Owning your own home

In order (IMO, E&OE, YMMV):

• Yes
  
• Dunno, make sure you get the full survey. It's probably fine.
  
• Dunno, but you don't have to pay it until you've been in for a month, technically. Your conveyancing solicitor may ask for it earlier though. We went over the £250k threshold and borrowed a little from each set of parents to cover...
  
• Wait. Until you have exchange of contracts it isn't necessarily yours. You could end up homeless and unless you can afford to risk that it isn't worth the risk.
  
• Indeed! Just wait until you start doing DIY, it takes over your life, eats into your cycling time and leaves you knackered half the time :)