Owning your own home

We've got a pretty healthy contingency at the moment so even with that we are ok. As they've ripped out the floors and the rest of the house is in decent condition (including a new roof 7 years ago) I'm hoping that's the end of the nasty surprises. Lol.

What did you go for?

👍
got any drawings of what you have planned? Got a zoom with our architect tomorrow where we are among other things going to have to ask why our budget seems to have been doubled 🤣

One of the starter packs, 2 extra thermostats and one extra rad valve. I think I might have one too many smart thermostats but I can send it back until the end of Jan so

We've just got those era ones but from locks online, we've not installed them but they look good enough. Why do you want a mortice as well as a deadlock?

Our water pressure is great already so is it worth it?

Yes, lead can slowly poison you. We had ours did, cost a lot less than £800 but didn't require making good as it runs along our cellar wall. I'd do it personally.

There's one cold room / rad. My kids shared bedroom.
I think it's a case of opening up the lockshield a little bit more as all the others are warm/hot.

I’ve had the evohome setup for about a year now across 10 rooms and 1 underfloor heating loop. I think it’s brilliant. Top floor of the house is kept low with the main rooms heating up more frequently. I can either use the app or the tablet so don’t even need to get off my arse

You are greatly advised to replace lead pipe due to the risk. I think the issue is cost of mdpe pipes and min length you need to buy
If it’s all internal matter getting some push fit connectors and cutting the existing to fix this

We have had our offer accepted, woo hoo. First weekend of viewings and only place we offered on, although we have been studying the market/area for a while.

Much discussion on here about surveys. The place has been nicely renovated including a full width single storey rear extension and two rooms and bathroom loft conversion that all looks well finished. Done in the last 5 years, but not brand new, so hopefully any teething problems have been ironed out.

So what survey if any should we get? I would guess it's more checking the quality of the recent works.

This is interesting to me, as it sounds similar to my setup currently, I have;

5 x UFH loops
4 x towel rails
7 x rooms with Radiators

Currently I use Nest across 2 zones, then individual controllers for the towel rails (all on one loop) and the UFH loops, which I think is leading to me to spend much more on gas than I need to...

If the works are recent, they should have paperwork/warranties to back it up. Also worth checking the local council planning site to make sure it was all kosher. Croydon's site made it really easy to see the ground floor extension and loft conversion of our place were A) done when the vendor said they were, and B) signed off properly.

I would still recommend getting full building survey, even just to remove any nagging doubt further down the line. It might not show you more than you already know, but then, you don't know what you don't know. For ours, we knew a shit ton of work needed done and didn't see any signs of structural issues ourselves during the two viewings. But having that reinforced by a survey helped my anxiety. It did also find some other minor stuff that we missed (a loose step, a down pipe needing redirectedetc).

We only paid £600 inc VAT from Leo Horsfield for a building survey and I personally am happy with the turnaround and detail in the survey. The guy also gave me a call as soon as he had done it to have a chat too.

Edit: Congratulations! Where/what is it?

Thanks. It's a proper house in Leyton, victorian mid terrace. Moving from a Hackney flat to a house further out, like everyone and their dog apparently. Wouldn't surprise me if we were bidding against people on here!

Finally had my mortgage offer though, hurray.

Everything seems to be moving along now, hoping to agree a date before long...

I'd agree with the above, get a full buildings survey. It may not throw up anything (although I know a couple of people who have pulled out following the survey) but if something does subsequently turn up you'll wonder if the survey would have found it.

If you're spending hundreds of thousands I wouldn't skimp on paying £700 for a full buildings survey.

Are the towel rails are on the heating circuit or the hot water circuit?

Bathroom Update

2 Attachments

They are on their own circuit...

How painful has it been so far? Judging by those tools it looks like you may do this as a job or at least be very enthusiastic?

our architect tomorrow where we are among other things going to have to ask why our budget seems to have been doubled

Lol - architects. In one of our builds they tried to spec a monolithic (their term) rotating wall. Needless to say it didn't get through the first round of review.

Give 'em hell!

Today's insanity - another house in our road gone up for sale. 3 bed in West Norwood for £825k

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-85784698.html

They haven't even got Tado

Yeah, it always makes sense, but also adds up!

Does anyone have any recommendations of surveyors in E10/17? I assume it doesn't hurt to have someone who knows the local housing stock and therefore any specific potential issues.

I'd be concerned about shelling out 825k for a small house in W Norwood right now, nice though it may be. And I quite like W Norwood having stayed on Auckland Hill