@platypus
Thought i'd post in here to avoid disrupting the other thread!
Cheers, things are going well so far. We've had a roofer out yesterday to take a look and his opinion was greatly different to the Surveyor. We've used him a few times and referred other work his way all with good results so i trust him.
Have found one or two other builders who specialise in Lime and older properties so one of those is coming out next week to meet me there.
We've decided to press ahead with the purchase, it might be stupid but we don't want to lose it as in the last 12 weeks since first viewing absolutely nothing has come up which has tempted us. Having re-read the survey i'm less and less concerned about things. We've got a contingency budget of around £15k for any immediate works and i think that should stand us in decent position. We have around the same again but that's intended for the kitchen/flooring.
However...Plot twist
The original building is split into 2 properties and there is a small section of land adjacent. Our plot would be the blue one and then this bit of land is in red. The people who own our house were interested in buying it a few years ago but the guy in the other home ended up getting it.
He's now thinking of selling and i'm debating having a chat with him about that plot. It has a decent looking garage on it and i was planning on building a workshop/homegym in our garden anyway. It could be in his interest to sell to me as it might not add as much value to his house sale as it would by selling separately.
I could already be spending our contingency money before we even move in!