Owning your own home

I'm choosing to believe you! Also major congrats... so close now.

keep photos coming! we start ours in a few weeks and it's hyping me up

We've just had one from LPD fitted. It's solid, it's wood and we'd buy again.

Door and new frame incl. mudding in (Stone cottage) was approx. £600

Sure you could spend thousands though if you wish!

Like I said I basically pulled that figure out of my arse based mainly on the fact that getting anything half decent in laaaaaaandan Town seems to be measured in thousands rather than hundreds.

We did this. Pretty straight forward although we wildly underestimated how much money was needed.

Ditto!

@Tenderloin - For the love of God man, can you not just buy a rake?

Leaf blowers are arguably the most pointless tool ever invented and buying one that runs off dead dinosaurs is even worse :P

can someone explain what the benefits of a conservatory over an extension are? Seeing a few houses that we like that have conservatories and I'm not sure whether it should be thought of as feature or another thing to think about redoing/knocking down, if we have the money after the buying the house itself.

Cheap and easy to fit.

what the benefits of a conservatory over an extension are?

Yeah good question. Timely. As I understand it, conservatory is cheaper and the planning permission and BC requirements are less onerous.

To get one through now however there must be doors that open out to it so if done recently will feel very much like a separate bit of the house. They will be cold and they won't last as long and you'll have to clean them.

If you don't want one you might see it as a ball ache rather than a plus.

The long answer is it depends.

A nice, well designed and fitted conservatory is a nice feature.

Most of the time (especially RTB ex council) they were sold to people who'd bought double glazing. They can often be cold as fuck in winter, nut drippingly hot in summer, leaky, and damp traps. They ironically can reduce light into the adjoining room.

You should be able to judge for yourself when viewing whether it's a useful addition or just a mouldy heap of shit.

Yeah, depending on the style/layout you can get an extra room for just the foundations and a floor. The rest is Lego.

An extension can leave the remaining rooms very dark without any natural light, a conservatory should be less of an issue.

My problem with conservatories is they often have relatively poor insulation and can be too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. If there aren't doors to the rest of the house then those rooms can suffer too. I assume they are much cheaper to build though.

We found direct communication with the seller really handy to push things forwards. We went to meet them again after the offer was accepted so we could agree a basic timeline and have a candid chat on where we each were with our own paperwork/plans.

Gave each other regular updates so could kick the professionals into sense/action when needed.
If we sent something to our solicitor we'd let the seller know so they could chase their solicitor to act etc. Also helped when the solicitors started feuding over an imaginary well.

It’s not as if nature hasn’t come up with a way of recycling leaves already either.

I spoke directly to the person buying my place a few times. Nothing huge generally (although it did help when I had to push the completion date back on the day of exchange!) but it helped to know that everyone was still moving on it.

We are currently buying a place with a late 90’s timber conservatory and the view of the surveyor is that it is ‘end of life’, which I can’t say I’m surprised about given the maintenance standards evident elsewhere in the property.

As others have said pretty much the only benefit is cost and less hassle. Otherwise they suck (energy efficiency, maintenance, design life etc etc)

@iamalex @spenceey thanks for the moral support, looks we're exchanging today/tomorrow and completing on Friday. Either way I've paid the solicitor and have no money. This feels like progress :)

depends on how useful the space is/will be
we have one (easy to gain approval i would assume i.e buildings regs/PD) but with kids and a small kitchen which has been extended albeit not much I would like to knock it down and put an extension as done by most of the houses on my road

its cold in the winter (like now) and hot in the summer never in between even though the previous owner fitted a radiator in there

Hurrah! Fantastic news, now just to ride that (stressful) wave of moving thinking bloody hell is this all worth it. It will be!

Would agree.

Leaf blowers are arguably the most pointless tool ever invented and buying one that runs off dead dinosaurs is even worse :P

:')
We'd been given a leaf blower from someone chucking out their old gardening gear. Never used the thing.

If there is such a thing, we've stretched ourselves to a 'forever' home so thankfully/hopefully we won't have to experience the stress for a while.

For the latest torture on our epic house quest we're considering buying a probate property which has already frightened off a previous buyer.
It has a major roof leak which has badly damaged a bathroom and there are a few visible holes in the roof. There are also long but thin cracks in most rooms on the first and second floors.
A survey has already been carried out (for the failed buyer) and the EA has put me in touch with the surveyor with the intention to buy the report off him.
Has anyone bought a survey like this before? Is it a sensible way of saving a few quid?
It should help us do our sums before making a serious offer.
If we are going ahead what other advice should I get? Roofer/structural surveyor/therapist
The seller has done nothing to tackle the leak other than place some buckets in the bathroom and switch off the electrics...

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Has anyone bought a survey like this before? Is it a sensible way of saving a few quid?

No, though I've tried to sell one to a buyer after I declined on a house subsequent to getting it done. We were unable to agree on their valuation of the complete survey I'd had done (£30? Wtf!)

I suspect the issue is that the surveyor is no longer covered by his liability insurance - i.e. if there's something really bad in the house that the survey missed, it's your problem not his.

I honestly don't know if that's an issue, or a significant difference to whatever cover you would normally get from a survey.

I personally wouldn't buy one this way. I know in this thread full surveys often get dismissed as a waste of money, but they're not a lot relative to the cost of the house you're buying.

On the leaf blower chat. I bought one from a boot sale for not much to dry my motorbike. I guess that was at least 1½yrs ago.

I've never actually used it to do that as with a kid the few opportunities to do it are when they're having a nap, so it seems like a risk not worth taking.

But I have used it to blow leaves and dropped flowers from the terrace twice and once to blow excess sand away when repointing.

On balance I'd say even at boot sale prices it's a physically large extravagance. It's electric, but a petrol powered one that no doubt requires maintenance does seem a bit much.

But then if you've got over an acre of landscaped gardens to maintain you probably do want petrol, even if it's only for 3 weekends a year.