Daydream thread continues.....

lostinrates

Grim day again, but I feel HUMAN and ABLE. The chooks even look grim.

The horses have been out on the summer grazing since the weekend, but looks like they have to come back on to the wonter grazing for access to the barn tonight. I really need to check out a long term forecast. We have loads of grass left in the summer grazing, and it's barely dried out down there this year. The dryest patch of winter field is what I have has to use ( I normally save that for the grimest months of thawed winter, when there is no frozen ground to walk over to the grass at the furthest reaches.).

We have enough grass, if its dry enough. I have been thinking about options, no one locally wants it for far stock, but I did think about offering it to one of the horse rescues, telling them they are welcome to the rest of the summer grass and I will take care of the horses, but not sure if it's useful to them. It would suit hardy things that don't need shelter, and I am happy to do rugs etc.

lostinrates

Ok, weird question, probably for davesnave.

Where the garden has been scraped down obviously the top soil has been removed. Do we now dig down and remove a spades depth of clay and replace with top soil and manure? I can only think the answer is yes.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

Ok, weird question, probably for davesnave.

Where the garden has been scraped down obviously the top soil has been removed. Do we now dig down and remove a spades depth of clay and replace with top soil and manure? I can only think the answer is yes.

If you are intending to stay at that reduced level, then you'll have to remove the sub-soil, especially clay, then re-fill with soil from somewhere else.

Here, when we scraped off the top layer, together with much of the couch grass, we just replaced with less weedy soil to bring us back to the original level.

In my old front garden it was all clay, except for the top 3-4 "
I was a lot younger then, so I dug it all out to at least 15" and replaced with brought-in soil. That was only a small area, but it took ages with just a wheelbarrow ,old fertilizer bags and lots of trips to the dump!

Itismehonest

alfie_1 wrote: »

So people like Alfie who would like to rent places find they are unable to & people like us who would happily have housed locals are unable to because the buildings must be kept for holidaymakers & so the places either stand furnished but empty & charged CT as 2nd homes or they get ripped out & used as sheds so CT doesn't apply.

well, from my personal experience , i have found when a conversion ie barn/outbuildings have been granted PP for SPECIFICALLY holiday let then they are used for just that. BUT i know of many houses that are let for X amount of time for holiday/longer lets...
where i lived before , we had an annexe that we used for holiday let [many years before us it was let as a home] the planning dept? turned up saying we couldnt holiday let unless we could prove it had been let in ANY capacity previously, which i did. there was NO stipulations as to how long/how frequently etc we could let for as a result.
only if a conversion of sorts is made for holiday let ONLY did rules apply,but a "normal" house here is up to the owner how they LET it...
yes CT was paid but i let for 48 weeks a year [holidays] 2 weeks off and 2 weeks for decorating etc.
the rents more than covered the CT and i looked on it as if it was like my shop, id have spent a hell of a lot more with rent, rates ,wages etc to make less profit in the end.
maybe we are lucky here with regards a flow of visitors but i think the fact i let em bring thier pets helped :D

i think the problems arrise when premises like itsme's are now not personally viable to let for holidays. which means one either has to put up with charges or move which is harsh if like itsme, its not selling...devil and deep blue sea.

It's the same here. If a property has been a home then it remains possible to let all year. If it's a conversion, the planning is restricted.
When trading we paid Business Rates on all the cottages & CT on the house.

Our business was very successful. The cottages were full for around 30 (some for as many as 38 or more) weeks per year (of the allowed 10 months) with a large number of regular visitors who came every year & sometimes 2 or 3 times a year.

When we retired we were told that we had a choice of continuing to pay BR, paying 6 lots of CT or making some or all of the cottages uninhabitable & therefore exempt ..... which we did.
What makes it ridiculously unfair is that none of the cottages could actually be used if it were not for the house as the electricity, water, drainage etc. is all from the house. There is no separate supply for anything for the cottages. As they are on the same deeds they cannot be sold separately but because they have been used commercially no lender will give a mortgage on the house so it's find a cash buyer, pay to have the deeds split, a separate energy supply including transformer run to the cottages, sort out division of access, water, drainage etc. or completely rip everything on the cottage side back to original outbuildings & lose a large part of the value of the property but be able to sell as residential. It's a totally ridiculous situation.
I'm moving more & more toward the latter option.
While nothing is moving locally there's no rush to make up my mind but, as soon as other places which are still on the market start to sell I'll be taking action. It makes a mockery of everything we've done over more than a quarter of a century to turn this place from a crumbling wreck to a decent home + income but I'm just not willing to continue being a cash cow for bureacracy which is basically all I am now. They take but give nothing in return - not even a bl**dy bin or refuse collection as far as the cottages are concerned.

OK. Sorry for the rant. I'll disappear & let you all get on with more jovial banter.

lostinrates

Itsme,

Could you not still run them, but employ someone to manage the business? That might be more saleable as a going concern and also, bring in an income in the mean time? Or is the take to lean after employing a manager?

Itismehonest

Paying isn't the problem, lir. I've been doing that for 8 years already. It's the principle. We've already been told that Planning would probably turn a blind eye to an elderly relative living in the cottage but we ARE the elderly relatives! I can't exactly dig up the parents to suit Planning's criteria :mad:
No, our problem was that we were honest. Just about everyone else breaks the rules. eg Converted outbuildings which were meant to have no cooking facilities etc (just be additional day space) but have full facilities & people living in them.

There's only one fully up & running cottage left now. This was left with the intention of it being ready for a new owner to start trading or for that elderly relative to move into.
I really doubt that it would be viable to have management in to run the business given where we are. This is definitely a DIY area. Any staff come in by car from the larger villages. There's nobody local who works as such. All have their own business or are retired.
I'm out of touch with what could be charged now but, after Landlord Insurance, Public Liability, compulsory electrical checks, water testing & the purchase of various filters/bulbs required, advertising, cleaning, general maintenance & running repairs etc. I doubt it would be in any way worth the hassle &, as I said, I'm getting to the stage where cutting off my nose to spite my face is fast gaining definite appeal.
We are starting to hate pretty much everything about rip-off Britain. A few months away from it would do us both a world of good. I'm not even sure I'd ever bother buying somewhere again. Renting has it's good points as well as it's bad. We can move as & when to wherever. We've no ties to any one place & the few things of real sentimental value are the only things I'd cart round.
As we were saying to the Rhiws, our idea was never to take the stuff with us when we went.

lostinrates

Oh imh, it's difficult to see the wood from the trees often enough, you have my sympathy. Are you currently on the market?

How many critters do you have still? Could you get away for a decent break at the very least?

alfie_1

hi all....

im not a happy bunny ! i bought a pair of sheepskin boots [like uggs ] on the bay..described as worn but plenty of life left in em ..:mad: well apart from the thin-ness on the tops and the GLUED splits at sole/boot joins .....:mad:
ive messaged seller...............

still not got the coat i bought 9 days ago.........:mad:


aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh ! i dont like today so far...

im gonna try and build mabel another house.. she's still not right and i think she is struggling to fit her swelt figure through the doorway of her brick proper pig house..;)

well at least it is not raining...:o that was whispered...:o:o

lostinrates

Alfie,

Dunno what it's like for you, here it's meant to hit quite hard tonight and tomorrow but then be drier (not dry) fri and sat, then ok on Sunday.

Itismehonest

lostinrates wrote: »

Oh imh, it's difficult to see the wood from the trees often enough, you have my sympathy. Are you currently on the market?

How many critters do you have still? Could you get away for a decent break at the very least?

No we took it off the market a year ago & won't be putting it back on until we see some movement locally.
Just the ponies left now.
No, can't get away because to do so would put us too far behind with everything here. As everyone will have noticed it's not been a year for achieving much outside. We aren't on top of what we should be as it is.

Oh alfie Like I said - Rip Off Britain.