So now we have a mortgage, we just need a house

Ali and I went to see an Independent Financially Advisor today and they took us through AIP. This means Approved in Principal and it means that a mortgage provider confirms that they would be prepared to lend you the sum required to purchase your desired house. It basically involves answering a bunch of questions like age, address and what our modest stipend is and then waiting on tenterhooks while the lender checks our credit record and does some maths. In this modern Internet age they do it while you wait. It was quite a nerve wracking listening to the IFA relaying all our details and then hoping we were going to get the thumbs up. And we did.

So we now know for sure we can get a mortgage. The trouble is that the mortgage we can get is a shade under what our landlady wants to accept. So we have to wait until Monday to see if she is prepared to accept our offer. If not, at least we know we can afford to buy somewhere else. But we really don't want to move, so fingers crossed!