Sorry

Sorry, crushing depression lead to increased dosage of meds, increased dosage of meds seems to have made me apathetic to everything, enthusiasm is at an absolute minimum I'm afraid. It's taken a week to generate the effort to tell you this much.

I will be back, but who knows when? I certainly don't.

Sorry once more.

Sorry

So much to do, so little time to blog.

I'll do a quick précis to bring you all up to date at some point.

Wakey wakey rise and shine!

This morning I was awoken by a call from plumber, he handed over a little more detail than Sandy had passed on. It seems that a little of what she heard had been garbled in translation.

His initial guess at the problem is as follows:

1. The pump in the boiler needs replacing.
2. The problem with the en suite toilet, is mot likely that the toilet has a 'sani-flow' pump hidden behind the panel*, which assists the pumping of the waste, and this pump is either seized or is not getting power. This is combined with a crap joint allowing the flushed water to leak out. This will probably necessitate removing the whole unit to evaluate the problem!
   
3. The tap in the kitchen has a missing part that cannot be replaced (the tap is no longer manufactured). So the whole tap will need to be replaced, and more than likely he will have to remove the whole kitchen unit to do it!

This is going to be expensive! Joy.

Sandy is dropping by their office to drop of the £100 (50% deposit) required to pay for the boiler's replacement pump. Hopefully that should be arriving tomorrow, so the plumber will be there at the same time as the electrician, just in case it is a problem of power not getting to the toilet's sani-flow pump.

* Although, I am wondering why it has one of these pumps if this is the case, as these things are for pumping the waste up hill when you have a toilet in the basement. This toilet is at the top of the building, why could one possibly be needed... answers on a postcard please (or in the comments if you are lazy, I guess).

More Ikea (yes I still hate them) and more construction.

I left work early today (naughty me, I didn't get in until late either, I'll make up by working late tomorrow) and headed straight home. I got changed and took some Chinese food over to the new place for Sandy and I to eat. The poor dear has been at the house with only the Ikea biscuits/chocolate that I bought yesterday to eat.

I forgot that the BT engineer was coming to install the telephone line this morning, so when he called to let me know he was waiting at the front door, I had to call Sandy and tell her to quick-step on over there to let him in. Hence, she and Jenny had been in the house all day with nothing in the way of sustenance, but for sugary/fatty bad naughty naughty foods to eat.

By the time I got there, Jenny was long gone, she finished the gloss work that had to be done, and then got the train home.

Before we got to eat, Sandy showed me Angel's room, in its finished form, it is like a Disney Princesses set piece, Sandy and Jenny have done an absolutely stunning job. I know Angel is going to love that room (well until she is 10 and outgrows the whole Disney Princesses thing.)

As soon as we had finished eating, Sandy and I headed straight off to... (yes, you guessed it!) Ikea. We needed to take the broken stuff back for replacement, and because Ikea mattresses are not quite standard sizes (well as far as I can tell they aren't, please tell me if I'm wrong) we needed to go there to get the mattress protectors anyway. We also picked up a number of little items that had been forgotten while Jenny and I were concentrating on the big items on Friday night. While we were there Sandy picked out a whole host of plants and various things to put them in, seems like she is starting to add a feminine touch to the place, my bachelor pad, is becoming a less bachelorised place!

We got the whole shebang back to the new place (Now dubbed 'Chez C', the old place being monikered as 'Base Camp One', and Sandy finished painting the guest/Murray's room (AKA 'The blue room'), while I constructed things.

I forgot to finish the shower off, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. However I did finish construction of Angel's bed, several cabinets and a heavy duty clothes rail. I also assembled a number of floor standing lamps and other little gizmos.

In other news, the plumber turned up and managed to get the boiler started, but it is not warming the whole of the house, he seems to think that the pump in the boiler needs replacement. He also thinks there is a dodgy joint on the outlet for the en suite toilet, that needs to be fixed up. Oh and the dodgy tap in the kitchen, needs a replacement part, but that part is probably not available, so a replacement tap will be in order. I can feel that the bill for the plumber is not going to be cheap.

I also got calls confirming that the washing machine and the tumble dryer will be delivered and installed on Wednesday, and that the dish washer will be delivered on Thursday.

This means that Wednesday will see the delivery of the huge American type fridge freezer (with cold water and ice maker obviously), the washing machine, and the tumble dryer. And the electrician arriving to sort out all the various other problems. (I want some of the low-power spot lights in the bedroom changed to high power ones so that I can use a dimmer switch. I mean for Christ's sake, who wants blinding harsh light in a bedroom?)

Starting to get attached.

Well it seems that I'm starting to get attached to the whole house thing, now that it is starting to take shape as a home, I'm really starting to lose the abject sense of disappointment and the mild depression that came with the purchase of the new home.

The day started with a trip to the Sunshine Café once more. And continued where we left off with yesterday's activities.

Around 11AM we had the delivery of stuff ordered on Friday from Ikea, all 30 boxes of it. (I am going to live in an Ikea show room if I am not careful! I'm going to have to go to Habitat, Heals, and John Lewis to buy some other stuff to mitigate the effect.)

We have finished off the master bedroom and all but the stenciling and gloss work of Angel's room. Dave and I had a good go at putting in the new shower enclosure, we managed to re-tile the tiles that came off the wall when I removed the original enclosure last Wednesday, and we securely put up the new rails that will support the new panels. Once the glue/sealant has dried tomorrow, hopefully I'll find time to put the rest of the structure together in the evening.

One of the most fruitless parts of the day today was taken up with yet another trip to Ikea! I tried to phone up and arrange for delivery of the kitchen unit that I bought yesterday, but apparently that was a no-go, I had to return to the store to arrange delivery! So I made my way there, turned up at the counter with my receipt and the printed order for I was given yesterday.

Then, I waited...

Then, I waited some more...

Then, the guy asked me for my documents, he needed to copy them, as they had no record of my purchase! Oh yeah, I'm feeling good about this level of professionalism, are you? Seems that all record of my purchase has been lost! Scary huh?!

After another wait, the bloke finally came back, and told me that the item I had bought was not in stock. I had two options, either get my money back, or wait for it to come back into stock and they would contact me... I went for the option to wait until they could tell me when they would have one and they could deliver it (at their expense!) as I really don't want to go back to Ikea in a hurry (or ever again if possible).

I bought a shit load of various sweet and sugary things from the Ikea Swedish Food Market* in the store and bounced.

This time I had a pound coin on me, so getting the hell out of the car park was not a problem.

I did feel quite guilty though, Dermot had pitched up just before I headed off to Ikea, and by the time I got back (three hours later, approximately two hours more than expected), Dermot had to head off to do some other stuff. So he got to turn up, do some shitty jobs and then I dropped him back to the Tube Station. The thing is that Dermot is not too cool around people he doesn't know too well, and the only person there who he knew, he had met a year earlier at my 33rd birthday bash or a couple of hours. I'll make it up to him. I'm thinking I may throw a dinner party when the decoration is finished and I have had some time to relax. I'll definitely invite all the people that came along to help out, as a thank you for their efforts.

Later in the afternoon, as he was assembling various flat-pack-finery, Dave manage to find a couple of items from Ikea that were broken, so at some point I'll have to drop by there a-fucking-gain, this is getting tiresome.

I treated everyone to some garlic bread/pizza and ice cream finery from Pizza Hut. That went down well, everyone had worked up a healthy hunger during the day.

At the end of the day, Dave headed off home, Jenny decided to stay an extra day until tomorrow (she doesn't have any lectures on her degree until Tuesday).

My day was mostly taken up with painting ceilings (being the tallest there, you tend to get that job you know) and constructing furniture with Dave. The super-king sized bed that will be living in the master bedroom is now completed. Yay, somewhere to lay down, or at least be comfortable at long last!

Tomorrow I'm back at work, I'm really looking forward to just a full day's work, with any luck, I'll not be physically exhausted at the end of it, and I'll be able to contribute to the ongoing home improvements in some way. I'd hate to think that Sandy and Jenny will have been working pretty much all day, only for me to be unable to keep the my end of the bargain up.

Nighty night, it's time for me to sleep the sleep of the dead. (An early night for a change!)

* The round tin of "Annas Pepparkokor in the picture, is like a mild ginger based crack, it is massively addictive, Ikea should be giving the first tin of that stuff away free, and drop out of the furniture business!

I hate Ikea!

So Jenny and I got up early this morning and headed off to the Sunshine Café for breakfast, we needed a big and hearty start to the day, as there was going to be plenty to do.

After that we filled all the cracks in the first two rooms we were doing (Master bedroom and Angel's room).

I then called Dave (who was one of those who promised to come over and help out) and asked him when he would be arriving. It was about 10AM and he said he would be arriving within a couple of hours.

This gave Jenny and I the (at least) couple of hours we needed to go to the Edmonton Ikea and purchase the new sofas, and hopefully arrange delivery for tomorrow, when the rest of the Ikea stuff would be arriving. No such luck!

But all was not lost, I knew when Dave said he was going to be a couple of hours, he would be at least four or five hours, this is just a fact of life with Dave.

So we then went B&Q to collect some more things that we needed and then went on to Ikea to order the sofa and the kitchen unit... This was the first time I had been to the new Ikea, and we got lost, so it took us an hour and half just to get there. Ah and of course the sofa was not in fucking stock, it seems that the sofa is never in bloody stock. And in fact it is always a 'special order' item. If they had told me that at the other store, I would not have been there today! So anyway I ordered what I needed in the sofa sense and then ordered the kitchen unit.

As a brief aside, because the sofa was a 'special order' and the kitchen unit was a normal purchase, the transactions had to go through separately, and as a result I was charged two 70p Visa charges! Its not my bloody fault that their system can't collate orders is it? So why the fuck am I being penalised, they have already had nearly four thousand pounds from me over the last two days, surely they could soak up a 70p charge of their own making? And another thing (while I'm on a rant, sorry) the new store charges £1 to use the car park. I have no problem with this, all of the money goes towards local environmental projects, and the charge goes towards giving incentive to purchasers to use local transport*, both good things in my opinion. What I do object to, is people like me, who have no cash on them, being unable to over pay a pound at the cash register and getting a pound change, so that I can put the money in the fucking parking ticket machine, which doesn't take fucking cards!

But no, they cannot charge me the extra quid, nor give it back to me, nor give me back the over charged 70p, without it being a big fucking hoo-ha to do so, so I gave up and bought a hot dog each of Jenny and I, then we sodded off to the new place.

Oh, and in the confusion of the extra charges and what not, I managed to pay for the kitchen unit, but I never managed to collect it, nor arrange delivery. So I'll have to go back there yet a-fucking-gain tomorrow!

We ended up getting back five hours after we set off, but fully tooled up and ready to go.

Let the painting begin... er, well not really.

See, the lock on the front door decided at that point to fail on me, and lock itself closed! So the locksmith that I had planned to call out later in the week, ended up coming (in about 10 minutes, how is that for good service?) and drilling out the lock's barrel, then replacing it. He also replaced the other mortice lock on the front door, making the observation that the hole in the door for the lock, was for a Chub seven lever lock (meaning a good one), and even the cover plate (if that is the right term) was for the Chub lock, but that the lock that was in there, he wouldn't even have used on a bedroom door!

He'll be coming back on Monday hopefully to replace the locks on the door to the terrace when he has a little more time.

So we are now in the house.... Let the painting begin... er, well not really.

See having never done any painting before, what I didn't realise is that the actual painting is the proverbial tip of the iceberg, before you can paint, you have to:

• Wipe the walls with a damp cloth
• Fill the cracks,
• Sand the cracks,
• Fill any gaps in the skirting board with caulk (which as far as I can tell is flexible filler), finally
• Wipe everything with a damp cloth again.

And after you have done all that, then you get to paint which is pretty easy.

Finally we started to paint Angels room, in the Disney colours from Hell.

At about this time Karl turned up to help out, Dave finally arrived (only nine hours late, pretty good even by his standards), and very shortly after was followed by Sandy.

With our five pairs of hands, Angel's room and the master bedroom really started to take shape.

One quick Indian meal break later (Chillis of Crouch End is the best!), and progress was made in leaps and bounds.

Dave quickly proved himself to be utterly useless at anything involving painting, but when it came to destroying stuff (removing the remainder of the shower stall) and putting stuff together (with the little Bosch rechargeable screwdriver that I bought, that looks like a 50's ray-gun), and he was in his element!

We all worked together until after 2AM, then I dropped Karl off home, and came back for the rest of the crew, who are all bedding down at my flat.

We have done about half what I thought we would have done, my misplaced optimism has been discarded, now that I am more aware of the huge amount of prep work required to paint a room, I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend, we may have completed three rooms. With the first two rooms requiring second coats of paint and second colours to be applied, and Angel's room needing some gloss (a paint I am reliably informed requires a whole different set of skills) and a whole load of Disney stenciling. The third room needs a couple of coats of paint in with different walls being each of one of the two shades of pale blue chosen for the room.

The exhaustion has come for me, time to snuggle up to my beloved and get some shut-eye.

* Yeah, I can see people using the fucking bus to buy a flat pack sodding wardrobe too... The irony is not lost on me, that a furniture store is telling people to use public transport!

Spend! Spend! Spend!

Jenny has arrived to help me with the choice of colour scheme (I am after all colour-blind, and who wants to visit someone with a purple and orange living room?), and the DIY work. She is a goddess of the world of interior design and has done all of this crap before, so I shall be taking her lead on this stuff.

The evening started with us taking a brief sojourn to the nearest B&Q, where tools, a ladder, painting equipment and lots of paint was bought. This took until about 8:30. The store closed at 8:00, but then frankly its not my fault we couldn't find staff to mix the bloody paint is it?

Then we headed off to the new house and dropped off all the new purchases, then we moved onto phase two of the purchasing regime: Ikea!

We headed off to the Brent Park branch of Ikea, and I went to town, I bought a super king size bed, a double bed and a girlie-girlie single bed for Angel's room. I also bought all the other furniture I will need (if I'm not careful my place is going to look like an Ikea bomb went off!). Unfortunately the sofa that I wanted to buy was not in stock, but I was informed that it will be in sock at the new Edmonton store, I'll swing by there tomorrow and get that too. (I'll wear my anti stab vest.)

While I was at Ikea, I got one of their store cards, as they had a 5% back deal. As much as you spend (up to the limit of the card), you get vouchers back. But, when I got to the end, we had all sorts of prating about, the store closed at 12AM, and we were still there at 1AM, fucking about trying to get everything sorted with the vouchers and the delivery.

The guy dealing with me, also forgot to sort out the bloody kitchen unit too! So I'll have to sort that out tomorrow with the other store. And frankly he cocked up the vouchers and said, “But it's only 10 quid out, it's not a lot is it?”. My reply, “Yeah, its just a tenner, but it's my tenner, it's OK, I'll tell you what you just give me the tenner out of your own pocket and we'll be square.” Surprise surprise, he managed to sort it out then!

Delivery is planned for Sunday of all the big and heavy stuff.

In a real comedy moment, it turned out that the delivery company don't deliver plants, so we had to squeeze a huge plant into my tiny Nissan Micra on Jenny's lap!

With that done, we dropped off what we had bought at the new place and called it a night. We headed back off to my flat, and here I sit now, falling asleep. I'm off to bed, tomorrow is going to be a loooooong day!

A change of direction.

I've had a think about it, and this blog is somewhat misnamed... But the job continues, I didn't really think about it but there is still so much to do, so this space is now going to be devoted to the ongoing changes and moving that will be taking place as the house becomes inhabited.

Nothing housey has happened today, I decided to take the day off and relax some, in anticipation of the hard work to come.

It's mine! All mine, I tell you!

Well today I bunked off work early and headed off over to see Rapport and Money Man (Good & Bad Cops/Estate agents respectively), hopefully for the last time.

I dropped by to pick up my keys, to my house!

Unfortunately, they only had one set of keys, the other sets were with the other estate agency that had listed the property.

While I was there, Money Man called the other two estate agencies that had had boards outside the property. It turned out that one of the boards was actually there since the original owner had attempted to sell the property, prior to the repossession occurring. It turned out that she had put the property on the market for £450,000! The property just isn't worth that much money, so I'm guessing she was trying to reclaim some money on top of the value to pay of additional debts she had. Unlucky woman.

The rest of the evening was very rushed and a bit shit.

I collected all my power tools from storage, then headed off over to the other estate agency and collected the other two sets of keys, then headed off over to my new home.

To be honest it really felt like a real anti climax, in fact if anything, it was quite depressing. The stress of the journey to get this far has been so much, that finally getting to last stop on the line has been quite strange. I was so focused on making it here, that I had no idea what to do next, it had never even occurred to me that there was a next until I got here.

So with that in mind, I did a thorough search of the house, and tuned up a few manuals and guarantees for various items. I also tested everything that I could to see what had been reconnected and what was switched off.

The tests included turning on the tap in the en suite shower room, and flushing the toilet in there. Then I headed back to the kitchen to read the manuals that I had found. As I was reading the manual for the burglar alarm system, I heard a dripping noise behind me.

SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!

It seems that the en suite's toilet just seems to slowly empty onto the en suite's floor and from there to the kitchen ceiling and finally the kitchen floor, not the outside world via the typical route of plumbing!

I quickly flung my pullover and coat onto the floor, to make sure that the water didn't seep though the kitchen floor into my new neighbour's kitchen (Can you imagine: “Hi, I'm your new neighbour, sorry for flooding your kitchen!” Not a great introduction is it?), then went and knocked on their door, to see if I could borrow some towels, worse luck no one was in!

So I jumped in my car and drove like a loon (wrong way down one-way streets and the works) back to my other place and picked up a mop and bucket, and towels. Then I drove back (like a loon of course) with the new 'soaking up' equipment, only to find when I got there, that I had dropped the keys back at my other place! So this time, I drove more sedately (by now I'm assuming that an entire cistern's worth of water has fallen on my coat and pullover) and picked up the keys (cunningly dropped inside the front door of my flat) and headed back. Ten minutes later, the floor of the two rooms was reasonably dry.

At this point I continued with my intended mission for the evening (hence the tools I picked up from storage earlier in the evening), the mission was to tear out the old en suite shower enclosure (with a shattered door, but no maker's mark, so no hope of buying a replacement) and adding a new enclosure in its place.

So I jumped in the car (I'm having a premonition that I'm going to be doing a lot of driving over the next few days!) and headed off to B&Q to buy another enclosure and some sealant.

I could go into detail of the whole purchasing experience, but suffice to say, B&Q have some good staff, and B&Q have some right miserable old buggers working for them!

End result was that I got what I came for and transported it back to my new home. (Am I overdoing this emphasis? Heh.)

Then I set about tearing out the old enclosure, the blooding thing was clearly intended to be used as a safe room in the unexpected nuclear attack scenario. It took me more than two hours to get the thing off the wall, and at the end of it, I still had one of the 'U' shaped rails that attached the unit to the wall to go! The thing is glued on with something out of a Spiderman comic I swear! I decided to leave it until another day, I didn't want to take a hammer to it and wake up the neighbours (if they had returned). The last thing I want to do is introduce myself to the neighbour when he/she/it* turns up to explain I had woken their kid(s).

So here I am, a home owner, with a sense of impending doom, who has already flooded his new home and been beaten into submission by a stubborn shower enclosure... Hopefully tomorrow will be better day.


* This is London, I no longer make the assumption that a neighbour could be one of only two sexes. I'm not saying they are common here, but we do have our fair share of transvestites, pre and post op transsexuals, and no doubt more than a few post-humans, aliens and other assortments to boot. Live and let live say I, but don't make foolish assumptions.

Thunderbirds are go!

Well, Thunderbird 11 (the one shaped like a London Maisonette) is go!

The last of the cash has arrived in Bubble's customer account. We are good to go for completion tomorrow! Woo hoo!

Last of the forms.

I have sent off the land registry forms and the form for the deeds to the property to bubbles. As far as I can tell this it, everything is done now.

I must remember to call Bubbles tomorrow and find out if the last of my cash has arrived in her customer account.

All done bar collecting the keys...

Well the buildings insurance is organised and the last of the forms is in the post to Bubbles.

Apart from collecting the keys, I think this is pretty much it as far as buying the house is concerned!

I'm guessing the buildings insurance will require a signature here and there.

Now I just have to plan the change of decor and do the actual moving in!

Last of the money received

Just got an email from Bubbles, the money has landed.

All that is left is the insurance and the forms. (I've done the maniacal laughter bit too!)

I'll make the insurance call in a moment, and the forms I'll be posting in about 5 minutes when I go for lunch.

Things to do today...

There are several things that must be done today, for completion to occur on Wednesday...

1. Make sure the rest of the deposit/tax money I sent at the tail end of last week has landed in bubbles' customer account.
2. Post off the completed TR2 Land registry form and the Property Deed form to Bubbles.
3. Arrange for buildings insurance to take effect from Wednesday.
4. Laugh maniacally.

Technically element four on the above list is not a requirement. But, I am feeling so good right now, that if I don't do it, I may explode. So best to get it out of the way! :)

The end is in sight!

The offer has landed...

I've just been informed by Mr. Clipped's assistant (Clippy Sidekick) that the mortgage lender has finally authorised the new offer.

It is being faxed over to Bubbles as we speak.

Now I need to wait for the mortgage lender to move the cash into Bubbles' customer account. Then move my cash into there too (when it has arrived tomorrow), then finally collect the keys!

YAY!

No news

No news on the mortgage front, not for the lack of badgering either!

In other news, I have started the transfer of funds required to pay the remainder of my part of the sale (mainly comprising of £10,000 in tax, curses to government).

Looking good for compltion on Friday (if the mortgage comes though), and since I'll be celebrating my birthday on Sunday, my new home can be my birthday prezzie to myself! (If it comes off.) :)

Revised mortgage suggestion received

Received, accepted and sent on to the mortgage lender, hopefully for a revised mortgage offer to be issued by the end of the day.

Duh!

I had a look at the new suggested mortgage last night, and it seems hat Mr. Clipped wasn't listening too well to my side of yesterday's conversation.

The suggested mortgage is the discounted rate option, no thanks!

I have just been on the phone to Mr. Clipped, and he assumed that I wanted the slightly cheaper option. However since I'm expecting economic collapse of the Western Hemisphere* I want the fixed mortgage option. He is revising the offer!

* Well not really full economic collapse, but I am expecting the US Dollar to collapse some, when the US deficit becomes unsustainable. And for that to have a knock on impact on interest rates in the UK, which would make a discounted rate more expensive than a fixed rate once base rate rises. By the way I am not a financial analyst, don't go shorting USD on the basis of my posts!

Revised mortgage

I have spoken to my mortgage broker (Mr. Clipped, since he never wastes words).

I wanted a flexible mortgage so that I could over pay and reduce my interest costs in the longer term. But that attracted the extra charges associated with the high loan to value insurance.

So now I'm going with a "First time buyer" mortgage at a fixed rate for the first 3 years. The interest rate is lower, so my monthly payments are lower, and here's the bizarre bit, the mortgage lender also picks up the tab for the high loan to value insurance. And as long as I don't over pay the mortgage by more than 10%/year in the three years before the mortgage reverse back to "Standard Variable Rate" (SVR) there are no penalties for overpayment!

The likelihood of me overpaying on the mortgage by £30,000/year is negligible, unless I win the lottery. Which is very unlikely as I don't play very often.

Mr. Clipped also discussed a discounted rate mortgage too, but I prefer the certainty of a fixed payment for the next three years.

Obviously at the point at which the mortgage reverts to SVR*, is the point that I renegotiate, and move the mortgage to another lender, or to the current lender's flexible mortgage so I can over and under pay as an when work dictates.

Mr. Clipped has set me details of the suggested mortgage by e-mail, and I'll have a look this evening, and get back to him for tomorrow with my confirmation that I want to take it up.

* Which I think also means "Sucker, Veritably Reamable", as you would have to be a fool to pay this rate!

Except that...

Shark wants to complete the sale by Friday. I'd like to too, but we did agree that it would be done within 14 days of exchange. And that 14 days gives me some wiggle room regarding the whole debacle that is the mortgage offer.

Bubbles is contacting the Shark's solicitors to let them know that they agreed to 14 days, we don't want to be held to 4 days. Can you imagine, the Shark would probably try to stiff me for 10% of the value of the property then put it back on the market, if I didn't quite manage the 4 day limit!

Acceptance!!! (At long last.)

You're never going to believe this...

I've just had a call from Bubbles, the offer has been accepted!

Lots to do!

Full steam ahead, we plan to exchange with the existing mortgage offer and sort things out with the mortgage lender over the extra premium, and go with a reissued mortgage at completion.

So currently things to do include:

1. Sort out mortgage.
2. Exchange contracts.
3. Search for extra cash if I can't sort out the mortgage.
4. Plan moving house.
5. Compile a huuuuge list of people to notify of my change of address.

Wow, it's actually on!

(As predicted they expect me to pick up the planning indemnity insurance premium, the conveniently didn't read to the end of the sentence on the offer!)

Frustration

Well in order to get the vendor to accept the offer today (they have after all been sitting on the offer for some days now), I even offered to pay for the indemnity insurance required to cover the planning permission problem. Conditional on them giving me an answer by end of day today and a relaxing weekend!

I still didn't get an answer, so there will be no answer until Monday at the earliest now!

However, I did learn that Rapport (estate agent/good cop) things that:

1. There are four (yes 4!) offers in for the property from various interested parties.
   
2. He thinks I have a really good chance of getting the property, in fact he is certain I'll get it. (I applaud his enthusiasm, I shall reserve myself from celebration until it is signed, sealed, and delivered!)

So, what is the plural of nemesis? Nemises? It would appear that I have a potential 3 nemises rather than just the one I expected.

As a little prediction, if they do finally accept my offer, I am prepared to bet, thy still want me to pick up the tab on the insurance, even though the offer was contingent upon me getting an answer two hours ago! It's amazing how good the Shark is at hearing the bits that get them more money and being deaf to the attached conditions.

Have a good weekend.