Fending off a job!

Today I have spent most of the day fending off the job that is on offer, in an attempt to get more money for myself. This way I can make ends meet and lay away a lump sum just in case I'm not working for any length of time.

I have never known an agent make such an effort to close a deal. The options he listed were endless, here are the highlights:

1. Work for the client on condition you get more money after a couple of months, when they have managed to have their board meeting and agree more funding. Otherwise walk at the two month point.
2. Agent speaks to the sales director and they drop their margin in order to sell me in as a loss leader.
3. Client agrees to pay me by the hour and, allows me at least an extra half hour a day paid overtime, maybe even an hour.

The agent also had a specialist tax guy contact me to see if I could be any more tax efficient in order to raise my bottom line. I had indicated that at the very least I needed £5000 net per calendar month just to make ends meet.

Anyway, back to the maisonette...

I dropped by there to measure up with my friend J, she's into interior design, so that's looking good, she was full of ideas of colour schemes and furniture layouts, and suggested that the fitted office be moved from the room it is in now, to the guest bedroom, so that the impersonal office leads the way to the terrace, rather than though a private bedroom space. A very good idea, although it does mean that the guest bedroom will be smaller.

J an I then went to John Lewis' and we found loads of really good stuff. I have started formulating a list of stuff to buy for the new home.

I also had the idea to put a huge bookcase right from the start of the stairs though up to the top of the building, so I'd have plenty of space for all my books. What a cool idea!

Still no signs of the survey as yet, hopefully tomorrow. The mortgage broker, solicitor and estate agency are all talking to each other, which is cool, so the solicitor is awaiting the survey when it has been delivered to me, so she knows what to check up on, as pointed out by the surveyor.

So in essence there can be no progress until the surveyor's report arrives. But what is certain, is that the surveyor's report will indicate that a structural engineer's report is required, and until that report is provided, the mortgage lender will not give me the mortgage to buy the property with.

Fingers crossed it arrives tomorrow.