Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

lostinrates

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Alfie - your new place sounds fab......and with your talents you obviously won't take long to make it into a wonderful home

BD - sorry, I forgot to comment on your gorgeous girls yesterday - they look so sweet, bless them It's great that they've found a lovely new home with you and Mr BD - hope they settle in soon and start regaining their feathers :A

LIR - maybe it's down to using an independent building inspector, I don't know, but either way he did all the applying to the council and has done all the onsite visits personally to check all is being done correctly, which is what we paid him for, after all!

You are extremely fortunate to have what sounds as though it will be an amazing home as your first home, despite all the hard work it will take to get to that stage

We were very lucky in that we didn't need a mortgage to buy this place - good job too as our (previously excellent) relationship with our bank was by then not so good - not helped by the massive PPI reclaims I successfully submitted, lol - but we made a nice profit on our last-but-one house, enabling us to buy the most recent two without any borrowing

This one wasn't mortgageable anyway though - down to having been ripped out internally I guess - and previous sales had fallen through, it failed to sell at auction etc etc. We came along at the right time - although now we're intending to sell again I'm not so sure about that - and were able to seal the deal in about five weeks

There are odd things now that make places un mortgageable technically, like no sinks. While ours was literally falling down (we didn't quote expect the old kitchen to do that at that time) but had three sinks so .....:rotfl: The houses my parents bought would all be I mortgage able now, and as I say on a normal situation this had fallen through. We were very lucky to have a good deposit and a good relationship. Also, we had a twenty eight day exchange here, I am sure it was to try and stop some things being found out, lol.

Its one of the reasons i now would personally have a structural engineer rather than rely on a surveyor! They are incredibly more practical and culpable it seems to me. Our builder (an MSEer ) is also great, and that we had a long relationship was probably useful. They knew that details matter to me more than speed.


Our structural engineer is another gem, He was very keen for us to apply to grand designs (something DH and I talked about but our time frame isn't compatible and DH is highly opposed anyway....though you get loads of incentive, which would improve timescale. It might be worth looking at doing something with one of the other projects maybe, but I think DH will remain pretty opposed. Who knows.

I'd quite like to press on with the coach house as a timber frame. I think this could be a little less........over engineered. It would give some spare bedrooms immediately and a potential separate place for resident parent so DH and I could be less planned about our privacy.

Ideally we'd have a workshop, small dog/yard kitchen down stairs with the rest as wood store and parking and upstairs be 'house quality' rooms. Its 60 feet long, not sure how wide, but upstairs will all be eaves space, so super pokey.


Those garages they have in the back of posh magazines look not too far off. .

I'm too nervous to get a quote though, lol.

phoebe1989seb

LIR - yours really does sound like a huge project I don't think I could be doing with another of that magnitude - our Southsea house, whilst only Victorian, was similar in the sheer scale of work needed - this current place whilst in need of what most would consider *major* work is much smaller than that house was, so not nearly as scary a proposition. We deliberately chose to downsize both in scale of project and size of property when we sold our big old family home

That said, I've just seen a rather nice chapel in need of restoration/conversion that is extremely tempting

lostinrates

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

LIR - yours really does sound like a huge project I don't think I could be doing with another of that magnitude - our Southsea house, whilst only Victorian, was similar in the sheer scale of work needed - this current place whilst in need of what most would consider *major* work is much smaller than that house was so not nearly as scary a proposition. We deliberately chose to downsize both in scale of project and size of property when we sold our big old family home

That said, I've just seen a rather nice chapel in need of restoration/conversion that is extremely tempting

Its not the one in maiden Bradley is it? I love that one! And I love maiden Bradley!

phoebe1989seb

lostinrates wrote: »

Its not the one in maiden Bradley is it? I love that one! And I love maiden Bradley!

No, it's not that one - just had a look and it's very cute but seems to have been removed from the market - I don't know Maiden Bradley, will have to take a trip there The one I meant is in Frome - we were going to view it but it doesn't appear to have much (if any) garden which would be a complete no-no for us

lostinrates

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

No, it's not that one - just had a look and it's very cute but seems to have been removed from the market - I don't know Maiden Bradley, will have to take a trip there The one I meant is in Frome - we were going to view it but it doesn't appear to have much (if any) garden which would be a complete no-no for us

Oh I think non res parent was talking about the one in Frome too

Frome is very nice, since johnny depp sold his restaurant. (I haven't been to it for ages but I'm told its really gone down hill.

Its funny, I remember Frome pre regeneration :rotfl:

It certainly was not cool then. . I really do like Frome though. I really like Bradford on Avon but not sure I could cope with all the flooding. I was encouraging non resident parent to look there because of easy link to bath and London but......think its a poor idea really.

Davesnave

BoA is spoiled by the horrendous road situation in the centre IMO. Not a nice place for pedestrians.

Frome was a real curate's egg. I used to hang around the junk shops there in my relative youth, but haven't visited since about 2006. We did some open garden events thwhich showed heaps of community spirit.

I like what I've seen of Malmesbury, but I don't know it that well.

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

BoA is spoiled by the horrendous road situation in the centre IMO. Not a nice place for pedestrians.

Frome was a real curate's egg. I used to hang around the junk shops there in my relative youth, but haven't visited since about 2006. We did some open garden events thwhich showed heaps of community spirit.

I like what I've seen of Malmesbury, but I don't know it that well.

There has been a bit of new development in the last couple of years. Its added a small pedestrianised area.....I mean three shops small, but its meant the two crossings really do make it better.


E.g. I'll go there with the dogs, which is pretty unusually in a town centre for me.

Its TINY though, and not very practical I think unless you can get out.


Males bury always seems cold to me. Stunning but freezing. Also......somewhat.....desolate. I know it commands great prices. Devizes suddenly seems more reasonable, but then......it has to, because the traffic there is horrendous. . Devizes is lovely, but we hardly ever go there because we don't have the time to sit in the car. It always seems though as if the night life is out of this world for a country town. The restaurants and wine bars heave as genteelly as the pubs heave with less refinement! Its a good mix. A really good friend of mine lives thre and when they are deployed somewhere else I can borrow their space but otherwise parking for the evening can be tricky.....and by the evening we 're usually knackered anyway

Marlborough is beautiful, but the traffic there doesn't appeal. .

I really love the towns in this county though, there are some pretty special ones and I feel really stupid not to me making the most of them tbh.


Mind you today I can only pick up radio Somerset, maybe the radio is trying to tell me something :rotfl:

I think I'm getting a nasty bug. My temperature was up last night and still is and I'm supremely cross and throaty.

Better_Days

LIR sorry to hear you are feeling poorly, hope you pick up soon. You were right about the chickens, they weren't very happy outside. They were OK when the sun was out, but after the sun went off the run, I think they started to get cold.

So Mr BD has turned the shed into a big chicken coop. Put some newspaper on the floor (found a good use for the massive pile of Daily Mail the seller left for us) with some shavings. Then in the corner half cat carriers with a nice thick layer of shavings in a cardboard box. Hopefully they will be warm enough. We will keep up this arrangement until they grow their feathers back. So far they have given us 3 eggs

Some sad news though. We are already down a chicken. :( I opened up the coop first thing and went out and checked on them a couple of hours later. One chicken out. Looked in the coop - only two more chickens. The fourth one had vanished. I wore myself out trying to find her in our garden. I think she must have hopped up onto the compost heap, flapped over the fence and the wire Mr BD put up (well over 6 foot high), onto next doors shed roof, down into their garden and off into the field over the back.

It was too far for me to walk so I had to wait for Mr BD to get home. Mr BD went into the field and found some feathers and a wing. The chickens were due to be slaughtered today so it seems she was determined to fulfil her destiny. But at least she had a taste of freedom on a sunny morning first.

lostinrates

Oh better days,

Sad, sad.


Your girls will come to like being out, though I find the ex caged do prefer to stay close to home. My others wander miles away...sometimes disappear for a while.

We've got a whole in the side of the little hutch I've done my best to patch with bricks from the inside tonight, but will screw a wooden plate over tomorrow.


The rain is falling buckets again and just sitting atop the ground, Its looked ok but in reality there is no where for the water to go now. I turned the pump off the cake yesterday to give it a break so will need to get that on again in the morning.

alfie_1

hi all...

apart from a stint of 4 months in Co. durham and 6 months in OZ and 3 months on the road in an open lot touring hants, wilts, n.wales i have moved within a 10 mile line from where i was born....:D

and now im going to slap bang in the middle :rotfl:
adventurous bod arent i ?:D

my mothers fathers family were here in 1820's [thats as far as we have researched] most were wheeler dealers/farmers /shipping.

i love the forest...:D