Five Year Fix, Five Year Plan

savingholmes

It sounds like if you have been able to pull together such a hefty deposit you have your head screwed on right. All the best for the future. 

killerpeaty

Merlin's_Beard said:

killerpeaty said:

Honestly did not know about what Brexit did to your sector, but it's interesting. I have questions but feel free to ignore. Is there no bridging qualification so that an unrecognised qualification can be converted? Why are more women vets? How many smuggles with the animals are too many?

I'm glad you got a raise, as £35k seems low for a decade of experience to me! I dunno, that amount of studying and experience, it just seems barmy.

1. Most EU qualifications are recognised - there's a Europe wide vet school association that regulates standards so if you pass via one of them, then you're eligible to register as long as your English is certified. But the visa process to get the right to live and work here takes a long time now, despite us now being a shortage occupation.
 
2.Why so many women is the million pound question.  Same as medicine - used to be 90% male, flipped in the 90s, now a 90% female occupation. Lots of theories - lower pay than it used to have, move from patriarchal "do as I say" mentality to a shared decision making model, move to a more service industry mentality, influx of "vet school" tv programmes that gave women role models beyond James Herriot? Who knows. Admittance numbers are relative to application numbers, so there doesn't seem to be bias either way by universities.

3. Never too many snuggles with animals, got to have some perks!

Now the Brexit effect is making much more sense to me. Thank you for explaining.

I remember in the nineties wanting to be a vet but only for 30 minutes to an hour each week while watching animal hospital...

Merlin's_Beard

I was expecting to exchange last week, after the solicitors told me they had all the documents and I'd signed everything and sent over my exchange deposit.

Turns out they have all the documents they need except one from the mortgage, and they're struggling to get it because HSBC aren't playing ball. Solicitor tells me they should have had it "weeks ago" (uncharitably I'm wondering why she didn't start asking for it "weeks ago" if that's the case, rather than turning it into a last minute panic....!)

House developers are, thankfully, on her back rather than mine about it, so I'm grateful for small mercies.

I am looking forward to four days in a row where I don't have to think about it or work, to be honest.

On the bright side, my savings have got a bump through May with my last ever LISA bonus coming through, and the council tax rebate. That will all go to basic decoration of the house (floors/curtains etc) and I've got four days off and I want to start doing bits of deep cleaning in my current rental to help with the move (cleaning the oven type jobs).

Merlin's_Beard

Plan for June

Exchange
Self explanatory really. Needs to happen! And after that, I need to figure out how early I can get the solicitors to apply for my LISA because Skipton want a 30 day notice period and I'm due to complete in July(ish) at the minute.

Snagging survey
I need to figure out what I'm going to do about this - I definitely want one but have no idea how to figure out who is good and who isn't

Floors
Not included with this house, so I need to get quotes and sort this out. Most of it I sort of know what I want, I have no idea for the kitchen though. LVT seems a popular choice for hard floors, and I've liked it in the rentals I've had. But I'm worried about whether that will cope with a south facing set of french doors both from a UV light and a heat perspective. I've heard of some getting really cracked with expansion/contraction and/or discolouration. Tiles are probably a struggle financially?

Opinions and experiences on this welcome!

Curtains
Curtain poles, curtains, blinds - need to figure out which windows need what and to go shopping for these. Weirdly this almost seems like a bigger decision than the floors because I want colour in these rather than neutrals. I literally haven't decorated a room since I was 13 so it feels like a wildly outrageous thing to get to decide on a room's colour scheme.

Garden
I need to have a think about this. What I can do with it and when it can happen probably depends on how much the above stuff is going to cost (no idea) and how much things like laying a patio and turf actually cost (also no idea).

savingholmes

Frustrating on the delay. Your plans sound good. What's a snagging survey? I've bought a couple of new houses - and we just snagged ourselves - other than whatever the mortgage company wanted.

Merlin's_Beard

Snagging survey is essentially a professional that comes in just after completion and spots all of the things that the builders need to fix. Hopefully means that I won't miss anything in the two year deadline that will crop up later, and make it easier to get it fixed.

Peace of mind as much as anything!

killerpeaty

Buying curtains is very stressful. They are expensive and a pain to replace but you can't exactly cover them up.

The solicitor probably will have sent an email and probably forgot to chase up. I'm not in the same field but usually it's what I do and then suddenly I realise and think "oh no".

Looking forward to hearing about your decisions.

Emptychangejar

Merlin's_Beard said:

Snagging survey is essentially a professional that comes in just after completion and spots all of the things that the builders need to fix. Hopefully means that I won't miss anything in the two year deadline that will crop up later, and make it easier to get it fixed.

Peace of mind as much as anything!

I definitely agree with the snagging survey. We just moved into our 2nd new build home last November and I’m glad we got one.

We didn’t with our first new build and we missed things because we didn’t really know what to check.
The snag survey didn’t find anything major but it did pick up some things we wouldn’t have found ourselves and like you said, it gave good peace of mind.
Our builders also actually appreciated getting a comprehensive list they could work through rather than us reporting things adhoc, and they sorted everything on the list within a couple of months.

Good luck with the move!

Merlin's_Beard

Thanks @Emptychangejar - that's pretty much what friends who have bought newbuilds have said.

Exchange has now reached the point where the solicitors are blaming the bank and saying the documents needed are "working their way through the bank's system", and the bank (via the mortgage broker) are denying all knowledge of any outstanding documents. Heading towards the shortest gap between exchange and completion a newbuild has ever seen!

On a happier note, a work colleague has put me on the track of a (semi) local auctionhouse that sells returned furniture and soft furnishings, so hopefully I can stalk them over the next few months for curtains, and not buy too many things that aren't on the list.

savingholmes

Like your auction house plan. Good luck with completion too.