed just how much Ive missed the social interaction in lockdown. It was also handy as we sorted the shed in the morning and found a box of 7 corona beers and 3 cans of IPA that we then put in the fridge to “declutter” before the move and they all got drunk   Ive also managed to “declutter” the remnants of a bottle of white rum this week too. 
We barely drink at home; we tend to only drink on nights out/ bbq’s etc so have a lot of booze in the cupboard!

We listed lots on Olio yesterday and had people come and collect the following already:
- 6 cans of captain Morgan and cola that were out of date. Mum and dad won them as part of a win at their cash & carry, I tried them but wasnt overly keen really so we had 6 of the case left.
- 7 books & a cat scratching thing that Oscar refused to acknowledge for the past year (Hugo liked it bless him)
- large tin of beads

Weve also listed loads of household stuff we wont take with us or put in storage so hoping that they go before we move, We now have a very large box in the front room of all things on FB marketplace, eBay and Olio, with a burgeoning pile to be listed to go! 

Had a quick Vinted sale of £7 on Saturday too so got that dropped at the Hermes drop-off and will overpay that at lunchtime today, and Prolific cleared £5.59 on Friday night so that was sent over straight away. The overpayments are all creeping up.

Still waiting to hear on Leeds Building Society for the mortgage offer (urgh!) spoke with the mortgage broker and they asked a lot of basic questions again; a bit worrying really. Really basic stuff like who is your house mortgage with, when does the payment go out, who is the gfs flat mortgage with and when does that go out. This was all provided initially, repeated 2 weeks ago on email, and they have all of our bank statement; including the 2 mortgage statements we provided just for good measure.

We did go to the new housing development yesterday morning, and the metal fencing is further back now so we can see our house in the corner being built! Eeeeeek that part is very exciting I must say! 

Ive got two olio collections to walk and get on my lunch today: some tea cakes and croissants for mum in law, and some veg bags, panini bread & basil for us, and I’m going to pick up some floor length brand new voile curtains after work that a lady popped on our local Reduce, reuse, recycle page too. They look perfect and from the measurements think they will be fab in one of the bedrooms or the office so will collect ready

I need to complete a few more induction modules on Olio as there are some slots for being a food collector in my area so I’m keen to have a go- must prioritise getting these done tonight if I can!

South_coast

Kittenkirst said:

- 7 books & a cat scratching thing that Oscar refused to acknowledge for the past year

I think you're expecting a bit too much if you're wanting him to pick up a book and start reading it....🤣

Kittenkirst

Ha ha that did make me laugh @South_coast

More stuff has gone out the house via Olio, Facebook marketplace and Vinted. Made £7 last night on a huge key ring I got for Christmas one year (very thoughtful but really not right for me), had a pinecone survey and £5.77 on Prolific clear so all sent over to the mortgage.

In new house news its a bit of a mixed bag:

Positive: I chased up everyone to find out what furniture the buyers want to keep of ours and they’ve provided a huge list- saves us moving & storing it and is £1520 towards the move costs etc which is great! 

Negative- mortgage broker responded yesterday that the mortgage application is back with Leeds Building Society underwriters and their SLA is 7 working days so we probably wont hear back until middle of the week. We are due to exchange on Monday so not sure what this now means; whether everything just is held for a few days whilst we wait (they best blinking approve it after all of this shilly shallying!!) 

New job seems to still be going well; making headway on some projects Ive been given and have managed to sort some cost-savings of £16k already which I’m pretty pleased with (as isn’t one of the objectives of my job really!). Had some positive feedback so far off different people which is lovely to hear, and it feels a million miles away from how things were at my old workplace. It really does feel like a cloud has lifted for me and Ive stopped taking my anti-depressants over the last month

themadvix

Apart from the mortgage shenanigans, it's all sounding really positive - you sound so much happier in your new job!

Kittenkirst

@themadvix Yes, its really astounding to me just how different it is. Don’t get me wrong; joining a new company and new subject area after nearly 15 years, during a pandemic so all remotely is not without its challenges, but they seem so minor compared to some of the other hurdles I went through at the old place.

I’m normally an (annoyingly) chipper, up-beat type of person so I really struggled with understanding the depression and anxiety of last year and I know a lot of friends were really surprised as I always try to see the silver lining in situations. In a way the pandemic helped that part as people didn’t really witness the change in me other than girlfriend and her parents really, so I didn’t feel I had to justify/defend/explain anything to people (if that makes any sort of sense!)

Anyways, onwards and upwards hey!

Last night we collected some flowers - gorgeous- bananas and a loaf via Olio, and gave away a skipping rope and a bag of dice! Today I have a lady coming for insulated lunch bags, an 80s game, an unopened pack of ladies pants, some ink stamping pads and a mini frying pan. For the in-laws I have another coming to collect some of those old style weaved placemats/coasters, lots of cutlery, utensils and another mini frying pan. 

I do really love that people embrace Olio and free sites on facebook etc to have this reduce waste ethos. Planning a litter pick this evening once I’ve taken the gf to have her second vaccine jab

We had a removal guy round last night to take all the details of our stuff for removing and then putting into storage- waiting for the quote back on there. 

Some Quidco cashback cleared yesterday- only £1.24 but it all helps, and Prolific seems to have waken up with clearing the completed surveys; although Ive had very few in this week, so I have £3.03 cleared and another £3.50 pending.

Looking at my accounts app we’ve managed to overpay £195 so far this month just with all these surveys, cashback, sales & loose change jar which I’m pretty impressed with really. Pay day is on Wednesday and we will then send the chunky OP to the mortgage (only £162.45), however in May we wont have a mortgage payment as its taken on the 20th (and we should be completing on 12th!) so Ive budgeted for us to send the May payment (£687.55) as an OP on Wednesday. I thought we may as well, especially as we default to Standard Variable Rate of 5.2% on 1st May for the 12 days until completion (!!!!!) so if there’s a bit less mortgage for that interest the better

Kittenkirst

8.10am received a call and the mortgage is alllllll appproved!!!!

Yes, finally!!!

South_coast

Excellent news, what a relief!!!