Owning your own home

It’s a thing they are supposed to do.

im mostly confused as to why it costs so much, if its something thats normal and they’re supposed to do?

Do you understand the concept of solicitors? ;)

Everything they do costs a lot. This might help on what's actually involved:
https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/property/document/393788/5JRX-8TV1-F18C-4159-00000-00/Due_diligence_and_reporting_to_lender

thanks, so reporting to lender is quite normal i guess then?

100% normal. Assuming they're a panel firm for the lender they'd inevitably be asked to do that, which makes it a bit odd they didn't include it in their original quote.

yes they’re on to the panel is listed as ‘acting on behalf of the lender’ as an additional fee

Bit cheeky they've added that on as an extra then. They must've known all along it would be work they'd be doing.

looks like i did actually agree to it.. my bad

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Bang to rights. Happily, I have no practical experience of paying solicitor's bills to date. That is about to change thanks to my late mother, however.

Anyone got recommendations for blinds? I’ve got make my blinds.co.uk opened at present

If we’re talking roller I used bloc - would highly recommend having made to measure whoever u use - because cutting to size yourself is a certain kind of diy hell on a par with hanging heavy stuff on plasterboard stud walls 🤬IMO

For custom Venetian blinds I used https://www.blindsdirect.co.uk/ early in the first lockdown as they were the only ones still able to deliver. They're nice enough and were reasonably priced.

Blinds2go shipped me a nice budget blind mid lock down. Was cheap and cheerful.

Heavy stuff on plasterboard walls is a piece of piss now I’ve found Geefix. Night and day compared to expanding or anchor bolts.

Give it a go. It’s harder to install but a million times better.

https://www.geefix.com/

Nice. Might try these out as I have a plasterboard wall that’s crying out for office shelving.

I’ve perfectly cut blinds in the past year. Perfect in every way if you ignore the slight measurement error rendering them too narrow.

The glint in the homebase’ cashiers eye spying me returning to buy the exact same product AGAIN was unbearable.

Removals people emptying our house to storage today. Haven’t exchanged yet, nowhere to go. This year is gonna be fun.

You leaving the area completely?!?
Best of luck!
Thanks for all your tips on the area before we moved here 4 years ago. All bang on.
Good luck getting out of the LTN :)

Nobody can get out of the LTN! It’s taken me weeks to get to Sainsbury’s.

We’re going to miss the house, (the bathroom,) the area, the people. All of it. We’ve had good times here and a lot of Catford has changed so much for the better in that period, I can only imagine what it’ll be like in a few years.

Rosie goes back to work in Feb so we’re moving in with her parents for childcare, and two weeks isolation before that means today’s the day. If the sale falls through I guess we’ll be back at some stage (without any furniture or bikes, lol) but otherwise this is it.

Just the worst.

@Señor_Bear - nice one will check those

Looking at flooring options in our lounge renovation, LVT & damp resistant screen coming in at about 3k for lounge and hall. Subfloor is concrete, possibly a bit damp likely due to the unsuitability of the house (Victorian) and very uneven. That said the laminate that's down now isn't showing any signs of damp damage or boring.

Am I mad to consider some parquet that's some up nearby on eBay? I know it would take some legwork getting bitumen off, but wondering about potential future issues with moisture levels in the floor. I guess parquet is not going to be any less resistant to moisture than the current laminate right?

Solid tropical hardwoods or oak is going to be more 'resistant' than laminate but moisture coming up through the subfloor/screed is to be avoided.

Odd for a victorian house to have a concrete subfloor - assume a later addition ? If there is no dpm and its straight onto the earth below then there will potentially be damp coming upwards - but ditto for the external walls really - they typically used slate in between the brick courses to work as a dpc to stop the bricks in the ground sucking water upwards - with decades of movement and wartime bombing vibration - these slates crack allegedly .

But I reckon if it feels, looks and smells dry- its probably fine. You could get a damp meter to check I guess -(I have one but outer NW london based so not sure if that helps).

There is a certain parquet glue that works with blocks that have bitumen residue on them but you do need to scrape them pretty clean to get them flat. You still probs need a screed if the sub floor is uneven.

And what about for a bathroom? Having a wobble around terrazzo. Think it needs to be cold in appearance to balance out warm pink tiles and brass taps.

For the cork haters

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Yeah screed is for sure, there's at least an inch of difference in the floor, it's just that the contractor specced a damp resistant one. I suspect if we got the builder to do it he'd just use standard leveling compound, need to look in to options.

There is a bit of a damp problem in some of the walls, possibly because of faulty render, possibly because of the addition of the slab. May well diy inject as well as getting render fixed, seems the only option short of pulling up the slab.

Can't tell what timber this is, looks like pine or birch to me

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Looking nice!