The sale of our current house completed on August 21st, preceded by a very busy couple of days packing, deciding what was for storage and what would be coming with us to our temporary accommodation.
The temporary accommodation in question was to be the in-laws, Keri's parents to be precise. We decided after a lot of deliberation that it would be the most cost-effective solution and would allow us to pump the maximum amount of money in to the project. Thanks to their generosity we would be staying with them at a lot less than it would cost to rent a property. Much of our possessions were placed in to storage, again at a good deal having negotiated a 12-month contract.
We've been in our new accommodation for about a week and a half now, though the first couple of days I was away with work which made the transition easier. That said, going from having a free run of a 3 bedroom house to a double bedroom in a shared house is quite a difficult transition. I think it will take a little while to adjust and feel comfortable, there's that feeling of imposing and lack of personal space - not that our hosts are contributing to that, far from it, in fact I'm sure they're pleased to have one of their daughters home and for my retired father-in-law to have some company when I'm working from home! Bizarrely, it might actually be a slight case of being homesick.
I think Max has definitely settled in though, we've found a couple of good local parks for him to play in and a nice walk along a disused rail line (if only it had a pub along it... maybe Basingstoke canal would be better for that!)
Both Keri and I are looking forward to hearing positive news on the planning application - the consultation period ended last week, so hopefully we'll get some news shortly. Though I suspect the Council Planning Dept will take their full 8 weeks before we get our decision.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Friday, 7 August 2009
The planning application is in!
After a couple of months going back and forth to the planning officer, around 3 iterations to the plans, we've finally submitted our formal planning application.
Interestingly, our original brief was to produce plans with elevations that were fitting for the surrounding properties. The original feedback from the Planning Officer at an informal meeting was that he found it too bland!
Second iteration and we increased the window sizes to the corner of the property that would be seen upon approach to the house and added some Arts & Craft features... still not enough, it was becoming a little frustrating.
After that feedback, we decided to leave it with the Architect to come up with some bolder suggestions. The result was to be a 2-storey window providing a feature for the entrance hall and gallery landing. It's actually something we had wanted, but had avoided as we thought it would introduce excessive costs. Though as we had also decided on block & render for most of the build, the costs more or less balanced out.
Some other good news over the last couple of months, particularly given the current market conditions, is that we've sold our current house. Admittedly, there was some incentive for the agent - we agreed they'd get their full 1.5% commission if they achieved a sale within 4 weeks of initial marketing, otherwise a flat fee amounting to ~1%. No surprise, we'd sold by week 3! Though it was also probably helped by a full page spread in the local paper :-)
So, now we wait for up to 2-months to see if we get permission. It's probably going to be at least 3-months before the build actually starts, making it over a year since the purchase was agreed!
Interestingly, our original brief was to produce plans with elevations that were fitting for the surrounding properties. The original feedback from the Planning Officer at an informal meeting was that he found it too bland!
Second iteration and we increased the window sizes to the corner of the property that would be seen upon approach to the house and added some Arts & Craft features... still not enough, it was becoming a little frustrating.
After that feedback, we decided to leave it with the Architect to come up with some bolder suggestions. The result was to be a 2-storey window providing a feature for the entrance hall and gallery landing. It's actually something we had wanted, but had avoided as we thought it would introduce excessive costs. Though as we had also decided on block & render for most of the build, the costs more or less balanced out.
Some other good news over the last couple of months, particularly given the current market conditions, is that we've sold our current house. Admittedly, there was some incentive for the agent - we agreed they'd get their full 1.5% commission if they achieved a sale within 4 weeks of initial marketing, otherwise a flat fee amounting to ~1%. No surprise, we'd sold by week 3! Though it was also probably helped by a full page spread in the local paper :-)
So, now we wait for up to 2-months to see if we get permission. It's probably going to be at least 3-months before the build actually starts, making it over a year since the purchase was agreed!
Monday, 4 May 2009
All ours... first photos
We finally exchanged on April 27th, though it was a slight disappointment. As Keri collected the keys late af
ternoon and I was stuck up in London, so we didn't get to go over until early evening.
We packed Max in to the car, thinking that he'd love a quick tear around in his new back garden.
However, upon getting there we find that the previous owner is still finishing his packing!
Suffice to say Keri was mortified and just slightly angry. You only get one shot at that excitement factor! Unfortunately it was a little deflated as we
couldn't act like a couple who'd just got the rights to their dream future. I ended up having to knock on my own front door! Though in all fairness he was just finishing up and was very apologetic - it's very difficult to be angry at a 71 year old man, who then tells you how he's grown up in the house, has fond memories, etc, etc.
Anyhow, here are a few jumbled photo's of the current property and land.
Our next task is to get our preliminary drawings sorted out and hold another informal meeting with the planning officer, then all being well we'll get the nod of approval and go for formal planning.
You may notice the nice crack in the garage, apparently a result of a WW2 bomb blast that caused the subsidence in the main building too!
ternoon and I was stuck up in London, so we didn't get to go over until early evening.We packed Max in to the car, thinking that he'd love a quick tear around in his new back garden.
However, upon getting there we find that the previous owner is still finishing his packing!
Suffice to say Keri was mortified and just slightly angry. You only get one shot at that excitement factor! Unfortunately it was a little deflated as we
couldn't act like a couple who'd just got the rights to their dream future. I ended up having to knock on my own front door! Though in all fairness he was just finishing up and was very apologetic - it's very difficult to be angry at a 71 year old man, who then tells you how he's grown up in the house, has fond memories, etc, etc.Anyhow, here are a few jumbled photo's of the current property and land.
Our next task is to get our preliminary drawings sorted out and hold another informal meeting with the planning officer, then all being well we'll get the nod of approval and go for formal planning.
You may notice the nice crack in the garage, apparently a result of a WW2 bomb blast that caused the subsidence in the main building too!
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
A False Start
So we spent the whole weekend ecstatic at the thought of having exchanged, only on the Monday to get a call from the agent asking why it hadn't happened.
Spending the week at home in between jobs gave me the opportunity to get on to it straight away, well, in between climbing ladders and painting the exterior of the current house. Apparently, now we were in a position where the transfer deeds were to our solicitors satisfaction, her attention had turned to our mortgage offer... were we currently in the process of completing the sale of our current property... not whilst I was half way through smartening the place up we weren't! A condition in the mortgage offer indicated that we should completely repay our existing mortgage prior to taking up the new one. Where was that winning lottery ticket!
I was straight on to the lender, explaining that we intended to market Montague Road as soon as we completed on the land purchase. The Underwriter wasn't sure, but would discuss with her Manager as it placed us outside their standard lending policy. Waiting on tender hooks, I decided to get on with some inside tasks whilst awaiting the call back. About 40 minutes later it came, whilst outside their policy, they were happy to continue to lend, but stipulated they could not extend beyond the monies agreed until we had sold Montague Road... phew! That was all fine and planned for.
The following morning the new offer appeared, I quickly looked through it and sure enough the condition regarding repaying the existing mortgage had been altered. Back to chasing our solicitor. At about 11am she called me to highlight and new condition, "Existing Property Rented Out", they were expecting us to rent out Montague Road? Ok, I had the underwriter's name and I was straight back on the phone. Quickly she realised her mistake and agreed to email both myslef and our solicitor. By 12:45, we had the email and it was a green light... though it wasn't until 4pm that I received the confirmation that exchange had indeed occurred.
I'm pretty sure there's a few extra grey hairs amongst the blobs of white masonry paint!
Spending the week at home in between jobs gave me the opportunity to get on to it straight away, well, in between climbing ladders and painting the exterior of the current house. Apparently, now we were in a position where the transfer deeds were to our solicitors satisfaction, her attention had turned to our mortgage offer... were we currently in the process of completing the sale of our current property... not whilst I was half way through smartening the place up we weren't! A condition in the mortgage offer indicated that we should completely repay our existing mortgage prior to taking up the new one. Where was that winning lottery ticket!
I was straight on to the lender, explaining that we intended to market Montague Road as soon as we completed on the land purchase. The Underwriter wasn't sure, but would discuss with her Manager as it placed us outside their standard lending policy. Waiting on tender hooks, I decided to get on with some inside tasks whilst awaiting the call back. About 40 minutes later it came, whilst outside their policy, they were happy to continue to lend, but stipulated they could not extend beyond the monies agreed until we had sold Montague Road... phew! That was all fine and planned for.
The following morning the new offer appeared, I quickly looked through it and sure enough the condition regarding repaying the existing mortgage had been altered. Back to chasing our solicitor. At about 11am she called me to highlight and new condition, "Existing Property Rented Out", they were expecting us to rent out Montague Road? Ok, I had the underwriter's name and I was straight back on the phone. Quickly she realised her mistake and agreed to email both myslef and our solicitor. By 12:45, we had the email and it was a green light... though it wasn't until 4pm that I received the confirmation that exchange had indeed occurred.
I'm pretty sure there's a few extra grey hairs amongst the blobs of white masonry paint!
Friday, 27 March 2009
It's really happening!
It started with a missed call from the vendors estate agent, then an email from our solicitor. She had indicated that everything was in place ready for an exchange. I was still under the assumption that there were the outstanding access right issues, so replied asking whether conditions had been agreed and that this would just be a conditional exchange.
Off I went to lunch, thinking that would be it - though I'd just sat down to start tucking in to my lunch when my phone rang. Guessing it was related to my email I answered, to discover the access rights had actually been completed and the exchange was to be unconditional with a completion date planned for April 24th! Not only was today going to be a celebratory drink for my last day in the current job, but it was also going to be celebrating 6 months of getting this land purchase completed!
However, now we needed to get the deposit transferred, so I had to head into the closest branch of our bank... it all seems to be happening now, let's hope the planning permission doesn't take quite as long.
Off I went to lunch, thinking that would be it - though I'd just sat down to start tucking in to my lunch when my phone rang. Guessing it was related to my email I answered, to discover the access rights had actually been completed and the exchange was to be unconditional with a completion date planned for April 24th! Not only was today going to be a celebratory drink for my last day in the current job, but it was also going to be celebrating 6 months of getting this land purchase completed!
However, now we needed to get the deposit transferred, so I had to head into the closest branch of our bank... it all seems to be happening now, let's hope the planning permission doesn't take quite as long.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
The end of the beginning?
First a quick introduction... My wife and I have been together for almost 10 years now, we discovered early on we had several common interests, one of which was to build our own home. It's only been in more recent years that we have found ourselves in the financial position to start seriously looking for a plot for this dream.
In fact, we started looking around in 2006, the height of the property boom, with land being bought up at a dramatic pace by developers. Fortunately in July 2008 we were made aware of a plot quite local to us, this was it we thought, now or never!
After a little bit of haggling over price, a holiday in between and a little bit of confusion caused by the usual estate agent wranglings, we agreed a price and had our offer accepted in September 2008.
Here we are toward the end of March 2009 and we're on the verge of exchanging contracts... Hooray!
Why the length of time in between? Well, first there was the need for the seller to get planning permission to allow us to secure our self-build mortgage, that took its time, and again came with a few misunderstandings; did it need to be outline, detailed, what about the fact that it didn't represent exactly what we intended to build? Then there was the usual drawn out dealings with solicitors and an interesting rights of way issue.
Once the exchange has happened, we can get on with the real business of designing our future home... the end of the beginning is upon us.
What happens next should be fun and what's written here will hopefully be frank, showing the highlights and lowlights of doing it yourself and insightful for those interested in doing their own self-build.
In fact, we started looking around in 2006, the height of the property boom, with land being bought up at a dramatic pace by developers. Fortunately in July 2008 we were made aware of a plot quite local to us, this was it we thought, now or never!
After a little bit of haggling over price, a holiday in between and a little bit of confusion caused by the usual estate agent wranglings, we agreed a price and had our offer accepted in September 2008.
Here we are toward the end of March 2009 and we're on the verge of exchanging contracts... Hooray!
Why the length of time in between? Well, first there was the need for the seller to get planning permission to allow us to secure our self-build mortgage, that took its time, and again came with a few misunderstandings; did it need to be outline, detailed, what about the fact that it didn't represent exactly what we intended to build? Then there was the usual drawn out dealings with solicitors and an interesting rights of way issue.
Once the exchange has happened, we can get on with the real business of designing our future home... the end of the beginning is upon us.
What happens next should be fun and what's written here will hopefully be frank, showing the highlights and lowlights of doing it yourself and insightful for those interested in doing their own self-build.
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