Owning your own home

Southwark council leaseholder office seems to have just gone into hibernation, was on hold for 150 minutes this morning (id given it around the 90 minute mark but thought id just leave it going)

office is obviously closed but there phone lines just lead you on indefinitely, cant get any response over email, fuck knows what happens now

Fingers crossed for you too, looks like we're both completing on the same day!

We just moved it to the Friday before as realised we don't have any furniture so might need to get some. I can see us in sleeping bags and eating microwave meals but it's character-building right?

Just about to order the kitchen and couldn't remember if washing machine was 600 or 700 deep. So I googled it.

WTF is wrong with people???

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Death by washing machine is a valid question imo.

Asking if they're all the same size? Now that's stupid.

Our buildings and contents is 1/3rd of that (underpinned Victorian). The most recent insurers basically said it’s too old to worry about (mid 1980s underpinning)... Not a £1.X m house but rebuild is estimated at £600k.
Fair enough about the seller and EA though. Not a good start!

In our case the issue was identified and fixed, with no identifiable movement since, so I’m happy to ignore the worriers. Insurers are slightly restricted but the cost seems fine. The doom and gloom seems to be a lot of hearsay and received wisdom rather than experience, from the reading I did.

The doom and gloom seems to be a lot of hearsay and received wisdom rather than experience

I agree - technically the house should be 'better' - I was prepared to go through with it but the insurance was a killer for us as we were pushing the limits of affordability going for that place. Seller got themselves in to a difficult position as they couldn't hand down the insurance they had - which presumably had some equity behind it - it's the new customer stuff which gets spendy or so it seems.

Tumble dryer - I don't need any specific connections other than power correct? Anything else I should be thinking about?

Where you venting it?

Don't think I need to for a heat pump dryer?

Some models allow you to have a drain fitted for the waste water. Just means you won't have to empty the water tray after each use.

Oh yeah nice, will have a look but for now will probably just empty water tray

We have a heat pump. Empty once a week. Wash loads. Two filthy kids.

I've just drawn up our kitchen plans. No overhead storage planned (possibly some shelving but not much).
It's to scale and I've got 1 metre between the run and the island and the island and the table.
Washing machine and tumble dryer stacked in the utility with a door to close it off. Small storage in there for cleaning products.

Any input welcome!

(I know I'm pretty amazing at drawing these plans, I should be an architect).

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Diving more into our legal searches it shows that planning permission was granted, but a completion certificate for an extension on the property we're hoping to buy was never issued. The seller has contacted the council and they've said because it's over 15 years old and have no record of it they're unlikely to get involved.

As a prospective buyer would you ask the seller to pay for indemnity insurance?

Cant believe you’re two weeks into the work and not got this sorted yet! I’ve got ours planned out and we’ve sold the house without even starting it.

It strikes me as extravagant to plumb to the island only for a dishwasher, which could be next to the sink? What is the island for, prep, artfully arranged fruit bowl?

Hm that sounds odd - my understanding was that the original insurer is obliged to continue insuring (possibly with large subsidence excess). When it came to us though, a new insurer was actually cheaper in the end.

what software is this?

what software is this?

Balsamiq

We have planned it out and will be ordering in about 2 weeks.

Dishwasher next to sink is a good plan.

The island is the focal point of the kitchen and a sink on there means always having the washing up done immediately, and a hob on the island means solving the extraction problem (doable but expensive).

And yeah the island is the awesome prep area, bin underneath.

Just downloaded the Velux plugin

That’s looking great.

Will be a lovely space when painted.

Are you just sanding the floorboards or are you laying something?

It strikes me as extravagant to plumb to the island only for a dishwasher, which could be next to the sink?

Dishwasher next to sink is useful.

I'm really glad our sink isn't on our island as I really like the island as a prep space. Could your dishwasher be one of the 60cm units next to the sink?

Yep 👍 question is the end one or the one the other side

did my kitchen design on the day of, when I was sat in the chair at IKEA and was already weeks into our build. worked out alright in the end

sink on island would be a pain in the arse - stuff would splash everywhere out into the rest of the kitchen

we put our hob on the island (and still get the splashing issue to an extent but less so than with a sink) - we solved the extraction issue by just having a small standard fan (like you'd find in an internal toilet) high up the wall which vents directly to the outside. we don't have any issues with cooking smells or condensation, though our ceilings are very high. we also have an induction hob so don't know if that's less of an issue for venting than with gas

I've got some reclaimed Junckers going down.