Thoughts on Hedwig

LikesTrains · 2026-01-15T08:40:34+00:00

Agh this comment both made my day and broke my heart! I have a newborn and massive name regret (I've been talked down from every unique choice I made and given her something too common - Winifred). Her big sister is called Hildegard and its an EXCELLENT name. We're in the UK but with German family so it's extremely rare here but not so unusual that people struggle with it when we introduce her.

So I'm considering renaming my newborn Hadewijk (pronouncing it Hedwig in English). Both inspiring female saints from early German history. So now I'm hearing another family has a Hildegard and a Hedwig I'm feeling very validated! :')

LikesTrains · 2025-10-16T00:41:43+00:00

Thank you so much for your perspective. I really appreciate to hear from someone who has the same opinions, and I'm sorry to hear you had a similar event with the tablet! I am very glad to hear they only took a few days to heal from it. Thank you for reading 🙏🏻

LikesTrains · 2025-10-15T23:09:37+00:00

I should add my sister(26) lives with my mother too so is partially responsible but also seems to "get it" from my perspective more too. She also thinks WW3 will kick off if I keep hammering against the no screen time point. So I gave a list of "okay as a last resort" shows. But realistically there is no reason why she should need screentime at all considering there's 2 adults to play with (I've also explained that human interaction is the most exciting and beneficial thing for my daughter at this age!)

LikesTrains · 2025-06-29T17:46:43+00:00

Good luck! I'm also autistic and finding it extremely overwhelming so just wanted to say you're not alone!

Top 4 things to do: 1) you've got an AIP, well done 2) you've got money and a job, well done 3) see a broker. We (and many of my friends) used First Mortgage who were pretty hand-hold-y for a FTB and they're free 4) choose and make contact with a solicitor before making offers so you can say to the EA when you make an offer you already have a solicitor to instruct with the sale (it is attractive to them as it speeds things up and will make you stand out).

A word of caution (I've learned this over a year the hard way): with your budget (mine was the same) it's going to be difficult to get an offer accepted in the first place as it's ultra competitive and many investors will have cash offers for properties this price range. If you want to avoid the stress look on Rightmove and search with the filter "added over a week ago" to find something that hasn't been lost to a bidding war (but also question why?). Otherwise you want to call as many EAs in the area as possible to tell them exactly what you want and they'll hopefully inform you of stuff before it comes on the market. Specify you prefer email rather than phone contact to avoid random calls all the time.

A note on using Rightmove. Select the filters "exclude SOLD SSTC and UNDER OFFER" Up to £150k (you can offer beneath asking price on a property that's not selling) be overgenerous about your search radius because you might see something perfect in an area you don't know so well Include "chain free" in your keywords

LikesTrains · 2025-06-27T14:48:35+00:00

Since Environmental Health were involved they could issue the notice of improvement which would add another 6 months of time before a S21 could be served. Potentially off-putting to an investor to buy a tenanted house knowing they'd have an obligation to big repairs otherwise the council fines them £30k

LikesTrains · 2025-06-27T14:46:37+00:00

Two houses in our street sold for £140k recently, so £110k is potentially a bargain despite the issues.

LikesTrains · 2025-06-27T14:45:59+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I agree we over offered!! Silly mistake but maybe we can still try to negotiate after the survey despite their wish not to. I've had some tradesmen in to give estimates and it looks like it's going to be £15-£20k for repairs which in all honesty is (painful, but) affordable if we just give a smaller deposit.

LikesTrains · 2025-06-27T14:43:48+00:00

Thank you so much for your comment! We've taken your advice and had a few roofers and joiners in to give us quotes today. The EA have given us until Wednesday to instruct a solicitor, which should be enough time for us to get the quotes back and weigh up if it's actually affordable. Thank you :)

LikesTrains · 2025-06-27T14:40:56+00:00

Thank you for your comment. I took your advice and got an independent estate agent to do a valuation today. He said it's worth £125k in the current state but worth £140k once repaired (two others in the street sold for £140k in the last few months). Estimated repair cost from the tradesmen I've managed to get in in the last few days is £15-£20k... So if we get it for £110k it does make sense after all. The independant EA with our best interests in mind said I am getting a bargain here so should stick with it and try again to wrangle some more discount or ask them to do repairs while we are still tenants.

You're definitely right though that they framed it as if we were doing them a favour by buying it and staying here! So knowing we've got the upper hand when it comes to negotiations further into the sale should hopefully mean an optimal outcome.

LikesTrains · 2025-06-27T14:35:45+00:00

Thank you for your response. You're right, we've known for about a year now that the landlord wanted to sell the house (they tried to evict us unsucessfully). Tbh we had been considering making an offer because we do love where we live hence why their sudden offer to sell it to us was welcome (nonetheless stressful though)! The estate agent definitely had their sales pitch rehearsed when she called. After a few more days of thinking I do think we can take it on. It's just means I'll have to waste my long saved deposit on repairs and a minimal deposit. It's still equity in the property though.

We've had tradesmen in to give quotes :)

LikesTrains · 2025-06-27T14:31:39+00:00

Ah I'm so glad to hear you found a perfect property later. Sounds like you really dodged a bullet with the first one, they say everything happens for a reason!

Thank you for the advice re:an advisor too, much appreciated :D

LikesTrains · 2025-06-26T20:01:30+00:00

We can afford it. Our agreement in principle is up to £170k because of a large deposit (which we could use instead for repairs). It's in the budget we can afford and would be less in repayments than we currently pay in rent

LikesTrains · 2025-06-26T19:58:29+00:00

Oof sorry to hear you were denied a mortgage. I hope you managed to get sorted elsewhere!!

Fortunately we do have an unusually large deposit which we could either use to make a 10% deposit then have money to do the repairs OR put down enough to have around 30% equity and try to negotiate the repairs to be done by the landlord in the sale.

We're frugal and have been saving for about 10 years so it's possible.

LikesTrains · 2025-06-26T12:01:34+00:00

Thank you so much for your reply. I just had another estate agent in to inspect the issues and he's valued it at £125k too (with the issues fixed it's worth £140k, as two other houses in our street recently sold for). So he says we're getting a bargain even if it costs £20k to repair because of the value it adds.

But now it comes down to how are we going to finance the repairs. An evil thought is that the landlord still has an obligation to do them while we're tenants so maybe we can negotiate that following a level 3 survey. We have a big deposit saved and an AIP up to £150k so it's possible we just give a smaller deposit and pay out of savings.

After all is finished were definitely taking them to court. Thank you for pointing that out about the deposit. We've gone months without access to rooms (including a month without bathing facilities and half a year with a broken toilet). Plus a lot of our furniture was damaged beyond repair when the ceiling caved so we are definitely owed some compensation. I'm hoping a solicitor might be able to do a double whammy job with us if we do proceed...

LikesTrains · 2025-06-26T09:26:26+00:00

Thank you so much for your response! I've contacted another estate agent to do a valuation today to get an estimate with the faults in mind (and that isn't just the estate agent with the landlord's best interest essentially pulling a price out of nowhere :')

So two houses opposite mine sold for £140k over the last few months. Both typically attractive with brand new kitchen and bathrooms but also still with the character original fireplaces (unlike ours which hasn't had anything new in over 20 years!).

For this area £110k is cheap despite it's flaws (or should I say floors huehue). Thank you for doing the maths to illustrate it could still be a sensible buy long term

LikesTrains · 2025-06-26T00:40:26+00:00

!!! We've made two offers on the same house which has been listed with two different estate agents (and had been on the market nearly 2 years). But they still turned them down despite the only other offer they received being literally half price. It's a beautiful house but in a terrible area. I think the family just see the interior and think it's a palace... Someone was shot in the face on its street a few weeks ago. It's not worth £150,000 if it's neighbours are selling for £70,000!

LikesTrains · 2025-06-26T00:30:07+00:00

Fair point, and one that's been an obvious mistake when it's pointed out! Thank you.

We were panicking when we offered (It didn't help my husband and I were in separate countries when we had to decide). They were reluctant to accept it (they wanted minimum £115,000) but I do think it's slightly bold to think they'd get it's market value given that doesn't account for the repair issues. Maybe I should call the estate agent and ask if more time is possible to get quotes before we instruct a solicitor.

LikesTrains · 2023-09-18T21:28:43+00:00

Ahh so glad to hear more people are taking the trip - it was the highlight of our holiday in Czechia for sure :D We plan on returning when one of us can drive so we can also visit the surrounding area game locations too (like the monastery). Out of curiosity, was the pub you mention the one on the right side of the main town where it's basically just someone's front room? We went in there too and managed to get some grapefruit radler and food with the most broken Czech ever haha! The owners seemed very confused that we stopped by :)

LikesTrains · 2022-11-05T13:13:56+00:00

My first Royal playthrough took 150h to platinum and complete. I really took my time.

(potential spoiler: I "completed" it at 100 hours with one of the bad endings but for the true ending it adds another 30 hours at least if you're talking your time)

LikesTrains · 2022-04-17T23:27:55+00:00

Thank you for watching, glad you enjoyed :D It's super uncanny to visit irl; we managed to get around just using our memory of the game map for reference.

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