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

silvercar

I get annoyed by the number of apps there are for parking, I have 4 active on my phone, plus another 3 city specific.

Randomly they log me out and I can't remember the passwords.

Having a single one would be far easier.

GDB2222

This is NFN - Normal for Norfolk.

Pyxis

Just popping in to say sorry I've been missing in action for so long. I've had loads and loads of illness and other mega-problems, all too long and involved to explain, and so just haven't felt up to posting or even logging on.

Health and other stuff is still ongoing, so I shan't be around much for now.

I had already subscribed to having this thread's posts sent by email, though, so I have kept up with the trials and tribulations of the Nice People, even if only in a peculiar format.

I see that this website is about to move into a new home, even if Pastures isn't. ☹️☹️
I suppose that means it's bye-bye to the lovely green skin. ����

By the way, a word of advice. Fresh blackberries do not go well with gooseberry compôte.

I know, because I just had some, and had to force myself to eat it up so as to get the vitamins, etc.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

Having a single one would be far easier.

Or none.
---

PasturesNew

The buses aren't much better.

Round here there seem to be two main bus firms + another couple. I think historically both could drive to the border between the counties, but not operate over the border. The two towns are about 2-3 miles apart and are now "joined" together and the country border's changed... but they still mostly operate how they did in the 1960s.

Trying to work out how to get from A to B using buses can take many, many hours.

Trying to ascertain the price of that is nigh on impossible.

Trying to then fathom out which ticket you buy and how adds so much complexity to it I don't use the buses. You can pay the driver, but you might want a return - so how much would an all day ticket be? And is that an all day ticket on both buses, or just this firm? And there isn't one all day ticket, there are a couple with similar names.

Now ... all of this information's on their websites... but it doesn't actually answer the questions. It promises answers but you go round in circles.

There is one destination, say, that I've half a mind to visit; a bit of me says "what about by bus?". So I try....

It'd mean a bus into town on Company A. Then Company B's bus. But, there are "zones" and that route includes a short car ferry/floating bridge. Up to the ferry is Zone A. Cross over the water and you're in Zone C.

So then you try to work out the cost of a ticket to reach Zone C and it appears that you need an all day/any bus/all zones ticket. You can't just say "I am going from here to there, but I might come back a bit differently, but I'm not riding round all day in all the zones". That trip takes 2 hours by bus. It takes 1 hour to drive.
If you want to go, is it a one off, a frequent, a weekly, or monthly price, and will you have other people with you?

You can pay by cash or contactless. Some tickets are available on a mobile app and a local smartcard.

It looks like ... if I went, as a one off, alone, it'd cost me £9.20. If I take four others with me it'd cost £24.50.
I could buy a bundle of these tickets, but not for this Zone C route at all, so that'd not be an option.

But do I want to go at the weekend? There's a weekender ticket where I could use it two whole days in a row (but not the night buses) - and that'd cost £16 to Zone C.

I've lost the will to live by this point. Get in the car, drive 30 miles there, park, job done in an hour for about £4.50 in fuel (add £4.50 each way if I use the ferry, but might as well drive round as it's cheaper). The route back would also cost £4.50, but I'd be free to meander off-route wherever my nose took me.

If I were a party of five we could buy a chip lunch at the beach with the savings.

PasturesNew

... I think I'm going in ....

Saw somewhere advertised and viewed it last year. Dismissed it as it needed rejiggling and I didn't have the spare cash for that.

It needed putting back to how it'd been, before they'd fiddled with it, but expanding/renewing the en-suite they'd installed badly that is now very dated.

I figured this one needed: remove en-suite to kitchen wall, move all cabinets forward 2'. Rebuild en-suite/kitchen wall with bigger en-suite (it now gets a small window that's already there). Knock down the kitchen wall to living room. Make the kitchen smaller (as you moved the cabinets forward by 2') and where there was a wall plonk a double width (1metre of so wide) breakfast bar to the living room.

Remove the funny "new doorway into bed1" they'd cobbled in, which'd reduced Bed2 to being a dogleg room ... and reinstate Bed2 as being a regular/square room. Fit new door to Bed1 where it would've originally been/

In short: Knock down pretty much every wall.... fit new doors throughout, new en-suite, new breakfast bar. I doubt any of it would turn out to be structural... I bet most is reinstating "as it was"

Now... there might be more.... the gas boiler needs moving from the loft (as it's inaccessible out there), so toss it into the (almost adjoining) garage and you might as well create a line of utility space in there. And, if you knock down the hallway storage cupboard and the loo wall you can probably fit a narrow staircase there, leading up to the loft that can just have some boarding in it (this bit's optional/additional cost/might not bother).

Then: splash of paint and amtico throughout.

A conservatory's out of the question

Question is... how much is that?

It went on at £299,950.
It was reduced to £289,950 on 14 November, I viewed it on 15 Nov.
It then "sold" on 20 Nov.
It's just reappeared at £279,950.

I think .... for what is almost straight forward work ... that my spare £20k would be enough to do the jiggling I want.

Anybody want to take a punt at prices?

I'll phone and have a 2nd viewing. Location wasn't ever "perfect", but it's a fair price for that location and not badly placed for access/services/shops/buses etc. 2.4 miles from a beach.

EDIT: Viewing tomorrow at 10. Buyer's buyer's pulled out, so they couldn't proceed; they'd asked if it could be kept for them until they find a new buyer... so I guess there's some small risk that if I went in much lower and they reappeared I could be gazumped.

gt568

That sounds a lot of work for 20k.

PasturesNew

gt568 wrote: »

That sounds a lot of work for 20k.

It's maybe the way I wrote it

It's mostly, I believe (will tap walls tomorrow), removing/putting up a few stud walls.... laying out the ensuite in a square instead of a thin rectangle. Chuck on a couple of doors.
Lob in a bit of wide worktop on top of some bases to make a breakfast bar....
Lob the gas boiler into the garage.
... tidy up and splash paint about.
Put down a bit of flooring.

Empty house, under cover garage and lean to adjacent to back door, so room to work in all weathers...

I'm not especially bothered about a kitchen, as such.... I don't really use them. I just need room for some tabletop gadgets, couple of cupboards for tinned food and a plughole for the F/F. A "finished kitchen" which'd be reusing existing cabinets in any case.... isn't required.

I guess the basics are: sort out the two bedrooms/reshape the en-suite and chuck in new fittings. Move that gas boiler.

IMHO a gas boiler should never be in a roof... you simply cannot ever get to it - and I do like to flash my eyes across it and under it every time I pass, to check for red lights, steam and leaks.

If I go for it ... and £X ... it might be that, closer to the time, I realise I've a few extra quid. I am not 100% sure how much I've got to be honest as all my figures are very close to the "budget".

I can probably pull off £300k. I'd know not to offer £305k for a house as I really don't think I've got that much... but how much I have, between, say, £295k and £305k I don't actually know....

I'm kind of relying on buying a house "under budget", then moving in and having all my extra cash in one spot, so I can absolutely, finally, know what I've got. I find modern/online banking very complex to be honest. I can spend half a day getting logged on and making a spreadsheet and knowing what I have.... but then I completely forget how much it is, or where. And then I spend some ... and I've no idea any more.

silvercar

Rathe than move the boiler it would be cheaper to buy a smart phone and control it from an app.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

Rathe than move the boiler it would be cheaper to buy a smart phone and control it from an app.

I have a HUGE fear of boilers.... I don't like them.
I'd rather it was out of the house
It'd still be up there and I'd become OCD about checking the app, petrified.... and, what if there were a problem? I'd struggle to get up into the loft, alone.... I hate lofts too

I bet moving it's not really that big a deal .... it'd be going out to the garage, which is almost adjacent to the kitchen, so it's not like all pipework would be re-routed to a part of the bungalow where no gas had existed before. Indeed, it probably enters the building round about there/ish.