The Life and Times of Gazzeroo

Everything is NEW !!  That’s mainly because the old just doesnt exist anymore.

The observant amongst you will have noticed that some of the old posts and comments on my blog have disappeared (more of that in a minute), that’s if you managed to find the blog at all at it’s new address “blog.gazzeroo.co.uk“.

So, to recap… we completed on the house, moved in (can’t belief I’ve lost that epic post), and got the internet up and running.

Now, a quick summary of all the recent news, some of which I may expand on in future posts… the house is still standing, after what seemed like weeks we finally got a fridge and freezer, i had my 38th birthday, we moved the rest of Debs stuff from her flat, we are still surrounded by boxes and plusnet well and truly mucked up me reducing my account to their free service resulting in me having to resort to using a backup of my blog from January and then piecing what I could back together from google cache.

Ok, so not taking a backup was foolish, but I thought I was serving out my 30 days notice with plusnet and that I had plenty of time to sort things out. Little did I know that some trigger happy techie would see the word ‘cancellation’ and delete my database and web space.

To be fair they tried everything to get it back but to no avail.

So I am using a new server (Thanks Waz for the freebie space), have a new domain registrar (1&1), and the blog is sitting in it’s brand spanking new subdomain.

I’m sure there is loads of other stuff that’s happened, but it will have to wait for another day, as the 40 mile drive to work tomorrow means that I will have to be up early.

Comment to let me know you found the blog ok ?

Due to the house move, and cancellation of broadband, setting up of new broadband and trying to get my site hosted somewhere else (cheers Waz if you are reading this), then it is quite likely that my webpage and blog will disappear for a while. Although hopefully not too long.

I’m so far behind in packing and sorting things out that something is going to have to take a back seat, and unfortunately it’s my addiction to the web.

I hope to be back up and running as soon as possible, who knows, maybe I will find a bit of time to actually sort it all out before we move, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Keep trying tho, I promise I will be back at some point.

Sorry, I just couldnt hold it in and had to post straight away.

Completion date of the 9th June (next Tuesday).

I best get on with packing I suppose.

that states “If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong” ?  After getting past the whole asbestos thing I stupidly thought that the rest of our house purchase chain might go without a hitch. How foolish of me.

My solicitor contacted me earlier this week and asked me a simple question “Where you made aware that the house you are planning to purchase has been underpinned ?” Of course the answer is NO.  It is information that I would like to have been made aware of, but then I guess the selling agent doesn’t want people to run to the hills straight away, and wants to ensure that you get embroiled in the whole money spending part of buying a house.

Underpinned property… Hmmm… where to start, and what to do ?

Fact is that a property that has been underpinned ’should’ actually be less likely to experience problems in the future. Money has been spent to rectify an issue and, if done properly, the likelihood of it slipping, sliding, bowing and heaving in the future are significantly reduced.  That is assuming of course that the work that was performed resolved the whole issue, and not just a tiny part of it.
Annoyingly another fact of a property that is underpinned is that the most common insurance companies wont touch it with a barge pole. There are specialist insurance companies of course that will, but at an increased premium.

So… where does that leave us ? Well, many people have suggested just walking away, getting out, non purchaso, go screaming for the hills, etc… but I just don’t know.  We both really liked the house and we didn’t notice any major cracks, lumps or bumps in our 2 brief visits, and I really don’t want to have to start looking for another one just at the moment as there is a serious lack of decent properties around.  If I also apply my logic from the whole artex thing with my flat, then there are probably hundreds of thousands of properties out there that have been underpinned and are now likely to stand tall and proud for many moons to come, without so much as a single problem.

According to the Estate Agent the whole of Yateley (general area we are buying in) used to be marsh land, and as such a lot of the properties in the area will have been underpinned.  The work on the house was done by a pretty big company, it was guaranteed for 20 years (ran out in 2005), and solved a problem of bowing in one corner of the lounge floor. I assume in the last 24 years since the work was carried out that nothing else untoward has happened.  Trouble is our solicitor didn’t just provided us with details of the soil samples that were taken at the time and the work that had been carried out, they also provided us with details of the environmental search which shows something that alarmed me a little more.  Apparently there was a stretch of land that was filled in (many years ago) that originally had water in it.  Now they don’t know whether this was a river, a ditch, prehistoric water feature or whatever, but what they do know from looking at old maps is that the original water feature runs almost directly through the house.

The pessimist in me is thinking that while they fixed a particular problem in one corner of the house, what happens if we suddenly have a lot more rain and that water feature starts to try and revert back to whatever it originally was !  It scares the wotsits out of me that I might wake up one morning and find that I am already taking a bath while still being on the mattress and covered by my duvet (a little extreme I know, but you get what I’m saying).

So what to do… well all we can do is get as much info as possible. If we proceed then our solicitor has suggested that we continue with the Home Buyers Survey to see if it throws anything else of interest up, but if it doesn’t then to get a structural engineer out to the property to give their opinion on things.  But before we do all that, I think there is something else we can do, which hopefully will happen at about 2:30 this afternoon.  We are going to speak to the current owners ! I want answers about 2 main things
1) Insurance (how much, which company, are they aware that the house has been underpinned, how much the premium increases have been for the 5 years they have been there, is that insurance transferable)  ?
2) Assuming they knew about the underpinning when they bought, what did they do to satisfy themselves about the property, are there any reports, can I have them, have you noticed any movement, can we knock £20k off the price … stuff like that.

I will report back at some point with the answers and how we intend to proceed.

Whoever said house buying and selling was stressful didn’t stress their point enough ! My hair is turning more grey everyday (as Debs kindly keeps pointing out).

If you read the previous thread about us finding a house, you could probably tell how happy I was. The week and a bit that followed was anything but fun.

If you read the thread on Money Saving Experts Forum that I posted in comment #4 then you will know exactly what was going on, but here in all it’s glory is the last 10 days condensed into a few short paragraphs without the despair and annoyance I was feeling at the time.

Recap : Weeks ago I accepted an offer on my flat, and me and Debs set about in earnest to find our house. We found it, started to sort out the solicitors, told my estate agent that we were all systems go.

At this point my buyer decides that he wants to have an asbestos test performed on the decorative (that’s a matter of opinion) artex coating that adorns every room in my flat. They came in, did the test, verbally told my estate agent that everything was probably fine, then sent my buyer a report stating that there was indeed asbestos in my artex.

No problem I thought, it’s safe where it is, as it is in millions of houses throughout the land. Oh no… hang on… he has decided he wants to put in halogen lights in the ceiling (soooo 90’s) and that as such the ceiling will have to be removed, the insulation might be infected (yeah right) and then it would need to be refitted, replastered, lights installed and painted. My buyer had been given a figure of £8k (yes… eight thousand pounds for my tiny wee flat), and as such he would be happy to proceed if I dropped my price the aforementioned £8k.

Fuming is not the word !! I spent the next few days building up a head of steam while researching all things artex and sending all my info from the web to my estate agent to pass on. I was annoyed as it is perfectly safe if it’s left untouched and contains very low levels of asbestos. It was him wanting to do the work, not me. No way was I going to drop £8k as basically we wouldn’t be able to afford the house we had found. I REALLY wanted to see the full report on my ceiling but he wouldn’t pass it on (this annoyed me just a little bit more).

But nothing was happening…. he wasn’t budging, the estate agent we were buying from had no joy in trying to get those further up the chain to agree to any price drop and the whole thing looked like it was about to fall apart.

In the end I took the bull by the horns and got some quotes from removal companies for doing the work. Average price of just over £3k for the whole flat (and yes that was removing the ceiling boards as its the easiest way to get rid of the stuff, putting it back up and the first level of skim on the ceiling).

Being a partly trained surrender monkey I offered to drop my price by £1.5k just to get things moving again, but I needed an answer by Monday lunchtime (I was going out on Friday and really didn’t want the annoyance of having to think about it all weekend).

Anyway, Monday lunchtime came and he had contacted my agent to request another viewing of the flat at 4:30pm. I thought, Great, at least I’ll get an answer. More questions to my agent and he left again without giving an answer.

By this point I was seriously thinking of just telling him where to go. Ok, we’d lose the house that we offered on, but at least I wouldn’t have to deal with this guy anymore. Tuesday morning rolls round tho and my agent is on the phone to me just after 9am telling me that we can now move forward as he as accepted my reduced offer.

“my reduced offer”… errrr… wasn’t it him that was supposed to be offering on my flat ?

Anyway… WOOOHOOO. Lets get moving. Since then we’ve given all the details to the mortgage company, have arranged for the survey on the new place to be carried out, and some info along with the first of many payments to the solicitor went in the post today.

Please let it all go swimmingly from here. Fingers crossed (again).

A few weeks ago I said that I’d finally accepted an offer on the flat and that we had a multitude of houses to look at.

Well none of those houses were quite right.

The Playschool house was a lovely location, small dining room tho, cracks throughout, and a bath had sunk taking the tiles with it.
The Poltergeist house was a very good size, but smelt of dog and I’m sorry to say the view over the graveyard every morning just didn’t appeal to me.
The Chavsville property turned out to feel like it was just that, house was nice enough (main bedroom TRULY massive – almost as big as my flat !) but I think the little boy flashing us from his bedroom window just down the road put us off a little.

Many a Saturday has come and gone with us seeing house after house, but nothing grabbing our intention. In fact one Saturday we got back after seeing 6 houses in the afternoon and I couldn’t really remember any of them. Maybe too many in one day ? Or maybe it was the stinking cold I had (not easy to drive around in the glorious sunshine with your eyes streaming).

Anyway, last Saturday everything was set up for another frustrating afternoon of house viewings. Only 4 on the cards. I cant remember the first one at all, but then we had the opportunity to see two identical houses (mirror image actually) in the same road.

An old lady showed us round the first of the twin houses, which looked like it had a lot of original features. 70’s carpet, 70’s wallpaper, 70’s kitchen (oh no, hang on, that was probably 80’s as it had the exact same worktop as I have in my kitchen ). Good size house, all rooms a decent size, very cheap (4-bed detached house for asking price of £240k!!!!). But possibly the most memorable thing about it was the 25ft monkey puzzle tree in the back garden. Promising, hell of a lot of work required, but for that price it was certainly an option.

However, 15 mins later we are down the road seeing the same house in reverse.

I say the same house because of it’s original construction, however inside was a completely different kettle of fish. Lady that showed us round was very friendly, her hubby sitting on what smelt like fresh brown leather sofa’s (i’ll come back to him later). Upstairs first, pleasant but simple main bathroom (great – a power shower). Bedroom 3 next (good size, fairly new fitted wardrobes – nice), then onto the main bedroom. Again good size, not huge but fully fitted wardrobes.

I was thinking “yeah, it’s not bad, certainly not much to do decoration wise” having completely forgotten that this bedroom said ‘en-suite’ on the details. Hey presto, open what looked like cupboard doors and we enter a very new, perfectly fitted en-suite with shower, toilet, full sized sink and plenty of storage. No way was the room massive, but it felt and looked good. 2nd bedroom and bedroom 4 were both good sizes and again, fully fitted storage. Not a bad start. So off we trundled back downstairs to be introduced to the man of the house. Pleasantries are duly exchanged.

Debs suddenly says “oooo look” to me and my eyes go wandering off down into the dining room and the family room out the back. “yes nice” i reply not really understanding what she is pointing out. BUT HOW COULD I MISS IT. Guy sitting on sofa, keyboard in his lap, facing directly at a wall in the front room. My tech-radar had obviously deserted me as I completely missed the 46? LCD panel that had been carefully inset into the wall (more of a central pillar than a wall to be honest). This thing was HUGE, but my eyes drifted down as i saw the PS3, Wii, X-box cables (out for repair apparently), Pre-Amp, Amp, Media PC and Sky-HD box. Clearly a man that appreciates the 21st century. But where are the wires ??? “Oh, he hates wires” says our female host. So not only has he got all this stuff, he’s done all the cabling around the front room for the speakers and all the connections to the TV. Bless him.

Apparently our time in front of the TV had passed tho, and we had to continue looking at the house. Dining room ok, through to the Family Room. Oh My God !!! (Mum, if you are reading this, was i separated at birth ?) It wasn’t so much a family room as HIS room. Desk like mine, covered in computer geekery. Shelves littered with DVD’s, Games, Hard Drives, Cables, Routers (yes routers plural – as every room apparently has a network socket – again all wired up, cables hidden). A little piece of techy heaven.

I digress, and this post is getting awfully long. Kitchen good size. Lovely Labrador in small Utility room (licked my hand to death ) and that’s it, viewing over (skipped the reasonable garden and detached garage). Just time for a quick techy discussion about the TV on the way out, oh and the knowledge that they are in danger of losing out on the house they want to move to if they dont get an offer soon (some people coming for a 2nd viewing after us in fact).

If you cant tell by now, it was absolutely the best all round technical setup….errr… i mean … best all round house we have seen. Little work that needed to be done and potentially at a good price. I say potentially cos we had no idea what the price was. It was listed as ‘Price On Application’.

An eerie silence entered the car with us as we set off to Woking to see the 4th and final house of the day. Silence changed to enquiring “So.. what are you thinking? No… what are you thinking ?” conversations. FINALLY a house we both liked for almost the same reasons. Decided to cancel the next viewing and head home as we were out that evening. Half way down the M3, after Debs had spoken to her mum and the estate agent (found out that they had refused an offer already, but if we offered a certain amount we could probably get it), we found ourselves in a rush to drive the next 15 miles to Sunbury roundabout so that we could turn round and go back for a second look.

We were probably there for another hour, this time being shown round by said agent. I think we had pretty much made up our minds, but had a dithering 10 min conversation between ourselves and the agent outside. “OK, £277500, but that will include the TV yeah ?” (really didnt want to have to find a TV to match the perfectly sized hole in the wall that would have been left). And off home we went again with nerves jangling away in our stomachs.

I think we made it as far as the other side of Camberley (that’s not that far too be honest) before the phone rang. OFFER ACCEPTED ! We got on really well with the couple that owned the place, and according to the agent that helped swing it, as the current owners could see us living there I couldn’t wait to get into London to meet Debs friends and have a pint or 2 or 3 etc…

Now the tedious and potentially hazardous process of negotiaing formal mortgage applications, dithering solicitors and a whole host of random charges for handling pieces of paper commences. I’m sure everyone that reads this will want to wish us luck (go on, dont be scared, leave a comment).

I bid thee all goodnight (this must be my longest post ever) and leave you with a link to the house. Yeah, I know its not the 10-bedroom country estate I would have liked to buy, but it just had that right feel to it. Hopefully Debs and I (fingers crossed it all goes through) will be very happy there for many a year.

My second attempt at losing weight has ended.

In some ways it was a success (lost 10lbs), in others a failure (probably put it all back on over Christmas).

Decided that seeing as we have entered a new year that I would end the attempt, and reassess the situation.

Don’t worry tho, GUTBUSTER wont be gone for long. Another attempt will start shortly. It has to really, as I stupidly agreed at a project Xmas party that I would resurrect my football career in the new 5-a-side season.  If I don’t lose some weight and get a bit fitter then it could be the death of me (hope not tho).

So watch this space (probably after I get back to work on the 12th) for details of the new 2009 attempt.

I know, it’s been ages since I have posted anything.

Truth is I’ve been a bit busy. All being well, I should be in a position to get the blog up to speed at some point later this week.  So much to tell, I just hope I can remember it all.

I’m confuddled.

In a week where I drank like a fish at a BBQ in Bristol, ate a huge chunk of a triple layered Victoria sponge (thanks for the thin sliver Crista), I’ve managed to lose weight.

Maybe standing in the sun, getting burnt to a crisp while cooking 20 burgers, 20 sausages, 12 peppered steak kebabs (mmmm… meat on sticks) and 12 corn on the cobs on the BBQ is good for you !? It certainly wasn’t good for my ankles, muchos sunburn *OUCH*!

Maybe my mattress has soaked up more than its fair share of sweat this week as I struggle to get to get my flat under about 30 degs. It’s been very tempting to sleep in the car with the engine running and the air con on.

Whatever the reasons, I am thankful, as I managed to lose 3lbs this week. I think that means 11lbs in total now. Good times.

Expect the yo-yo diet to continue this week tho as I will no doubt pile on the pounds on Friday night while out in an Italian restaurant with Debs and her friends.  Although I will then lose it the weekend after, when I have my yearly bout of food poisoning that is the Staffs Uni Alumni annual camping trip (cant wait)

Keep reading, more updates next week.

Well I’ve finally got it. Drove away my shiny new car this afternoon after work.

The old girl saw he last bit of major action at the weekend when I got burnt to a crisp at Crista’s Birthday BBQ in Bristol. How nice it would have been to have air con on the journey back (Phew… What a scorcher!).

Drove away from the garage about 6:30pm. Got home, only to realise that I left my dinner in the fridge at work. Which gave me a great excuse to get back in the car and drive it some more

Quick description of the new car. It’s clean, it’s black and it’s very VERY shiny ! I think it’s probably easier to let the pictures do the talking. I’m sure I’ll post more pics at a later date but here’s a couple for now (i’ve removed the number plate to help protect her identity).

Right, it’s so hot in my flat that I think I’ll go and sit in her with the air con running