Your old house. Your new house.

seven-day-weekend

bouicca21 wrote: »

Old house 4 bed detached in suburban wilderness. 2 rented flats on the way to new place, 3 bed ground floor flat with small private gardens and massive communal one. Still suburbia but no longer wilderness - coffee shops, supermarkets, restaurants all in walking distance, fast connection into central London. Reason for moving, cheating husband.

You can keep your rural idylls and dreams of alpacas. I'm a city person for whom the rural idyll seems like far too much hard work.

I agree. Countryside is to look at. . I like the feel of concrete beneath my feet in my everyday life. I love my new bungalow because although it ins within walking distance to shops and other amenities, and on a regular bus route to the city centre, the countryside is also within walking distance.

I would hate to have to get the car out every time I needed a pint of milk. Even when we lived in the mountains in Spain we had a village shop for every day supplies.

DaftyDuck

Well, since I had the phone call from the solicitor(s secretary; I suspect the solicitor is unconscious on the pavement outside Wetherspoons) saying we'd just completed at 11:00... :j:j

My Old House: A 1920's seaside house, perfect condition, new (under 3 year) central heating, complete rewire - right down to getting the original servant's bell system up and running, no leaks, no damp, no cracks (visible) anywhere. Painted from top to bottom, wooden floors shiny and perfect. Showers and baths newly fitted, large, shiny, clean and fully functional, with oodles of piping hot water. Kitchen: new. Conservatory: new. Drive: new. Garden sparkling, 3/4 acre of tidy beds, plants all labelled, weed-free. Lawn smooth and weed-free. Vegetable patch newly-dug, fruit bed with around thirty types of fruit (which, on completion day, were ripe, red and delicious). Thirty varieties of apples, six of pears, five of plums, peaches and nectarines..... ahhhh bliss! Sold, for inflated asking price, within 3 days ...

So....

My New House: Built around 1790 - 1800. Leaking roof with mushrooms attached. Heating system at least 30 years old, oil boiler only 20 y.o., last serviced 2013 (by owner), old and odd electrics (also courtesy of previous owner)damp in end wall, side wall, end wall and rear wall. And in extension. Single-glazed (some panes cracked, carpets elderly, doggy, burnt round fireplaces. Main bedroom carpet is missing a 10' X 10' square from middle... Bricks to chimney spalled, side door collapsed in frame, large asbestos barn outside, river at bottom of land floods, got "legal issues" with a property landlocked by ours and, to cap it all, owner is still packing up his chattels despite completion. That's apart from the animals, which he's leaving. Some. Or none. We shall see. He's agreed to leave the keys in the kitchen but, since that side door is "fubar", there's no real need for keys at this stage. We can pull it out of the frame if need be.

That's not including the faults the surveyor found, either...

We do have our own Marsh Harriers... so it's not all bad.

Edit: oh, it was 3/4 of an acre. This one is 29 acres... I intend to sue Dave for every penny ..... rural idyll... rural idiot, more like... harumph!