julicorn's journey 2 - Moving Up

julicorn

Thanks so much @South_coast

LadyGnome

That is amazing on the mortgage

Sistergold

Well done on the mortgage ! 

julicorn

LadyGnome said:

That is amazing on the mortgage

Thank you LadyGnome! It feels like it's all not really real, all just imaginary figures on a spreadsheet almost.

julicorn

Sistergold said:

Well done on the mortgage ! 

Thanks so much! 🥰

Karmacat

It sounds like things are going forward!  I'm so pleased for you  

julicorn

Thanks so much @Karmacat!

We went to view the flat again yesterday to take lots of measurements (can't help planning ahead!) and also take a closer look at everything, I think we had under 10 minutes for our initial viewing, so it was nice to be able to have a proper snoop around!  

It's such a lovely place, and the kitchen somehow seemed bigger than I remember! I had also come up with this idea of having a utility cupboard / closet upstairs instead of having the washing machine in the kitchen, and wanted to see if that could be workable. Well, turns out there are three huge cupboards built in on the upstairs landing, and one of them already has the hot water tank in it, so definitely plenty of water connections. So that could actually work out - would be nice, because it would free up space for a dishwasher in the kitchen too (and being German, I never really understood the 'washing machine in the kitchen' thing anyway).

Only negative we had sort of noticed during the first viewing but confirmed this time round: Woodchip ceilings evveeeeerryyyywhere, aside from the living room which has artex There's also some silly textured plaster/artex under the dado rail in the hallway. Obviously not a dealbreaker for us, we'll just have to try and find a decent plasterer and see what they say (skim/plasterboard over or get rid of the woodchip first?). If anyone has advice, please shout!

No further news on the chain either. We seem to have had all our enquiries answered for our purchase, with no further questions raised by our solicitor atm, which seems pretty speedy! The sale is progressing a little slower, I think our freeholder is being a liiiittle slow filling in paperwork, but we know him quite well and don't feel the need to chase too hard atm, given that the chain isn't even fully formed yet. 

powerspowers

Amazing progress!! 

Wood chip is a pain but you can strip it off and then get a plasterer to do a skim. Our old house was entirely wood chip and the previous occupant smoked so it was gross. We stripped the whole of the old house apart from stairs and landing. Now in new house we only have woodchip left on stairs and landing. But that’s not this years job 😂  

julicorn

That is great to know, thanks @powerspowers! We can always try to strip it off in one of the smaller rooms first, that might give us a good idea of what we're in for  

julicorn

Just had our EA call, apparently the buyer and their buyer are getting impatient and suddenly our buyer's mortgage offer is meant to run out end of June? Seems bizarre, he only viewed our flat on the 5th of February! 
Either way, buyer wanted to check in to see if we're happy to move out into rented by end of June, I said absolutely not (and also, we're not even close to exchange yet on our sale I don't think?). All round a bit annoying, but prices have been going up and up around here, so I'm not convinced it would be in his interest puling out now. 

Just keeping my fingers crossed that the people at the top of the chain find something soon, and that it's chain free.