Owning your own home

Are you 100% sure your buyer will get a mortgage on your place? Does it have any type of EWS?

I can imagine.

We were talking about a loft conversion at some point.

Part of the reason is that we think(!) there's less thought than with an extension - which would require redesigning the kitchen and dining room which then knocks on to a whole load of other things.

At least the loft conceptually is "just":

• can we get planning for a gable
  
• work out the staircase solution (which in turn answers the question of beds / baths/ etc.)
  

we were basically fully reconfiguring a 1920s terraced house - dropping floors, encroaching into then-basement space, bringing back of the house down to garden level, and adding new mass to give a more modern liveable footprint. you basically have a 12-14 month longeurs where you do make a whole heap of decisions about configuration, architecture etc but it's slow-moving and you have time to breathe and live with the decision-making.

when the builders come on site things get real and you have to make so many big (and small!) decisions daily... it is a bit of a mission.

house is like something off the modern house now, though, so all good ; )

original footprint

original rear elevation

new footprint

new rear elevation

Bangin. Well done for it not killing you. That’s a serious renovation.

As far as I’m aware of no. 60s block, 6 floors, no cladding just concrete and brick..
Forgot to speak to estate agent about that.

Look at this...
https://twitter.com/SteveMcfirerisk/status/1293944377451085824?s=19

Oh go on let’s see some pics!

We had architect round on Tues - looking forward to seeing the outcomes.

That said we’re really loving our new house - feel like we’ve got a never ending list of jobs despite it being perfectly lovely and liveable.

Flat on our estate has gone up for £25k more than what ours has been valued at! Wondering if they are being cheekily speculative and would take any offer close to asking, or if they are really going to hold out for asking price.
Not sure if when we market ours we do the same or resign ourselves to less but more realistic asking price.

don't have any fancy/styled ones but here's a few of the better random shots I have from my phone - hard to capture the scale on iphone (we've got 6/7 metre ceilings in our living room now due to dropping the floors. footprint of the room is tiny [4x4] but it feels so grand/dramatic due to the ceiling height)

Bradford has some great food and music going on- love it

https://youtu.be/CpeG-uxx1SY

we've got 6/7 metre ceilings in our living room

I'm considering going up into the loft, not for much usable space, just to get some really high ceilings in the rooms below... (seems a bit extravagant though, and more volume to heat in winter)

yeah, I like this idea too. definitely extravagant, though, and don't talk to me about heating... we were keen to have the drama of the extra high ceilings because we'd moved from a tenement which had nice airy spacious rooms, whereas the 1920s houses (while not cramped compared to today's new builds) are less generous

here's an example of a house where they've 'extended' into the loft (archmongers' "peek house"):

On the upper floor, ceilings were removed to expose the rafters and help create a spacious feel within the two bedrooms and small bathroom.

Wonder if they rebuilt the roof in order to do that with insulation or some other way?

Think I’m laying this exact floor in my office tomorrow and was looking at those &tradition pendants 😎🤓

I'm wondering where they store all the random shite they've accumulated over the years if they don't have a loft.

https://www.spiti24.gr/en/2472712#photo15

Near Pantanasssa, Crete, new simple country house 65 M2 , 1 bedroom +
living room-kitchen + bathroom with shower. Fully furnished.

Yard + flower garden. Situated in lush greenery of private Ecological
Farm. Panoramic view . 200m from sandy beach, 15min. west of
Heraklion. Monthly rent €260.

On cold December days in Crete it gets to 16 degrees.

Insulating the roof is pretty standard for any loft conversion? If existing rafters can do the span you don't need to rebuild, just insulate. That bathroom makes me nervous though, hope the vapour barrier has been done well.

I'm wondering where they store all the random shite they've accumulated over the years if they don't have a loft.

It looks like there's a loft storage space in the top-left hand corner of the bottom image. Clearly not enough space though for even a quarter of a random accumulated shite.

Or even just winter / summer clothes. If we do our loft this is one of my concerns.

Coming from flats it's been really nice to be able to rotate clothes by moving winter and summer clothes up into trunks in the loft when they're not needed. Makes a change from cramming them into any random spot or storing at my folks and then trying to remember where things are.

An even more dull point is cleaning them. Especially those white ones. I always used to roll my eyes at my mum when she commented on how you'd clean say a square sink. Having inherited one in our place it's a fucking nightmare!

Guys I'm sending Kondo round to sort you out

I've actually never put anything in the loft... Only time I've been up there was with the surveyor. It's grimy and dusty and gets too hot/cold to want to store anything up there.

ALL my bike stuff brings me joy! STAAAAHHHHPPPPPP!!!!!

Gallery house by studio octopi (iirc) went into the loft for the front bedroom ceiling, looks great.

Kondo

Ha! There is a bit of that. Occasionally my OH goes into a panic when they go up there.

But currently 70% of the space seems to be baby stuff that mini-H#1 has grown out of and is destined for mini-H#2.

Although I am a massive hoarder at heart and it kills me when we have to buy something that I threw away. A great eg is that I recently cut and saved all the buckles and usable straps of a broken rucksack.

A great eg is that I recently cut and saved all the buckles and usable straps of a broken rucksack.

Yeah don't do that