buy a cottage in the english countryside

It’s a postcard with a picture of our cottage on it!
Can’t believe it. Our cottage (well two cottages knocked into one) is the one with the woodwork painted brown (top left photo) – the photo is from before we moved in (a year ago).

Our cottage is officially a picture postcard cottage!

We’ve bought a few postcards and will post them to family – what a surprise!

We’ve had some unexpected things happen but this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. We knew that some things would be strange/different but couldn’t predict which things they would be.

We had a lot of trouble plumbing in the washer dryer as the dishwasher it replaced in the kitchen had had the kitchen built around it. That was more hassle than expected but will be worth it in the long run.

The place was filthy in some places and clean in others. The kitchen units weren’t an antique pine colour as when they were cleaned they came up a bright pine colour. There were years of accumulated grime in some areas too – lightswitches and door handles/frames. Yeuch :(

The cat arrived back with us on Saturday which was lovely as she’d been staying with my in laws for the past month so we could redecorate the flat we were letting out and not get her too stressed with that and the move.

Now we just have to get used to the commuting…

I can’t wait.

We are getting the removal men to pack our things for us and this has meant that tonight, our last night in our old flat, is like any other and we’re not surrounded by boxes. This is so worth the money to not spend the time and have the stress of packing.

We’re taking an air bed, duvet, pillows, hoover and some other items like the kettle up tomorrow and going to ‘camp’ in the cottage overnight.

Our furniture arrives the next day and by then we’ll have looked round it more and have an idea where we want the removals men to put our furniture.

I don’t know about the internet connection where we’re going so I may be off-line for a few days…

I got so fed up with the mortgage company messing up and having so many unnecessary delays that I put in a complaint on Monday. I had kept details of when things had happened and wrote a FIVE PAGE complaint and ultimatum for them to sort the last things out quickly and they did.

The paperwork is all done. We exchanged today and have a completion (moving) date of 4 September.

The removals company is booked, parking suspension for the removals van is being processed, the letting agent is coming round tomorrow to collect our keys and it’s all go.

We got the mortgage offer through today and they had put the wrong address on the offer. Well it was almost right and all the other details were correct but it’s meant that we have another delay whilst this goes through.

This has gone past a farce :(

Got the mortgages sorted today so the paperwork is making its merry way to us and we can exchange hopefully next week.

We’re looking to move pretty soon afterwards – hoping for the end of August :)

I was so relieved when the good news came from the mortgage people – they had made a total pigs ear of our application and it took 8 weeks!

I feel happy today :)

Argh – I waited in all morning for the survey on our current property but the surveyor never turned up. This is so frustrating. I now need to take more time off work for this to be done and it’s also delayed the process – again. :(

Surely it shouldn’t be this much hassle to release a little equity?

We’ve now had the mortgages approved subject to surveys. It’s another step forwards.

The equity release mortgage on our current property needs a survey – I think it’s because the mortgage company is quiet and not getting enough money – they’re charging another £365 for this and it’s difficult to see why! Oh well.

The survey on the cottage is early next week.

I hope these go well and we can exchange soon.

We’ve had some delays but the biggest has been getting our mortgage finalised. Our mortgage advisor is on holiday again.

We got the mortgage in principle 5 weeks ago and in this time she’s had a 2 week holiday, moved branch without telling me (even though I had an appointment with her 2 days before the planned move) and now she is on holiday again and didn’t say anything. In addition to this I’ve had problems with head office not reading my application correctly – they said I hadn’t included the childcare costs for the children aged 5 and 7 – I don’t have any children and the application said this.

I’m not impressed with the service and am complaining today and hoping that they’ll get things moving faster.

I don’t need this right now – I have enough other things on like working all hours on a big project at work and dealing with all the legal aspects of buying a very old building (the solicitor the estate agent recommended is not good, efficient or even accurate!).

Aaaarghhhhhh

Yay :)

We’ve seen the property twice now (and taken different people along each time with cameras).

Now all the tricky things start – like surveys and finalising the mortgage. Hope nothing comes up big and bad but it could happen with such an old cottage.