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

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Here, for the first time ever, I've had the enjoyment of a 1½ bowl sink.... that's been invaluable to those quick rinse outs and tipping things away. I'll miss that.

I use the half bit 50% of the time for a variety of sink jobs not suitable for using the full sink.

e.g. if the SC is in soak and full of water/debris, it's easy to lift that up and tip it down the half sink side.... or if I've a whole raft of washing up in the bowl and simply want to rinse out my mug to make another coffee. Or if the sink's got washing up in and I've just emptied a can of beans I need to rinse that can out to go into recycling.

I find my 1½ bowl sink the most useful. The ½ sink is great for hanging sieves over etc.

PasturesNew wrote: »

My back of fag packet says: pretty minimal stuff really ... 20 miles ... good access both ends... should be about £1k. Not actually had any quotes yet, mind

I paid £1,200 11 years ago for a pack and move option, distance was under 2 miles.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

I find my 1½ bowl sink the most useful. The ½ sink is great for hanging sieves over etc.

Yes, sieves/draining pasta and rice.
I mostly use it for rinsing out and leaving dishes/cartons that'll go into recycling. Plastic/squash bottles are left upside down over the plughole to fully drain/dry out before I squash them; ready meal dishes are rinsed then left in there to dry before they're put out for recycling. If I open a tin of beans I'll rinse the inside of the lid there, then decant a portion of beans into a mug to cook and the rest into a lidded pot for the fridge, then I'll rinse out the can and leave it dangling over the edge to dry out for recycling.

silvercar wrote: »

I paid £1,200 11 years ago for a pack and move option, distance was under 2 miles.

I don't need a full/long van. 2 blokes could load everything into a long wheel base luton or high top van in under an hour without breaking into a sweat.

Big stuff is just: 1 double bed, 2 chests of drawers, 1 fridge freezer, 1 sofa. Medium stuff is one corner/rounded chair, one 2-drawer filing cabinet and the little cube unit the telly's on.

After that it's mostly just medium sized boxes already packed and a bit of stuff in the shed.

Nothing in the loft at all to come down.

PasturesNew

The trouble I have with budget is a varying mixture of:

1/ "it'll have to do" starts at £325k- £350k
2/ "it could kinda work" starts at £340k
3/ "ideal project/full renovation" starts at £325-350k

And I have ... dunno ... say £310k leaving enough left over to buy a bag of chips for the first night.

Selling market's slow. Stuff being reduced, nothing's showing as sold ... mine is a 2/EoT - just seen a 3/semi with 2x ORP reduced to just £5k more than mine, although it's older/shabbier so needs about a £5-10k tart up pretty quickly ...

It might be that mine sells at £10k lower than it's on the market for at the moment ... which is £6-7k less than I was lead to believe might be the final figure.

On the other hand.... there's nothing to buy. If I did sell mine tomorrow there are 3-4 inadequates I could shuffle round ... but I'd probably "have to go with" the one I saw last weekend, with no conservatory, no utility, no garage and inadequate kitchen facilities to match what I'd like and in a "bit of a strange" location...

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

Take a little "OAP sheltered bungalow style" semi ... add lots of red carpets and furniture and bright pink voile curtains on the windows and draped around the ceiling of the lean to, have a large Jacuzzi style bath and a separate wet room .... and outside your little 1 bed bungalow ... FILL the whole garden with a swimming pool. A proper, dug in, pool. Not an above the ground job .... with solar panels fitted to heat the pool.

I think these people liked water a LOT. And just in case you still can't cool down... there's air conditioning too.

There are some odd balls about

It does have a conservatory and ORP though.

I read somewhere, sometime, that having a swimming pool like that in that sort of property can be a total blight/really bring the value of the house down.
It's completely different if it's in a very large garden in the grounds of a very large house, when it can enhance the value.

PasturesNew wrote: »

On the other hand.... there's nothing to buy. If I did sell mine tomorrow there are 3-4 inadequates I could shuffle round ... but I'd probably "have to go with" the one I saw last weekend, with no conservatory, no utility, no garage and inadequate kitchen facilities to match what I'd like and in a "bit of a strange" location...

Pastures, I'm a bit worried that you feel you'd "have to go with" one that's not right, if you got a buyer for your house. Please don't feel pressurised into buying just anything, especially if it hasn't got several things you'd like.
All those things you mentioned, if a house hasn't got any of them, why would you want it? Different if it's just one or two things missing, but that many things.....,,would be miserable for you.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

Pastures, I'm a bit worried that you feel you'd "have to go with" one that's not right, if you got a buyer for your house. Please don't feel pressurised into buying just anything, especially if it hasn't got several things you'd like.
All those things you mentioned, if a house hasn't got any of them, why would you want it? Different if it's just one or two things missing, but that many things.....,,would be miserable for you.

Decision making, when alone, is tough... ultimately there is nobody in the entire world that has any vested interest in you making the right choices. Plenty of people with opinions... but, the final choice has to be yours...

It is hard... what DO I want? Dunno. We all have a big wish list, but any house is a compromise. Trouble is, what do you compromise on. I mull this question over all day every day ... trying to decide whether I'd "hold out for the impossible house", or go with the "perfectly lovely little house with wish list stuff missing".

Looking at all houses, most don't have a conservatory or utility; many don't have a garage. On the balance of things I'd be unlikely to find all the items on the list realistically I've even looked at dozens of "past sales" houses on the basis of "If I'd been buying then, could I/would I have bought this house?" and the reality is that very few past sales would have met the criteria. One always needs an additional £10-20k it seems

So, the choice is whether to choose a "perfectly nice little house" or "hopelessly hold out for the impossible".

I'll no doubt be roping in all local people I vaguely know to run details past them if a choice needs to be made

But, unless I go back into rented (would do/don't really want to) ... I can only buy what's available when I'm in a position to buy

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm a big fan of east facing, so you get the early morning sun and are awake/up in the summer. There's something nice about stepping outside as the sun's rising between 4am and 6am, before the world's started. Just standing there and listening to the silence... followed by the slowly building traffic after 6am.

My full wish list would have: Garage alongside, drive for 2-3, good sized storm porch or at least a canopy over; utility, downstairs loo, living room at least 14'x15', wide breakfast bar, conservatory, covered outside area over patio, en-suite. S/SW garden. Modernish, say <10-15 years.

Not on a road corner, not alongside a footpath or pedestrian area, not near big trees.

I'm not a morning person! I should have said I was looking for S or SW of everything I said south about. I got due south facing for all of them, though, so I've forgotten I originally thought anything between S and SW would be fine.

I like the one and a half sink that I have in this house, and the largish utility is great, but I wasn't specifically looking for either of them.

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I moved into here I got a man and a van, quote was £60. Distance was 2 miles, parking right outside door at both ends, flat approach.

A man and gf turned up - packing, driving, unpacking, took about 2-2½ hours.

By the price they either "fitted it in handily" so it was just extra money that day ... or they underestimated the time and assumed it'd take them an hour.

I put in the job on some van quote website and saw what prices I got back.

For my next move I've now "more furniture" - and more stuff ... so I plan on going with a "proper firm" so to speak.

My best advice about moving is to check online reviews or else get a personal recommendation from someone local who's been happy with the service they received. The firm I went with had a fabulous salesman who promised me the moon, but the guys who turned up on the day were not like him at all.

PasturesNew wrote: »

One new build that's for sale has put the loo in the living room.

You step through the front door and are faced with the loo door; open plan stairs are just to the left of that - and if you take 2-3 steps from the front door you're in the living room. There is no wall whatsoever between the living room and the loo door.

Inevitable consequence of the current craze for having everything open plan, really.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

Decision making, when alone, is tough... ultimately there is nobody in the entire world that has any vested interest in you making the right choices. Plenty of people with opinions... but, the final choice has to be yours...

It is hard... what DO I want? Dunno. We all have a big wish list, but any house is a compromise. Trouble is, what do you compromise on. I mull this question over all day every day ... trying to decide whether I'd "hold out for the impossible house", or go with the "perfectly lovely little house with wish list stuff missing".

Looking at all houses, most don't have a conservatory or utility; many don't have a garage. On the balance of things I'd be unlikely to find all the items on the list realistically I've even looked at dozens of "past sales" houses on the basis of "If I'd been buying then, could I/would I have bought this house?" and the reality is that very few past sales would have met the criteria. One always needs an additional £10-20k it seems

So, the choice is whether to choose a "perfectly nice little house" or "hopelessly hold out for the impossible".

I'll no doubt be roping in all local people I vaguely know to run details past them if a choice needs to be made

But, unless I go back into rented (would do/don't really want to) ... I can only buy what's available when I'm in a position to buy

The NP have watched you be miserable in a house we all hoped you would be happy in. We want very much for you not to spend your money on another house that will also end up making you miserable. "Settle" about little things by all means. Do not buy a house that you can foresee is going to drive you nuts.

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

Inevitable consequence of the current craze for having everything open plan, really.

The one I viewed at the weekend is open plan - it's got a wide breakfast bar. When I was last renting I had that layout with a wide breakfast bar and I decided I loved that space and it'd really be on a wishlist.

As it's just me to please ... with no "family meals" ... I don't have the same issues others might have about washing machine noise or cooking smells. I am aware, however, that these two things can be annoying for others.

When it's just you ... life is different and you live/operate differently.

e.g. washing machine noise: fewer loads going on anyway, so it's easier to "time" when/if it goes on ... and it's easier to make things stretch between washes for yourself alone.

e.g. cooking smells: fewer "meals" cooked, often quicker. More beans/toast eaten. Nobody else to be around to moan about anything you're cooking and any smells that gives off... so fewer issues.

Having said that, the one I viewed has no openable windows in the lounge or kitchen at all. Open plan, two separate patio-doors to the outside. A bit annoying that a window can't ever be opened for simple draught/ventilation/cooling without having to physically open (then wedge open) whole doors though.

A lot of layouts, especially bungalows, have the kitchen at one end and the lounge at the other. I find it annoying here that if I want to put the kettle on I have to: stand up, open the door, walk through the hallway, open the door, put the kettle on, go back through the door, back across the hallway, back through the door .... then "wonder" if/when the kettle's boiled and to make the coffee go back through the door, back across the hallway, back through the kitchen door. And, later in the evening, or in winter, when closing doors behind me, having to always be opening/closing 2 doors every time I leave the room, with my hands full ... and the potential to spill a mug of coffee trying to turn the light off and open/close the door etc.

chris_m

Jackmydad wrote: »

It's funny how even a bit of shelter makes a difference. There are two hills here on the West side, something over a mile away. I guess we're in the lee of them, and in a bit of a valley as well. It gets windy, but not that windy unless it's coming through the gap between the hills.

Not much shelter here. At about 15-20 feet above mean sea level, if it's coming across the Irish Sea we get it.

That said, often the worst of any rain/snow does tend to wait until it hits the fells a couple of miles away and being so low down we don't get much frost nor lying snow.

silvercar

PN wrote:

On the other hand.... there's nothing to buy. If I did sell mine tomorrow there are 3-4 inadequates I could shuffle round ... but I'd probably "have to go with" the one I saw last weekend, with no conservatory, no utility, no garage and inadequate kitchen facilities to match what I'd like and in a "bit of a strange" location...

I'm a bit concerned about the strange location. Too much of an unknown quantity. Combine that with the lack of conservatory, utility and garage and I would be crossing it off the list.