3? 2? How many?

The process of buying a home in England is very interesting.  And different from the US.  For example, an offer is not binding - nothing is binding until you sign a contract and put down your deposit…which happens after you have gotten your mortgage, done your survey (inspection) and had all the searches done on the property.

So far we’ve been pre-approved for our mortgage…easy peasy.  We have 25% to put down so it made it much easier.

We’ve had the survey done.  A few things were concerning, but we felt okay with most of it.

And the searches have been done.  And this is where things start to fall apart.  The house has had a single story rear extension put on as well as a loft conversion which made a bedroom (and got rid of a small bedroom).  So it’s listed as a 3 bedroom extended house.  But they never got planning permission or building regs on the works.  That means that the extension and conversion cannot be considered living space - so it’s truly a 2-bedroom house without an extension.  And that means our offer can’t stand as it is.

The sellers can do something about this.  They can get it ‘regularised’.  Here’s how our council explains this:  “This applies where works have commenced or have been completed since November 1985 and we have not received a Building Notice or Full Plans Application. Where this method applies the owner or agent on behalf of the owner, may seek to regularise the unauthorised works by applying for a Certificate of Regularisation. This method is dependent on the site works being exposed for inspection and may involve sampling and testing of materials used.  Structural calculations and detailed plans may also be requested.”

So - some costly things have to happen before we buy.  Or we can do it and they’ll have to take money off…quite a lot just in case work has to be done.  Quite honestly, if the work doesn’t come up to spec, it could cost upwards of £25,000 or more.

We’re guessing that the sellers are going to pull out of this sale.  The reason we feel this is because they still haven’t had their tenants leave.  Their original date to leave was June 21 according to the tenants we met when we first looked at the property.  Then the solicitor for the seller told us July 13.  And they are still there.   We won’t buy it with tenants in place.  So either the seller is keeping them on until the last moment or the tenants are refusing to leave, which could result in the sellers having to get a court order to get them out (which could take months).

The whole things is really putting us off.  And with housing prices continuing to drop, we feel that it makes so much more sense to just wait…save our salaries…and have even more money to put into buying a house.

Ugh!!!  It’s not a lot of fun!

 

Bed Side Manners

The first time I slept next to a guy was in college.  It was on a small, single bunk bed and we were squashed.  We didn’t really sleep all that much, but it was to be expected - I mean, heck, we didn’t want to sleep AND there was no space to hardly breathe.

Since that day I realized that I like having space around me when I sleep.  I love a good cuddle and all, squooshed up against my love, but once it’s time to retire to beddy bye land, I want to have a pillow to myself and a bit of real estate in the bed.

I don’t know why, but recently Roy has been moving his way toward my side of the bed.  He did it a bit earlier on, but now I wake up in the middle of the night on the edge of the bed with his head fully on my pillow.  It’s as if he wants to be as close to me as possible.

He talks about how he loves the side of the bed he’s currently on and which he’s always been since we began to sleep next to each other…but maybe subconsciously he wants my side.

So this weekend I’m gong to suggest a switch.  Just to see what happens.  Cause between his snoring and his stealing of my space, I’m a wee bit more tired than usual.  Good thing I don’t have to go to work!

 

The Home Hunt

We’ve sold our flat.  And we’ve found a house we like.  And we’ve made an offer.  And it was accepted.  Now comes the tough part…

I found a gentleman from the area who does house surveys.  Unlike the survey which will be done by a bank for the mortgage, this guy actually pokes around an awful lot.  And he knows stuff about electrics and damp.  So within one week of getting in touch, he had already gone into the house, done the survey and sent us the report.  This guy is good!  The report is written in understandable language (thank goodness) and is long.  He found a few things that need work, but the most worrying thing is that he feels that the electrical wiring may be out of date and in need of changing.  Re-wiring a house is NOT inexpensive.  In addition, he found some damp in the extension which may have been caused by the shower in it (which we won’t keep, but the seller doesn’t have to know that).  But other than those two major things, which will probably cost around £8-9,000 to do, the house is in decent shape with some decorating needs and a few bits and bobs.  So I think we’ll probably try to re-negotiate the offer for at least £5-10,000 off to take care of all the electrics and whatnot.

We’ve had a provisional acceptance for our mortgage - they took all our details and said it looks good.  We’re going for a 75% mortgage which meant we could get a decent (for this time & year) rate for our 25 yr mortgage.  Still, it’s a huge amount of money.  I mean HUGE.  I could carry it on my salary alone if I didn’t want to eat out or do many fun things.  So while I’m not worried about taking on this expense, it’s still something that makes me nervous.  All the paperwork is in for the mortgage, and they’ll have to have the house appraised to see if it’s worth the value of the mortgage and what we’re going to pay.  Then in a few weeks after that, we should have it available.

The main hope is that we can complete on the sale within a month from now.  That way I’ll still have a few weeks to start doing some work on the house.  And get in a few companies to do quotes for the work we want to get done on it.  We need a wall knocked down, a wall put up, the kitchen and downstairs shower room stripped out, a new kitchen put in, a cloakroom put in, new flooring everywhere except the stairs, painting done in every room (maybe stripping of wallpaper), putting in bookshelves, existing wardrobes removed and new ones put in place and eventually we’ll have to do some work on the upstairs bathroom & on the fireplaces but that can wait until we can save more money to get that done.

So yes, the house will be a money pit for the first year or so, but we’ve planned accordingly.  We have enough money saved and with the sale of the flat, enough money left to both pay the 25% deposit as well as pay for all the above work and some furniture.

Roy’s cousin is in the furniture business so we’ll probably go through him to get some discounted furniture - two beds, two comfy chairs, a table with chairs for the kitchen/diner. 

It’s all very exciting.  I hope it works out!

 

Disco Inferno

I’m going to preface this post by saying that while I do have relatively fair skin, I’m certainly not especially pale. 

I played cricket for several hours yesterday.  Started at 10:30am.  I was cloudy and a bit sunny, but moving toward the more cloudy part.  I had put on my face cream with spf, but forgot about the bod.  At points during the day, it spit out a bit of rain.  So you’d think, I’m in England, it’s cloudy and close to raining…no problem that I haven’t put on my spf, even if I am going sleeveless.

I was wrong.  Normally I do put on my spf, but my DH had taken it for his golf game during the week and forgotten to give it back.  I normally keep it in my cricket bag and when I realized it was forgotten, hoped for the best.  Believe me…you can get some good old burns in this country.

My shoulders are bright red.  And painful.  Except for some small little part that somehow did not get any colour at all.  How, I don’t know.  Maybe I touched that part right after putting stuff on my face.  But I have learned my lesson and bought another bottle.  No more sun for me in the near future!

But I can’t entirely complain because for the entirety of my families’ visit, it has been great weather.  Summer has done me proud here in London.  My bro, SIL and nephew are all back in rainy PA (ha ha) and my step-mom and dad are wandering around the old market towns in Suffolk (where by the way a village has the same name as my maiden name…cool, eh?).  Pictures that I took will be posted tomorrow provided I can figure out where I put the charger…darn moving!

Anyway - that’s it for now.  I have to get the clothing off the line as it is clouding up.  Hope summer hasn’t ended in England…I’m here for the duration!

 

Weather or not…

I grew up in northeastern PA.  It was a kinda mountainy region, and I loved it in a lot of ways.  Every winter we’d get snow and lots of it.  Piles and piles of gorgeous whiteness.  Of course, as a kid, you only see the positives of snow; fun and possible school days off.  Once I grew up and had to shovel…well, it still looked pretty and was fun, but it got old after that first dump.

Spring brought with it the sun, a touch of warmth and the green newness that I had been missing during the grey and white of winter.  You could truly see the difference between the grey-dodgy-brown and colours of spring.

Summers were always hot and sunny, but not so much that we owned air conditioners.  Our old house was in the hills and surrounded by old leafy trees which kep us cool.  There were a few days when you just wanted to bathe with ice cubes, but that was about it.

Autumn, my favorite season, brought a refreshing chill to the air, a delight after the heat of the summer.  Trees would burst out in red, oranges and golds.  A true season of its own, where we started wearing our sweaters and putting off getting out our winter things.

Even though I lived as far south as the DC area in Virginia and as far north as Boston in my adulthood, I still saw most of this weather…more snow up north and ice down south…both areas summers sparking me into buying air conditioning.

Then I moved to London.  And discovered what they call a temperate climate.  It barely gets cold like it did in Boston or PA…chilly & wet yet, but not the bone chillding cold that keeps you inside.  At school, as soon as the weather hits the 60s (mid-teens in celsius), the flip-flops get broken out and summer clothes make their appearance.  Air conditioning?  Why bother?  The only summer I’ve really felt hot was when I moved over here.

In some ways I love it, having been an autumn girl.  I get that cool weather more of the year.  The colour green never seems to truly go away.  And I never think I’ll have to shovel a huge driveway because of a foot or more of snow. 

Yes, it can be grey quite a lot…today being one of those days.  But overall I enjoy it.  And with the long days of summer, I keep praying for lovely weather this season.  Will it happen?  Or will it be like last year, full of rain or cold?  Either way, I’ll celebrate my upcoming summer in London, off from school…weather or not

 

I HATE OUR BUYERS

Okay…so here’s a breakdown of the story in case people have forgotten. We got an offer on our flat. We accepted. The week before exchange was meant to happen, they pulled a fast one and offered £10,000 less. We pulled out and put our flat on the market. We got no viewings for two weeks so we got the original buyer to move a few thousand pounds up and we agreed on a sale. It turned out that they hadn’t done bugger all to get started on their mortgage and so it’s been 3-1/2 weeks or so since the final offer has been accepted. We were meant to exchange today according to our solicitor. But now they want us to complete & move out in ONE FRICKIN WEEK. Yes, during my craziniest time of the school year…when I have to grade and have all sorts of other evening plans already in place…plus a cricket match on Sunday…etc. They said that if we can’t move in one week then we ought to pay for their son’s rent…hello - YOU ARE THE REASON IT’S TAKEN SO LONG TO GET TO THIS POINT. D@mn them!!! You ought to pay for us to move into a hotel if you want to move that quickly - without giving us PRIOR notification. I hate them. They are butt munchers. Yes. I. Am. Angry. ARGH!!!!

Sorry for those of you who read other forums that I’m on….I know it’s a re-post…but I just can’t write it any better.  I’m beyond frustrated with these people.

 

Perspective

I was reading my friend’s blog today, How to Play House.  She talked about the size of places in England versus the expectations in the US.  And it’s so true.  They are different.

As we were driving around the Denver/Loveland area, all I could see were tons of newly built McMansions.  Huge, fantastical houses…with tiny yards perched right next to each other.  I didn’t see the point.  Why do you need so much internal space and so little external.  I recognize that when I buy my house in London that my yard will be small…but we’re in the midst of a city.  These houses were NOT city bound, and yet it was all about the hugeness of their interiors.  I can imagine that each has a gigantic kitchen and bedrooms that will be larger than our living room. 

And here’s the kicker.  It looked wrong.  I’m sure in the past I would have hungered for such a house with such rooms.  But now, they just hit me in a bad way.  My perspective, after living in London for four years, has changed.  Big is not beautiful when it comes to houses…I’ll be very happy with the “small one” that we can buy. 

There are so many things that hit you when you move between the cultures…what you buy, what you use, how you look at people and things.  I definitely buy less clothing now.  There isn’t the space for storage in most London flats/homes.  I use most of my clothing throughout all the seasons so that I don’t have to put anything away for the winter or summer.  Layers rock.  I buy better food and cook many more meals than I did in the States.  It seems as if the opportunity is stronger and possibilities much more endless.  I have less tolerance to waste in all forms now.

It’s not that everything is better in the UK.  God no.  But I think living here has helped me appreciate what I do have and be okay with what I don’t.  What I miss from the US that I don’t have here - better customer service…24 hour shopping (or at least late night during the week…easy to use banks…a connection to people who just ‘get me’ cause we’ve lived in the same culture for our entire lives.

 

A wedding

I went to my friend Jeanette’s wedding.  Amazing that I went and amazing that I was a bridesmaid.  I didn’t write about it at the time, but things went wrong between us after my wedding.  Way wrong.  There were misunderstandings up the wazoo…and I thought a 30 year friendship was over because of a few days.  But we somehow managed to patch it up.  Things are still not exactly the same and our friendship will never be as tight as it was before, but I feel good that I went to her wedding and took part in it all.

The wedding was at a ranch near Loveland, CO.  The location was gorgeous, in the foothills.  There was tons of water, from a heavy stream (where people could fly-fish) to a heart-shaped pond.  There were tons of birds, stunning horses and a few scary snakes.  I just really loved being there.  Even with a 9 hour flight and a huge lack of sleep, it was totally worth it.

We arrived on Thursday night and stayed near the airport as it was too long a drive.  And I was so happy that it was sunny and warm when we arrived.  And it remained so for the entire trip.

Friday was our day of outlet shopping - so awesome…we didn’t get a ton of stuff, but what we did get were total bargains.  I got some rockin’ black wedge sandals and a cool black jacket with 3/4 sleeves.  Happiness! 

That night was the rehearsal and dinner.  An American bbque.  So yummy.  And perfectly casual with some great local beer & wine.

Saturday the girlies went for a beauty treatment (I got a manicure and pedicure…massage and all) and the boys went for a hike (Roy got a tan).  And then the wedding arrived.  I wore green.  The bride wore white.  The groom wore black.  And we all walked down the aisle to the sounds of piped in music.  The evening was filled with good food and good music.  All too short for Roy & I as we suffered from jet-lag and had to go to bed early on.

We left for London again the next day.  A quick but worthy trip.  Back to the land of rain.  Wish it was nicer here…but it’s home, nontheless.

 

We sold!

So here’s the story that I’ve kept close to my breast for a bit…

As you may recall, we were gazundered by our buyer.  He had made offer X, which we accepted, and then just one week before we were meant to exchange contracts, he offered X minus £12,000 - supposedly due to the market.

We got mad and we put our flat back on the market, all hopeful that some lovely person would come in and offer us X again (which was already quite a low price).  Well…no one came.  Not a single viewing.  Not one.  Even after ads, and calls, and the works.  Dead. 

So we re-thought our position.  Could we afford to hold on and hope?   There were a few things we could do:

1. Try to convince our buyer to go up and meet us half-way, but even if he doesn’t, still sell.
2. Keep it on the market and hope for the best.
3. Take it off the market and rent it out until the market went back up.
4. Take it off the market and live here.

Number four wasn’t really what we wanted at all.  We really wanted that garden space.  Number three was a no-no as we knew that renters might just ruin the place…or at least not care for it in the same way we did.  So did we want to hold out?  If we sold at 15% less than we were expecting, could we get something similar in buying a house…at least 10% or so? 

We decided to try to bargain with our buyer.  They wouldn’t hardly budge, but did move up a couple of thousand.  And so yesterday, they put 10% down and signed the contract.  I think we’re moving out in 3 weeks into my in-laws house until we can move into a house of our own.

Now comes the search for our new place.  The negotiations, the haggling, etc.  Now WE are in the good place to be.  Let’s hope it all works out.

 

Mr. & Mrs.

We walked into the office and the personal assistant said, “Hello, may I take your name?”.  So Roy gave our last name, and then she said it…”So, you are married?  Okay Mr & Mrs X, please take a seat.”.  So strange.  Mr. and Mrs.  For the first time ever.  It was yet another step into being married.  One that I didn’t know existed.

You know it’s going to be weird the first time you say, “My husband” or “My wife”.  And it remains weird for a bit of time (good, but odd).  And then when someone calls you, “Mrs. X”, then you feel like you have to turn around and figure out who they are talking to. 

But being called Mr & Mrs for the first time, more than a year after we got married, sent a little shiver down both our backs.  It made it all so much more real.  And that’s the strange thing, see, that it hasn’t felt totally real even after a year.  I think because you have this perception of what a married couple should be like - all serious and polite to each other.  But here we are - farting in the bed, wrestling to see who gets the remote and making fun of each other on a regular basis.  But that’s meant to be dating…not marriage…right? 

So you take a step back and realize that marriage for you is a life-long date.  Sometimes it’s a good one; one of those ones where you end up with that frisson of excitement.  Sometimes it’s not so good and you feel like you have nothing to talk about.  And sometimes it’s like those comfortable moments after you get past those first few dates where you’re just trying too hard.  How cool.  Dating your husband.  I like it.