Owning your own home

lol

really?!?! London???

How far does it go on the right? Looks MAHOOOOSIVE

My boss has just finished the same sort of extension, Hers was £60k excluding the kitchen (build cost)...frameless glass would have added another £20k (i think). She lives in Chiswick so you could prob account for some West London inflation in there as well..

This looks amazing! Jelly of your massive fridge, we couldn't fit one of those in our somewhat smaller kitchen.

Finally some progress on our new greenhouse/sexpit. The rear glass panel was wrong, hence the insulation. Hopefully that will be fitted next week.

It won't permanently be held together with gaffer tape. Honest.

That is bloody brilliant. Like a miniature swimming pool, rather than a bath.

Love this, both execution wise and as a concept.
I started dreaming of a big house project last night... I really want to buy a place with a basement that I can work on/with. I'm thinking an upside down style of house with the bedrooms and bathrooms in the basement with light wells and the living area on the top floors. Now to find the house...

Also, LOVE the hell out of this place...
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54029084.html

I find it totally clinical in isolation, and often when you see the white and glass thing in sale ads they've filled the space with equally heartless stuff like Barcelona chairs (ugh) and sparse ugly statement furniture, HOWEVER I love it as a basis for filling with warmth and colour. Unfortunately most of the people with the money to buy and fit out these beautiful homes are also by definition soulless husks of humans (bankers, CEOs, captains of industry)

U WOT M8?

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A Nespresso machine and a microwave and that's my dream home

Coffee's for wankers.
Get some PG tips in and you're set.

Jokes aside, that place is damn good, and with a lick of paint could be incredible.

that's amazing!

Get some Yorkshire team in and you're set

ftfy

Don't forget to get the house raised on stilts about 6' when renovating it.

Envrionment agency has that at 'Medium' risk of flooding: http://watermaps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiyby.aspx?topic=floodmap#x=537221&y=185549&scale=11

Has anyone got any recommendations for a Timber and damp proofing surveyor? The bank is refusing to release all the funds until my (hopefully) new home has had its damp problem sorted.

I can recommend Renlon and Wing Waterproofing, but they tend to be very busy so no idea where they'd be on cost compared to smaller firms.

Does anyone have an outdoor wood burning stove?

It's to go under a canopy so would need a 3m flue and ideally it would be open for cooking sausages on sticks.

EdIt: I don't want yours, I want recommendations.

Our shelving is definitely Brianco because it came with the original brochure and 1975 price list! They used to have a showroom on Hackney Road in the '50s but later had one on Norton Folgate in the City. The furniture was made in Essex somewhere - Colchester I think.

We bought it from a guy in Welwyn Garden City who loved ladderax and similar furniture but didn't have the space to keep it (and had a small child so didn't think it was practical). So he was buying them, restoring them and playing with them a bit then selling them on. I felt a bit sorry for him because he never really got to enjoy them properly.

Your string looks great @6pt - almost like a photoshoot - but I would expect nothing less from a graphic designer ;)

Ooh yeah. So much potential and would look so much better after some serious TLC, and you could do it yourself on a sensible budget if there weren't any underlying structural problems, damp or similar.

I would definitely keep that fireplace! Love that combination of a modern house in a nice mature garden and I have a thing for wooden cladding. I'd be tempted to take that down, shou sugi ban it and put it up again if it's fundamentally sound.

The price is probably affected by the next door neighbours (a traveller site - wouldn't bother me, I don't think everyone is that open minded) and the floodplain thing. Although I'm not sure how real the flooding risk is: the Lea is very managed, last flooded in 1947, the rubble dumped on the marshes after the blitz raised the whole area by 2m and although the Lea system last filled virtually to capacity in 2000 a lot of extra work has been done since then including the Olympic Park flood mitigation measures, Three Mills Lock etc.

All that said, it's still in a medium risk area so even if you didn't have flooding problems you might have a getting a mortgage problem.

That's the 'spare'/R's side of the fireplace, my side is a little more messy/work orientated ;)

Hi! My gf recently hired a company to fit new windows in her flat. Unfortunately I just noticed, once the project was finished, that there were no trickle vents in any of the windows. However looking at the quote these seem be included (specified as TBT commercial vents ???).
Now that cold is back, there is a lot of condensation and mould starts to show in the new wall paint. Could the company be liable? Are there any laws or regulations regarding this subject? Any advice would be much appreciated !!!

Did the windows they replaced have trickle vents?

Did the installation get signed off by building control or is the company Fensa/Certass registered?

Original windows did not have trickle vents. Company seems to be Fensa registered (according to their website). Tbh I feel terrible about not having asked for some days off work and stayed in to impersonate a project manager...

There's a chance I'm wrong. But I'm pretty sure the rules are that you can't make ventilation worse. So if the original windows didn't have trickle vents there's no requirement for the new ones to have trickle vents. Of course if you've paid for them, and they're not there, I would want the windows I paid for to be installed.
If Fensa registered, they should issue a building regs certificate. The onus does come down to you to get any work certified, so even in worst case scenario, you will need to get the local building control in.