The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

Not the one... but might be the "one that will have to do", but it's a lot of work. Livable, but it needs to all be swapped around and room functions changed.... so mulling.

Large, at 1000 sq ft. Semi. Bungalow, garage.
2 beds, but it's been extended so is the size of a 3 bed.
SE facing garden, so not ideal (ideal is SSW).

Flat roof extension: at the back, currently Bed1 + utility. That's where the lounge should be, so would need to have that roof sorted/velux flat windows installed or something + fit patio doors.

Kitchen is in the wrong spot, needs to be moved down 10'.

Lounge overlooks front, it needs to overlook rear. So that should be a bedroom, but is way too large, so make into a 12' or so bedroom.

Then you end up with a light-marooned middle bit. That could either be part of an L shaped lounge, or could become a bed3 by putting in a Velux skylight. I despise rooms that only have skylights as a window, but that Bed3 would actually be a "junk room" and/or could instead be some stairs into loft storage.

Then, having lost the utility room, is there room at the back of the garage for it to fit (17'8" long), or would I need a new/small utility on the back of the garage.

Oh ... and it needs a conservatory as the cherry on the cake.

And if I was doing all that work, is there space for an en-suite in Bed1?

So, it's on my radar.....

Just checking other factors. e.g. it's an an area where there's a lot of "high risk" flooding, it's 39' above sea level, so needs checking further as it is actually on a sea-surrounded peninsula.

Spare cash if bought at full asking price: £40k.

Sounds attractive to me but would you be frightened every time a storm came in?

Does price sound a bit low for the size and location suggesting there may be major issues with flooding/erosion?

GDB2222

I have friends who put the kitchen in the front, so they would have more to look at whilst cooking.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's inland ... just on a peninsula. No water views. With a sniff of water it'd be £400-450k.

I need to look more closely at the "Doomsday Flood Scenarios" put out. I'm sure it's OK up that bit.... but need to check.

Price is right for the road. It's "a little cheap" for the size and potential, I think the agent was disinterested in bigging it up.... probably bored of not much selling these days so has become demotivated and bored.

It's just annoying when homes are laid out "all wrong". Frequently in bungalows people have bedrooms at the back and lounge at the front - some "norm" for many. With a sunny garden you need the living areas overlooking the garden, so you're in/out and enjoying it. I often hear on "Wanted Down Under" when people approach "single storey living" homes and immediately say "bedrooms at the front/that's weird".... but that is where they need to be if you want to move seamlessly in/out from the living room to the garden.

So, all the rooms would need to be moved.... but if you're moving 1-2 you might as well move the lot

Makes more sense now.

As you know I like places that are not right so that I can use the saving in price to make it how I want it rather than paying premium for someone else's design.

I think with bungalows they are often lived in by a retiree couple in which case having a bedroom plus a living room on the back can make sense as that is the two main used rooms and they don't need to worry about other family members peering in through the windows of the bedroom.

PasturesNew

I think we'll put that one down as a "no"

Quick list of the unexpecteds:
1/ The most hideous HUGE massive overbearing artex swirls, painted in gloss on every ceiling .... gotta go.
2/ Central heating... and exposed pipes running down the walls to the radiators.
3/ A wide crack all round the top of the extension wall, about 1-2" below the coving... it was obviously following a line and I didn't like to even think what it meant or how poorly it might've been constructed.

Overall, shabby, scratched, dated, 1970s original wallpapers and (big stone) fireplace. Damp, condensation, failing windows.....

It was bl00dy awful. Couldn't live in it; literally everything would need to be ripped out and a full/proper job doing on it. Not my specialism, I'm out.

CKhalvashi

silvercar wrote: »

Quiet on here. Hope everyone is ok.

We visited Harrogate last weekend, never been before and was impressed.

Please don't quote photo, will delete.

[Deleted photo]

Very busy, just finished with the busiest part of the year. Poland's win for the second year was very well deserved.

I'm currently trying to get a plan in place for the first 3 months of next year, and as next year has a 0 or 5 at the end, trying to get a 5 year plan written (which changes constantly, but works as an effective base tool). A big change in business strategy is coming as I feel we've moved as far as we can under the current plan, so exciting times are ahead.

I've booked a really cheap flight for a few weeks (it's the only sub-£200 flight we've ever seen to this destination) to somewhere we'd like to go back to, so there's something more to look forward to.

I hope all other nice people and their families are well

Poor_Leno

I went to hospital today for the first time since about 2007 when my grandmother was ill.

I was absolutely gobsmacked at the sight I was greeted with. There's absolutely no way I could vote Conservative based on this one experience today.

People everywhere either on seats, if they can find one, wheelchairs and beds i corridors. I was only in for a day appointment, sat down and the woman next to me had been waiting 2 hours for a 9:15 appointment. Great. By the time it got to my appointment, I had to go to radiology for an x-ray. Another hour. Back to the day clinic, another hour and a half.

And i'm not joking either, I felt like I was in god's waiting room. I felt quite sad actually. The nurses were doing a very good job though I must say....it was literally groundhog day everywhere. Maybe this is normal, but my last experience of hospitals was not like this. I've been waiting 4 months for this appointment aswell, and that's after an initial cancellation in July. I'm humbled of the job the NHS staff do themselves, but how it is being run is appalling.

Question now is where to put my X in the box. I'm not sure I have any option. My local lib dem candidate voted in favour of cuts to NHS services during the coalition. And there's no way Labour is voteworthy at the present moment with so many socialist policies. Perhaps I'll just vote for the Greens. Though I think they were borrowing more than labour last I heard.

Hope everyone here is well.

michaels

For balance I took my son to hospital a couple of weeks ago when he woke in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. Paramedica came within 15 minutes and advised that although he was improved we should go to A&e for steroids. Got to A&E at 5am there was one person waiting in the adult area who looked like he was just there for somewhere warm, went into the children's area got assessed by a nurse immediately and seen by a doctor within 10 minutes (his breathing was ok by this point so no emergency). Whilst we were there a couple of other kids came in and had similar experiences. Place was warm, clean, staffed and this a hospital with a poor A&E wait record according to the stats.

CKhalvashi

michaels wrote: »

For balance I took my son to hospital a couple of weeks ago when he woke in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. Paramedica came within 15 minutes and advised that although he was improved we should go to A&e for steroids. Got to A&E at 5am there was one person waiting in the adult area who looked like he was just there for somewhere warm, went into the children's area got assessed by a nurse immediately and seen by a doctor within 10 minutes (his breathing was ok by this point so no emergency). Whilst we were there a couple of other kids came in and had similar experiences. Place was warm, clean, staffed and this a hospital with a poor A&E wait record according to the stats.

Also for balance, I've spent more than once night in the last 18 months with someone elderly in A&E who has had to wait for several hours at a time. I'm not going into further details for privacy of the person involved.

5am is likely to be after the drunks have passed through and before the morning starts, if you'd tried the same 7-8 hours earlier or 3-4 hours later, you'd probably not be feeling the same about the services.

I'm not saying the staff don't do a great job, I'm saying the services are chronically underfunded.

ETA: Can we please not get political here? It's not the place for it.

hjd

CKhalvashi wrote: »

ETA: Can we please not get political here? It's not the place for it.

Totally agree.

GDB2222

To stay unpolitical, can I just remark about yesterday’s wonderfully parochial headline in the Times. It was about the volcano eruption in which 13 people of various nationalities are believed to have died rather horribly. The Times front page reported 'Two British Tourists Injured in Volcano Eruption'.