How to Win Friends and Influence People

As mentioned before, Mrs APD was round at the house yesterday giving it a quick clean before the viewings started. She heard a knock at the door and went to investigate. It was a representative from a rival estate agent who clearly wanted to sell the house. I had assumed that this type of door stepping had long since stopped but it appears it is still alive and well in this part of the country. He appeared very keen to gain entry and has such phrases as:-

"We sold one over the road for more money recently"

We have loads of buyers that would want this"

Can I just take a look inside?"

Would you like us to sell it for you?" and so on .... you get the idea.

Anyway the line that re-enforced his credentials and reminds us all why estate agents are not universally popular was "Are you the cleaner?". Mrs APD is not one to take offence but enjoyed the retorting "No I'm the owner" before closing the door.

No victoria sponge for him.

The Official Snagging List

When it can down to it there is very little snagging in the house and what there is I hope will be sorted out tomorrow (Sunday). To those that are interested here is the full list.

Upstairs

• Sort out tiling on the window sill in the bathroom.
  
• Make good where the fan has been fitted.
  
• Touch up paint around and about where it has been knocked by carpet fitters etc.
  

Downstairs

• Touch up paint around and about where it has been knocked by carpet fitters etc.
  
• Sort out a couple of loose plinths in the kitchen
  
• Secure the oven in the cabinet now the electrical work is done.
  
• Box in the pipes below the sink and feeding the toilet in the cloakroom and make good.
  
• Touch up the grouting around the cloakroom furniture.
  
• Ease the door into the cloakroom so it closes properly.
  
• Touch up the paint by the dishwasher space.
  

Outside

• Paint the gas pipes and seal the hole where it comes in the kitchen.
  

In addition there is a slight concern we may have a small leak in one of the pipes for the dishwasher but we need to monitor that as it may have already been resolved.

Not the "Horrible House"

Looking back I created a collage of photos called The Horrible House. In all the best makeover programs they do a before and after.

Here is my attempt at the same thing. This is a little montage of what the house looks like now.

When I get a chance I am going to try and show before and after pictures from the same perspective but this will do in the meantime (click the picture to enlarge).

Viewings

The agent has been in touch to say they have four viewings organised so far. One later today, one tomorrow and then a couple next week.

Mrs APD is dashing round to the house today to have a final whiz round with the hoover and polish the work surfaces etc.

There is still some snagging to attend to but I hope this won't put anyone off.

Budgets v Actuals

I have mentioned before in this blog how difficult I have found the process of keeping an eye on the costs. As we have just about reached the end of the refurbishment I now have to try and reconcile it all. This caused me to wake up far earlier than I intended to this morning to review all the figures again.

So how does it all look?

The revised estimate last discussed here was £40,677. I have sent the builder what I believe to be the final reconciliation and having received the final accounts from everybody else involved it now appears that the total expenditure on this project (excluding the cost of money) will be £41,389. An over spend of £712 or 1.75%. This is still subject to minor changes as there are some small additional invoices for materials that I have estimated. I cannot be too upset about this although there is a small part of me that wishes we could have nailed it to the penny.

The main variances were "Legal and Professional" mainly because of the additional cost of insurance and the HIP which I hadn't considered and "House and Garden Clearance" where I had under estimated the number of skips required by some margin! There were other items that turned out to be more expensive such as electrical works but that is because we increased the scope of the job from first estimate by including outside lights, wired smoke alarms and so on. There were some savings to be made as well with the decision not to re-point one of the flank walls, fitting carpets instead of laminate and the price of all of the bathroom furniture helping to keep the over spend down.

The cost of money has been higher than expected. Back in September I estimated this to be £2,959 based on three months @5.49%. It has been nearer four months since we completed so this figure is (which is of course going up every day) is currently £3,329 and has been calculated line by line on when money has actually been spent. This figure will rise by c. £31 per day now for every day the property remains unsold or unrented. This is a sobering though and one to keep focused on.

The Horrible House II

My daughters have now been round to the house and have announced that we are still the owners of a "Horrible House". Unfortunately they believe that this is the one we live in now rather than the one we are trying to sell.

I don't think they wanted to leave. Got to say, they have a point!

Are We Nearly There Yet?

I am told, but I have not seen the evidence with my own eyes, that work has now finished on the house. The electrician and the plumber did their last stint today and all that is left now is for the main builder to move all of his things out and then give the place a thorough clean.

I am not going to be able to visit until late on Thursday at the earliest so I hope I will be able to take a complete and final set of pictures before too long.

The only stress left now is the biggest one of all ...... will it sell?