Offer accepted!

So, we went out to look at houses again yesterday, to make sure we really did want to buy the house next door.

First house - on the street round the corner - lots of space upstairs but it felt like a family house - the people selling it were our parents' age and it just didn't feel like what we wanted.

Second house - two doors down from the first house. And we loved it... See the link above and download the brochure to see photos. It's beautiful! It just felt like a good house to be in. The cellar is nice. The attic is nice. The only real downside is the bathroom has no shower and no window. The first one can be easily rectified, the second one lived with. We realised we wanted this house.

Third house - the house next door - I'd expected to go and be wowed again and measure a few things and then put in an offer. Instead, we felt very embarrassed going to have a second look, the sort of second look you have when you're planning on putting an offer in, at a house we now didn't really want. And it wasn't as nice as we'd remembered.

Fourth house - we were very embarrassed here as we only went to see if to get a price comparison for the house next door. Really, we were using the owner, and now we were using him to further plans we now didn't plan to carry out. We were in and out in 4 minutes.

Then we went home, talked about it and decided to put an offer in on the second house. I had a fairly sleepless night and then spent about two hours this morning trying to get the estate agent to answer my phone and accept my offer. In the end, I walked round to the estate agent. They can ignore the phone ringing, but not me sitting there. The receptionist took my details and put the offer to the vendor, who accepted it, and then took it off the market. An estate agent is going to ring on Monday morning to sort out where we go next.

So, we've had an offer accepted! I'd feel more excited if there wasn't so much work to do! I now need to find a solicitor and apply for a mortgage. I can't send off my mortgage application without the solicitor's details, as far as I can tell. I've never employed a solicitor before. My sister is having a nightmare 7-month house purchase because her solicitor is rubbish and I'd like to avoid that... I'd like to get mortgage advice from a broker for choice. No-one works at the weekend and we go on holiday on Wednesday. Feeling a little stressed. So I'm going to go and look at pictures of my beautiful house again and think about where I'll put my furniture...