Owning your own home

Can I claim that as inspiration then?! Nothing to do with the fact that we couldn’t afford to repair it with stone...

A minor one. It’s actually really strange to stand in a house with no internal walls or floors, house suddenly feels big.

if you don't know it have a look - remade from a ruin (not a restoration), a really beautiful project, won Stirling prize. http://www.wwmarchitects.co.uk/projects/astley

What's best practice for setting up a broadband connection in advance of moving ?

Does it make a significant difference for setup if you can give them the existing landline number ?

Can someone clever just tell me what type of mortgage to go for please.
We've been offered these for 28 year terms;

2 year fixed at 1.19%, £1,999 + £525
3 year fixed - 1.69%, no fees
5 year fixed - 1.70%, £999

I would say we're pretty risk averse so I guess we should stick to fixed?

Take the 2. Interest rates are gonna be negative for a decade

Get it all set up a month in advance.

They'll probably still cancel on the day but that's your best chance.

Work out how much each costs over the period - the 3 year might be cheaper than the 2 year once you factor in the punchy fees

Without knowing the mortgage amount it's hard to compare.

Personally I'd go 5. Chances are interest rates won't go up but there's always a slim chance. More importantly, things are pretty volatile at the moment so I'd want to put off remortgaging for 5 years.

EWS1 has been made worse by the governments statement of 2 weeks ago. Banks have all said that they are not supportive of the government position and now surveyors have all had their PI insurance voided for EWS surveys.

made worse by the governments statement

Shocked.

Also, that's really shit for you.
Have you found tenants?

Where have you seen/heard this? I'm starting to consider pulling our flat off the market and sitting it out for a bit tbh

Definitely depends on the size of the mortgage. If it's a 600k mortgage then the 2yr is better than the 3. If it's a 250k mortgage then the 2yr is crap.

On a 250k mortgage then you'd be paying £980 a month once fees are spread over the 2yr initial.
The 3yr would be 934pm
5yr would be 952pm

I think I'd go for the 3 and then remortgage again expecting rates to still be fairly low.

(Don't rely on my maths though, I only used an online calc - https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-1633400/Mortgage-calculator-Compare-true-cost-rates-fees.html)

Ok cheers guys, still much to think about.

Thanks, it really is beautiful!

It’s all over Twitter. Seems to be the best place to track this story.

I was viewing a potential job today; I was asked to come and assess a roof to find the cause of a leak / damp on the wall and check rafters for damage / rot.

The issue was on a gable wall; before I even got over the threshold Mr Homeowner informed me proudly that it was definitely the roof that was the issue as he had repointed it himself. At this point I saw Mrs homeowner rolling her eyes so violently that I honestly thought they may leave her head and move into a low earth orbit.

A cursory inspection revealed that the issue was that the gable wall had suddenly and inexplicably begun protruding beyond the roof tiles.

While I was taking measurements Mrs homeowner bluntly informed me that the issue only started after the wall was repointed. My quote will be astronomical as the only way I'm going to put myself in the middle of that impending divorce is if my take-home matches that of a Harley Street boob enlarger.

TLDR it's not just builders from 30 years ago that do bad jobs and at least your significant other can't blame you for this.

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While I was taking measurements Mrs homeowner bluntly informed me that the issue only started after the wall was repointed.

It probably started moving earlier, leading to the missing/cracked mortar which was repointed in bandaid fashion when a rebuild or deep pointing was needed.

It might be my eyes, but is that leaning outwards or bowing inwards 2/3s up?

Decorators starting today. Planned to do it myself but time is my enemy.

We decorated one room- and it looks good, it took us a week of evenings, and one full day.
Painters came in yesterday, just did the plastering of one room, and it looks amazing.
Worth it. For sure.

Our plan (if we ever get to exchange contracts) is to try and do a lot of it ourselves. I have budgeted 5 years though, so not in any initial rush. Fully expecting to sack of that original plan and cheque book it after a few weeks, however.

Entirely likely, however me knowing that doesn't help the situation and telling that to the already stressed couple who own the house would be adding to an already unpleasant situation.

Its possible; the top 4/5 courses are definitely kicking out and there is already some pointing missing below that but it's hard to tell exactly what going on from the ground. Usually in this situation I'd identify it as a potential issue and give a labour/materials cost based on a worse case scenario. Which in this case would be supporting the ridge beam as it's a single skin wall and rebuilding the wall, the cost of which would be 2 days labour a mix of muck and maybe some bricks if the existing bricks are beyond saving.