u/dustyloops

Hi, first time posting here, we're buying a 1930s-1950s ex-council end terrace house and it's been about 2 weeks since offer accepted. The level 2 building survey was performed on Thursday and we got the results yesterday. As a rough summary of what was found:

Level 3 (Requiring attention, urgent):

• Main walls (Defective pointing/spalled brickwork around kitchen window)
• Walls and partitions ("Dampness detected, damp survey now required")
• Floors (Requires investigation due to dampness detected in walls)
• Fireplaces/chimeybreasts (Dampness detected)
• Other (Fire alarms not checked, bathroom requires better ventilation)
• Electricity (Safety check needed)
• Gas (Mild corrosion on one place on a gas pipe)
• Water (Mild wear on one place on a water pipe)
• Heating (Old radiators)
• Drainage (Cracked pipework on soil vent pipe)

Level 2 (Requiring attention, not urgent)

• Chimney stack (Missing pointing, cracked flaunching, perished masonry)
• Roof coverings (Some slipped/defective tiles, no secondary lining installed beneath coverings)
• Rainwater pipes (Downpipe discharges onto ground)
• Windows (Defective ironmongery & gaskets, worn mastic)
• Outside doors (Defective gaskets, worn mastic)
• Joinery & finishes (Loose components)
• Roof structure (Torching has fallen in some areas, not adequately insulated/ventilated)
• Ceilings (Minor cracks to finishes)
• Built-in fittings (Worktop sealants need reapplying)
• Woodwork (Some creaking on staircase)
• Bathroom fittings (Sealant near tapwork needs reapplication)
• Boundaries (General disrepair)

Obviously, there's a lot here and this has been very scary on first sight, but I'm trying to be realistic and breaking things down to what may be routine maintenance and what are serious problems to deal with.

From my perspective and that of my dad (electrician) and a best friend (chartered civil engineer) it seems to be mostly a lot of small, relatively easy to fix issues that will be dealt with during general renovation, but the main concern is the damp findings, which we are unsure about. The purchase area has had more than a month of no rainfall, 30C+ weather, gardens that slope away from the property and previous DPC injections - we viewed the property again on Saturday and found no signs of damp at all. We're trying to understand whether damp could actually be an issue or whether this is due to unsophisticated measuring equipment and clauses to protect the surveyor, as every almost 100 year old property may experience some damp.

We're basically looking for some more outside opinions - this house is at a great price, in a great area, a long-term rental that has been recently renovated and we want to understand whether we may be ignoring anything serious due to the purchase opportunity, or whether we've had a particularly thorough surveyor!

I've recently restarted therapy and have come to the conclusion that it would be really beneficial (and entertaining!) to write down many of the crazy experiences from my life and I've decided to approach this as a kind of autobiographical novel.

My style is most inspired by writers like Hunter S. Thompson and William Gibson and I've been making good progress so far, but I am at a crossroads for which perspective and how much dialogue to use.

I know for sure that I will be changing the names of real people within the story, so really I'm wondering whether I should go full Gonzo and make everything about me, true to my memory with some soft censoring, or whether I should create a main character to represent myself and amalgamate things together to make more of a detached third-person story. In both approaches the experiences are somewhat abstract and call back to broader concepts so that this isn't just pages of self-indulgent prose.

It has been tough choosing which approach to go for and I feel it's better to decide sooner rather than later to prevent re-writes.

Does anyone have any insight from their own writing or reading experiences about what works and doesn't work when the story is heavily based on the writers experiences?

Currently full-time permanent earning approx £55kpa, which I feel is not bad but I think I'm quite heavily undersold - I have a PhD in Telecomms, masters in Physics, 3 years experience and work a lot with Python, physics simulation, AI, sensors, leading projects, product development, etc.

Wondering whether moving into contract work could be the way for me to have more flexibility over what/when I work on things and a route to maximising my earnings potential.

Nothing wrong with my current role, but I'm assuming moving from perm to contract for the same role but inside I35 doesn't make a lot of sense. Asking for advice as this is something totally new to me and the first step brings a lot of insecurity.

I know the market is rough at the moment but have plenty of savings (up to 2 years) and honestly wouldn't mind a break if I couldn't find anything for a bit of time. Thoughts?

I want to preface this post by stating that I know that I am lucky to be in my current position, but day to day I am not happy and so something needs to change. I am posting because I need some advice.

I've landed a job that is relatively well paid, with relaxed management and work style and is fully remote. This sort of job seemed like a dream when I started and have been there over 2 years now, but something is not right.

I think the main "problem" is that I complete my work far sooner than required, often finishing any productive work before midday Wednesday. Rather than feeling proud of being efficient, I feel like I am forced to look busy the rest of my time and this makes me feel very anxious and guilty, raising my stress outside of work too.

Maybe I'm being naïve, but could wrapping the work I am currently doing under a consultancy role be the solution? I.e. I do the same work, but choose my hours exactly and am paid for the work rather than being salaried and tied to a desk 5 days a week. If I have to take a pay cut, this is tolerable as I feel like my time is more important than money right now.

I sometimes have contacts asking me if I can do contract work for them, so I feel as if this could fill up my hours if I need extra money. On top of this, I'm close to some people who own a consultancy company, who would let me do my work through it. Maybe this is a no-brainer but a move like this seems big/unfamiliar to me.

For context, a have a bachelor's, masters and PhD in Physics and about 3 years experience doing simulation, validation, R&D, etc., with 7 working years experience using Python in a work environment.