Owning your own home

Where did you get the step cover doobry?

They got it made. The other hardware came from SDS I think. They have a showroom in Battersea. Dude from Asash (amazing polish guy who I wish did everything on our house) have us his trade discount and just said go down and pick what you want fitted.

Nice job. One of the problems we had is the frame was so distorted that any door would have had to be cut to f*** to fit it, and there would still have been gaps.

The biggest win was getting a door and frame that didn't let the wind blow through.

loooool

Used these guys http://www.sashwindowsanddoors.co.uk/ and are very pleased, maybe slightly too far east for you. 4k for Front + back doors inc frame etc

Only just seen this, I'd put this thread on ignore for a bit as sorting everything for the sale, looking for property in France plus a load of general family stress meant I couldn't face anymore house chat for a bit.

We've just had a load of viewings today which seem to have been really positive. The reason for the price was mainly down to footprint and bedroom sizes, it's a weired one because Odessa has less properties coming on to the market but is probably the most sort after of this area owing to the south facing gardens with no vis à vis, but they're also more narrow than all the houses in surrounding streets.

Anything over the price it's listed at is good for us, we'll see what happens it's fucking way more stressful than buying that's for sure.

ERA locks (pair of keyed alike yale/latch and deadbolt with thumbscrew for night-time)

I've got an era dead bolt and latch set matched alike, I've got a weird front door and when I had a new one fitted I had to buy a narrow one after already buying the standard size. Satin nickel.

I think they're 160 from sds, I'll do it for half.

An Englishman's home is his castle.

Road name (almost) checks out for Highlander...

Always with the boring grey decors, it look like a developer renovated it.

There can be only one.

Anyone successfully appealed a council tax valuation increase? Just had a letter through saying our band has gone up from E to G

Castle... soon to be ruin

I had mine go up one band as the previous owners extended and that is not realised in CT bands until it is sold, which was a nice surprise. There are some valuation tools out there that can help work out what band you should be in, but for me they all agreed with the increase/change.

Hmm, yeah the nationwide house price index put it at band F rather than G, so maybe some hope...

castle itself is more tasteful than the interior. A decent amount of craftsmanship shown..

We’re applying for a home improvement loan from our existing mortgage provider, and have been offered the following rates:

2 years fixed @ 4.9%
5 years fixed @ 4.74%

Does this sound about right in today’s climate? Which one should we go for? Are rates likely to appreciably drop between 2 and 5 years from now to make the 2-year-fixed deal worth it?

I dread the prospect of having to obsess over this and pore over endless money comparison websites & forums…

You can’t know and it’s not worth trying to guess.

The question is whether you value the certainty of knowing your payments will not go up for 5yrs vs the possibility of ‘losing’ a bit if rates drop.

If you’re well within your comfort zone with the payments then could take a punt and hope they drop in 2yrs. If you’d struggle if they go up then maybe fix for longer.

(That said, given the 5yr is lower than the 2yr, you could read that as the banks expecting rates to drop somewhere in that time)

That’s the mortgage company expecting interest rates to go down within 2 years, so if you can handle the higher rate for that long, and you’re not in a dire situation, then I’d take the two years. It’s likely to go down a bit (but not to previously low levels) quite soon, as far as the markets are concerned.

Hard to say though!

Thanks!

Going to see what their tracker deal is like, but will likely end up with the 2-year fixed.

Is there a 'go-to' forum mortgage advisor who specialises in securing mortgages for 'one-man band' limited company owners with a sort of OK credit rating? Fed up to the back teeth of my mortgage going up every month for the past nine months and reckon I must be able to get a better deal. Ta in advance.

Fed up to the back teeth of my mortgage going up every month for the past nine months and reckon I must be able to get a better deal

If you are 'out of contract' with your existing provider they should be able to offer you a new fixed deal directly without having to use a broker and without having to divulge everything about your financial situation. Maybe.

Nah, they aren't offering new mortgages at this time. Or ever. I'm with the bunch who took over when Northern Rock went tits up. Should have sorted something out ages ago, but while interest rates were practically zero, it wasn't really an issue. It is now.

Gah, OK.