A busy day ...

... began at our bank, where we waited in a queue for an hour before seeing an advisor to help us transfer the mortgage to our solicitor's account. Then found our solicitor hadn't given us the full account number. A quick call on the mobile found someone in their office that could help (the cleaner?) and we managed to complete the transfer.


So, off down to the barn with measuring tapes, big ball of string, a flask for hot drinks and a table and 2 chairs for our 'site office'. We noticed someone's taken a gate off our plot, and there's a few extra scraps of asbestos sheet appeared in the barn. As soon as we complete the purchase I'm gonna start locking things up!


First job was to check whether we can fit a garage in against the rogue fence - we now think we can - but whilst we were doing that our neighbour approached us to talk about the paddock. Started off OK, then veered towards we won't be offered any extra land ... (big debate ensued)... then came back to 'here's the land we've marked out for you'.


Out came the ball of string. Trailed it round the pegs, measured the lengths of the sides, tapped it into the calculator (from the 'site office') and - hey presto - agreed the area and price. Just have to get that agreement conveyed to the two sets of solicitors before any further changes of minds.

Then finally met our immediate neighbours Darren and Sonia, and had a look round the farmhouse that they've been renovating for the last 3 years. Gave us our first chance to look at the east wall of our barn from their side, and got a pleasant surprise - there's a gargoyle built into the stonework on that elevation just above the rear barn door. Might try to find somewhere interesting to place that. It's just above the door on this photo ...

One small step

Got the mortgage today. Also spoke to our solicitor at some length about the famous fence. An interesting angle is that, even if we accept an abatement from the seller (the reduction in the sale price) because of the fence being on our land, we will still own the land to our original boundary. So we could later still inist that our neighbour takes it down. But by then that would be between us and the neighbour, nothing to do with the sellers. We're still considering what to do, and will visit the barn tomorrow to help us decide.

Subject to that abatement, we're ready to complete the purchase. Don't think the sellers are though, so that will be another dispute.

Who said buying at auction avoids the hassle of property transactions!

Nah, TT is the way

This afternoon Misan phones our mortgage provider, to be told they plan to transfer the funds to us on Tuesday. Wrong answer - that's too late. Misan throws a wobbler. The woman says she'll check and call back. She doesn't. Misan calls them again and they get it right eventually - they plan transfer it to us tomorrow.

So she then phones our bank again to get them to rethink their policy about TT's - this time they say that it will happen within 2 hours, not the 'up to 3 days' nonsense they told her this morning. Back on track with funding, then. Misan can be very persuasive!

Meanwhile the architect has posted us a letter and a sketch layout. The guest bedrooms are downstairs and the lounge upstairs. Hmmmm! Have to get Misan to convince him we can lower the ground floor level a bit more and get the headroom we need to live comfortably downstairs.

Now, about that fenceline. Misan ..... ?

Breaking news

4.5 days to completion (2 of which are weekend) and we've just got a letter from the sellers solicitor admitting that the fence encroaches into our land. They have offered a nominal reduction in the purchase price to compensate.

We gotta think about this now - what's in our best interest?

Now it's getting frustrating !

Thought we'd best check that we will have the funds available for completion if it happens on Tuesday - so Misan phoned the bank this morning, to be told that a telegraphic transfer from our account could take up to 3 working days! This is the 'immediate' service that you pay extra for; 3 days!! And we haven't received the mortgage yet - that's due to arrive tomorrow (surely that'll be OK, we paid an extra £40 to have that sent by ... telegraphic transfer!).

Do these institutions not want us to succeed?

We're confused

Our solicitor received 2 letters from the sellers' solicitor today. They've acknowledged that they made a hash of the barn contract, and sent an improved one - which our solicitor thinks is still so bad he's drafted his own and sent it back to them.

Then on the deal for the extra land, the seller's solicitor has written a 3 paragraph letter justifying why they now have to separate the barn and land deals, and attempting to explain the shape and the area and the eastern boundary and the price and .... its nonsense.

With all these problems, our solicitor now seriously doubts whether we'll be able to complete on the barn by Tuesday 3 Nov, and who knows about the land.

And we're still waiting to hear from the Architect, who was meant to send us his proposal this week so that we can instruct him to get started with a survey and some designs.

We thought it was all going too well.

An interesting weekend

Popped down to the barn yesterday to take some measurements of our barn plot and the extra land that our neighbour, Michael, had marked out.

As we arrived the drizzle got heavier. We struggled to get the car up the 'drive', donned our macs and only had an hour to take some critical measurements before heading off to Leicester for our niece's birthday lunch. We went more or less straight from that to the Royal Naval Association's Trafalgar dinner last night (I was accompanying Shipmate Misan - don't ask) so didn't have time to draw up our measurements until this morning ...

... and found we hadn't taken enough. So off we went again today in much better weather for a more comprehensive 'survey'. A first attempt to draw it didn't work, so after reflecting whilst Liverpool stuffed Man U, then setting up my new petrol strimmer, the second try made more sense. The land we've got with the barn is not as regular in shape as we first thought. And it's not as big as shown on the contract of sale. That's gonna be our first debate with our solicitor and the selling agents tomorrow.

Then the part of the paddock that the neighbour consortium have marked out to sell to us is an even stranger shape, and we can't see how they've come up with the area they have. Another discussion needed.

But it was a lovely day down there today. If we hadn't had Joy & Mark calling in at Warwick on their way from Swansea to London (it's OK, they've got a welsh satnav) I'm sure we'd have pottered round for a bit longer, maybe even have knocked on Darren's new door (he's hoping to finish the farmhouse for Christmas) and had a chat with him and a look at our barn from his courtyard. Have to leave that 'till next weekend now.

So Misan's going to make a few calls tomorrow to see how we can sort out these boundary issues before completion on 3 Nov. Keep your fingers crossed.