I've been pretty busy recently, been buying a 3 bedroom flat in Glasgow which is a lot more stressful than I thought it'd be.
I finally moved my stuff in at the start of June, after having fun trying to get a certificate of building works for the work that the previous owner did to the property. He moved the kitchen completely, put in an en-suite, and added an air duct to extract air from the en-suite, kitchen and bathroom and spew it into the stairwell. And there's the problem. The building certificate guy said that it can't vent into the stairwell, since it's a fire escape so it's a fire hazard - despite every other flat in the building doing the exact same thing. I was told that it would need to be re-ducted to an exterior wall, and was then told a week later that it'd been done. All this happened about 2 weeks before I was due to move in, after my offer had been accepted, so there wasn't a lot of time for me to argue it or anything like that.
So I officially moved in on the Friday, and I went to the flat on Saturday to see what had been done with the ducting. And it hadn't exactly been re-ducted, it'd been blocked up. I spoke with my solicitor who said that basically there's nothing we can do about it, because he has a certificate to say that the building works are carried out to code (They're not functional, but they're to code...). I spoke to the previous owner about it and he said that apparently this is just something that everyone does, and he's happy to unblock it if I want, so it'll vent back into the stairwell - which is against the building regulations and will need blocked up again if I sell the place, but at least it'll be functional.
So he came and did that, which took him 5 mins which was good-ish.
Other fun things I noticed after moving in is that the floors are a mess. It's laminate flooring, and it was in a reasonable state when I went to view the place in February, but the owner had tenants in during this time, and I stupidly didn't go to see it after they'd moved out. The floors weren't really that bad, but they were worse than when I saw it previously, with big cracks between the pieces of laminate in the hall, and a big spongy bit just as you enter the lounge. There was also a damp patch that wasn't visible before because it was behind a sofa. It was mentioned in the home report, but I assumed it was just a mark on a different wall (Same wall, but on the other side) that the owner said he was taking care of.
So, the current state of affairs: I got hardwood flooring from Direct Flooring and got it put in throughout, which is still a work in progress as we speak. It looks considerably better than the laminate, and the guys who put the flooring in (Area Joinery) have done a fantastic job. They've not done the flooring around the damp patch, because it'd just need ripped up again, so the plan is that I get the damp fixed, then they come back and do the rest as a separate, smaller job.
I got a quote from one builder for fixing the damp - who quoted GBP640 ex. VAT, so around GBP750 including VAT. The damp patch is pretty small, and is because it's just a plastered-over fireplace which hasn't been properly blocked up, so I think GBP750 is perhaps a bit steep. I also need to get a fireplace trimmed because the large concrete slab base of it is raised up above the floorboards so the flooring guys can't floor over it - thankfully it's the fireplace at the damp patch, so it couldn't be floored over anyway - but I don't think I'll be getting the GBP750 builder to do that somehow...
I was due to have another builder come and give me a quote last night, but he "forgot" apparently, and is supposed to phone me today but hasn't yet. So I might end up needing to find another builder instead...
On top of that I've been extremely busy at work, I can now say that I'm working on Need For Speed: The Run on the 3DS. And speaking of being extremely busy, now this has FINALLY finished compiling, I'm going to get back to it...
