Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew

Is it wrong to be house hunting/researching the area, only to discover a Toby Carvery just a mile away from a potential house .... and spend more time dreaming of popping in there for a carvery lunch than actually getting round to phone the agent for a viewing?

It only came on the market yesterday, so I didn't want to seem "too keen". It's an area on my "B List" of preferred areas and, as nothing had come up before, I'd not actually got round to researching the area.

Fancy a Toby now. As a rule though, carvery meals rarely work when dining alone because it becomes problematical as the process usually/often involves leaving your table for a variety of reasons, so then trying to work out how do you not get the table nicked, or your drink swiped or spiked, is your coat/bag safe there..... and you realise "it's not going to work is it"

You go in, head for the bar, get a drink, then you get settled and head for the carvery area, leaving your drink/coat/bag at the table.... not ideal even in the very best of areas....

caronc

Local amenities are really important PN when considering houses, for some folk it's schools or transport links so I don't see why a carvery shouldn't be included;):).

Brambling

Being keen doesn't hurt PN, I was the first person to view my house and was told the solicitor handling the estate of the previous owner wouldn't take an offer below the asking price so early on. I offered the asking price on the condition no one else was shown around it and on checking what chain I was in (my buyer was selling to first time buyers) they agreed. The EA told me they had 10 viewing booked for the next day which was a Saturday so it was probably just luck I took the day off work once my flat had sold to go looking on the Friday. Not sure if I would buy on one viewing these days but I reasoned I could have second viewing and backed out it I changed my mind, it did help that I was only moving just over a mile up the road and even through it needed work done which is why I could afford a three bedroom house, it was liveable and it felt right when I walked in.

When selling some people like getting it over and done with without having to constantly worry about a clean and tidy house and garden for viewing, the disadvantage is they may be less likely to take an offer, it does depend how well / quickly houses sell in the area. Where I live they do sell quickly especially 3 bedroom houses, next door which needs a lot of work doing was on the market less than a week once it was on rightmove etc.

Farway

Good luck with the Toby house PN, you have one advantage re Toby, you can go when it's uncrowded and avoid weekends, Valentine's Day etc. Should minimise the coat / table getting nicked There's a choice round here but I never use them despite offers coming through my letterbox at times

Dull but muggy today, nothing of substance in Lidl, just milk etc, nil YS today:(

With lack of YS inspiration for a meal today I thought about chippy on way home, but no handy parking spaces so drove on by
Lunch was thus LO roast chick & stuffing sarnie

Mini gardening, tied in the tomatoes, some flowers on them now

Dinner will be defrosted YS pasty with possibly chips or last of the hash browns

PasturesNew

Brambling wrote: »

Being keen doesn't hurt .... I offered the asking price on the condition ...... ...

Well, here's the thing.... I'm not terribly keen on the price and I suspect when I go and look it'd need quite a bit of work/bit of building, for it to become closer to something I had in mind that'd just about do....

Ideally I'd prefer to sit on it and wait to see if it were reduced, but I've not got time for that.

Trying to decide how I feel about that place, in that location.

I'll never find "the perfect", or even close, and am battling against people who see something and want to double its size, or a developer that wants to fiddle and flip it.

It's possibly in need of a bit of a rewire/updating, the layout needs fiddling (bring down that wall), it needs a conservatory, not keen on the flat roof extension, so should that be taken down and build across the whole of the back .... and, of course, all the carpets were laid down in the 1970s, it all needs a lick of paint and the fluorescent tubes removing from the kitchen.... and there's no photo of the bathroom so that's probably a peculiar colour.... then there'd need to be flooring.

Ideally .... but unrealistically, I'd like to get it at about £15k less than they're asking. It seems a lot for the area, but if you check things really carefully it is a bit of a chancer price, but potentially achievable "to the right buyer" - e.g. one with pockets and skills.

It's livable .... in that it's not grubby looking or damp looking or neglected, but it does need a bit of an overall rethink.

flubberyzing

Typically, the rain holds off right until it's time to stand outside with the kids, to see them off to their parents after school! Typically, one child is left - we're just standing in the rain together - so eventually I walk him round to the office, to find his dad there, rifling through lost property! Never mind that your child (with no coat) and his teacher have been stood out in the rain for 10 minutes! Grrr!

Breakfast was 2 hardboiled eggs and a banana... It was a bit much, so tomorrow I'll just do one egg and the banana.
Lunch was a sandwich thin, a snack-size cheese, grapes, a couple of cherry toms, a wedge of cucumber and a satsuma.
I was feeling hungry as I was driving home, so I put my tea on right away, and had finished it by 5pm! Some chicken goujons, a couple of Jersey potatoes and a good sized portion of green beans. I wanted something sweet to finish, resisted the call of the biscuits and had a delicious slice of honeydew melon!

I'm off out to my choir at around 6:30, so that'll save me from snacking through the evening. I might have another piece of fruit when I get in, but I'm pleased with diet day 1!

caronc

Good evening everyone,
Does sound as though the house might turn out to be a bit of a project PN, worth doing but only if the selling price is right! We are hoping my Dad's flat will go on the market in a few weeks, it's basically in good nick but deperately needs a mainly cosmetic upgrade and anyone with any sense would want to move the current bathroom back to it's original location and get a very decent sized third bedroom back. It will be priced to reflect it needs upgrading though and hopefully it will sell ok.

The sun didn't last long and the rain came back with avengence early afternoon, I'm pleased I made the effort and watered the greenhouse while it was dry.:)


Sourdough loaf is in the fridge for it's overnight prove so just a quick pasta dinner to sort out before a bit of TV and another early night.

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

Does sound as though the house might turn out to be a bit of a project PN, worth doing but only if the selling price is right!

Pricing is difficult isn't it. Of course, I don't know how recent/old things are... and houses are often just priced on "location/number of bedrooms + what we think we can get away with asking".... as there's no actual value on a house, just its value to a buyer.

I've got new/different doubts about it now, that I think is the definitive and conclusive nail in the coffin.... which I won't go into as it'd be 4-5 long/paragraphs

FOOD!

Yesterday I bought a bag of my favourite chocs and a 4-pack of Walkers Prawn Cocktail crisps... already munched my way through that lot.

Today I've had 2 bits of toast and some chips/beans.

Feeling peckish again now... in a gnawing tummy way. But I CBA to work out what's edible/dead easy.

PasturesNew

caronc wrote: »

... flat will go on the market in a few weeks, it's basically in good nick but deperately needs a mainly cosmetic upgrade and anyone with any sense would want to move the current bathroom back to it's original location and get a very decent sized third bedroom back. It will be priced to reflect it needs upgrading though and hopefully it will sell ok.

I sniffed at a 3 bed bungalow last week... for several reasons... one was that the last bus was about 6pm and it was a trek to get anywhere anyway. But what really niggled me was that they'd taken a perfectly good little 2 bed bungalow and butchered it badly into a 3 bed bungalow, then built an inadequately proportioned "family room" extension (as they'd stolen half the lounge to make a new bathroom so they could create a Bed3 from the original bathroom (as it had a window).... and it all just seemed poorly laid out, badly done and somebody was just thinking "if I do this bad thing it'll be 3 beds and if I make it look modern/lovely in the photos and sell it at a daft price". £300k .... and it bl00dy sold! Somebody had more sense than money there.

caronc

What the previous owners had done was move the bathroom into a bedroom and convert the original bathroom into a smallish bedroom (still classed as a double in new builds!!), not sure why or why they decided to actually reduce usable kitchen space by knocking through the kitchen to the old pantry which left alone would be big enough for a small utility room + pantry. It's a 1930s ex-council build so all of the rooms are a good size. If I was the buyer I'd restore the original layout, and you'd have a really decent three bed home home with a private garden at the front. That said my Dad lived there for almost 16 years very comfortably and loved the french doors they had put in the lounge leading to the garden. (I'd keep those:))