Good to hear you're sorted now though. Get in the garden and tinker with that pond, me and Davy need some tips.

Yeah the people I work with at Broomfield are often moaning how Chelmo is getting even more middle class since the designation as an actual city.

Glad you're sorted. Next comes the legion of annoying smaller jobs.

Yeah, that's the nice thing about this place. It was in lovely condition so we already feel happy with it. Bathroom could do with updating and one of the bedrooms is ridiculous pink, but other than that... it's great.

Had some concerns over them not declaring the conservatory. We thought they wouldn't have the paperwork. We were worried about delaying the purchase though so we didn't question too much... only to find all the paperwork has been left out for us. NOICE.

Ahh that's ace live. House hunting is well exciting

I've put forward a pretty harsh savings plan for our deposit. We've been saving for a while but have also been pretty broke for a while so it's not amounted to much. I reckon we can now save a decent chunk in the next two years then I've drawn up a pretty brutal budget for the third year to really hammer it. It means cutting back on virtually everything but I can cope with a year of severely restricted funds if it means my own house the year after.

The depressing thing is my area is so expensive. What will buy us a two, maybe three bed semi here if we're lucky would get us a four or five bed detached elsewhere. Tis a joke. This isn't even a sought after area either! Fuck knows where these prices come from.

I'm in the process of selling and looking for a new house - we're moving in with Vickys mum (she's not that well and needs to stop working quite so much so combining households into one big one seems like the right thing to do) so we've had to simultaneously sell both ours and her houses and find the right place to move into.

New house has to be at least 4/5 bedrooms, with two living rooms and enough space that we can live 'seperately' and keep out of each other's way if need be (which there will be).

We've sold ours subject to contract and she's completing sale on hers today. Unfortunately, we haven't found anything to but to move into so we're having to rent for 6 months - providing us with a handy acid test of whether we can actually stand living with each other.

The whole thing is a massive ball-ache tbh - there's not a week goes by without some kind of fucking drama. It'll be worth it in the end, I hope.

We've seen quite a few possibilities but only made offers on one - which the owner turned down twice. Partly because the estate agents have totally over-priced the house by about £20k but also because I got the impression that she actually didn't want to sell. Fucking time waster.

The problem we've got now is that Winter Is Coming and there'll be less and less on the market - but at least we'll be in a strong position to buy.

This only tangentially related, but …

Royal Mail are a ballache, aren’t they? I moved house. Went online this morning to set up a redirection for the post. Input all the details, pay the money … and then it pops up a series of security questions, to prove I’m me. Then it tells me I’ve got something wrong, so my application for a redirection is denied. It says ‘click here to go back, correct your details, and try again’. So I do, to no avail.

Royal Mail don’t believe I’m me.

My other option is to go into a Post Office and apply for a redirection in person … but to do that I need a bunch of bills addressed to the old house. Which I don’t have, because everything was online billing and they won’t accept printouts.

Arse.

Award for ‘best fuck-up so far’ during this house move goes to the local council.

I check up on council tax charges etc for the new place, and I find discrepancies.

Our building has flats one to four. The basement is Flat 1, ground floor is Flat 2, 3 and 4 are above. But the council instead have details for Flat Basement, Flat Ground, Flat 1 & Flat 2.

I try to explain that Flat 2 is Flat Ground. And that Flat 1 is the basement. Also that there are two more flats above. They don’t believe me.

They’ve been sending red reminders to ‘ground’ and ‘basement’ for years, but haven’t charged flats 3 & 4 at all.

I’m trying to tell them I’m in Flat 2, which is on the ground floor, and their records are royally fucked … because I’ve found out they also have the two names for my flat recorded under two different tax bands.

The mind boggles at these levels of incompetence.

To add an extra level of ‘huh?’ to the council’s performance …

I registered with them for council tax. I filled in their form, saying that I live at Flat 2.

They sent me a bill, in my name, addressed to Flat Ground.

And a second one, addressed to ‘occupier’ at Flat 2.

They have ‘Ground’ and ‘2’ listed at different tax bands. At this rate, I’m just gonna pay the cheapest one.

Lol. So hang on, two flats havent been charged council tax for years?
You are going to be popular with the neighbours when they get their first bills.

pantyfire wrote:

Lol. So hang on, two flats havent been charged council tax for years? You are going to be popular with the neighbours when they get their first bills.

Yep. That’s going to be … interesting.

Have to do it though, to make sure I don’t get tapped for two bills every month instead of one.

Ah, Dennistoun. Are estate agents still trying to call it Merchant City East?

The latter description is somewhat cleva.

Finnieston is definitely the hippest place in Glasgow at the minute, and it's slowing becoming more expensive and West End-y by the month. I'm in Cessnock. Not exactly trendy, but the flat is basically a tenement style setup for around about 60% of the cost of a West End alternative, AND i can get a sausage supper for £3.50, which is TWO SAUSAGES. Fuck the West End! (at least until I have  a job)

 
Noice!