Owning your own home

Would depend on what rights came with the garages. If there's space between your property and the garage, it may come with a shared right (with other garage owners) to use it for an access point, or may even come with a sole right to use the space (which would allow you to build some kind of through space, though that's less likely) but you wouldn't know until you had a look at what rights came with the garages by checking the documentation.

TBH I can't entirely picture what is being asked, but I know I didn't worry about putting a gate from my garden into the shared access passageway behind it to allow ease of bike access and have never given it a second thought. If the garages literally abut the property in question then, once both were owned, I wouldn't worry about joining. If there is a road/pathway in between then I wouldn't worry about creating an access on to that unless it was private and owned by another property. If neither of these situations describes what is actually being asked then clearly I've failed in comprehension somewhere....

I would say ask a solicitor about changing property boundaries, and ask local authority building control about putting openings on property boundaries as a starting point.

When I spoke to an architect about putting a window in a wall that forms the boundary of my property they raised fire performance questions. I didn't put the window in, so don't know the requirements, but it is something to consider and confirm.

To me this seems like one of those classic cases of assumed knowledge. It might be unnecessary, undesirable or totally straightforward.

But if you've got specific requirements beyond "I want to buy this garage", best to get legal advice that considers all the requirements.

I'd be careful about what and how you ask councils or building authorities questions in case you need to take out an indemnity against an as yet unknown issue, and need to confirm you haven't made an interested party aware of a right.

Depends on whether you're buying the freehold, or leasehold. Garages are often leasehold (with shared freehold).

If the freehold, then in effect you own both sides of the boundary and can do as you please.

If the leasehold, then you'd technically need the permission of the freeholder (which could be ALL other garage owners) with some sort of agreement to revert the boundary if selling.

4 garage doors!!!

Incredible. Backs onto the rec. Must've cycled past it so many times.

If anyone's into slightly less grand Segal method housing, there are some open for Open City this/next weekend in Lewisham (not the first listing) -
https://programme.openhouse.org.uk/neighbourhoods/lewisham

Update on exterior paint

Went for Angie by Little Greene. Not quite finished but nearly. Almost copped out and went for something more tasteful but glad we didn't, it's extremely uplifting. Bristol so every other house is colourful anyway.

Next up, door and retaining wall, although I'll do them myself as no ladders involved. Mint green and deep purple respectively?

1 Attachment

Very Bristol. Love it.

Give the door surround a clean too, will make a big difference.

Yeah that's still to be painted (white), along with some of the cills etc.

Must clean the windows too

That looks great. We're looking to paint ours a similar colour soon. Though ours is pebbledashed.

Did you put much work into choosing the paint (as in the brand/type, not the colour)?

Yeah a bit. We were particular about shades and the cheap brands don't offer a wide range of masonry paints typically, our painter also recommended a more premium brand for any colour other than a very light pastel due to more/better pigments.

We spent forever choosing a shade from Benjamin Moore, including buying sample pots, before realising most of their shades are not recommended for exterior use (even though they will sell these shades in their masonry paints). We went down a slight rabbithole on this because it doesn't say that on their UK site, just their US one, and since the important factor is probably UV, what might be a problem in Arizona is not necessarily a problem in the UK. Nonetheless we didn't want to spend lots of money getting the house done explicitly against manufacturer recommendation.

So yeah could then have been F&B or Little Greene. Painter prefers to use Little Greene of those two, and we have lots of their paint inside and are happy with it, plus they have lots of lovely shades available in masonry paint.

White bits on wood and stone just done in white zinsser and sandtex to save money - same for everything on the back of the house. Albeit zinsser is £££ mind. Meaning we only needed 5 litres of the Little Greene, which after a discount our painter gets at a retailer, is about £70 - so for us, defs worth choosing a premium manufacturer for the pink

We didn't bother going down the route of natural paints, limewashes etc as there's already several coats of acrylic paints on it

Thanks for posting this, always loved these buildings / the Segal method, and finally got a look at a couple today 🙂

I wish more stuff was built this way, even the maintenance of services and whatnot behind replaceable panels is just such a great touch.

looks great

That's really helpful, thanks.

We've mainly been looking at Tikkurila and Emperor and I'm worried by how expensive it might be. We'll probably need twice as much paint for a similar surface area and I feel like with pink you only need to get it a bit wrong for it to look really shit. Which way does your house face?

with pink you only need to get it a bit wrong for it to look really shit

Definitely worth lots of testers, when you're painting something as big as a house, getting the right shade for you matters

House faces west

https://www.onthemarket.com/details/15260453/

Finger in the air quotes for how much it would cost to renovate a place like this? Is <£50k at all realistic or is it a £100k job?

No £40k kitchens, theoretically could do a lot of the grunt work myself and happy to lay flooring/decorate.

We're in no position to move for a while but currently trying to work out if we can stay in London or if it's a lost cause.

First of all, move to SE18. You’ll live in a Palace for that budget.
Also, that bedroom doesn’t need redecorating.

SE18 would fall in to the 'not staying in London' category

If the wiring and central heating is OK (and no surprises) then it really depends what your definition of done is.

To me it looks like it needs a new kitchen, bathroom and redecoration. In the sort of scope of someone on Property Lader BITD.

£10k for the bathroom? The kitchen is where you could potentially get vfm if you're prepared to keep the layout, do the work yourself and hunt down bargain appliances. Idk can you still bring a kitchen in for £5k?

I'd also say that personally speaking, I'd be fine living there without immediately having to gut it and go crazy. Just do the upstairs - new carpets throughout repaint, maybe reskim the ceilings, then live there for a bit to work out exactly what you want to do. Not a popular opinion but I think there's something to be said for living in a space so you understand it probably before jumping into work.

I don't know. But I just finished having some work done and can recommend a reliable outfit of builders, and a good floorboard guy. I live just over the road.

That looks similar to a place we renovated in 2016 - we achieved that for sub £50k.

I’d be getting a look at the boiler and electrics. If it needs those doing then you can get some quotes for the work.

Also good to get a sense of what’s under those carpets.
If you are ok with the layouts etc then should be doable with under that.

What I found with our house was that the kitchen and where we ate just felt super disconnected and the little alley at the side of the kitchen wasn’t used much. I’m not sure what an side return extension would cost but it could be worth considering as it would make a difference

Fresh paint and carpets won’t cost much and then it will be fine.

Idk can you still bring a kitchen in for £5k?

It's easily doable with a bit of patience, tools and basic skills.
We bought our kitchen for £600 on eBay and I fitted it with my dad over about 3 days. Wooden worktops of course. It just meant keeping an eye out over about 2 months for one that ticked all our boxes.
Osmo oil and cupboard paints probably another £100 or so.
5 hob, 3 oven induction range, eBay again: £700

We are still within Morley’s catchment area!