I just agreed over the phone to pay huge sums of money to someone else until I’m 60 years old.  That’s nearly as old as my wife is today.  Holy cow!  Even worse, she’ll be a hundred and umpty teenth by the time it’s paid off…Continue reading→

We’re part way through moving house.  In a very real way now that we haven’t been since we started.  Last week, Monday I think, we received an offer on the house that we accepted.  After a little tooing and froing we had a revision done and a formal acceptance out, hopefully, yesterday if our solicitors dictation didn’t get lost! 😮

Under the Scottish system it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or in this case till the solicitors “conclude missives” which could be up to another couple of weeks.  Until then, we’ve not technically sold as the buyer could pull out; as could we for that matter but that’s not going to happen.  As it stands, from the 12th of November we could be homeless.  Holy cow!  I’ve only had a house for 5 years but already is seems like an essential fashion accessory that I couldn’t imagine being without.  That’s when the rollercoaster started.  Up till this point it was all a fairly even gradient of tension and excitement, culminating in the offer to buy our place.

Now the ‘fun’ has started with trying to find, afford and secure a home to move into.  After a bit of despair and despondency at what was (or rather what wasn’t!) on the market, we came up with a shortlist of three.  One we’d been interested in for a long time (but which was apparently off the market) and two which seemed good on paper but were a lot newer than Dr. B was keen on.  That rapidly reduced to a shortlist of 1 with the one that was off the market, really being off the market and one of the two others being really ‘not out thing’.

On the newish one, on the edge of a community with lovely views and a rural feel but which has been on the market for 2 years.  Yes you did read correctly, 2 years.  We started to discuss and see if we could come to some price that might work for everyone.  That was the first big dipper section of the ride.  From it’s too much, to the current valuation is affordable, to the seller is still holding out for a historic value, to maybe we can compromise to no we can’t.  Roughly translated as _{we can’t afford it} to ^{yes we can} to _{they wont sell for that} to ^{yes they might} to _{no they won’t}.  Meanwhile…

Another property that we really liked from a while ago was still on the market so we approached the vendor to see if they might consider an offer of around…  Now this one has been on almost but not quite as long. So, as of now, we are part way through the next ‘exciting’ part of the ride. We’ve had _{it’s still around but unrealistically priced} ^{the vendor has come to a realisation} _{would they consider an offer of…?} ^{yes they would} _{no, they’d like another ‘blah’ on top}.  With the last two happening in the space of about 12 hours overnight.  Sounds like a bit of a squeeze.

So.  Today, we put in a formal offer at ‘yesterday’s’ price.  We’ll see if tomorrow’s price matches yesterday’s or if we’re stuck in today and we’ve got to get on the trudge again.  Oh the excitement, I can hardly wait.