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

Pyxis

antrobus wrote: »

I believe that something like half of all owner-occupiers are 'guilty' of 'under occupation'. In the sense that they have more bedrooms than people. Various measures have been suggested to encourage people to downsize in order to free up this space.

The problem with 'organising' it, is that people have their own ideas of where they should live. Like me. I like my house. I ain't flippin moving just because I have a spare bedroom or two.:)

I no longer have 'spare bedrooms'.
When I eventually manage to stop my house being a warehouse, I will have my bedroom, a living-room, a music room, a workroom and a study.
So there!

Having your bought and paid-for property requisitioned because you are deemed to be 'underusing' it smacks of post-revolutionary Russia.

I did my time living in bedsits, shared houses and tiny little places, so I don't mind rattling around a bit now!

Actually, I wish I could rattle, as it's more like bash, bash, step-over, trip, trip, squeeze past, bash at the moment! :rotfl:

antrobus wrote: »

That's the council doing its 'consultation'.

The answers (as you might have guessed) are designed to only really go one way. The purpose is to undermine whatever opposition might emerge to whatever it is the council wants to do or stop doing.

Yes. Sickening. Why don't people see through it?

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

When you downsize from, say, a £400k 4 bed house with garage, large garden, kitchen/diner, 25' living room, utility room.... 3 sheds, what you get for, say, £200k is a 1-bed flat, no garage, no garden, miniature kitchen, 10'x12' living room, no utility, no shed.
It's disproportionately smaller. You don't get "half what you used to have" by paying half the price.

4 beds for £400k. Not around here, with this broken house market!

The cost differential is partly due to the broken market, but it also reflects that the cost of building a house isn't proportional to the floor area. It doesn't cost 4 times as much to install central heating in a 4 bed house than a 1 bed one, for example.

Pyxis

I must admit, storage is at the heart of my problems.

I have so few cupboards, and because I don't have a garage or decent shed, everything that would be in a garage is in the house.

Even what was the cupboard under the stairs got made into a cloakroom some time ago, but even that is crammed full with coats and stuff.

I really need to get a load of built-in cupboards organised, but due to being unwell so often, it ain't been happening! Besides, in order to get them fitted, I'd have to clear the rooms and there's no-where to put the stuff!

I had a cursory look at self-store a while back, and it wasn't cheap, but I think it might be the only way to get out of this vicious circle, if only to rent one for a year or so.

A lot of my stuff would be good to sell at car boots, but no energy for that at the mo. If I had a garage, I'd have a 'permanent' garage sale, somewhere I could leave the stuff out on tables and open it every weekend, etc. No heaving boxes around then.

I even looked into having a stall in a combo store place, but it would have been totally uneconomic.

What I could do with is someone to sell the stuff on eBay for me, and do all the admin, sending off and stuff, in return for 50% of the proceeds.

michaels

I would love to claim our junk problem was a storage issue but to be honest it is a hoarding issue

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

I would love to claim our junk problem was a storage issue but to be honest it is a hoarding issue

Ok, then, storage and hoarding!

Hoards in cupboards are less hoardy than hoards all over the chairs, tables and floors!

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

Occupation/over/under: The issue is that in the UK the focus is on the number of bedrooms. The real issue with most houses is lack of storage. Most people could live in a 1-bed flat if it actually had enough storage - unfortunately, that room for storage would become a 2nd bedroom....

Absolutely. And programmes that show people doing up houses to sell, or being helped to make over their own houses to sell, etc, always seem to involve removing storage "to make rooms look bigger". A room isn't suitable as a double bedroom if once you've got the double bed in there's no space for a wardrobe!

silvercar

Pyxis wrote: »

I think mixing the very old and the very young is a superb idea. The way we segregate ages sometimes is bonkers.

We rue the demise of the extended family and then separate all the age groups! Kra-zee!


Take those awful gated communities they have in Florida for the elderly! Brrrrrrrrrr!
Like a small village with only elderly people in it! 'Tain't natural!



Shame your 'person' wasn't there for the filming, Lydia! Although if it becomes a regular thing, then I suppose they might be, eventually!

DKWD,

I've been involved with a monthly programme whereby an elderly social event was teamed with a Nursery school outing. It was a great success. It usually involves some joint art / craft activity to break the ice. The oldies were originally sceptical, but now they eagerly look forward to it. Quite fun to see the little ones think they are helping the oldies "whose fingers don't work properly".

vivatifosi

antrobus wrote: »

I believe that something like half of all owner-occupiers are 'guilty' of 'under occupation'. In the sense that they have more bedrooms than people. Various measures have been suggested to encourage people to downsize in order to free up this space.

The problem with 'organising' it, is that people have their own ideas of where they should live. Like me. I like my house. I ain't flippin moving just because I have a spare bedroom or two.:)

We have a three bedroom house and two occupants. If someone suggested that we sold up and made room for someone else, the wall between the two smaller bedrooms would come down pdq. I quite like it here, and like you have no plans to move:D

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

DKWD,

I've been involved with a monthly programme whereby an elderly social event was teamed with a Nursery school outing. It was a great success. It usually involves some joint art / craft activity to break the ice. The oldies were originally sceptical, but now they eagerly look forward to it. Quite fun to see the little ones think they are helping the oldies "whose fingers don't work properly".

I suppose I was thinking more in terms of that sort of thing, actual interaction rather than just living in a mixed street.

As you say, you can be lonely surrounded by people.

But a care home where part of it is a nursery, that sort of thing, would be good.

silvercar

antrobus wrote: »

I believe that something like half of all owner-occupiers are 'guilty' of 'under occupation'. In the sense that they have more bedrooms than people. Various measures have been suggested to encourage people to downsize in order to free up this space.

The problem with 'organising' it, is that people have their own ideas of where they should live. Like me. I like my house. I ain't flippin moving just because I have a spare bedroom or two.:)

The advantage of having more bedrooms than occupants is that relatives can stay. I can't imagine saying to my kids, as they moved out to their first rentals, that there would be no room for them to come home.
In the fullness of time I would also like to think that grandchildren could stay.

The other advantage of larger homes is the increased space downstairs and garden.