Owning your own home

Wet plaster smells like wet plaster. You'll soon know it's dry when it stops smelling.

And remember to do a mist coat. The bodgers previously in my house didn't and if I wished I could just pull sheets of dried paint off the wall in places.

ha! thanks for the pro tip but i reckon we're just gonna bit the bullet and hit croydon over the weekend and get a replacement. we have this to tide us over til then. not even joking. i bought mrs hell one years ago. still has it. OG as fuck.

Most of it was done over a week ago, it was just finished off today, and I'm not free till the second week of my holiday anyway so it should all be fine.

Mist coat is part of my vocabulary since we decorated upstairs so it should be all good.

Anyone who is around the week of 13th-17th April and wants to earn a pub tea let me know.

FINALLY!
Planning permission finally granted for transformation of lock-up garage into bedroom and bathroom. It's taken nearly five years of pleading with Camden.
Work should start in September. I'm turning the smallest studio flat in London into the second smallest, but at least I'll have a proper bedroom.

congrats bad science sounds great.

can anyone recommend a decent thermostatic shower to go in a main bathroom and ensuite? the bathroom one will be on the wall over the bath tub and the one in the ensuite will be freestanding (if that makes sense).

New pipework leaking, ffs. Waiting on plumber...

exposed/concealed? modular/non-modular? trad/period/contemporary? circular/square? brass/st.st/zinc? brushed/polished/satin? rose size? multiple outlets? hand hose? 1/2"/3/4" connection?

Bristan do all the above, but are top dorrah

haha i was going to add a caveat after my post with 'i have no idea what i'm talking about for these bathroom parts'. should have posted it!

anyway it will be exposed from the wall, looking for chrome finish with a hose and head.

£6250 to get 3 sets of wooden casement/awning windows refurbished and original (1900's) glass replaced with some more energy efficient stuff. Ouchee.

Should make the place a lot warmer though, the rest of the windows are horrible double glazed uPVC things, or recently renovated and draught-proofed wooden sashes.

Stuff on the list (most of it probably never going to happen and, if anything does, it'll be years):-

• central heating overhaul (possible: thermostatic rad valves, radiator cabinets)
  
• main bedroom revamp (new carpet, built in cupboard replacement - Sharps quoted £14k, ha! will find a joiner and get another quote some day)
  
• new hallway carpet
  
• full rewire (along with Cat 6e cabling and empty ducts) and subsequent redecoration
  
  

More than likely I'll just find a good time to repaint a couple of rooms myself (daughter's room and hallway) and find a good network-aware thermostat for the hallway. Ah, and finish hiding some mains cable in the kitchen from where I removed the breakfast bar. Hmm, and the shared (with the flat above) front door needs stripping and repainting. Daughter will be busy with me come the summer holidays.

8 years in this flat and we've redone a spare bedroom (ceiling repair after leak, new carpet, redecorate), sitting room (new carpet, redecorate, sash window refurb), bathroom/toilet (complete revamp after flood from above) and daughter's bedroom (new carpet). Luckily the <£5k MFI kitchen that was there when we moved in is holding up nicely.

can anyone recommend a decent thermostatic shower

Our builder said favourable things about the Triton Capella we spec'd for our bathroom refit. Not sure if it's still available though, the Triton Dove seems similar. It has required one new cartridge in the 5 years it's been in as we have very hard water in SW15.

Remember to check required flow rates if water is coming from a combi-boiler.

We fitted an Aldi or Lidl cheap (£25 -30) thermostatic shower bar in 2000.
Hard water area, (outer west London), still working fine,
used 15+ times a week.
Helpline based in Ireland,
but the mechanism manufactured in Italy.

thanks for the suggestions guys, will take a look

£6250 to get 3 sets of wooden casement/awning windows refurbished and original (1900's) glass replaced with some more energy efficient stuff. Ouchee.

Ouch indeed! You should be able to get new ones for less! I'd expect a refurb job to be half that, tops.

Two of the bays are large. 2.5m x 1.8m (at a guess). 30 panes of glass each, 4 openable windows (2 casement, 2 awning).

Still waiting for my vendor's onward purchase to go through so they can GTFO. Latest update is that they are waiting for their lender to value/survey the place they are buying but I have also been told they have instructed their solicitor not to bother with any searches as they want to move as soon as possible.

Technically none of my business (unless it fucks the chain again) and it's good that they want to move quickly but is this even possible? I would never forgo the searches myself but I don't recall it being an option to say, "no thanks".

Shouldn't think they can forgoe all of them... don't they include the land registry ones that list whether anyone else has a name on the deeds (can't remember what this is called... the place we bought last year had four of them. It was a nightmare). The lender would require that before releasing funds.

Certainly possible, provided that the mortgagee is happy with it. If you're a cash buyer you could just hand over the cash and trust that everything's OK. Bloody stupid thing to do, but stupidity is generally not unlawful. Given that they have a prospective mortgagee the lender will require a report on title from the solicitors (which would include getting a copy of the registered title) and would require some searches to be done. However, there may be other less critical searches (local authority and environmental searches spring to mind) which the mortgagee may not require and which the purchasers could decide not to bother with.

Edit: Just checked the CML handbook, Part 1 of which (which applies to all lending by CML members) requires:

5.4.1 In carrying out your investigation, you must ensure that all usual and necessary searches and enquiries have been carried out. You must report any adverse entry to us but we do not want to be sent the search itself. We must be named as the applicant in the Land Registry search.

5.4.2 In addition, you must ensure that any other searches which may be appropriate to the particular property, taking into account its locality and other features are carried out.

Wot dan sed. If they are having a mortgage it doesn't matter what they instruct their solicitor to do, the lender will want searches done.

Looks like we can exchange keys and whatnot on 17th, woot.

Exchange keys or exchange contracts? Exchanging contracts usually comes a week or so before the actual move day (completion).

Good stuff.

I spent most of the day enjoying the sound of the floor sander downstairs. Still, the guy reckons he will have it all done today, despite the estimate of 2-3 days, and it looks great so far.

Keys, we just ordered a sofa, what a thrilling trip that was.

Credit reports are in, the three major ones all give me good results. I'm 980 out of 999 on Experian!

Going to have to take a raincheck on Farsley though, Bramley offers much more for the money.