Owning your own home

cheers @aggi @Gewürzt. Written a stern email

This is back up plan, but rather not have one and just pay ~£25 p month. I got a stop tap fitted to enable me to get one but the plumber but it in a really inaccessible place to work on it / fit a smart meter. Even a bit of a ball ache to turn it off. Not sure what was wrong with under the sink

When I owned a flat water company wouldn't do the extra bit of plumbing needed to add the meter, I refused to pay for additional plumbing work for them to add a meter. Pretty sure from memory my rateable charge was massively reduced as a compromise as a result (I'd requested a meter)

I assumed the issue was that you couldn't have a meter because you're in a flat.

Easiest solution if they can fit one is just get one. The rateable value thing will probably be a real ballache to sort

Are your neighbours paying the same? and have you got own supply from the mains to the flats?

Also, do you have one supply to each flat? Place we had for boring historical reasons had two supplies for each flat meaning no meter was possible.

the rateable charge is quite low (thames water) my partner is on one as it’s a georgian house converted to 3 flats and one stop cock outside. she pays a lot less than she uses (bath lover). it’s less than £300 i think.
I got a meter fitted at mine as the bill was really high and fixed at about £600 for a one bed which is way too much, currently pay about £200 a year (showers not baths).

Would you now glue and clamp it all rather than screwing it?

I’m going to need more clamps in my life

Domino all the things.

£36.5/month unmetered for our place

Domino and rafix, no clamps required, everything can be assembled on site without glue. Also works well for freestanding furniture.

https://www.hafele.co.uk/en/product/connector-housing-plastic-rafix-20/P-00861352/

Screwing boards into the edge of boards is pretty basic. There are advantages in screws developed to do it but modern MDF is so fluffy in the centre there's barely anything for a screw to hold onto.

Domino is easily worth it for a professional, biscuit joints are a more accessible method if you can't justify the domino. Biscuit joints + screws can work ok.

Been keeping an eye to the ground for house price falls in Leyton/Leytonstone/Walthamstow - not seeing an awful lot so far. Are we thinking that'll start to happen later in the year as the Agreements In Principle from six months ago begin to expire?

It’ll take a while for sellers and agents to capitulate / face reality - maybe January? Stuff still being listed at top-of-market prices around me in W6

How long did you shower for? Half an hours??

no! no hair to wash so just a few mins, couple of clothes washes a week, sink of washing up a day plus hand washing. my annual cubicM use is lower than average.
This is the only bill that’s going to rise with cohabiting due to somebody filling a bath to the top with piping hot water and then leaving it to cool down.
Then there’s the filling of the kettle right to the top...

We're paying £32.50/month 2 bed terrace unmetered

sink of washing up a day.

That’d make a significant dent.

I feel you on the kettle thing.

We had one of these one-cup kettle things in my last office and it worked well enough.

(We didn't have a sink anywhere nearby so no chance of a normal kettle [since you can't pour away any old water].)

Wife has finally come to the realisation that I’m full time working from home and given the nod to turn our spare bedroom with a desk into a dedicated office, so before she could change her mind I dismantled the hatefully uncomfortable ikea hemnes day bed and stored it away in the loft til we get more rooms up there.

First on my agenda is to sort shelving for the wall opposite the desk as we currently have almost no storage space for books or otherwise in the house, meaning all our books are still in storage since we moved out of our previous house in July 2020! I’m totally paralysed with decisions!

I started out with a plan to do the old built in Billy bookcase hack, but that has quickly escalated to an enquiry with vitsoe on some 606 shelving (likely 3 bays to begin with, just shelves because budget won’t stretch to cabinets up front), but I’d love to hear from the masses on my options. Blank wall about 3.5m in width, 2.5m high, but I don’t want to use the full width as there’s a door on the perpendicular wall on one end, and want to keep it symmetrical on the opposite end.

House is a mid-90’s Irish seaside bungalow, so I’m a bit concerned that vitsoe might look wildly out of place.

1 Attachment

Vitsoe is lovely - string shelving would be a cheaper alternative but still nice (it’s what I have in my office). Worth thinking about lighting and sound etc also if you’re specifically redoing the room

I think November hitting will see a change in peoples outlooks, not much listed in December so then the January listings will be the ones which might represent a new truth.

Irish seaside bungalow

Some design inspo for you

Another +1 for String. Looks great, easy to install and very flexible.

Been looking at string a lot too but is it that much cheaper than vitsoe?

Very good but definitely not a bungalow!