Owning your own home

good times.

Whatever happened to Northern Rock?

Oh....

Meh.

I borrowed 120% to buy a house in 2004, on the promise that I'd use the 20% to do it up. It wasn't even standard construction, it was built of no-fines concrete.

How did that work out for you ?

I'm going to guess that he made out well.

It as 2004. By the time I sold it the next year it had gone up 50%.

Anyone recommendations for some long handled secateurs / loppers? The sort that you could own for the rest of your life eg nice ones

I have a big one if you want to borrow, i trimmed bamboo with it.

Burgon & Ball do some good ones, I've misused them for some serious cutting and they show no signs of failure. They were recommended to me by a gardener who uses them day in day out.

My gardener dad reckons Felco no. 2
(or felco no. 4 if you're left handed)

ah, just read long handled.

anyway, apparently still Felco

Cheers for the offer @amey but I'm gonna buy some. @airhead & +duncs, they both look great but think I'll go with the Felco 22, they look amazing!

http://www.niwaki.com/store/niwaki-barracuda-snips/

Oof.

1 Attachment

Yes, they do. Now I want some too!

Because my wood stacking garnered such applause last time:

1 Attachment

Any updates on the horizontal stacking project in the hallway?

Does that actually give off much heat though?

It looks a bit poky but will still be at least 4kw

Any updates on the horizontal stacking project in the hallway?

Done, just needs sanding and sealing.

Does that actually give off much heat though?

Yep, heats a big room once it's going, and it's really nice to come and home and throw a few logs in.

Is it any good at getting rid of blood stained clothing?

Asking for a friend.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61964279.html
Is this some kind of scam (10 year lease) or is it just a complicated way of renting somewhere?

More relevantly, we ditched our old agents (who capitulated without any argument, which seems odd to me) and have now spoken to a couple of new, more local agents who've said very similar things regarding the previous pricing (ok) and marketing (not ok and should have been on as 3-bed, with floor plan). Where they differ is on proposed strategy. Agent A wants to do block viewings on a saturday, Agent B says they don't work at the moment and would work on bringing people across from their other offices.
I've since found out that these guys get commission based on signing us up rather than completed sales, so have no idea who to believe as I assume they say anything to get you on board.
A third agent says they have 'a very keen buyer who's previous purchase fell through' and they're coming to show them round tomorrow without us having signed anything at all. I'm leaning towards this being bullshit.

Complicating things, we now have a ticking clock on getting this all sorted out before Mrs Hammer finishes at her school and we gain potential issues getting a mortgage.

Sigh

Only £30 grand a month rent...

Might suit a premier league footballer or similar, I guess.

Was discussed here before - not a scam as such, but a way of avoiding paying proper tax on extremely valuable properties, if I remember correctly...