Thursday, May 20, 2010

You want money?? - Do you think we're a bank or something??

Cash flow is probably the more stressful part of the build in my opinion, all the other choices are positive in terms of how you want the house to look, or last over time, cost, etc but in general are positive, exciting things to think about.  Cash flow however is wondering who, when and how much you have to pay vs what you have in the bank.  No one like waiting to get paid and I resolved at the start to do my level best to ensure people get paid on time and stay happy.

As stated before the mortgage is paid in arrears, so not until we had the 1st stage complete could we start drawing down the mortgage.  Of course the catch-22 is that you don't want to sign any contracts until the mortgage is 100% available.  So in Nov we finalized and signed the loan agreements, with a 90 day period to draw down the 1st payment.  In that time we had to pick the builder, finailze the price negotiations, find a digger, wait for weather, etc.. but it was more like 6 mths before we were ready to draw down.  In that time we contacted the bank a number of times to ensure that the offer was still good, and if not is there anything we need to do.  All was well.

Until we needed the money that is.  Now the loan offer needs to be redone from scratch.  For anyone who has got a mortgage before there is a lot of documentation that needs to be assembled, all of which cross-confirms your potential to pay.  With the builder having bought the ICF blocks (on our site) he's left at the moment short until we pay the next stage.... and that certainly isn't fair on him.  What should have been a couple of days may turn into a couple of weeks.  And then of course there is the potential for the bank to refuse the application!! But I'm trying not to think of that.  So - all day is a scramble to get documentation together, rooting in various drawers etc.  Funny thing is both Lorraine and I bank day-day with the same bank and they have a more complete picture of our transactions than we do!!  Maybe they are looking to prove that we know what they already know so that they know that we know we can pay the mortgage.  Damn clever.

On the house front, we are delaying a day on starting the ICF walls because I don't know what size door to use internally!  All was fine until I visited a friends house and after a few minutes in there (and acting suspiciously around the door) I realised the door is subtly bigger than standard. It's not a massive thing, but I liked the effect.  It'll also be handy getting things in and out, such as myself when drunk!!  So, while I wait for a poor chap to measure up his doors at home we wait before starting as we need to cut the door openings into the walls as we build up the ICF.  At this stage though more delays are better until we have money to pay for the next bit.

Stress!

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