We got the mortgage offer. The surveyor strongly encouraged we get a damp specialist in to view the house, and I'm glad we did. It turns out the leaking bay window has resulted in some pretty extreme dry rot. The two quotes we got were both over £5,000. One was almost £10,000! After some back and forth, the vendor has agreed to drop the price to help cover some of the cost. It means less money for renovation now, but it does mean the overall amount we owe on the house is lower. (We are only putting 10% down on the house to keep as much capital aside for improvements. So every £1,000 the price is reduced only leaves us with £100 to pay for the dry rot.) The mortgage company made amending the offer for the lower amount very easy, they got us the new offer within two days of making the request.
We're getting the architect in this weekend to draw up plans for the extension (future build, maybe this summer or in a few years, depending on finances) and renovation to the house as it stands (immediate, to be done before we move into the property. We need to submit a warrant application to knock through a wall and for a few other items.) We're getting quotes on all sorts of work and are trying to get things lined up so work can start as soon as we officially take ownership. We went to Glasgow Salvage today as a little celebration.
We've got so many structural and non-cosmetic things to attend to immediately, but we're trying to get our ducks in a row for the cosmetic parts of the house as well. (Deciding on the kitchen layout, pricing bathroom fixtures, searching for a color palette for the house overall.) We also looked at the lumber yard for skirting and exterior doors, since we are actually going forward with this purchase.
Clearing the house to lift the floorboards and fixing the dry rot is going to be our first order of business once we get the keys.
