Negotiations

Trying to work up the enthusiasm to finish the wallpapering in the living room today, its all neat and tidy after Christmas and once I've packed away the decorations the thought of getting the pasting table back out and making a mess isn't thrilling me much. I wrote a plan so that I would get the downstairs finished this month, a schedule of works, I can't find it....

So the Structural Engineers report came back and it was good news...ish. There had been movement of the front wall caused by inadequate bracing of the roof trusses, basically if you think of playing cards leaning against each other with nothing in between, they collapse and thats what had begun to happen with the roof at some point and this had pushed the front wall away from side walls by about two inches. Fortunately this had been spotted at previously and some beams had been inserted between the trusses so there was no danger of more movement. This was good news as it saved me the expense of doing it and made the need for work to be carried out much less urgent. What was needed was some metal angles to anchor the walls back together. Also the ceiling joist between the living room and bedroom floor had warped and this would need replacing or securing.
I rang the estate agents and arranged an appointment to go back with my builder and have a look, another week went by.
The owner of the house and his builder said the report of movement was nonsense and they were at the property having a look when we arrived but scurried off without saying a word to us which felt very suspicious. My builder was very negative about the property, telling me I wouldn't make any profit on it. The estate agent gave me the owner's builder's phone number so I could call him as he wanted to reassure me that there was no movement. I was beginning to feel a little indignant that everyone assumed I didn't know what I was doing, I'm not saying they were being sexist but my hackles were up and it took some guts to stand up to them all. All in all I felt very alone and scared. It had been a long time since I'd had to make these kind of decisions on my own and I felt terrified of making the wrong decision, I rang my ex. Not a good move for my heart but a smart move with my head as, also in the building game, he thought the same as me that Ambleside was worth the risk and that the risk wasn't that big. He gave advice on what to say when re-negotiating the price to take into account what I would need to spend on this structural work and with a racing heart I made the call. A few phone calls flew back and forth over the next few days until they finally agreed to drop the price and we agreed on a figure that everyone was happy with. My ex was surprised at my strength, the estate agent was more than a little fed up with me and I was totally drained, I cried a lot that week.
Buying a house can be very stressful and unbeknown to me it was only going to get worse.