Owning your own home

ALL my bike stuff brings me joy!

Currently a sense of shame from mine as there is some nice shiz in there and it's covered in dust. House dust. Cat dust. Not road dust :(

Love. Where is that tap from Vola?

I can’t see from those pics but assume they put it between the roof joists and boarded it over - description just had me a bit confused

Decision fatigue is one of the worst aspects of a big extension/renovation. (After the money part).
We've got the builders coming back (2 years after they finished) to assess re-doing the extension roof completely as it's leaking. Mrs-ru is having to leave the house as she can't even bear to see them again.

Thats where I got to with the current house I'm in. Complete renovation and the place didn't even have central heating. Towards the end of it I couldn't give a shit what colours were going up and just wanted it done.

I'm deep into this decision fatigue right now. Feeling so depleted.

It'd all be fine if I just had another £25k - which is the total cost of all the compromises I'm making. It's another stark reminder about the avoidance of all this shit that comes with wealth and privilege. because in an alternate world Daddy would just handle it for me.

Sympathise on that, we had our kitchen done about 12 years ago and the issues cropping up make me almost hate the place now. Seriously tempted to use the excuse of a side return extension to smash the whole thing down

It's another stark reminder about the avoidance of all this shit that comes with wealth and privilege.

No offence, but anyone talking about home extensions is pretty much in a world of wealth and privilege compared to most

What are the compromises? This is now a year out of date but we were in a similar position and asked the mortgage broker to ask for some extra money, to his and our surprise they offered it and more.

Toying with the idea on the new place and opening up the back of the house in effect. Part of me thinks just get it livable and do it later down the line...

Yeah. I know. But there are levels.

Also, this isn't an extension. This is making a property I bought in a terrible state of repair, livable. There were 100k reasons why I didn't just buy one that I could move straight into..

same. we rush finished the painting at the end and now I don't really like the finish in one part - at least that's only paint though, so easily rectified. pays to sweat some of the other details a bit more, particularly the architecture/big stuff

in good news though, the house across the way from us which has a similar sized extension (albeit slightly more liveable interior space) went for an unseemly amount of money recently so should hopefully have more than made up what we've spent...

chucked in an offer after telling the estate agents before we viewed we had an offer we hadn't accepted. now they want to contact our estate agent (shoulda seen this coming).

we're hoping to receive an offer today/monday from a guy who is super keen.. how likely are the estate agents to bullshit for me 😂

Anyone have any recommendations for mortgage brokers & solicitors for buying in and around Edinburgh? I've had ESPC recommended to me before and contact with them has been good so far. Wanted to check what else was out there before I paid £295 (which just to start and get an agreement in principe (although I think this is their total fee) seems steep). That or being a first time buyer I just need to get used to getting pumped for money at every step?

From experience, they all end up talking to each other. Just depends what kind of agent you've got I guess! Good luck!

even if they won't bullshit for you it's just "Oh I meant the guy told me he was putting in an offer"

yeah fair, i dont feel too bad, the sellers estate agent is definitely bullshitting us too

You don't need to pay for a broker, there are plenty that don't charge because they all get fees from the lenders anyway. Also not incentivised by certain lenders over others because the fee is fixed and lenders can't offer more. At least that is what we were told (and broker was willing to work with any number of lenders).
Look for a fee free independent broker or try habito for example

That or being a first time buyer I just need to get used to getting pumped for money at every step?

You will do if you don't know how it all works, sadly. Keep asking questions on here.

In England there are plenty of brokers who get a finders fee from the bank so they won't charge you directly. You can also go direct to the bank, although it's a bit more work to do so.

Maybe in Scotland it's different, maybe not.

Thanks both - yeah more research needed will get on the phone to some places this afternoon. Was really hoping to use Habito or at least try but no go for Scotland from what I saw online annoyingly!

It seems to be a real thing around our way with the stock of Victorian terraces. With hindsight it would’ve been better (get the pain in one hit) and probably not much more expensive to do it initially, more so as the back of our house had no footings and these had to be dug anyway and the rear and side wall rebuilt.

Think trussle do an online agreement in principle, not sure if works in scotland. worth noting they are not whole of market, just L&G network i think but could be a good gauge

Would love to see some pics! Sounds awesome.

Edit: Just seen them, looks great!

Yeah I did this too, got caught out.

Thinking of doing this: https://personal.natwest.com/personal/mortgages/manage-your-mortgage/borrowing-more.html

Specifically for a loft extension. Anyone done similar lately and is it simple enough? Anything to consider? Am hoping I can just get the quote, call them up and just add a few years/increase monthly repayments marginally, or is there a massive catch?