Last Post

It's been a while since we were last in the Loft - over a month infact. Our move happened very suddenly after waiting for contracts to exchange and then it was all systems go so the PC was unplugged before I had chance to do my last post.

So this is it! We're out of the Loft and now on the Hillside at last, and more importantly after a month offline we have net access.

Rather than extend this post I'll say farewell from the Loft, it's been fun but we're now getting stuck into our project. I'll get the Hillside blog up and running any day now then I'll post a link here.

Very poor condition

That's what the Surveyor reckons, but we didn't need to spend £600 to be told that! It's no suprise to find that there's rising damp, falling damp and condensation (floating around damp?) as well. But hey, it's an old house that needs a load of work on it.

The Surveyor's report isn't the most positive document I've ever read, but then that's the whole point after all, to advise you of all the problems so that you can back out of the sale if you didn't expect to find any problems, or if they're worse than expected. Nothing that the survey has identified is a big suprise to us so we're still up for the challenge.

Meanwhile, we've been able to pacify the Bank that we don't need yet another survey (Well done C!), and we've got hold of copies of guarantees for the damp proof and timber works that were done ten years ago. Both of these come with 30 year guarantees so we can get the company back in to rectify the faulty damp course.

Other than packing things up in the Loft the main thing left to do now is chase the Solicitor to push things through in the next couple of weeks...

High on a hill....

It's all gone quiet. Not suprising really for a 'conventional' house purchase though.

The Surveyor should be doing the survey tomorrow and is due to report back at the end of the week. Hopefully the solicitor is also doing his stuff with searches etc. After the rush to see the place a couple of times and the excitement of the offer/rejection/offer process it's a bit of an anti-climax to now be sitting around waiting for something to happen. And unlike the auction process, where contracts are exchanged on the stroke of the gavel, we're into good old English gazumping territory where we can't be 100% sure if we'll end up with this house. But I'm trying not to be pessimistic...

Meanwhile it gives us time to think about Christmas and get some shopping in before we're packing up once more and buying essentials for the house - like a washing machine, curtains and a lock/handle for the back door!

H'side

After losing out at the auction we scoured the various agent's websites who specialise in renovation/land, and found a couple of vague possibilities. We visited them, more out of desperation than anything else, but with them both being at the top end of the budget and not needing much work we didn't take them any further.

So it was a pleasant suprise when C stumbled across H'side whilst flicking through the property pages of a friend's newspaper. Described as 'needing modernising' and with a good sized garden it looked slightly promising, so worth a visit if not only to rule it out.

Windows local (how did we manage without it or Google Earth?) showed that it's in a great end of village location with a south facing garden. So we arranged a viewing last Saturday, on a drab drizzly and cold afternoon. And yes, it needs modernising and a good clean! But with some work, and possibly an extension (subject to us pacifying the planners) it could be great. Thanks to the south facing garden, all 0.25 of an acre, we could also do some (if not all) of the environmental things we want to do.

With this in mind we made a second visit on Wednesday and made an offer. After a small negotiation we agreed on a price, without any of the auction stress, and it's now off the market!

So out with the new-build and all it's embedded energy, and in with renovation and extension of a 100 year old cottage with plenty of environmentally sustainable measures. It should be great, assuming the next few weeks go smoothly with the survey, solicitors etc...

And no, we don't want to keep the goat.

Light at the end of the tunnel...

Time to post an update and tell you how the auction went.

The early lots that we weren't interested in started selling at only a few thousand over the guide price. Our renovation opportunity, Craig Affie, was lot no.6, and by the time it came up for sale we were increasingly hopeful. We'd spent weeks researching what we could afford to spend, and had set a limit on our bidding 100k over the guide price. Not that we wanted to pay that much, but it gave us loads of confidence that we could secure it.

We played it cool, and with nobody bidding at the guide price the auctioneer took the starting price down till someone bit. Two bidders started taking the price up till it got to about 50k over the guide, they pulled out and a bidder standing almost right next to us joined in. With nobody bidding against him it looked like it could be his, so that's when we started. With the bids going up 5k at a time we were soon 10k below our limit. Two bids later we were at our limit and the other guy kept going. That was when major dissapointment kicked in and we had to pull out. Galling that the man with a bigger bag of cash got it for just 5k above our limit, but that's auctions for you.

After all the time, effort and emotion invested in Craig Affie it was very difficult to see it escape our grasp. However, there is a light at the end of tunnel as we've visited another property that could be a great opportunity for us. And the best bit is that it isn't being sold at auction...so watch this space for more details very soon...

24 hours

After a month of investigating the renovation project the auction is almost here! In 24 hours it'll be in full swing so we'll soon know what the outcome will be. Neither of us can wait to get the whole thing sorted, and hopefully it'll be a positive result. I know all it needs is sombody else to turn up with a bigger bag of cash than us...but we're hopeful that that won't be the case!

I could write a load more about what we hope to do with the place, but it seems a bit presumptious as part of me still thinks 'why us, why should we be succesful'...

So watch this space for some more news tomorrow maybe, assuming I have time and/or the inclination to write. With work being manically busy it's unlikely but you never know!

Hope

On Saturday we viewed two more possible projects. One, a 60s Vicarage was interesting but is not for us. For a start it's too expensive, even at the guide price, and as it's being auctioned it'll probably go for loads of money. It's also is rather remininscent of RAF accomodation - very utilitarian, and okay if you like the MOD look!

The other house is more of a wreck but has bags of character and loads of potential. It's up for sale in the same auction next month, but with a guide price that we can live with as long as the renovation costs aren't too great. So we've now got a few weeks to do some detailed estimates of what we think it'll cost to renovate.

Funnily enough, the second place is just round the corner from the building plot, so the location is great. And the more Cathy and & I think about it the more keen we are, even to the extent of thinking it could be a lot better than the new-build.

As for the 30s house - we also revisited it after the other two to see how it compared. What I haven't mentioned before is that it is on the A38. The noise of traffic is something that can't be ignored so we won't be persuing it any further.

On a totally different tack - it's strange to think of what happened 5 years ago today - I can remember one of colleagues telling us that his wife phoned saying that a small aircraft had hit one of the towers - our 'net access in the office crashed but somehow I managed to keep a very slow link to BBC news and everyone huddled round my PC to watch the patchy news as it came in. Seems all very surreal now.