h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, after I stick it all on red down the local casino anyway

(Oh to have the balls for that one...)

heh! Trust me, this house buying malarky is even more of a gamble than the tables or roulette - at least there you *know* you're going to lose a fat chunk of money!

So, progress at last - we might even exchange today with completion mentioned for the 20th. Yay!

Latest faf was the right to pass/repass over the pavement to the main road cos when the house was built some Marquess (of Anglesy no less) owner the bit that is now pavement (and the land the house was built on - sounds like it was estate land that was built up in the 30s and flogged off to the public) and there's a right to upkeep and so forth.

But I think it is now owned by the council.

fingers more crossed than ever.

If my experience is anything to go by, stand by for another call from the lawyer...

yeah, true enough!

Hows the new way of life then? Settling in to the later mornings ok?

Hell yes. The Easter weekend was incredible, it felt like a weeks holiday with no long commuting to be done. Lovely jubbly.
I feel a bit spoiled in Cardiff now too as we have seaside (Penarth, Barry etc.) and mountains nearby - and we did both at the weekend. Very nice indeed.

The house in Cardiff is a revelation too - now we've got it our way it's bloody gorgeous (see below). A snip at 180k too. (four bed detached, with en suite and garage...)

Trouble with all this equity in hand though and a possible buy coming up** is that I'm becoming a terrible bore with interest rates and different mortgage packages. I'm even getting irritated with myself now so I'll have to kick myself into shutting up.




**We definitely want the house we're renting in Cardiff- the landlord wants to sell too - but

I though was a smiley

Ah it is

heh, now you know you're middle class!

That does sound like quite a deal, but I'll shut up so as not to jinx you!

Yeah thing about wales is it has an awful lot of countryside and scenery packed into quite a small area (comparatively that is).

wow, things do happen fast when they happen, don;t they?

Contracts are now exchanged!
Completion set for the 20th April.

Heh, thought so, just what happened with me

Now you've got to move

It is a snip but the location of our house is what makes it affordable. We have a ruddy great bypass that runs down the end of the street - about 3 houses down from us - and Ely, one of Cardiff's less salubrious areas is only a stone's throw away (indeed - one of my colleagues considers my house to be in Ely) - so its the old location location location bit coming in.

All that doesn't really bother me though - the traffic noise is no worse than the thousands of houses on a main road - I've just moved from a council estate in Brum - and if this house was up the road in a nice area of Cardiff like Llandaff it would be 300k+ - so I can't see how we'll get more of a house for our bucks without moving to rural Wales where they still simmer over the miner's strike. It was only built in 2004 too so there's nowt wrong with it yet so no outlay on redecorating or improvements is needed.

sounds good. And being in town the searches should easily pull up any issues with previous land use. You'll not want to move out again to a smaller more expensive place though!

Got the final settlement invoice today for completion friday. My god that was a big bill! Ought to frame it!

Yes, they're not cheap housese are they

We got a big bill from Curry's the other day - treated ourselves to a spanking new 37" Flat Screen TV with some of our equity.
The rest is currently winging its way into a savings account with the Alliance and Leicester that punishes you for making a withdrawal. No more big spends - until _the_ big one of course...

right, that's it. Our lives must stop mirroring!

What did you get for your LCD Telly? Only you'll never guess what I plan on spending the leftover equity from my house sale on! On the other hand, perhaps we're both just too predictable!

I bought a Logik 37" LCDTV

LOGIK LCXW37HD

And very nice it is too. To be honest I'm not sure of the make - but it's got to be better than Matsui which was the main alternative unless I wanted to spend more like a grand.


I was going to go for a full surround sound home cinema system jobby but I decided that was a bit too hefty on the old budget and seems to involve upgrading my whole stereo. So I went for the huge telly instead. The former can be done gradually.

Predictable

Hmm, that model number was supposed to be a link
http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/lcd-tvs/logik-lcxw37hd1.asp#revlink

I shall have a look at that. Just bought the what hifi extra guide with a shed load of lcd tvs reviewed in each size range.

But the good news is that it is all done. I have keys, they have the money and I am a man of property again!

Just offered a price to my landlord for our current house - 177k - he wants 190k



He can sell it someone else then. On our street someone has taken 4 months to sell at 182k and another has dropped from 192k to 182k in that time and _still_ hasn't sold. In the end if won't drop I might just offer _them_ 180k and see what happens.
As Ricky Gervais would say - he's having a larf!