Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

lostinrates

sss555s wrote: »

I love that show too, though you would have to have your own original ideas to get on the show I expect.

Always considered building to get the perfect house for me but not in the current climate.

Our structural engineer was employed for another house not so far from me. He thinks our house would have appealed to them, and that instead of just being able to have nice builder do a wing structurally if we had been able to come up with more of the structural money then even things like insulation would have been 'sponsered' for the air time.

He was keen to do it again, the architect thought it would be interesting but I wasn't sure. (your finish is somewhat controlled by what you can afford combined with what :Apeople what to give you, you can do it all yourself, and of course approach those whose stuff you want....), ultimately we asked dh and he said 'no'. Because he doesn't want the inside of our home over tvs and he doesn't want our finances discussed and quite rightly pointed out I would not be happy with cameras about these days. Ultimately it still would be a two year project.. Two years, twenty years......not much difference huh?

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

TBH I'd really like to get 1,000 m^2 to build on in town as that way you can have a pool and a nice garden too. 500m^2 means garden or pool. Rural land I'd hope to have a minimum of 10 hectares (about 40 acres) if it was near a city. That's enough to put a medium-sized olive farm on.

My cousin has 10 acres Gen and a lovely house, some of the acreage is wild, some has been turned to grazing for her horse and then there's the bit for the house and pool. The house itself has a house and a separate granny annexe, my uncle won't live there, so they mostly use it to have friends over or the kids back. Things they have had to address:

* Being outside of the main town (how you get that much acreage) you tend to be more on your own. Therefore you have to harvest your own water supply (she tries to keep six months) and power is quite expensive, but they have also have solar.
* As behind the house is effectively native bush, they've had to build fire breaks. The risk of bush fires is still very real though, which is why the area has its volunteer fire force and her husband was out on Christmas day.
* Being in the tropics, there's also a risk of flash flooding so the house itself, as well as the annexe, have been built on quite a high raised slab so that the water goes around the house when flooding happens. The area between the house and the annexe is a car port. In a flood they have to move their cars to higher ground but at the same time the poisonous snakes all get washed out of the brush.

Having said all of that, the land affords them a fantastic lifestyle. They both work in healthcare and are well paid. They also bought the house well before the current price hike. As a result they have space to have some fantastic accessories. Being near the coast they have space for their boat and diving equipment. In addition to the horse, they have quad bikes so they can go ride out into the bush. They've made such a lifestyle choice and are way fitter than my other relatives who live more traditional city lives (though being Aussies are still quite sporty). They'll probably live much longer than anyone else, but they are very aware of the threats; be it snakes, bush fires, tiger sharks or holes in the ozone layer.

lostinrates

fc123 wrote: »

Definately not posh now but 100 years ago yes.

I love the way the old seaside towns all have an Oxford St that is nothing like Oxford St London (and couldn't have been similar even 120 years ago. Oxford St Brighton is tiny, almost invisible as is the Margate Oxford St.

These people have done a beautiful job (they were on an old hotel inspector prog no longer available).
It's how I imagine LIR's place to be when finished.


We were down again on Saturday and there are so many posh people in town ...I mean proper posh (well ....much posher than us) but we met a guy whose entire building had been destroyed by tenants (comm and resi). Took a year to get it back. A tale for another day.

I can hope.

I love finding places called 'the City'. It makes me laugh, especially when it's a rural hill road with four housed terraced on it. Lots of Park Lanes too. Ours is where a lot of settled gypsies live in mobile homes and some bungalows.

BigG10

Hello all,

I am new to these forums and thought I would say hello. I also think I'm nice!! Some points about me....

- hopefully about to become a landlord!
- terrified about house prices and interest rate rises. Would put our landlord plans up te spout.
- find these forums to have a wealth of information but hate it when people get shouted down.
- hate our current govt but they were landed with a right mess. They have bodged up the education system - I'm a teacher!

That is all!

SingleSue

Ah but do you like mushrooms BigG?

BigG10

I do infact! I love mushroom soup, pizza, risotto and mushros of the garlic variety are my favourite.

What a great question...thanks!

Does it have relevance to anything economic or am I just over analysing? :-) confused.com

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

My cousin has 10 acres Gen and a lovely house, some of the acreage is wild, some has been turned to grazing for her horse and then there's the bit for the house and pool. The house itself has a house and a separate granny annexe, my uncle won't live there, so they mostly use it to have friends over or the kids back. Things they have had to address:

* Being outside of the main town (how you get that much acreage) you tend to be more on your own. Therefore you have to harvest your own water supply (she tries to keep six months) and power is quite expensive, but they have also have solar.
* As behind the house is effectively native bush, they've had to build fire breaks. The risk of bush fires is still very real though, which is why the area has its volunteer fire force and her husband was out on Christmas day.
* Being in the tropics, there's also a risk of flash flooding so the house itself, as well as the annexe, have been built on quite a high raised slab so that the water goes around the house when flooding happens. The area between the house and the annexe is a car port. In a flood they have to move their cars to higher ground but at the same time the poisonous snakes all get washed out of the brush.

Having said all of that, the land affords them a fantastic lifestyle. They both work in healthcare and are well paid. They also bought the house well before the current price hike. As a result they have space to have some fantastic accessories. Being near the coast they have space for their boat and diving equipment. In addition to the horse, they have quad bikes so they can go ride out into the bush. They've made such a lifestyle choice and are way fitter than my other relatives who live more traditional city lives (though being Aussies are still quite sporty). They'll probably live much longer than anyone else, but they are very aware of the threats; be it snakes, bush fires, tiger sharks or holes in the ozone layer.

If this ever happens, I'll be in NSW not QLD which has much better infrastructure so town water is much more available. Having said that I'm perfectly happy to harvest the water off the roof. The only problem really is that you need to keep the roof clean. I don't fancy possum crap in my morning tea!

Power is expensive across Australia but I will be covering all owned houses with solar panels to mitigate that.

Bush fires are a threat in almost all of Aus. I live 10kms (6 miles) from central Sydney and I am in a high risk area for bush fires. It's just a part of living. It's highly unusual to get caught out by a bush fire though: most people that die or are hurt by them know they're there and decide to stay to defend their property. I believe in good insurance and keeping anything of sentimental value in a box that can go into the boot of the car at a moment's notice. I will never die to keep my house from burning as long as there is a solvent insurance company on this planet.

We don't do flash floods in NSW for the most part.

The last para just about sums up how I'd like to live. It seems that there is no point in moving to Aus; giving up family and friends and good pubs if you're not going to get the maximum benefit from it.

chewmylegoff

Generali wrote: »

TBH I'd really like to get 1,000 m^2 to build on in town as that way you can have a pool and a nice garden too. 500m^2 means garden or pool. Rural land I'd hope to have a minimum of 10 hectares (about 40 acres) if it was near a city. That's enough to put a medium-sized olive farm on.

Doesn't it take about 40 years for an olive tree to start bearing fruit? Better get started!

Generali

BigG10 wrote: »

I do infact! I love mushroom soup, pizza, risotto and mushros of the garlic variety are my favourite.

What a great question...thanks!

Does it have relevance to anything economic or am I just over analysing? :-) confused.com

I think the point is that this thread is for discussing things like mushrooms (big fan myself) and the ephemera of life. The rest of the board is for discussing stuff like whether house prices will go up, down or sideways; whether Cameron or Milliband is the biggest idiot; changes in interest rates; what ba5tards bankers are etc..

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

If this ever happens, I'll be in NSW not QLD which has much better infrastructure so town water is much more available. Having said that I'm perfectly happy to harvest the water off the roof. The only problem really is that you need to keep the roof clean. I don't fancy possum crap in my morning tea!

Power is expensive across Australia but I will be covering all owned houses with solar panels to mitigate that.

Bush fires are a threat in almost all of Aus. I live 10kms (6 miles) from central Sydney and I am in a high risk area for bush fires. It's just a part of living. It's highly unusual to get caught out by a bush fire though: most people that die or are hurt by them know they're there and decide to stay to defend their property. I believe in good insurance and keeping anything of sentimental value in a box that can go into the boot of the car at a moment's notice. I will never die to keep my house from burning as long as there is a solvent insurance company on this planet.

We don't do flash floods in NSW for the most part.

The last para just about sums up how I'd like to live. It seems that there is no point in moving to Aus; giving up family and friends and good pubs if you're not going to get the maximum benefit from it.

Could you not run your surface water through a klargester to clean it? Link it to the house grey water? You would need to scale up (fwiw, despite being convinced otherwise at the time I wish we had gone for a bigger klargester, but it's not an expensive solution to grey water and water recyling both.