Buying a house

[davidn]

Also goodness gracious me except much more so this time, we're buying a house.

It's strange how things work out. Of the semi-detached houses in the Village that we'd looked at last week, we had a choice between a couple of our favourites, 72 Duff Street and 40 Duff Street (just between Not-Very-Good Street and Absolutely-Falling-To-Pieces Street). About an hour after we'd looked at it, we got a call saying that 72 had gone under offer, and not wanting to deal with a bidding war, we offered on 40 instead. 40 promptly went into a bidding war, then everyone on the 72 offer backed out, so we've now got into that one and have had our own offer accepted. We have photos of it from two showings up in Whitney's gallery.

Of the remaining houses in the Village, I think we've got the one that's most easy to change to our own needs - the main change needed here is that the kitchen needs a delicate touch of sledgehammering to take out an extra wall that the previous owners put up, and we've been told that it's very easy to put a second bathroom in the basement if we want to. It also seems to have one of the very few basements that doesn't fill with water - you can see me testing the floor in one of the pictures, and uniquely that day it was perfectly dry. We had another house that looked very promising a few streets away, and it was mostly very nice inside but the basement carpet was rather... squodgy.

So now we need to get another letter from the bank and organize an inspection, and the rest of the buying process stretches out in front of us - the formal mortgage application, purchase and sale, and closing at the end of May. Whitney is already The Simsing it up on any site but IKEA looking at furniture to put in it.

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! :) Congratulations!

(I assume the bit about Not-Very-Good Street is some british not-american pun. :P)

[diarytypething.livejournal.com]

"Duff" is used to describe objects which are broken, don't work, or are otherwise a bit crap, although there is also a type of steamed pudding called plum duff, which is rhyming slang for being in a huff (sulking). I had always assumed that the word must be used in North America in some context because it's the name of the beer Homer Simpson drinks, but perhaps not.

[diarytypething.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! It looks very nice - what one might describe as "having potential", because it will be even better once you've knocked down the wall, and presumably you won't be putting a bench in your living room. Was this the harpsichord-maker's house, or it is just a strange coincidence that this house has some kind of old-fashioned keyboard instrument in it as well?

[davidn]

Yes, this was the one owned by the harpsichord-maker - I wouldn't mind keeping that as well, but I think it might be almost as expensive as the house :)

Thank you!

[davidn]

Thanks :) And yes, pretty much what diarytypething just described - I had looked it up but couldn't actually find that given as a primary definition anywhere. It's not the most attractive name for a street :)

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

It's great things are moving ahead for you both after the disappointment of a few days ago, despite how panic-inducing the financial stuff is. It looks like a nice place, though - hope it works out well!

Also, "squodgy" is now my Word of the Day. :P

D.F.

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! You must be feeling pretty proud to be able to own now :D

Has the initial "ohmigod" feeling worn off yet? ;)

[stubbleupdate.livejournal.com]

The Verdict from the Bond Warehouse that I call home is "That's nice"

[davidn]

If I've worked it out right, the monthly payment is pretty much equal to our current rent... it was the idea that we were just throwing money at someone monthly without getting a larger investment back that made us decide to do this (along with the way that we definitely can't see ourselves moving in the next while).

The overwhelming feeling is still there, but it's manifesting itself in complete exhaustion - I've only walked to the supermarket and back today and I still had to sleep at 2pm.

[davidn]

It's one of the many words that I picked up from being read Norman Hunter when I was in school :) I didn't realize at the time how much of my childhood entertainment was from well before the actual time I grew up...

Yes, this is definitely looking more promising - I'm still sort of scared that something's going to suddenly take it away again (particularly because the previous two offerers on this house had to pull out again for different reasons!) but... it's just because the whole process is new.

[davidn]

Glad to hear it - thanks :)

[kjorteo]

This is pretty much the exact reason why I really envy you two for this..! Anyway, congratulations. :)