NEW SERIES Property Ladder.

neverdespairgirl

I'm no expert either, I just liked the staircase.

You couldn't live with it bare, though. You'd have to have a carpet, or it would be noisy.

My parents' house in rural Kent has an oak main staircase (much newer than the house; the stairs were probably built in about 1550) and they have carpet on them, otherwise anyone asleep is woken up by anyone else going up or down them. It's the only carpet in the whole house, although there are a few rugs.

I've never lived in a posh house, but my parents are reasonably well-off and have always had nice decoration - designed to withstand 4 children, dogs, cats, etc, though!

I'd never live in that house, it was horrible. Bit like having your living room in Terminal 2 at Heathrow!

neverdespairgirl

GracieP wrote: »

I didn't think it looked lovely either. I thought the stairs looked out of place and the rest of the hall looked too symmetrical and characterless.

I agree, they looked out of place in the house context, but I liked the staircase itself.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

If you do up an existing property, you pay VAT on everything.

If you do a new build and keep all the VAT receipts you can put in a VAT reclaim. I believe you can make only one VAT reclaim so you do it all at the end (will stand corrected if wrong on this detail).

As VAT is 17.5% it's a significant amount.

I have a feeling (no stronger than a feeling) that you pay less VAT on repairs for a listed building, but I could be completely wrong.

owitemisermusa

Doozergirl wrote: »

....they had knocked the house down they would haved saved ALL of the VAT on the materials. On a house that big it would have made a massive difference .......:o

So knocking the house down gives a VAT free rebuild? Didn't know that. Is that for all houses or just this one on the show (didn't see it, was sleeping!)

Hmmmm......VAT Free....... {goes off to plan property (re)building empire}

PasturesNew

owitemisermusa wrote: »

So knocking the house down gives a VAT free rebuild? Didn't know that. Is that for all houses or just this one on the show (didn't see it, was sleeping!)

Hmmmm......VAT Free....... {goes off to plan property (re)building empire}

That is for all houses.
But that doesn't mean you'd make money knocking down a house and starting again.

It all depends what you're starting with, what you're trying to achieve, your budget, what the local market are looking for at that moment in that area/road and what else is in the vicinity and at what price ... and ... and

Each plot/property/idea has a different solution. If one size fitted all they'd all be knocking them down.

chappers

Yep couldn't believe they didn't knock it down and what a hideous house they built the inside was ok but the outside!!!! and the bloke talked about not wanting to knock it down to keep the character, bloody hell i have seen more character in an iceberg lettuce.
For arennovation/conversion that large I would have thought they could have had it classified to make a VAT reclaim.

The whole program makes me laugh when they set their plans big tits Beeney asks and what happens if you go over budget , the other couple say oh we can't we don't have anymore money . Then blow me they manage to somehow conjour up another ninety odd grand !!!!!!5 he says next time I might actually use acalculator. Well good luck to you now we will see how good you really are on your next project where you have to make all your money from the pure development and not just the rising market.

Now Grand Designs, not my sort of house, not sure if I could live with all that wood.But what a feat of engineering and did anyone see that tree chopping down machine.

pinkshoes

Is there a rightmove link to the hideous box house in Portsmouth/Southampton?

I'm guessing the buyer would pull out after watching that. I don't understand why anyone with £1.3M to spend on a house would buy an ugly box. It may look much nicer inside, but driving up to that thing every day would be depressing!

I swear I built prettier houses out of cardboard boxes for my barbie doll when I was little, although I skimped on the staircase and went for cornflakes box rather than oak.

itsbeef

Van1971 wrote: »

Sarah Beeny's pregnant again?

It wasn't me!!!

Shame though.............:rotfl:

Strapped

Another stunning example of "money can't buy you taste" lol. Although I suppose life would be boring if we all liked the same things. But £1.3mn?! :eek:

Phirefly

There was reference to 'cooling market' and one of the recaps on the Winsor house was filmed in Feb 08, its going to be interesting to see how the rest of the series plays out....