Welcome back!
Kinda left you hanging a little there didn’t I… What’s it been, a week? A week and a half since I last posted?
Honestly, who knows? All the weeks we spend on this house journey are now all blurring into one.
The last time I spoke to you I told you about THE meeting, something that honestly, has still scarred me to this day. So what the hell happened afterwards?
If you recall from last time, James and I had made a plan of action to call both head office, and our estate agents first thing on Monday morning.
Monday Morning
We woke up after not sleeping at all, ready to implement our plan of action. James works away during the week so I wouldn’t see him, but we agreed that James would call head office and I would call the estate agents as soon as they opened, and then he would call me to see what the verdicts were.
Just after 9am, I was about to call them and was working myself up to gather the composure to do so, when I got a phone call.
I answer the phone and it is our estate agent, but this time it’s a girl I’ve never spoken to before, Amelia. She tells me that she has now taken over our case and was calling me to give an update. I realised that I was holding my breath, when she broke the update.
Our buyers had not only already instructed two of the most important, time-consuming surveys, but had the results BACK from them!!!! Results from those particular surveys were good, indicating no problems, and Amelia expressed how surprised she was that they had managed to get them done and results through so quickly, because those particular surveys are the ones that take the longest to come back.
Not only that, the buyers are, in principle, FINE with the 25th April exchange date (all being well with the surveys), they had already received their mortgage in principle, and I should expect a call this week for access for somebody to come and do the final survey.
I couldn’t believe it.
Were we back in the running?!
All of the last week’s emotion caught up with me and I burst into tears, apologising to Amelia, (god knows what she must have thought, this being my very first time speaking with her!). I told her that we had had a really awful meeting the day before and I was convinced we no longer had a sale and we were going to lose our house. As I was on the phone, James starts calling me.
In the 5 minutes I had been on the phone to Amelia, he had spoken to the house developers’ head office who had confirmed that it was their mistake telling us the 25th, that it should have been the 18th April we were given, however they would honour it due to this being their error, and it was no problem at all. April 25th it is for exchange. We just had to keep them updated on our progress. So basically the complete OPPOSITE of what that prick had told us the day before!!!
I felt like I was about to faint. The joy I felt at that moment was akin to the joy we felt when we first reserved the house.
We were back in the running.
We were back in the runninG!
I was travelling to London this particular week and then on to Frome at the weekend for a wedding, so as I waited for the call to confirm when they would need access, I arranged for basically our entire immediate family to be on standby to let the surveyor in if it happened to be the sole 4 hour period in the entire week that neither of us was able to be at home.
The end of the week came, and we needn’t have worried about access because we hadn’t heard a thing. I didn’t feel too worried because I was still elated from the fact that things were in progress, we had 4 weeks to go to get everything tied up, and with this influx of incredible news, things really felt like they were on our side.
THREE WEEKS TO EXCHANGE
The following Monday arrived, now just three weeks to exchange and I called the estate agent again to query where the surveyor was up to because I hadn’t heard anything.
I was told that the buyers had only instructed the solicitor on Friday just gone, and given that nobody works weekends, they would chase for an update tomorrow. Confused, I advised that I was told a week ago that a surveyor had already been instructed and I should expect a call for access last week, but that I didn’t get one. It seems there was some confusion, and it turns out that the surveyor hadn’t been instructed a week ago at all, but they had been now, so I should expect a call this week.
Do you reckon I felt reassured?
No. I didn’t.
I was starting to feel a little concerned again. An entire week had passed, we were now THREE weeks until exchange and we hadn’t heard so much as a peep from a surveyor. I brought Amelia up to speed, explaining the circumstances surrounding our sale and how quickly we had to proceed, and she advised she would chase things up straight away when she got off the phone.
Good Old Amelia
I should preface this by saying that Amelia, darling, amazing, beautiful Amelia, has been absolutely top-notch throughout this process. She is ON IT, she gets results and she gets them fast. Well, as fast as she can when it’s in her control. If this sale pulls through, the one person we have to be grateful for aside from ourselves is her.
After getting off the phone to Amelia, she calls me back 15 minutes later.
Amelia’s managed to firm up the surveyor, and wants to know if I am available to let them in the following Monday, Monday 11th April at 10am. YES. YES Amelia. I can do ANY DAY ANY TIME ANY HOUR, THIS IS LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN MY ENTIRE LIFE RIGHT NOW.
She explained that she had really gone to town emphasizing the need for speed, that the surveyor would work as quickly as he could and it would take approximately 5 working days to produce the report. The surveyor knew our position and had agreed that in the case of anything of game-changing importance coming up on the survey, ie something that would prevent our sale from going ahead, he would notify us that day before putting it into the report, so we could get to work on our next steps.
I was beyond grateful that Amelia had managed to do this, and I was able to take some respite knowing the final survey was booked at least.
I was, however, slightly concerned that the week of the survey was Easter week, meaning there would not be one but TWO bank holidays in that period which would affect us, but I tried to put that aside. I also tried to push aside that on the survey day, we would have TWO weeks to exchange, and 5 working days for them to produce the report including the two bank holidays would take us to Wednesday 20th April, a meagre 5 days before our exchange date. And two of those days were a weekend. And all would have to be well in the report for us to proceed.
In hindsight, of course, dear reader, we were naive. But hope is a wonderful thing, and at the time, we were clinging to all hope that it would just work out.
SIDE NOTE: I have never detested bank holidays and weekends so much as I have throughout this house sale. Weekends delay EVERYTHING so much further, and I am bitter because I resentfully work bank holidays and weekends and my self-pitying ass finds it soul-destroying that the people we really really need to work those days don’t. But alas, such is life. I wouldn’t have a problem if we weren’t on a time crunch, and I wasn’t playing the victim, so I have to just let that slide. Still though, drives me bloody NUTS.
Anyway, T minus TWO WEEKS. Next up, survey!
Reflect and Introspect 
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