GRcade

SilentRight wrote:Well I did some reading on the subject of aluminum wiring and yeah, I'm not buying this house. Aluminum wiring is 50 times more likely to result in fires than copper wiring...

https://www.cpsc.gov/PageFiles/118856/516.pdf

The only solution would normally be to re-wire the whole house, however since it's a town house I would just be surrounded by a bunch of other people with this wiring. Everything I read about it basically goes like "it CAN be safe BUT...", "it is just as good AS LONG AS..."

If I had bought the house already I guess it would be something I would just have to live with but there's no need for me to put myself in a bad position. The house wasn't even being sold for cheap!

I'm sure you could just get an electrician to give it a once over, aluminium has a lower rating than copper but there is nothing dangerous about it.

Unless you rip out all the walls there is no way to know for sure. I read up on it and spoke to others as well who are far more handy then I and the concensus was that it poses an increased risk because there really is no other way to know the job was done right. Even pig tailing, attaching a special copper connector before the wire connecta to power outlets can be screwed up by professional. There's no reason to put myself in that situation if it can be avoided.

Had my house offer accepted. I'm terrified and happy at the same time. Not sure what order I have to do things in though

Solicitors I think now? I have no idea!

That and apply for the mortgage. I think that's what I did anyway, was all a bit of crazy confusing whirlwind! I remember having no clue how to choose a solicitor, since I'd never needed one before and had never given it a second thought. Just went with someone recommended by a friend who had recently bought, worked out well enough.

Squinty wrote:Had my house offer accepted. I'm terrified and happy at the same time. Not sure what order I have to do things in though

Solicitors I think now? I have no idea!

Yes, get your mortgage approved first, then get the solicitors to do the rest. Don't appoint a solicitor if you cant get a mortgage

You can probably do it in parallel if you've got an agreement in principle or a trustworthy mortgage advisor. Otherwise it takes too long!

Got an agreement in principle, I was there this morning, yer man had it sorted and emailed it to me in the afternoon. He said it they were back straight away with a thumbs up. Emailed it to the estate agents as they wanted it for assurance, I think.

I've to let the mortgage guy know and supply some other ID docs they need. Then I think I have to ring for solicitors. I have a fair idea who I will ring.

I've calmed down now. I couldn't think straight a few hours before due to the fearrrrrr

Just wait till you get the keys and begin the move

Minto wrote:Just wait till you get the keys and begin the move

Just finished putting all the IKEA furniture together. Shed is now full of cardboard.

Minto wrote:Just wait till you get the keys and begin the move

I'm not looking forward to this part

Estate Agents

Has anyone here got underfloor heating installed at home?

I'm looking in to electric underfloor heating (I have no gas supply at home so couldn't pick the water option even if I wanted - I hate plumbing/water so I wouldn't anyway!)

Any recommendations? Pros/Cons?

Seems like the biggest con is the cost of buying it/installing it vs the savings you would make on bills. Otherwise it seems mostly positives from what I can see online. Also I am cautious about it breaking down and having to tear up a floor to replace it but they seem to come with 10 year warranties so maybe faults aren't a regular occurrence.

No idea of cost/inconvenience to install

But it feels great when you have it. (I don't - but I've been to friends that do. So lovely and toastie)

Hexx wrote:No idea of cost/inconvenience to install

But it feels great when you have it. (I don't - but I've been to friends that do. So lovely and toastie)

It looks pretty straight forward to do. I have my conservatory where I still need to lay a tiled floor so I was thinking of installing it there to see what it's like before moving to other rooms of the house.

Got a call from my estate agent while in work, so I returned the call worrying about all manner of things (this is gonna fall apart, something's wrong with the seller etc).

They called to wish me a Merry Christmas

Our Estate Agent popped around last night to wish us happy christmas and gave us some sweets and stuff. I was asleep at the time but my missus asked him to PLEASE TAKE AWAY THE SOLD SIGN!

Squinty wrote:Estate Agents

You spelt banana splits wrong.

The house we've bought, we originally went to ward and partners when we viewed it.

So we went armed with a list of questions, and the pratt that showed us roundhead no clue about anything, drove an Audi A6 and was basically a prick. Rang on the monday to put in an offer to be told theres a 3% buyers fee Which equated to another 3.5k on top of the the deposit.

Spoke to the seller and said thanks but we cant afford that, and he went mental, they told him he would pay no sellers fee as part of their service and didn't tell him theyd pass the fee onto the buyers. He promptly removed them from selling the house and we did it privately.

Tl:dr estate agents are banana splits.

That's part of the reason why I was so surprised. Haven't exactly had the greatest experience with the estate agent I've been dealing with. I was expecting the worst.

Things are moving on. Seem to be getting new documents every day to deal with. It's slightly confusing for the uninitiated.

I have several documents to sign and the solicitors have asked for a copy of the valuation report. I don't think I ever received this.

You do have to sign lots of things, valuation report though was conducted by our bank, for their records.

Small bit of news, literally 1 week after moving into our new house back in late November I was told my entire team was being let go, you can imagine that the past few weeks and Christmas, although I put it to back of mind I had many sleepless nights.

I went for 2 interviews in the past week and got offered both jobs, took on what is a pretty good gig, cutting edge Drafting team in an engineering consultancy that will not only upgrade my portfolio substantially but will pay for any night time college courses on BIM and 3D cad/Revit. I'm sleepless now but it's more because I'm excited.

SOLD sign still at side of house!