Owning your own home

Just found a phone camera attachment!
https://www.flir.co.uk/products/flir-one-gen-3/?model=435-0005-02 🤔

Thing with self build is time. Full time job + baby + cycling doesn't leave a lot of time for projects like that.

Also, one of their kits includes the following.

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Yeah that’s true, the guys doing my bathroom atm have done in one week what I think would have taken me a month fitting it round other responsibilities.

I think these guys.

https://www.red-current.com/thermal-imaging-camera-hire

Thanks

Folk with plywood kitchens - please share your grain direction choice for cabinet doors and drawers - and reasoning if any? Cheers.

Vertical for me, especially if you have tall units. Looks great with a Rubio Monocoat Plus 2C White stain too.

Could check out studio Bark who I think have a pretty nicely designed system and a middle ground between DIY and full built for you - priced accordingly too

Is that floor lino or concrete ?

Thanks for all the advice. Am looking at a 5 year fixed with additional borrowing for doing work on the house. Seems too easy so far...

Sounds like the right move.

It always feels odd; getting approved for a mortgage. The banks really shouldn't be lending me all that money.

+1 for vertical.

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Potentially got rats out our back...

Worth checking what your council offers for this. We had a rat take up residence in the garden which Dartford council sorted for free - parents in Cambridgeshire had to pay a fee (not for the same rat!), but it was much less stressful getting a professional in to deal with the issue rather than trying to work out which poison/trap would be best.

We had a rat take up residence in the garden which Dartford council sorted for free

I didn't realise councils also offered such services to rats. Well, you live and learn.

It was £45 quid last time they came out and there was fuck all caught, that was about 18 months ago. But found new evidence over the last couple days as posted!

Can’t be hard to build yourself though?

*laughs in it-has-taken-almost-a-year-since-i-started*

If rats or mice are living in the compost bin, it's too dry. If you water it regularly it will not be a pleasant shelter for them, and will break down faster too.

Is this yours? Looks stunning.

Was thinking to go with an Osmo option for the finish but good to have another one to consider.

My order is due at the timber yard today so need to make up our minds sharpish now.

@hugo7 who with?

Would appreciate any hive advice please. FTB viewing this tomorrow

Not going to speak about if it is a good deal (seems way overpriced IMO), though a nicely done up one in the area, with loft conversion for 3rd bedroom easily 380k and this is on one of the nicer roads in the area.

Looks like nobody has lived there for a while. What should I be looking out for and as a FTB who has never done any house buying or much home DIY? And any advice on getting an accurate view of how much it is likely to cost to do up? I read about taking photos of electrics to see if it needs a rewire and if serious going back with a reputable builder/electrician to confirm.

I rent a room 5 mins away at the moment, 1 month rolling. Extremely naive but was thinking:

1) Electrics, New Kitchen (maybe/definitely knock through and make kitchen diner), do up bathroom a bit, Paint/furnish bedroom, move in.

2) Non essential bits: Floors (mainly wood), see about a lounge fireplace/logburner, paint whole house with mates, garden, new period correct front windows, new front door, remove ghastly pebbledash, bike shed out back, finally converting the loft. Someone pointed out this isn't a given and needs permission but every other house in the area is identical and seems to has it done.

Can't comment on value but looks like the whole place needs renovating.
If you know a builder take them with you on a viewing.
I would definitely get a decent surveyor round to do a full check once you've made an offer. They should flag up any issues.
Surveyors should give an idea of cost but not all are up to date with prices.
Good idea to look at how similar places have been done up and what they're worth now.
Once you know rough cost of achieving something similar you'll know what to offer.

I'm not too sure in Bristol prices, but the nicely done up one has the loft done, and more period features (picture rails, coving) intact, so you might expect the price difference to be a bit more.

Your list looks like a good starting point, but then there's all the things you don't expect, e.g. the Mysterious Damp, the Horrors Beneath the Carpets, the Collapsing Horsehair Plaster Ceiling, etc.

Make sure you've got a lot left over for the unknowns.

Even the nicely done up one I think needs work.

So that one you’ve got had damp looking at the back wall, it might have been fixed but that’s to take into account.

Rewire up here (Glasgow) I’d say between 2.5-5k.
Kitchen 8k
Does it need a boiler/radiators - 4ish
Plastering etc etc etc

You could easily spend 50k doing that up and it doesn’t touch the sides. So defo take that into account. We’re just finishing a job and the guys spent about 100k doing it up. He said they had 75 and blew past it but have done everything and added on a small extension(single story)

What should I be looking out for and as a FTB who has never done any house buying or much home DIY?

Immediate thoughts

• next door have some kind of extension that runs along the west boundary. It looks like the flu from their boiler is exiting across the boundary in to 'your' garden. It's also quite tall, and doesn't look like the kind of thing planning would agree to. It could be a clue to the neighbours being bastards. It's almost certainly blighting 'your' garden.

• parking. Gonna be a bastard. you might not care, others might

• potential loft conversion. Looks like others on that street have made the loft a livable space, but only one has extended the back with a flat roof. This might be a clue that you can't for some boring reason (conservation area?)

• Tree in the garden looks too big. It will need to go. You might be able to get it out the back but more likely it will have to be taken through the house when it does come down. Which is a bastard.

Looking at it, as above, total renovation. Assume nothing works, and it needs to come back to the brick and floor joists before it can be improved. There's something going on with damp and water, plenty of evidence of it in the photos, could be some fucked drains or the roof could be leaking, you'd need to find out. Plenty of big things to asses and sort;

• roof
  
• windows
  
• central heating
  
• electrics
  
• plastering
  
• flooring
  
• ground floor layout (if you take that wall out, you will have a lot of white goods on display)
  
• first floor layout (bathroom is oversized using space that can be better used elsewhere)
  
• garden
  
  

But it's a nice size for that kind of thing if you fancy it.

(I actually think the 'done up' one is almost equally problematic - it's had a lick of paint and there's some plasterboard and a window in the loft but god knows if it's been done right. The utility room is a lean too with a plastic roof and god knows what's in the garden).

I live in St Werburghs and it is a fantastic area, let me know if you have any questions.

For me, I would be concerned that the nicer done up one is a bit close to the motorway.

The house on the corner between lynmouth road and Mina road currently has plans submitted to build basically another house on the corner - just so you know. Don't think it would be a problem for you.

I would also add that while it's a good idea to be prepared for expensive unforeseen problems, the standards on this thread/forum for house stuff are very high (see Velocio's £80k kitchen) and that house looks perfectly liveable to me. I've spent the last four years slowly doing up my house bit by bit and although it takes a lot longer than doing it all at once, you can obviously spread the cost.

It doesn't look like it's about to fall down in the meantime (although get a surveyor to check this!)