Craig has worked really hard again this week, and the back garden is now complete, nice and tidy, with some bark to neaten up by the white terrace wall. Would have taken a photo, but the rain wouldn't have done it justice!!
So, without complete, all that is left is the small matter of the front garden. Craig began by digging out a massive tree stump, and then has systematically begun removing soil and turf from the area for parking. Today, once the rain stopped, we were back there digging out more. Craig is killing himself wheeling the barrow up a home made ramp to the skip!!!Quite a funny sight though!
While clearing the weeds from between the paving slabs that make up the path, we discovered one slab with a big hole underneath it! Craig nearly fell in! Worked out it was probably because of the roots from the tree stump Craig had removed! it was quite large, but least if was an easy place to dump some of the soil rather than getting another barrow load into the skip!!
Saturday, 16 June 2007
Saturday, 9 June 2007
Please Miss, can I take your photo??!!
Grand Designs Show live We had a fantastic day out yesterday at the Grand Designs Live show in London, an dCraig was over the moon to meet his heroine....Ms Beeny herself!!! We didn't ahve chance to discuss the ins and outs, ups and downs of property development with her, but it was fab to meet her! We did sit in on her seminar where she spoke to 2 developers from Property Ladder, and it was quite cool to feel like we knew where they were coming from with things, having been there ourselves. Would they do it again???Jury still out!
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
Oh to be an Estate Agent!
Well, they came. 2 Estate Agents. Chamberlains were first.....he was OK, and said he really liked the place (we expected nothing less), but he used so many cliches, and little terms, and thought he was really funny..............he wasn't!!! However, he did say the standard of the interior would rival a semi in the area, which was a definite positive. he told us off road parking could add £5k to the property. Then came a girl from Dixons. She has supposedly won awards for her work...not sure what they were!! She kept referring to the house as ex-council and as such, the perceptions of buyers would be that it isn't a nice area and therefore we wouldn't get as much as the same house in another area. We were confused. We didn't know it was ex-council, and it certainly isn't in an area you'd think was ex-council if you saw it. She told us she'd help us find a better house in the future with more potential......we'd hit a ceiling price very quickly, as it's ex-council....blah, blah blah!! She also told us off road parking would make no difference to sale price. Hmmmmm.
When she'd gone, we talked about it more and we agreed we thought it had been owned privately since being built. We spoke to the neighbours and they agreed. A local guy named Matthews had owned 12 of the houses in the row, since 1944 (from Birmingham and Midland Estates who built them in 1937) I looked up the deeds when we got home to check. So this has obviously blown our confidence in Dixons amazing staff! Blooming cheek telling us we'd made a mistake buying the house and making such an effort with it!!!
Anyway, the upshot is that both agents gave similar valuations, slightly under what we would like to get, but not far off, so we were quite happy. (However, would not being ex-council mean a £5k increase in value??!!)
Tonight we've shown a family round. The parents are looking to buy a pad for their kids. The daughter came with them, but the 30 year old son is too lazy to look!! However, the Dad scrutinised the place and 'interviewed' Craig in detail about the work he'd done etc. On leaving he said he'd let the kids have his house and he'd move in there!! They are going to get the lad round before they move forward, but still positive. Girl really likes it, so lets hope she works on her Dad!
So, just the back garden to finish sorting. Need to get up the rest of the ugly paving slabs to unearth the rest of the crazy paving below, and clean that up. The front garden will be dictated by the response of viewers really.
In an ideal world, we'd love someone to say, knock a couple of thousand off the asking price, and they'll do the driveway themselves........maybe we're just being lazy!!!
When she'd gone, we talked about it more and we agreed we thought it had been owned privately since being built. We spoke to the neighbours and they agreed. A local guy named Matthews had owned 12 of the houses in the row, since 1944 (from Birmingham and Midland Estates who built them in 1937) I looked up the deeds when we got home to check. So this has obviously blown our confidence in Dixons amazing staff! Blooming cheek telling us we'd made a mistake buying the house and making such an effort with it!!!
Anyway, the upshot is that both agents gave similar valuations, slightly under what we would like to get, but not far off, so we were quite happy. (However, would not being ex-council mean a £5k increase in value??!!)
Tonight we've shown a family round. The parents are looking to buy a pad for their kids. The daughter came with them, but the 30 year old son is too lazy to look!! However, the Dad scrutinised the place and 'interviewed' Craig in detail about the work he'd done etc. On leaving he said he'd let the kids have his house and he'd move in there!! They are going to get the lad round before they move forward, but still positive. Girl really likes it, so lets hope she works on her Dad!
So, just the back garden to finish sorting. Need to get up the rest of the ugly paving slabs to unearth the rest of the crazy paving below, and clean that up. The front garden will be dictated by the response of viewers really.
In an ideal world, we'd love someone to say, knock a couple of thousand off the asking price, and they'll do the driveway themselves........maybe we're just being lazy!!!
Monday, 4 June 2007
The Day of reckoning looms!
Yes I know, we hoped to have valuations last week, but the rain held up play on the decking!!! Craig also suffered a dose of man flu so wasn't as fit as he'd like to have been!
However, the decking is now done, except for the steps which Craig is going to build today. I am going to call the estate agents this morning (while Craig is stretching a nice canvas picture of a flower for the kitchen wall!) and arrange for valuations tomorrow. Then we will call the people who have shown an interest and get them to see the finished article! Fingers crossed.
Got the week off work, so we can carry on tidying the back garden (where we have found some borders and crazy paving...looks a lot better than slabs, so we're going to pull up the slabs and see how far the paving goes!). We then need to tackle the front, but all being well, we'll do that while under offer. We can only hope!!
However, the decking is now done, except for the steps which Craig is going to build today. I am going to call the estate agents this morning (while Craig is stretching a nice canvas picture of a flower for the kitchen wall!) and arrange for valuations tomorrow. Then we will call the people who have shown an interest and get them to see the finished article! Fingers crossed.
Got the week off work, so we can carry on tidying the back garden (where we have found some borders and crazy paving...looks a lot better than slabs, so we're going to pull up the slabs and see how far the paving goes!). We then need to tackle the front, but all being well, we'll do that while under offer. We can only hope!!
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Sunshine & Decking
10 days since our last posting, and thankfully we have moved on!
The bedrooms are all complete, blinds, lampshades & all. The bathroom needs finishing off with sealant around the bath, a shower screen fitted, and the blind put up. The lounge needs a baton fixing above the window to fit the blinds to, and to cover the gap between the windows and the plaster work! Then the blinds can go up!
The fireplace looks lovely, but the fire isn't yet connected. Apparently our gas man has the flu and has asked a mate to call us to fit it....funnily enough we've not heard from him yet either!!! Never mind, looks nice, so we can have it fitted later if necessary.
The kitchen floor needs a second grout which I'll probably do later today, then we can clean up and 'dress' the place!
Craig has been lucky with the weather and begun on the decking, which is taxing his brain a bit, working out how to best construct it. He's really tired this week too, which isn't helping!
We have instructed a solicitor to act on our behalf so we can sell privately. We thought the HIP's were coming in next week, so we had to declare our house 'on the market' to evade putting one together. Yesterday's announcement of the delay is great!
We are aiming for getting valuations in next Tuesday......please let them be favourable!!
The bedrooms are all complete, blinds, lampshades & all. The bathroom needs finishing off with sealant around the bath, a shower screen fitted, and the blind put up. The lounge needs a baton fixing above the window to fit the blinds to, and to cover the gap between the windows and the plaster work! Then the blinds can go up!
The fireplace looks lovely, but the fire isn't yet connected. Apparently our gas man has the flu and has asked a mate to call us to fit it....funnily enough we've not heard from him yet either!!! Never mind, looks nice, so we can have it fitted later if necessary.
The kitchen floor needs a second grout which I'll probably do later today, then we can clean up and 'dress' the place!
Craig has been lucky with the weather and begun on the decking, which is taxing his brain a bit, working out how to best construct it. He's really tired this week too, which isn't helping!
We have instructed a solicitor to act on our behalf so we can sell privately. We thought the HIP's were coming in next week, so we had to declare our house 'on the market' to evade putting one together. Yesterday's announcement of the delay is great!
We are aiming for getting valuations in next Tuesday......please let them be favourable!!
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Weather!!
The very poor weather conditions today meant Craig wasn't able to finish fitting the doors upstairs......honestly, there was a good reason! He has to take them into the back garden to plane them so as not to get sawdust everywhere inside, and equally, there isn't the room!
Instead, he got on with other niggling jobs like fitting handles and mortice's to the lounge and kitchen doors, properly fitting a couple of the light fittings, and then set about making a new loft hatch which took a while, but now looks so much better than the old one. Bet no-one who views will even notice it, but there you go!
I did as I'd said and sanded all the woodwork in lounge and hallway, before Craig and and I tidied up the lounge area and brought a few more things home with us. You'll notice from the photo that the loo is still in lounge, in fact sitting on the hearth, as it is holding the hearth down while it sets....which it probably has by now! The fireplace looks great and with our expert filling and sanding, you can't even see where it is attached to the wall!!
I then got on with glossing again, and all the skirts in the hall and lounge are now complete. The doors need a bit of touching up downstairs, but that won't take long.
Be nice if the weather could improve so Craig can start the decking (once the loo has been fitted!). Least the ground will have softened up I suppose!!!
Instead, he got on with other niggling jobs like fitting handles and mortice's to the lounge and kitchen doors, properly fitting a couple of the light fittings, and then set about making a new loft hatch which took a while, but now looks so much better than the old one. Bet no-one who views will even notice it, but there you go!
I did as I'd said and sanded all the woodwork in lounge and hallway, before Craig and and I tidied up the lounge area and brought a few more things home with us. You'll notice from the photo that the loo is still in lounge, in fact sitting on the hearth, as it is holding the hearth down while it sets....which it probably has by now! The fireplace looks great and with our expert filling and sanding, you can't even see where it is attached to the wall!!
I then got on with glossing again, and all the skirts in the hall and lounge are now complete. The doors need a bit of touching up downstairs, but that won't take long.
Be nice if the weather could improve so Craig can start the decking (once the loo has been fitted!). Least the ground will have softened up I suppose!!!
Saturday, 12 May 2007
What do normal people do at weekends??
Well, it's Saturday, so it must be project house day for us both. It's ironic that Craig has been quite busy with some good orders for his pictures in the last couple of weeks, so this has meant him needing to take time out from the house to fulfill them. Good for the business though, so can't complain.
The Electrician returned yesterday and sorted out the consumer unit, which was just wiggling the fuses, as they obviously have some crap in them...technical stuff!!! Need to give them a good vacuum to stop it happening again, but good to know it was an easy problem to fix. Also good to know that our house is going to be used as an inspection site for his work by his professional body, so this will make sure he is satisfied he's done the best work he can!! E'on also came and certified the work to the external supply, so all good there too.
Anyway, last night we treated ourselves to a night out..................Ikea!!! Wanted shelves for the lounge, blinds for the windows and lampshades. Realised on route we hadn't measure the archway in the lounge where Craig wanted the shelves for, or the living room window which we wanted to get blinds for, so not a good start!! We did manage to buy some lampshades, and a blind for the kitchen and bathroom. Didn't have any we liked for the lounge or bedrooms, and are now contemplating curtains. Not sure.
So, today Craig finished fitting the skirting in the lounge which meant me following him round with a tub of filler to fill the screw holes. Tomorrow I will sand them all down, then we can hoover the floor and generally clean up......I'll take some pics then!
We fitted the lampshades upstairs, but the smaller ones we'd bought for the hallway are for table lamps and so will have to go back.....another great buy by us!!!
Thankfully, we've still got interest in the house. A lady returned the other day having visited previously, looking for a house for her son and daughter. She likes the colours and style, and has even talked about paying cash as her husband thinks the interest rates don't make mortgages an option at present......sure we all feel the same!!!!! She's given Craig her number to call her once the decking is down and the inside finished, and she'll come back (possibly with Son!!)
The Electrician returned yesterday and sorted out the consumer unit, which was just wiggling the fuses, as they obviously have some crap in them...technical stuff!!! Need to give them a good vacuum to stop it happening again, but good to know it was an easy problem to fix. Also good to know that our house is going to be used as an inspection site for his work by his professional body, so this will make sure he is satisfied he's done the best work he can!! E'on also came and certified the work to the external supply, so all good there too.
Anyway, last night we treated ourselves to a night out..................Ikea!!! Wanted shelves for the lounge, blinds for the windows and lampshades. Realised on route we hadn't measure the archway in the lounge where Craig wanted the shelves for, or the living room window which we wanted to get blinds for, so not a good start!! We did manage to buy some lampshades, and a blind for the kitchen and bathroom. Didn't have any we liked for the lounge or bedrooms, and are now contemplating curtains. Not sure.
So, today Craig finished fitting the skirting in the lounge which meant me following him round with a tub of filler to fill the screw holes. Tomorrow I will sand them all down, then we can hoover the floor and generally clean up......I'll take some pics then!
We fitted the lampshades upstairs, but the smaller ones we'd bought for the hallway are for table lamps and so will have to go back.....another great buy by us!!!
Thankfully, we've still got interest in the house. A lady returned the other day having visited previously, looking for a house for her son and daughter. She likes the colours and style, and has even talked about paying cash as her husband thinks the interest rates don't make mortgages an option at present......sure we all feel the same!!!!! She's given Craig her number to call her once the decking is down and the inside finished, and she'll come back (possibly with Son!!)
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