Owning your own home

I'm in the process of getting a five year fixed.

Hippy - you can borrow mine.

Ta, @Aroogah offered in another thread. I just bought a new one. Wanted to get it working asap. Figured I can dry out the wall now and then use it to help dry clothes or whatever going forward.

Dredging this up as I was looking to see if there was an alternative to recommend to a mate.

We used Sara Niyazi who is dealing with Martin's clients in the main since he left. At times she was difficult to get hold of on the phone, and it took a while to convince her to email us everything rather than using post. However in hindsight she was ok overall - we were selling two properties with chains and buying into another chain so it was never going to be totally straightforward.

Got the keys!!!

Finishing packing now, fucking exhausting... Looking forward to not doing this again for a very long time... We move in lunchtime tomorrow...

Frozen sausages being hammered into lawn tonight.

We knocked our rear wall out recently and replaced it with a glass bifurcating door. The back of the house is supported on a catnic lintel, itself sitting on two 60cm wide brick piers on either side of the house.

Question... we want a cat. It's going to need a catflap. This can't go through the bifurcating door, so the only place it can go is through one of the load supporting brick piers. Is this possible (even if it needs its own little lintel across it)?

Assuming the cat flap would be 20cm wide, is it safe to support the house on 20cm of brick either side of it?

Or am I going to have to make one of those gnarly cat ladders and a first floor flap?

Got the keys!!!

Finishing packing now, fucking exhausting... Looking forward to not doing this again for a very long time... We move in lunchtime tomorrow...

Yissssssss!!! Castillo de Slain is go!

This is you. Right now.

have you sorted out your insurance?

because we didn't for a week and that's bad.

Are there no flaps that can be fitted through glass doors?

There are, but I'm not putting on through our brand new double glazed doors :) I think they replace the entire window pane with a new one, with a seal around the hole they've cut in it. It's pretty expensive...

the only place it can go is through one of the load supporting brick piers...
Assuming the cat flap would be 20cm wide, is it safe to support the house on 20cm of brick either side of it?

Jesus no. Seriously no.

Just give the fucker keys.

Or get a dog.

Over here you have to get insurance when you sign the contract, so we're sorted with Lori's bank for now... We'll change that next week once we're settled, I need to add my guitars and stuff... Which is dull... Maybe the records as well...

Too tired to feel excited tbh... Maybe in a couple of weeks, just wanna sleep... 🙂

Yeah, I thought that might be the case :) To be clear, so I don't look like an idiot, I wasn't going to do anything myself and without a structural engineer signing it off :) Most expensive catflap ever...

Cat ladder it is

A new window unit will cost £80

Do that.

Sell the cat if you need the money.

A new window unit will cost £80

Probably not.

We knocked our rear wall out recently and replaced it with a glass bifurcating door.

They're not cheap.

oof.

I'll check - I'm sure it will be way more than that. Each pane is about 1m x 2.5m ish. It might turn out cheaper than a structural engineer mind.

I'm not sure my five year old is going to react well to the news that the kitten is being postponed. I'll blame it on you lot :)

You probably don’t need a cat flap, we didn’t in our old place.
Have one now and the little fuckers managed to smash through the lock within minutes, so keeping them in now involves a weighted down stool blocking the flap.

Nah, not having one means being involved in litter boxes while at work and letting cats in and out of doors. I cba with that - I think the cat definitely needs someway to let itself in and out.

We used to have one at our old place that opened / closed off the cats microchip, which worked really well, though he was quite a placid chap and wasn't too violent on it.

Is there a forum approved mortgage broker in SW london or at least one that is not too sharky and people are happy to recommend?

Mike at http://www.crystalclearfs.com is a gem. @Chalfie put me on to him.

Mike is lovely.