Owning your own home

I have found dishes that I left in the sink magically put in the dishwasher

#pray4rodabod

Freaky. It's like all the dirty clothes that I leave on the floor that find their way in to the laundry bin.

Burn it, burn it all.

I'm a little more optimistic than that. I'm generally not a fan of BtL, given the amount of excess debt and equity it has channelled into the housing market over the last 20 years or so. The biggest effect has been to push up capital values by grinding yields tighter. In that context anything that encourages people to put their savings in another asset class by reducing the relative attractiveness of BtL is a Good Thing.

Accumulating wealth by being on the right side of a leveraged bet on the housing market is not what I'd call 'hardworking'.

For sure you need a certain amount of rental product, but the German model where you have enormous (€10bn +) professional landlords seems superior to me.

For sure you need a certain amount of rental product, but the German model where you have effective rent controls seems superior to me.

ftfy.

I agree with your general premise, btw. :-)

Yeah, that too - softly softly!

Question on radiator placement for my specific situation. Need to move a rad from under what will be a breakfast bar. Architect has put it on a wall to the left of the plan, but I'm wondering if a long-and-low jobby would be better on the front of the window seat, as shown? Whilst this is double-glazed, it is a massive expanse of glass, timber-framed and with imperfect seals, so I'm wondering if we'd get better heat circulation by putting the heat source under the window.

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That is my main concern, though I think you can get low surface temp rads (not done much investigating yet). Can't do under-floor for a few reasons: wet too costly to install (would need to dig out considerably); electric too expensive to run (based on the experience of a number of friends); and don't want to raise the floor so that new tiles will stay level with existing parquet.

I'd get rid of that mine in the room to the right of the kitchen. That's only going to cause troutble.

Or place the radiator between the seat and wall with a grill on top

This.

I'd go for a slim, long one in a void behind the seat, maybe a second where the architect put it if necessary.

Why don't the diners sit on the window seat?

You can get radiators with bench seats on top, let me try and find a pic.

I've seen one of these in the flesh, looked good.

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Loving the cheeky mains socket at the end.

Looks like a pub bench

Retirement home.

Thanks for all the ideas! Do like the idea of building rad into the window seat with a vent. Will look into that. Only thing to say is that the window seat already exists and a bit concerned about the cost of retrofitting this; not sure how long we'll be in the house and trying to balance spend with potential to recoup/ add value.

@Hefty, I have suggested that we use the window seat as a bench for one side of the dining table but the idea has been rejected. People need seat backs, apparently.

Make offer for the asking price, seller changes their mind and decides to let.

bcs wankers

Buy my flat

By flat do you mean delightful village workers cottage set on the edge of the South Downs?

Yes! I mean no.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40711013

A consultation on Leasehold fees. its not removal of them but its a start.

Roughly how much should I be paying for an electrical condition report, not including any repair work required after?

Only on new builds, and only on houses too, if the headline is accurate.

Which is a double pain in the dick for those of us who've bought old council flats.

Still, as you say, it's a start.