Owning your own home

looks great - well done!

Mortgage in principle and cash for deposit I think.
Worth looking at what similar have sold for at auction vs the list price as they will be miles out, but if you know the area well I'm sure you've got a good idea what it's actually worth.

Expensive week but new water softener system, quooker tap and electric car charger installed. New washing machine and tumble dryer also coming tomorrow. Broke now.

Took the opportunity to tidy up the garage too.

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Dear God, man. Where is all your crap?

It's ridiculous isn't it. And I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before...

It’s neatly packed in the giant IKEA cabinets at the end. Apart from two motorbike tyres and a Christmas tree, which are in the rafters.

Very good.

Ha, after cleaning loads of limescale marks at the weekend I was just coming here to ask if anyone has a water softener.

It seems almost impossible to find a price online for them, they all appear to be sold by the equivalent of double glazing companies.

What did you go for @Soul ? It looks a fair bit bigger than the ones I was looking at from the likes of Harvey's. Anyone else any recommendations?

The amount of flow you need (generally) dictates the size of the unit. The size of your house generally dictates how much flow you need. Screwfix carry a line of averagely reviewed ones that we used as an initial ballpark of size/vague cost of unit needed. Worth thinking about where you want to locate it alongside your water supply that can be adequately powered/accessed. That was the tough bit for us as our water supply comes under the back of kitchen cabinets, but the meter and stopcock are halfway down kitchen along the pipe run, which really limited where we could put in the unit.

It seems almost impossible to find a price online for them, they all appear to be sold by the equivalent of double glazing companies.

Very much felt this too.

It's an EcoWater refiner 500 - does carbon filtration as well as water softening.

It was £1,300 (excl. labour) for the unit. Another £350 for parts and labour but that also included fitting washing machine water and waste pipe in the garage as we're moving that.

They did an incredible job with the pipework and setup; super neat.

After a few days use, it looks like salt will need refilling every 200 days, at a cost of around £25 (5 bags from Costco).

Not sure where you're based but would massively recommend Aqua Sensation. They've done 5 in our road so far....

This cracked me up.

In garage chat does anyone have any recommendations for epoxy flooring? I'm definitely going to get it done but not sure who to use or DIY it. My garage floor is forever dusty, the more I sweep the dustier it gets so think it might need 'sealing' for a better word before anything goes on top.

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hahah amazing

Anyone else any recommendations?

https://www.kinetico.co.uk/

Have nothing but good things to say about their system. We are in SE London and have had it for about 18 months, it made a huge difference to our water. We used the test strips before and after install and went from 250-500ppm down to 0-50ppm. Huge thumbs up from us.

Is there a new forum recommended conveyancing solicitor?

Martin Browne has retired and the conveyancer we used last time has cashed in and sold her practice. She recommended someone who's staying on who I'm sure would be a safe pair of hands, but I'd like to get two quotes really as we've not used a conveyancer since 2012 and without her running the place I don't necessarily feel that the same quality control would be in place.

We're waiting to hear on our offer, just trying to make sure we can move forward quickly if it's accepted.

This looks FANTASTIC.
Jelly.

Any recommendation for a surveyor in South London? Last thing to get booked in for the house purchase!

Any recommendations for a carpenter in South London, I’m still looking. @6pt got anyone?

Electricians -
I've had a quote for remedial work for a failed EICR and just want to get a feel for if the price is about right or on the high side. Would anyone here be able to take a quick look at the quote?
Also any recommendations for electricians in South East London if I do ask for an extra quote?

if people are looking for SE tradesmen recco's and aren't getting any joy here, you might want to try the East Dulwich Forum. it reeks of Aesop, 40K kitchens and Hague Blue but then so does this place most days.

that’s just par for the course for the bad and hated london innit

I used to use they guy that wrote the book on conveyancing (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Approach-Conveyancing-Robert-Abbey/dp/0198860374/) but he retired. Hate it when people do that.

10 years ago I used https://thblegal.com/our-people/martin-cornberg/ who I'd be happy to use again. Really helpful on the telephone when I had queries and very reasonable charges for the purchase that fell through.

Haha.

Sounds like the right type of place to ask my next question, but sadly I'm not in the catchment area.

Home saunas, anyone have one? I'm thinking of creating a small wet room/sauna and wondering if anyone has done the same. Its not going to be as fancy as it sounds, more of a heater in a cupboard, but hopefully a step up from the kebab heater and garden shed combo we had on a stag do in Eastern Europe.

HomeBuyer Report on a flat we're buying has come back saying that "Significant rising dampness was noted within the property and remedial works are required". Almost everything I'm seeing online seems to suggest that 'rising damp' is a myth. How concerned do I need to be?

Any recommendations on next steps? Or for specialists in East that would take an honest look at it without trying to sell me a damp proofing course I don't need?

I'm currently happy with Lester Aldridge. Bonus, their email addresses are @la-law.com