First-time house renovation

ukmaggie45

ginvzt wrote: »

Good idea for the planning permission - if the extension was put say 50 years ago, would they have needed planning permission?

I think not! But you didn't say how long ago it was done, so worth pointing out just in case!

ginvzt wrote: »

I haven't thought to ask about receipts for the roof repairs or the guarantee -well, never had to deal with anything like that.

Guess your solicitors would ask about that, but might be worth asking yourself. Whether you get a useful answer or not is prob dependent on your vendor. We didn't even think to ask, but since we deffo didn't want a flat roof we weren't really thinking. IYSWIM.

ginvzt wrote: »

Thank you very much for these!!! All very useful info if we finally decide that we want to buy the hosue (well, I just want the garden....)

We bought our new house for the garden. :j It was a jungle beyond the lawn (lawn was regularly mowed - not any more! ) full of brambles, ivy, nettles, weeds. It looks much different now, but there's still a lot of weeds. But we've got onions and potatoes going, and maybe beans - planted them last week but I think they'd prob got too straggly so may have to re-sow.

Here's before pic of end of garden.



Here's a slightly more up to date pic. (mid May)



Must take some more photos!

Spuds all much bigger now, am inclined to do a bit of furtling soon.

andrew-b

ginvzt..nice house and nicer than the impression i'd got from what you'd said so far....and urm from the pic i found the details in about 10seconds flat ( i won't say any more just in case you do buy it!!) and just been looking at it on streetviewe too! Best get my offer in quick!!! lol . Looks very solidly built to me. Roof looks pretty good condition from the front - possibly one or two slates need attention can't really tell from the pics. You mention before possible dampness issue near the fireplace..is that fireplace the one to the right of the property as you face it from the road...just i'm wondering if the small block type addition with flat roof by the driveway is a source of water getting through. My biggest concern on location would be the major road with 40mph limit. You aren't really on top of anyone but its a bit overlooked from behind. Wasn't sure what the place next door was..googled..it's a wealth management company so you'll be sorted for retirement lol! I would return to the property about the time the local school children come out as i noticed school crossing lights and the bus stops on the doorstep. With the parking for the company next door you might find those doing the school run set their kids down on the doorstep.
Garden...bit of a jungle and quite a project but could be made really nice.
On the garage see if you can find what the roof is made of ..being a prefabricated concrete one it could be asbestos which could be an issue if it's in a bad state of repair.
Rooms seem good size..bed3 possibly a bit small but for a 3rd room perfectly acceptable.
Ask how long it has been on the market for...the answer may give you extra bargaining power. If it's been on the market ages and they are having trouble shifting it ask yourself why...if it's only been on the market a short while it may get snapped up quick. I don't know the area so no idea if the asking price is reasonable ..difficult to compare it to a newer property probably because of the amount of land it comes with.
It might also attract property developers because with the amount of land there running alongside the road it could be easily split off and another property or two squeezed in with access directly off the road. Or of course if the garden is more than you can handle...you could fence off some of it get planning permission to build (no need to actually build it!) and sell it on and make a tidy profit to plough back into the main house!
Anyway if you do decide to put in an offer..make sure you say it's subject to survey and ask for it to be taken off the market!

ginvzt

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

I think not! But you didn't say how long ago it was done, so worth pointing out just in case!

Guess your solicitors would ask about that, but might be worth asking yourself. Whether you get a useful answer or not is prob dependent on your vendor. We didn't even think to ask, but since we deffo didn't want a flat roof we weren't really thinking. IYSWIM.

We bought our new house for the garden. :j It was a jungle beyond the lawn (lawn was regularly mowed - not any more! ) full of brambles, ivy, nettles, weeds. It looks much different now, but there's still a lot of weeds. But we've got onions and potatoes going, and maybe beans - planted them last week but I think they'd prob got too straggly so may have to re-sow.

Well, I don't know when it was built, but it is the only room that has double glazed window, so probably not too long ago.

We haven't even looked for a solicitor yet, will get if we are buying the house and the offer will be accepted.

The garden in this house is a jungle, there is no lawn to speak of! I was trying to get to the end of it, and the nettles were to the waist. We did say that the lawn mower would be useless there, you def need scythe (is that how it is called?).

ukmaggie45

Yay! I found the coffee pot! :j :j :j There are obviously some plus sides to living in a horribly cluttered house! :rotfl: I am just so happy that it's still here and not gone missing. :j :j :j

Loss adjuster seemed to be OK, but couldn't find the receipt for the TV before he came this morning. Needless to say it turned up about an hour after he left. Been sent off now to be scanned by insurers, so he'll get it sometime next week I guess.

OH went to house yesterday, and found we'd had a thing from Building Control, basically OKing most of the stuff, but wanting more heavy duty something or other in the roof. (sorry, forget technical term! )

Gave date for when we should hear from Planners - something like 22 July I think.

Builder called round with costings for the extension yesterday evening. Not had time to look in detail yet (still trying to sort out after burglary), but not as painful as I was dreading.

Of course it's only the building work, not decorating, tiling, any more paving we want outside, and so on. Nor kitchen and bathroom items. We need to try and get our act together and begin looking at all that stuff.

ginvzt

andrew-b wrote: »

ginvzt..nice house and nicer than the impression i'd got from what you'd said so far....and urm from the pic i found the details in about 10seconds flat ( i won't say any more just in case you do buy it!!) and just been looking at it on streetviewe too! Best get my offer in quick!!! lol . Looks very solidly built to me. Roof looks pretty good condition from the front - possibly one or two slates need attention can't really tell from the pics. You mention before possible dampness issue near the fireplace..is that fireplace the one to the right of the property as you face it from the road...just i'm wondering if the small block type addition with flat roof by the driveway is a source of water getting through. My biggest concern on location would be the major road with 40mph limit. You aren't really on top of anyone but its a bit overlooked from behind. Wasn't sure what the place next door was..googled..it's a wealth management company so you'll be sorted for retirement lol! I would return to the property about the time the local school children come out as i noticed school crossing lights and the bus stops on the doorstep. With the parking for the company next door you might find those doing the school run set their kids down on the doorstep.
Garden...bit of a jungle and quite a project but could be made really nice.
On the garage see if you can find what the roof is made of ..being a prefabricated concrete one it could be asbestos which could be an issue if it's in a bad state of repair.
Rooms seem good size..bed3 possibly a bit small but for a 3rd room perfectly acceptable.
Ask how long it has been on the market for...the answer may give you extra bargaining power. If it's been on the market ages and they are having trouble shifting it ask yourself why...if it's only been on the market a short while it may get snapped up quick. I don't know the area so no idea if the asking price is reasonable ..difficult to compare it to a newer property probably because of the amount of land it comes with.
It might also attract property developers because with the amount of land there running alongside the road it could be easily split off and another property or two squeezed in with access directly off the road. Or of course if the garden is more than you can handle...you could fence off some of it get planning permission to build (no need to actually build it!) and sell it on and make a tidy profit to plough back into the main house!
Anyway if you do decide to put in an offer..make sure you say it's subject to survey and ask for it to be taken off the market!

I know area very well, and that road is ok. I have to drive it every day I go to work and come back, it is never clogged up. (Well, not at that point). The damp I noticed was on the left side of the house. The cellar is under that room, so that could be the cause?

I know exactly when it went on the market - not long at all. I was worried about he developers too, need someone to save the garden!

The rooms are ok, yes, bed 3 is smaller, and the ceiling is sloping to one side (it is to the back of the property, same as bathroom), but that was my favourite room.

Thanks for looking out for me - I would love to live there, but never know what my OH decides.

aliasojo

Oh my life, you lot do talk a lot at times, has taken me ages to catch up.

That house is lovely ginvzt. I feel very much like the poor relation when I see all your projects (or possible projects). :rotfl:

Have to go pm JT now...can't possibly be left out of this one.

suisidevw

Great news Maggie! Great! Surely you don't have to provide receipts for everything with loss adjuster? When my house in S. Africa was robbed I literally just wrote down a list of stuff that had been nicked, no receipts necessary. THey did take 25% off for wear and tear though which was annoying!

andrew-b

Well i can't keep up with this thread and i barely been away from it all day lol.
TM, not the BS my dad worked for ...good or bad not sure lol
Maggie,good news on the coffee pot!

Wood preserver arrived in individual boxes..each box about 3 times the size of each 5litre can! Anyway i'm ready for a weekend of non-stop painting..suppose i might have to sleep and eat sometime though. Off outside in a minute now the rain has cleared up to start getting setup so i can start first thing tomorrow. Going to use my spare paving slabs to create a larger painting area and then fence it all off from the dog. Might even get started today as i need as many dry hours of weather as possible. Not sure it will go down well with OH or neighbours if i stay up all night painting by floodlight!!

suisidevw

The threads moving quickly! I get the impression a fair few of you aren't interested in the world cup but I'm sat at work listening to it and buzzing! Can't wait for the England game tomorrow. Got a bit excited and invited 45 people to a bbq and world cup party at ours tomorrow. Luckily only 22 coming and all got to fit in living room where the sky hd and surround sound are! Rediculous pics coming up! Have a great weekend all, off to an audition for a new BBC tv show then onto Wales International beer and cider festival!

Toodles

ukmaggie45

suisidevw wrote: »

Great news Maggie! Great! Surely you don't have to provide receipts for everything with loss adjuster? When my house in S. Africa was robbed I literally just wrote down a list of stuff that had been nicked, no receipts necessary. THey did take 25% off for wear and tear though which was annoying!

Loss Adjuster happy to just give us a new 32" HDTV, but the one stolen had both FreeView and FreeSat built in (goodbye ugly and space taking up-y boxes we thought!). So he wanted the model number to find nearest similar. I think the one we bought was end of line model, and they've gone up by about £150 since then - at least according to the John Lewis website (bought from John Lewis Feb 2009 though both OH and me thought it was longer ago than that - we obviously are totally losing track of time, mostly we get it the other way round IYSWIM).

Sorry to hear your wear and tear probs. Our insurance is supposed to be new for old if that makes sense? So we should get the nearest possible to what we had, allowing for the fact all this stuff changes so fast it's usually impossible to get exactly the same model.

Had a nice bit of time with DD and the new baby twins this afternoon, followed by a bit of time in the garden at the new (to us) house. Really good to get away from all the hassles here at home for a bit. Took a courgette plant and patty pan squash over and planted them for DD and SiL in 2 gigantic pots OH took over last week (along with the compost to fill them) which hopefully was of help to them - DD is a vegetarian, so we want to try help them have at least a little home grown produce this year as they're a bit too run off their feet to plant stuff themselves!