Owning your own home

Yeah, it's good, just a bit of a surprise to see the compromises she's willing to put up with for the location.

Had the opposite experience - my wife was astonished at the level of compromise I was willing to put up with in terms of location to get the property I wanted.

It took literally years of viewing to find a place that ticked both of our boxes but we got there in the end. It's hard work but valuable work.

Things were easier the first time round in London, we were definitely on the same page.

But we've gone from residential forest gate to renting a flat in lyon on a road bang in town with with everything, markets great shops bars etc (there's 4 fucking cheese shops on our road alone).

We're aligned in the sense that we both want to stay central and not live outside the city, we saw a massive house only 10 mins cycle from where we are now which I thought was great but was a 20 minute walk from the nearest bakery. My wife said non!

Moved house last week, the whole process was a stress for a myriad of reasons. just as we start to settle into the new house and put those stresses behind us, the people who bought our house claim the boiler and radiators are leaking!

In Scotland you have 5 days (might be the same elsewhere) to report heating issues and said issue was raised on day 5 - so I run around all my contacts trying to get someone to do a favour and go take a look. Buyer claims to be a plumber/heating engineer himself when talking to my builder so knocks back every single piece of advice/question, builder rings me and says he's not getting involved, your buyer is a co*k.

I live round the corner, they've not even moved in (pass it everyday/evening), doubt they have the heating on and its been sub zero most evenings for a week!!

Genuinely do not have the head space for this, they are clearly angling for a new boiler or some shit, yes it was old, yes it had some previous issues but it was a working heating system which we used everyday to keep a toddler warm with no leaks or problems.

Rant over.

Seems like he's angling at that, happened to a customer of ours and they screwed them for thousands. Sounds like they are being deliberately awkard though so could go against them, but really for them to get money out you they probs would need to take you to court.

I had another customer who bit the bullet and fitted heating issues themselves as their solicitor basically said it is very diffuclt to get money out the seller once its done! Really depends how hard they make it.

I'll take the lead of our conveyancer who said they have to prove there is an issue and that it hasn’t been caused since he took entry (i.e given keys). I'd say that's quite hard to prove unless you have time stamped videos showing leaks at the moment you walked in to the house.

I think I'm most pissed that I need to do this via trades I know (otherwise he'll get whoever he wants to say its new boiler time etc) and I don't want to sour those relationships as they have to deal with this arse on my behalf.

The ironic thing is the house we moved into has multiple issues with the heating and I'm just sucking it up and fixing what I can. I would never dream of putting this on a seller unless there was water pishing all over the floor when I walked in. Maybe I'm soft...

Genuinely do not have the head space for this

Sounds properly stressful.

Can you get your conveyancing solicitor to tell them to drop it? i.e. conveyancer writes letter to buyers solicitor saying

they have to prove there is an issue

Where is the house?

I think she is trying to resolve it amicably which I am all for as well (especially as this is a little village where many people know each other!). So to that end I have a plumber going out this weekend to check it all out.

If any work needs to be done which is under £400 they pay, anything over, we pay. But, given the current vibe I get I can see how they could try and conflate and demand far more than just fixing a leak (if there is even a leak).

Just outside Glasgow

Fair enough. Hope it works out in your favour.

My view as a buyer is to have my eyes wide open and expect everything to be in bad condition and plan accordingly... as a (future) seller my attitude is to do my best to make everything as good as possible.

Shame but not surprising to hear that others don't follow the same :D

I'm very much the same and due to that have been caught somewhat off guard with this. Hoping it all works out for all involved, otherwise I'll be asking for the forum recommended frozen sausage vendor.

Oven arrived today, contrary to the Bosch advice, it had a plug on it. Local electrician was on hand and popped by simply unplugged the old one and put this one in, it is a bit deeper but fits the space thankfully.

Had someone round to quote for renovating front of house area earlier. Was more just thinking it's time to get the process started again but they have a window at the start of Jan so need to think about it a bit more seriously.

Looking at getting front yard bit (about 4.5m x 3.5m) dug up and new slabs put down plus a new front wall. Usual Victorian terrace but we are end of terrace so got two walls to do (looks like the one in the picture).

Firstly, any suggestions on what costs would be reasonable for this? When we looked into it a few years back we got a big range of costs for it.

Secondly, thoughts between porcelain or sandstone slabs? I don't know why but I was just thinking of going with sandstone but porcelain also looks a decent option now I'm reading up on it.

Thirdly, any thoughts on what would look nice for a wall. Original plan was to go for a half height wall with railings on top. Guy I was talking to today reckons that would look weird on the corner though and I'm struggling to find an example of it. Any thoughts?

Cheers.

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We paid about 3k for our drive/front garden to be redone. Which was cheap. No brickwork (except for rebuilding a wall that got knocked over by accident)

Any thoughts?

Go for a walk in the more expensive area near you with similar housing.

porcelain or sandstone

We went with black lime at the back, which we sealed. Sounds obvious but porcelain is much more uniform with lots of options. Sandstone will get licin and moss more easily. Given the area I don't think there will be a big difference in cost between cheaper vs more expensive slabs. I would probably get some nice natural slate and mix with gravel and beds. Something we didn't realise, until we'd started is that bigger slabs give less layout options so I'd think about that.

@ColinTheBald or @ColinTheBald would be good people to ask.

2019, but

FRONT DRIVEWAY
Take away unwanted plants and move others if possible.
Excavate area to be paved approx. 225mm in depth below proposed paving level and infill with a sub base
of hardcore and Type 1 crushed concrete and compact thoroughly.
Supply and lay concrete foundation for front walls.
Supply and build 2.4m x 625mm x 100mm and 600mm x 625mm x 100mm front boundary walls with
325mm piers either side of entrance.
Supply and retain soil of planting areas either side of paving with bullnose edgings.
Suppy and build a ½ circle step using bullnose edgings for risers.
Supply and install drainage channel at entrance.
Supply and pave approx. 35m 2 of rumbled 3 size charcoal 50mm paving laid in a random pattern on a
compacted base of sand.
Outer blocks will be laid on concrete.
All debris and excavations resulting from work will be taken away from site.
The cost inclusive of materials and labour will be £3220.

Firstly, any suggestions on what costs would be reasonable for this?

It's going to be unbearably expensive for what you will get, so I'd bet you just won't bother.

The cost inclusive of materials and labour will be £3220

2019?

edit: Hah, shit, I didn't notice you'd included that in the top.

it's going to be 2 / 3 times that cost now, and they'll still fly tip the rubbish in Kent.

3 times that cost now,

10k bingo!

Same guy did our patio earlier this year and the work involved seemed roughly similar

REAR PATIO AREA
Take away unwanted plants and excavate area.
Supply and lay concrete foundations for brickwalls.
Supply and build 225mm walls at front and left boundary of new paving area 410mm high using
weathered London yellow bricks.
Build steps to lawn and gate areas.
Supply and lay a concrete oversight reinforced with galvanised netting.
An area approx. 1.2m wide will be raised for shed base.
Supply and pave approx. 19m2 of 600mm x 900mm Porcelain paving laid in a staggered pattern
on a wet mortar base. ( Paving primed with slurry to add adhesion).
All paving joints will be pointed with strong mortar.
The cost inclusive of materials and labour will be £3665.

Honestly you'll die a shock when you get a price, I bet its 10k landscapers seem to charge like the light bridge.

That's good pls give me his number. Assume more like a builder / handy person?

The guy we used was in Borehamwood, but I assume would travel any reasonable distance in that sort of area - Edgware / Mill Hill / etc.

You needed to take most of the ideas to him, but he was OK to bounce ideas off and came up with better suggestions. Worked like a fucking soldier. Would 100% recommend.

His quote for rear garden work was a lot more though - couldn't work out if he was looking to turn it down, or actually knew how brutal it would be in the end.

"landscapers"

I think that's the problem part. Actually all you need is an outdoor builder. People who lay drives (properly) have all the requisite skills - dig, make flat/slopped, build walls, lay slabs.

To be honest I don't actually know whether this company is builder or landscaper, I can't remember where I got the details from (might even have been on here) but a couple of people independently recommended them.

I went through the process of getting a few quotes 2 or 3 years back and some were outrageous then (one £17k I seem to remember) so I'm fully expecting £10k+from the noises the guy was making.

We're not that central but central enough that we don't tend to get builders from out of London coming in, Enfield is where they tend to come from for whatever reason.

We've looked around at other local places and streetview but nowhere else seems to have that style of corner that we have, they're either curved or just a right angle.