Owning your own home

Agreed as long as we don't start trying to justify mass replacement of all old houses.

No way. My mates dad bought up the original warehouses that that was built on.

Did the fountain noise bother you?

You rented in the single greatest location in London.

Our flat in Highbury Stadium was amazing. Double-story glass window onto the pitch.

If I could find a 3/4 bedroom house in a development like either of these, I would go for it. Except leasehold is a nightmare in the UK.

Olympic park had these, we nearly bought one.

The fountain was never switched on the 5 years we lived there.

Are you saying your mates' dad is the freeholder?

lol, #rep.
stoke newington is the prison IMO. On a weekend it's harrowing scenes on the high street with all the young parents wandering aimlessly from coffee to gift shop.

It was a bit weird tho mate...

stoke newington is the prison IMO

I will buy a T shirt with this on

1. Amey
   
2. MrSmyth
   

london is the prison IMO

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I've got a water pump (Showermate). I've never lived somewhere with on before and it's sort of annoying as fuck. The most annoying thing right now is that it turns itself off when hot water taps are tuned down too low for it. Which means it's awful trying to get the kitchen taps at a decent temp, and will sometimes turn the shower off while showering (I guess the thermostatic gubbins try to ease up on the heat and it finds that magic point).

Is this normal? I've google'd around and there's lots of stuff about leaks, air in the system, valve controls (can't find any of those), etc.. Before I take the entire thing about I just wanted to check to see if this was "normal."

Nah - it was awesome. Kids could play out with the neighbours' and there was an actual community. It just altered differed massively from what is conventionally desirable.

Another quality put-down was delivery drivers asking where my front door was; because this must be my backdoor.

But didn't it also have an incredibly aggressive cat and you had to live within sight of some vaguely recognizable people from TV...?

🤣

One of the big appeals about older buildings is the room proportions, especially height.

Yep and if you need more space you can just keep building up in the same style ;-)

Project and future carbon footprint of a refurb vs project and future carbon footprint of knocking down and rebuilding you mean? Yes, I'd be interested in that.

My partners family were, initally, rather snobby about us buying a 'mid century' property, we got the feeling that they would much prefer us to buy a Victorian/Edwardian house. They kept calling a 'new build' dispite it being over 50 years old.
One thing I realised was when they bought their 20's house in the 70's it was the same age as the house we're buying is now.
They're fine now, but I assume it was akin to me being a bit snobby about the 'look' of late late 80 to early 00's housing - most of it will be good to actually live in. I just don't like the aesthetic/design language of a lot of the, maybe it was becuase they were what was new what I was of age to start to notice such things?
It was the same for them I suspose, they grew up seeing these new designs of houses they didnt like the look of and have had the feeling linger, even though they are objectivly better in several ways.

Fundamentally lack of design vision is a universal issue.

That is also very UK specific. I don't know any other country with so many dead ends, barriers and fences is residential areas. The absolute incompetence to build liveable spaces. This is very typical, middle of a residental area but no access between any of the buildings

here some former social housing from the 70s in Germany, everything is walkable and accessible from any point.

but a bunch of prison barracks win prizes here.

having had enough of Georgian/Victorian conversions we are hopefully nearing completion on a place here:

it’s not perfect, has a broken lift we will have to pay for, shit glazing and leashold. but at least it was well constructed, the planning was done properly with lower density, thought to the landscaping and pedestrians favoured over cars.
and a 4.5m long window in the lounge not 80’s miniature build where everything is scaled down to the minimum.

theres a lot of shite out there though, shame the bean counters get the most say in what gets built.

and then theres the floodplain out of town estates with no footpaths and a dual carriageway as your only means of leaving your faux-georgian shitbox

lots to like about this. smart plan, decent orientation, good location, good parquet... congrats

We got quite a lot of raised eyebrows when we bought a mid-century place as well. Since then it's become far more desirable but 10 years ago it languished on sale for a couple of years before we bought it and was being sold with planning permission to knock down and build something horrid in its place.
It's so much better designed for living today than a victorian house (apart from the tiny kitchen we extended - keeping the original intact) and amazing light throughout. Mind you - completely shit insulation which we can't do a lot about and concrete walls so hanging pictures is a PITA but that's a bit of a first world problem I can live with.
Seem to be leaks everywhere at the moment though so am going to have to bite the bullet and get a specialist to have a look at the copper roof at some point which I'm sure will be £££.

“congrats”. thanks but i’m poker faced until exchange...

I don't know any other country with so many dead ends, barriers and fences is residential areas. The absolute incompetence to build liveable spaces. This is very typical, middle of a residental area but no access between any of the buildings

I disagree with this. The ability to move through London streets via random estates (on foot!) is amazing. And protected rights of ways that let you into random mews and alleys - chef's kiss.

A couple of my favourites:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5595436,-0.0811127,3a,37.4y,294.01h,89.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4x2BxKN6GiDt7NKKc4xrtw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5394728,-0.1052361,3a,17.7y,87.24h,89.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sTrCMljEALui_ps6p9Ektaw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

hanging pictures is a PITA but that's a bit of a first world problem I can fix with 3m command strips