Owning your own home

My wife and i are currently struggling with the what you can get outside of London question.

I'm from just outside Dublin (30 mins from centre by bike), she grew up on the Atlantic Coast just outside a small town, we own a 1 bed freehold house in Camberwell.

In the past 3 months, I've gone fully home based, and she has been made redundant and setting up her own business. It's a tight squeeze in a 1 bed house, and we don't need to be near a city anymore, so looking at moving back to Ireland. With Dublin now more expensive than London, we'll realistically be moving to countryside, which she loves, but as a city boy I'm struggling with the idea of.

To confuse matters more, we're 2 years into a 5 year fixed term (funny how plans change sooner than you think innit), so we'll be hit with a fine of 3% of total value of the loan to buy ourselves out early. We can't port the loan to Ireland as its a different country, unless we buy in Northern Ireland, which we don't really want to do. We're not in a mad rush to leave, thankfully my salary more than covers the mortgage and bills while mrs. colm89 gets her business up and running, but there's no doubt life would be more comfortable if our outgoings were lower.

Anyway, not asking for advice, just chipping in with my 2p in relation to the outside London statement, and thinking out loud.

Dehumifier qs.

30s semi. No tumble dryer. Would say we're pretty good at letting the house breathe but we do get condensation on windows (beading, but not running) and I found some condensation on the roof felt in the loft the other day above the master bedroom. Suspect I'd find the same in the space above the bathroom.

Is something like this worth bothering with at all? Best used upstairs I assume? Tend to dry clothes in the bathroom, bathroom and bedroom suffer from most condensation.

Dehumidifiers are great. They really suck the moisture out of the air and make the place feel a bit warmer.

My house is not particularly damp, but we leave ours running pretty much 24/7 in winter.

Compressor dehumidifiers can be noisy. Desiccant models are a bit spendier but are pretty quiet, like a fan mostly.

I tend to leave mine running overnight which keeps the moisture under control unless I've done a load of washing (there's no extractor fan in one of the bathrooms so that adds to the problem).

Looking at that dehumidifier you've linked it seems pretty low on extraction rate. Most household ones tend to be 10-20L per day whereas that's 0.5L.

We are about to complete and went on a 2 year rather than 5 year for exactly the reason of eventually moving to Ireland, the main reason we’re in London is she’s in a great position with work.

Keep the Camberwell place and rent in Ireland? My partners parents moved back from the US last year to Galway, it took them better part of a year to find a suitable house, and they were well positioned with cash from selling their house - they got their place by being local. So, my guess is that even without the blockers you have, with the shortage of supply over there you might have a hard time finding what you want anyway?

You’re right it’s a different kettle of fish to over here where Brexit is pushing prices down. I can only imagine full brexit is going to screw Dublin and the suburbs even more with supply moving to address to the higher end for misplaced finance people.

Apropos of dehumidifier chat:

Just ripped our broken washing machine out and the walls are fucking black behind it. Best mould tips?

There was a leak on the pipe which I've now repaired.

My thoughts are bleach the fuck out of the walls, stick all the dehumidifiers in the world in there and wait til it's warmer to see if I need to gut the room and start again.

It's a small utility room at the coldest end of the house, there is a window, walls on one end are very thin - presume some kind of cavity which is odd and unlike the rest of the house (1900 terrace). Wall on the window side is solid brick and looks out onto an alley. Immediately behind the wall in the alley there is a stack of timber covered with a tarp (which I acknowledge I should probably move). It's pretty perpetually damp and wet out there as a result.

I've installed our new washing machine and will leave plenty of space around it for circulation (had to take the door off to fit the bastard in the room - rehanging door after a coffee and mince pie).

With Dublin now more expensive than London

Really? Surely only in some areas? Or do you mean cost of living?

Why would two upstairs flats converted from terraces be so different in this respect? I have zero issues with moisture. Windows steam up when cooking, showering and (noticeably) turbo-training, but it always clears again soon after.

It's double-glazed except for the bathroom and a window above the stairs, although none of it recent. Thermostat is set at 18 deg.

Why would two upstairs flats converted from terraces be so different in this respect?

You open your windows?

Almost permanently in summer but not in the last two months, give or take. Definitely never have windows open in central-heating season.

Might be plenty of other ways for warm wet air to escape, air bricks, vents and whatnot.

Pretty much anywhere central has gone through the roof. A mate has just bought a 3 bed in a place none of us would ever have aspired to live, and he paid 400k. Couple that with a maximum of 80% loan makes buying a property in the centre pretty tough for 1st time buyers.

The cost of living in general is much much higher in Ireland, its a joke. Personal tax rates are so high.

Yeah the likelihood is that we'll rent the camberwell place at least until we're out the other end of our fixed term, but possibly longer depending on how it goes.

We don't really know where we want to live so renting will give us a flavour of it. We're currently looking at carrick on shannon. It's halfway between her parents in Ballina and my parents in dublin, it's cheap, and it's 1.5hrs from dublin by train/car, depending on traffic.

Ireland doesn't do quaint picturesque villages as well as England sadly.

Where can you buy a 3-bed in London for £340k?

The issue for me is most noticeable on the single glazed windows.

I've also got pretty uneven insulation with the loft conversion being heavily insulated and quite airtight and then the other half of the house where the flat roof is having minimal insulation plus a mix of single glazing and double glazing (although I've no idea if that contributes).

Here's a 4 bed in the London equivalent to where my mate bought his 3 bed in Dublin: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-66532137.html

Here's another for £375: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-66426402.html

@umop3pisdn
I ignored Howard's advice (he charges a lot) on the dessicant dehumid, I bought this one:
https://www.meaco.com/dehumidifier/home-dehumidifiers/meacodry-abc-range-12l-compressor-dehumidifier

Our laundry is in our living room. I put the dehumidifier on in there. Because our washer drier is potentially knackered. I will be putting the dehumidifier upstairs at night now. It's quiet like a fridge.

The chat about black mould, the HG spray is very good at getting rid of mould in my experience. Bleach works, but this stuff really works
https://uk.hg.eu/products/mould/hg-mould-spray-05l

I am now concerned about the state of the wall behind my washer drier. Sigh.

Just ripped our broken washing machine out and the walls are fucking black behind it. Best mould tips?

If it's a room that isn't in constant use I'd be tempted to remove all the sources of moisture, seal the room as best as possible, then make it very, very dry with as you say a dehumidifier. Once it's been dry for long enough to prevent growth I'd consider how to remove the existing (and probably now dead) mould.

Might not be achievable until you remove any sources of external damp though.

How long is long enough? I've just plumbed our shiny new washer in and after 2 weeks without one I want to get my moneys worth before I pull it all out again : )

Dunno. You'll find out how damp the room is pretty quick I'd imagine. You could still use it, but just try to keep its atmosphere as separate as possible from the rest of the place.

75 minute commute to central Dublin?

It's not comparable from a distance perspective, Dublin doesn't sprawl anywhere near as much as London. I'm drawing comparisons from a desirability perspective. Maybe comparing Inchicore to Erith is a bit harsh on Inchicore, but what I mean is 5 years ago i wouldn't have considered living there, now it's probably all I could afford without stretching myself

Thanks, I think I still need some persuading that Dublin is more expensive than London (as far as property is concerned), though. That the general cost of living is higher in Ireland is something I've heard before.