Owning your own home

Perhaps too late, but have you considered Blink cameras?

Amazon owns 2 brands for video doorbells and security cameras. Ring is positioned as "premium" and is more expensive. It's also really best if you pay a monthly subscription. Blink is positioned as the budget option, but they are just fine. I have 4 of them in various places in my garden and garage.

They'll try and get you to sign up for the subscription, but what's great is that if you have a sync module, you can plug in a USB storage device and just store the clips on there, rather than on the cloud (cloud storage is basically what the subscription pays for).

I have mine set up to record to a USB thumb drive, but I'm pretty sure a hard drive will also work. It records video when the system is armed and there is motion, so it's not strictly what I would call CCTV. However, I actually find it more effective for this purpose - I want to be able to review footage if someone has come into my garden, rather than having to trawl though all the footage captured. It'll also do notification on your mobile if you want.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Certified-Refurbished-Blink-two-year-detection/dp/B0BW9SWHTN/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2JOTWQ2B6SJWU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.f1OR34HW7L3jzoc5mXEJnSTk5lnAfIE5G69KWlGBNwxKwpxrGyR3smW9yHZPl2GOpHCdbj8BG3y32DnZf7Zk9mrU7tI6amWKtKCmqorcWeq_w5qtcgfYySZw7uJqD8uv02ZNTuqQigwK4jKbafNV2hwM3hwlXvCRLdHowZ4czlZUtj7TIXjfjqGfkrRsGHsxspAeXycOABZ1JviAZEPj-TUh9AyfR5XOM3sfBlHf9Ck.DjWpngXaIrxCHT4BoueJ01nkltec8TmyDZ6vyhuWuPs&dib_tag=se&keywords=blink+outdoor+camera&qid=1724949449&sprefix=blink+out%2Caps%2C252&sr=8-2 is a kit that includes 2 cameras and a sync module.

Happy to chat through my experience with them or answer questions if that is helpful.

Astro and Lucide are my go-tos for lighting.

Agreed with the outdoor uplighting business, it's a dick move unless you're illuminating the underside of a canopy. There's a house behind ours that's had an extension with a fully glazed roof, and they've fitted 'up & down' lights all along the walls so the 'up' bits shine directly through the glass ceilings and straight into their neighbours' bedroom windows...

Cheers. The eufy arrived today so I'm good now.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestion and to soul for the referral code. Quite please with it. Not perfect due to our ridiculous faux-led lined pvc windows reducing the apature(?) of the window.

Still need to play with the settings and possibly get one for by the door, but that involves drilling and mounting and a load of faff. For now this will identify the person we're concerned with for our purposes.

Quote for Victorian terrace exterior painting, front+rear+2 bay windows+3 normal sashes.

Seems reasonable to me? Albeit obviously its a big chunk of money, the windows really need doing before they deteriorate to the point they end up costing much more. Have used the guy for interiors and very happy with quality, reliability, personability.

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Can't work out if that includes the paint or not. Have they given a time estimate for it? It's one of those things where if you're happy with the cost and need/want the work done to a good standard, think about what it would cost you in your time (allowing for the fact the pro will likely do it better and faster because they have the equipment and experience) and whether you want to do it yourself anyway...and go from there.

Yeah no fucking way I'm going up two storeys on a ladder, even if I could do it to a decent standard, which I probably couldn't. Just wondering how the price compares to other pros.

Timewise, should be finished 1-2 weeks from now depending on weather. Looks like autumn rains here in the south west are beginning to set in, but should be enough dry days left to squeeze it in

Price doesn't include paint - he's gonna get back to us on that after working out exactly how much is needed and after we pick a manufacturer and colour for the front

Talking of which, I'm thinking pastel pink or yellow? Terrace is a mix of some pastel shades, some white and some bare brick. To my eyes the plain white houses look notably cheaper/less nice than the colours

Rapha pink?

I think that's a very reasonable price.

If it will be done well, then that is a really good price.

Keep in mind paint can be very expensive.

I'd go less on price and more on quality of work.

I'd concur that it is a good price for the amount of labour time likely needed then - everything front and rear is no small job!

Pastels look good I think, and perhaps (I don't really know) hide watermarks/pollution better than white?

For 1800 you’d think it’ll be finsihed in less than a week imo.

Surely not including paint that quote even if it is white sandtex

That's in London? Seems like a good price. We had similar done a few years ago (albeit wrapped in with some other work) and the painting / making good was significantly more than that.

No, Bristol

Think I've settled on pastel pink or minty fresh green

pastel pink or minty fresh green

very bristol :-)

House bought, off to get the keys at half past four. Just spent the last hour getting rattled through all the paperwork in French by the notaire. Lots of nodding, I'm sure it's all fine.

I'd like to get my car off the main road for a multitude of reasons but it only just fits in our garage (golf club). I'd also like the garage space to be a bit more of a workshop rather than just bike storage and a dumping ground. It recently occurred to me that if i were to shorten my garage it would be a more manageable space and would then allow me to park on a newly formed driveway. Looking at the garage door it should be a relatively straightforward job to recess the door back into the garage to trial it.

If that's successful i'd like to do away with the old gates/posts and having a more open from entrance. Even though my car is old and relatively compact it would still be a squeeze so this would make life much easier. Worth noting the car is only for very occasional use so would act as a barrier in lieu of the gates. Only downside is that bikes would need to be wheeled back through the house which exactly how we used to do it anyway (and i want to demolish the awful entrance at a later date).

In terms of resale value etc i don't think the garage would even fit a modern car but a driveway could be a nice add on to increase value? Add to that a nice dry workshop it seems like a worthwhile effort. Worst case the door could be moved back to it's original location and at least the front would be a bit tidier than it is currently.

It seems like this could work but have i missed anything obvious that makes this a bad idea?

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Buy a range rover and then just hang it over the pavement like every other nob?

just get a citroen ami

(although i do like the lfgss f1 car pictured)

just get a citroen ami

Would love one and the irony being if i'd spent my money on something newer/more practical i'd be perfectly fine with it being parked on the street. Problem is i've now invested into a silly old car that has been hit several times outside and gets used as a goal net during term time (i'm opposite a school).

Buy a range rover

I could ask the next parent that hits my car whilst dropping there kids off if they're interested in selling.

garage door... relatively straightforward

Sounds like a good idea to me. Buyers love off street parking.

Main issue is how you exit the vehicle.
As pictured you would have to climb over the back of the car and hit your head a couple of times on the door frame.

But you should be able to test this by opening the garage door and parking the car as pictured.

obligatory: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MvGKxDlXgvQ

Ha! I was trying to think of the search term for that!