Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

lostinrates

Give up and plant privet? I hate failure. . Please excuse the mess. Btw dave.....see what mess really is? That's not even anywhere like messy for us!

Better_Days

Just a flying visit....
Well done on the pole payment Dave

Absolutely frazzled with brother and family visiting. They have just gone off to the coast, we will follow shortly... but I need to rest and gather my scattered wits. Cats have got the right idea they have been hiding behind the piles of boxes in the aptly named 'box room'.

Thanks to all for your thoughts on the house, certainly focussed my views. Think it will come down to what surveyor and EA think we can achieve, and if it is enough to get us over the SDLT 'hump'. Did consider the property in Woolpit I have spoken - but very like the one we had just sold (before we done it up). But one in Woolpit only £10k less than we got for the bungalow we sold at the begining of the year. And Woolpit (although an excellent name) isn't such a popular village. Still if we decide not to proceed with the current property, then this will be worth a viewing, as it looks basically a solid property. Ashfield Grange is lovely, but we have pets, so flat not really suitable. Many thanks for taking the trouble to have a look around though.

Off now .... enjoy your BH weekend everyone

Rummer

LIR how frustrating! Could it be that you were sold the wrong type of Holly(?) for the location? Not even sure if there are different types of holly?

Itismehonest

Holly dislikes being transplanted & is pretty slow growing, LIR. Unless they are definitely dead - can't tell from the photos, sorry - I'd leave them longer to see if they pick up at all.

Or maybe try Berberis Ottawensis x Auricoma?

lostinrates

Rummer wrote: »

LIR how frustrating! Could it be that you were sold the wrong type of Holly(?) for the location? Not even sure if there are different types of holly?

There are different types of holly. This is just the bog standard native one though, which is what we wanted. Because of our location something native is bext IMO, and something evergreen preferable, and because of the yew near by, something dark. Prickly even better. Holly really was perfect.

It had root fungi to help establish because we recognise its not the nicest home in the world.

The ones that have died have just made no root growth at all when I pull them out there is nothing to the bottom of them.

choille

RAS wrote: »

choille

dare I ask how the roof is going?

It isn't at all at all.

The men who are helping have gone to other jobs as they do. It only needs a little work on the back & it's there. We just need a couple or a few dry, still days, the joiners & it's there.

phoebe1989seb

Better_Days wrote: »

Guys, got the Homebuyers report for the house we are buying and now wobbling a bit, about the work that needs doing and ongoing maintenance of the brickwork (calcium silicate bricks which shrink, so the pointing needs to be repaired and has already been done in a few places). Needs new carpets, decorating throughout, new windows and doors, new boiler, new oil tank, new consumer unit, tiling in bathroom and en-suite needs to be re-done, and new kitchen.

The plan is to stay 18 months to 2 years and then move on. Neither of us love the house, this is just a business decision really. We have had two purchases fall through and there is not much new coming onto the market. Asking prices are going up, and my health is deteriorating and we need to get settled. Property is only 6 miles from DH work.

I had budgeted on about £25k for the work (got a mortgage), but I think now it is probably going to be more like £30k. I think that if we can sell for about £275k we can break even in a year or two. But you all have a lot more experience than me in this sort of thing. What do you think?

I don't want to post a link but if you search RM for Wyverstone, it is the STC at £249,995. Lots of different properties in the area so not easy to value. Any thoughts that you have welcome. Surveyor not available until Monday, when I will have a chat with him about the brickwork and likely value when the work is done.

Gotta go now, brother and family descending shortly :eek:

The house looks fine BD, although I can see why you don't love it. Like the other guys/girls I too would urge caution on the buy-to-flip/SDLT issues, having been in a similar situation previously.......

Our last house (in North Essex) wasn't bought with the intention of flipping, but having sold our huge place down in Hants (£585k) and been in the fortunate position of paying off our mortgage at 40 and with no work ties to consider we foolishly fell in love with said Essex house without doing our research. We (stupidly) paid £280k cash for it, realised within weeks we'd made a massive mistake, but (to save face really) threw in excess of £40k at it in an attempt to rectify the atrocities done during the 80s to what was actually a gorgeous Tudor/Arts & Crafts house. Three years and two new bathrooms, a bespoke hand painted/granite kitchen, full rewire, re landscaped garden and full re decoration later, we sold.........for £250k :(:(

At the time all the EAs we invited to value the house said the work we'd done - all high end fittings etc - had made it more *saleable* but hadn't added value.......our buyers fell in love with the kitchen for example, but I think if we'd not done the work the house would still be languishing on the market two years on and if we managed to sell, we'd have been lucky to achieve £220k. Annoyingly the peeps we bought from had literally done nothing to the house in their four years of ownership, yet *made* £40k......grrrrrr!

What's even more galling is that our former home on the South Coast recently came up for sale again - for just shy of £700k and the peeps we sold to have barely done anything to it to justify the increase - if only we'd kept it I'm sure my parents' wouldn't be where they are now

With your health concerns and the level of work you think the house requires (although it really doesn't look too bad from the RM pics ), I would definitely be thinking twice about buying somewhere that isn't for the long term. During our three years in Essex both of my parents and DH's widowed dad (all living in the East Hants/Dorset region) became increasingly frail and our decision to move closer became ever more urgent and we sooooo wished we'd bought somewhere an hour or so away, not three However, I do appreciate the difficulties you have faced trying to secure the perfect home and that the market has improved since we were selling in 2011, but nonetheless I don't know that I'd want to be intentionally lining myself up for another move in a couple of years......

This is just my two cents of course and if you've made your mind up to go for it I wish you every happiness there and assume you've thought things through much more thoroughly than we did Will keep everything crossed for you that you have made the right decision xxx

choille

Beautiful photo Dave - I should take more as it's so gorgeous often. The other night the sky & mountains turned crimson.

We seem to have loads of toads/frogs about. The other night when out looking at the sky, as you do at 1am, I trod on one. I felt ill, but not as ill as it! In the morning it was gone. Nothings wasted........

I agree with the 'less is more' philosophy but you wouldn't know when you look in the shed.

The midges are swarming AGAIN, August is the worst month & I have mountains of holidoid washing to peg out.

I'm watching a wren feed its young a few yards from me on the old mill wall.....lovely.

Rummer

:eek: I just went to the supermarket without a meal plan and :eek: I spent more than I wanted to

However LIR I did manage to pop by the garden centre and I got cyclamen (thank you for the recommendation ), violas and sweet william to fill some of the pots. They will be done today so that I can enjoy them this evening with a chilled glass of water

Davesnave

choille wrote: »

I agree with the 'less is more' philosophy but you wouldn't know when you look in the shed.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
I'd argue that most of the stuff in our barn has been donated, but I know some of it isn't in that category, and there's no denying that owning a place such as this is 'luxury spending.'

I used to console myself that helping Pete by slightly increasing his acreage was a 'good thing,' but I'm not even sure about that now. Last night I watched the huge machines at work, harvesting, and seeing those leaves one in no doubt who is making the most efficient use of the land around here!

If you planted your hedge just before the very dry period this summer, I expect it has taken badly due to the lack of water, lir. I know our new front hedge has needed constant watering. We have also continued to water our beech hedge, which is a couple of years old. Mind you, not many people have quite such a wealth of mole and vole runs under anything they plant as we have.

Thanks for the lawnmower details, rhiwfield.