the daydream fund challenge thread

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Davesnave wrote: »

Claude Monet?

Friends coming today, just passing through on their way to the 'sunny' south coast. It's great to see folk, but we seem to have had a succession of visitors lately, plus lots of small 'events' which, with the weather, make everything feel as if its standing still, or even going backwards. Far too many weeds out there, and the grass.....:(:mad:
Had a lovely (cheap) meal out last night in a localish pub. At last we've found somewhere where even the plain food is real: i.e. real home -made chips, proper onion rings and steaks that aren't measured in ounces, but just won't fit on the plate!

We're having an African night in the village shortly. I won't say too much about that, but let's hope the warm winds are still around then, as my 'outfit' doesn't afford much protection from the elements.....:rotfl:

HAHAHAHAHAHA my mind is working double over time here....

glad you found a nice place to eat.... with proper food... especially the homemade chips...mmmmmmm

Rhiwie there is def something there, has it been painted over?

Alfie... yes thats it, thats the programme.... it was really interesting.... totally injoyed that programme....

Rhiwfield might be worth seeing if the programmes are still on the old internet somewhere...

I have pm'd you with some things to look out for;)

lostinrates

Alfie,

I'm so sorry about the chook. You've had rotton luck with my chickens, I'm really sorry

Pet (chicken of the seventy seven egg hoard) I found on a 30 odd egg hoard this morning. Cuckoo was sitting on seven for two and a half weeks...this morning we could only see one, a dig around found four cold ones under the straw...but three were missing. Cuckoo is NO spring chicken, and I can't see her sitting on to many more clutches, so its really sad for her. I hope she hatches one, and I hope its a girl. Our only this years chicken here is a boy, and he's very beautiful. I tend not to keep hybrid males, but he really is quite special, so undecided yet.


My feral chicken seems to have come back for winter, she's here three mornings in a row for breakfast and I think she'll start coming in at night agaoin soon. She could do with building up, thats for certain.

rozeepozee

Hi Guys it's your occasional poster here. Hope you can remember me?

We are now in West Wales (don't get too excited - see later)!!! I can't recall what stage of planning we were at last time I posted but we decided that the only way to find our dream property was to move and look for it. So we rented a property in a village close to Cardigan town, enrolled our little boy in school (he started this week) and rented out our own place.

It's been a hectic few months sorting this all out and not a little stressful, but we've been here for five weeks now and that's how long it's taken to sort out the internet and a phone line!

We are loving the change in lifestyle. It's so different from the city and we already know loads of our neighbours and go to the beach for the afternoon.

Finding a property is possibly going to be trickier than we thought - all those amazingly cheap properties are amazingly cheap for a reason (remote, near windmills, risk of flooding, far inland..) and we are also struggling to find something with any land near the coast that isn't at least £100K over our budget. However, prices do seem to be coming down.... We are in no hurry and are starting to look for properties in earnest now that our son is in school, trying to work viewings round the twins naptimes (hasn't worked yet, and we've had to carry them round a few viewings, but that's the theory).

The greatest challenge so far has been digital communications. Oue smart phones are dim phones here as we haven't got 3G, and BT could not install for over 3 weeks, so if we've wanted to use the internet, it's been a case of going to the library... I can just about make a phone call from the garden, but not in the house. I never thought I would be glad to get such slow home broadband installed (yesterday) and be able to use a landline with no risk of the cal ending 5 minutes before I realised as I've rabbited onto a friend.

Davesnave

rozeepozee wrote: »

Finding a property is possibly going to be trickier than we thought - all those amazingly cheap properties are amazingly cheap for a reason (remote, near windmills, risk of flooding, far inland..) and we are also struggling to find something with any land near the coast that isn't at least £100K over our budget. However, prices do seem to be coming down.... .

Hello rozee, nice to get an update.:)

In a way it would be surprising if you didn't have a few problems finding that elusive property, since DW and I spent years on and off looking, yet not seeing much we'd really go for. I'd liken it to the chances of finding an entire, perfectly-fitting outfit in a charity shop, with each item of clothing representing the different elements of the situation: aspect, house, land, and outbuildings etc. Not at all easy! There has to be a little bit of compromise.

But the 'perfect-ish' places are out there. Unfortunately for us, that was only when we were in positions where we couldn't buy for various reasons, or because we lacked some piece of vital info. One place we didn't give a second look, yet when it turned up with a different agent, we suddenly noticed it was really pretty good....but it sold literally days before we had that revelation.:( Be warned, the agents don't update their web sites with basic info (like 'Under Offer') as quickly as they might!:mad:

Hmmm.....slow internet and bad phone reception; that's down here too. BT keep promising.....

Anyway, you're in the zone now, and in a great position. With the main buying season into it's last month, I'd not be in too much of a hurry. Lots of potential deals to be done. Even over here, in the allegedly buoyant South West, things are very s-l-o-w.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

Anyway, you're in the zone now, and in a great position. With the main buying season into it's last month, I'd not be in too much of a hurry. Lots of potential deals to be done. Even over here, in the allegedly buoyant South West, things are very s-l-o-w.

I'd agree with this. e.g. My parents place would suit a veg and chicken only smallholder...been on the market a year or so...still, has two interested now and a lowish offer...so who knows. Place up the road from me has been on the market the whole time we've been here at least. I keep meaning to check up on some of the other places that interested us.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

I keep meaning to check up on some of the other places that interested us.

I do. With Nethouseprices, Mouseprice etc it's easy to see what places have gone for....but only if they haven't many acres. The Land Registry doesn't seem to include places in excess of 2 hectares, in case they skew the figures. So, you might not learn much.

Anyway, our place isn't listed.

Places here are going under offer, then re-emerging again as deals unravel. Some friends recently thought they'd sold their house, so offered successfully on a ten acre smallholding. Rightmove told me on Thursday that their house is back on the market again. Personally, I think that's Fate doing them a big favour, as I have real doubts about the place they want to purchase, but I don't suppose they'll see it that way!

In Wales, properties sometimes seem to be sold, but then pop up again a year or two later. Here's one, last on the market this time last year at £315k, and back again now with a few tweaks for £20k more, .......although they'll be lucky, pretty as it is! Did they really hate living there or did they tweak it to sell?

http://www.profilehomes.com/module_files/0pan71_rural-smallholding-property-for-sale-brechfa-forest-west-wales.pdf

And here's another. New kitchen (totally Wrong with a capital 'W'!!!) new stables, and central heating (not done by Bob the Builder.) Otherwise, the same as when it 'disappeared' 18 months or so ago, but this time at a lower price. Still v. optimistic.:

http://www.evansbros.co.uk/Details.asp?PropertyCode=BRONF/16505/4

alfie_1

LIR...just a real quicky...nelly no kneck is NOT demised !!!!! she has risen ???:shocked:

yesterday she was keeled over and limp...i put her in a box to "sort" out today and when i opened box this morning she was looking at me !!! i nearly had a fit ! :eek: anyway she is very weak but eating/drinking a little so who knows...:)

lostinrates

alfie_1 wrote: »

LIR...just a real quicky...nelly no kneck is NOT demised !!!!! she has risen ???:shocked:

yesterday she was keeled over and limp...i put her in a box to "sort" out today and when i opened box this morning she was looking at me !!! i nearly had a fit ! :eek: anyway she is very weak but eating/drinking a little so who knows...:)

OMG...is it a chicken or is it an angel?

Maybe she was really scared by something and went into shock? She might make it...you never really know with chickens.

One of the old blokes I know told me once never to bury a chicken on the day it dies but put it in a shed or a garage with the door shut...because their shock can be so dramatic. Its NEVER happened to me that a chicken has come ''back'' but wow....I'll be more careful now. Unless that feral has been in shock all summer instead of going on chicken walkabout. I usually find chickens surprisingly resiliant to things that I'd be scared by if I were a chicken.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Davesnave wrote: »

I do. With Nethouseprices, Mouseprice etc it's easy to see what places have gone for....but only if they haven't many acres. The Land Registry doesn't seem to include places in excess of 2 hectares, in case they skew the figures. So, you might not learn much.

Anyway, our place isn't listed.

Places here are going under offer, then re-emerging again as deals unravel. Some friends recently thought they'd sold their house, so offered successfully on a ten acre smallholding. Rightmove told me on Thursday that their house is back on the market again. Personally, I think that's Fate doing them a big favour, as I have real doubts about the place they want to purchase, but I don't suppose they'll see it that way!

In Wales, properties sometimes seem to be sold, but then pop up again a year or two later. Here's one, last on the market this time last year at £315k, and back again now with a few tweaks for £20k more, .......although they'll be lucky, pretty as it is! Did they really hate living there or did they tweak it to sell?

http://www.profilehomes.com/module_files/0pan71_rural-smallholding-property-for-sale-brechfa-forest-west-wales.pdf

And here's another. New kitchen (totally Wrong with a capital 'W'!!!) new stables, and central heating (not done by Bob the Builder.) Otherwise, the same as when it 'disappeared' 18 months or so ago, but this time at a lower price. Still v. optimistic.:

http://www.evansbros.co.uk/Details.asp?PropertyCode=BRONF/16505/4

Davesnave...I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!! ( not really..lol..) these are the types of property i love....'sigh'

I love this one too, must be something to do with the prim/rustic living etc

http://www.vebra.com/property/652/22544093

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I love this one too, must be something to do with the prim/rustic living etc

http://www.vebra.com/property/652/22544093

To be honest, that one, besides being over budget, would scare me to death. But if I won the Lottery....Seems to have a very good EPC for its age & type.

Talley is a lovely place & it has a pretty good community spirit too, I believe.