Righting the wrongs of a new house

G

Goldfynche

Senior Member
After almost a lifetime of living in London I moved up to Scotland 18 months ago. I sold my one bedroom flat (apartment) for enough to buy a three bedroom one up here and still have enough left over for a decent 2nd hand car (Scottish licence plate).

My new place is the entire ground floor level of a substantial building built at the turn of the 19th/20th century. The previous owners were a well known and respected family in the town. But one thing I have discovered is that they weren't very good at property maintainence. The house is built of stone and at some time a log cabin extension was added to the rear. This has been so poorly maintained, both the walls and the roof, that it is going to need a lot of TLC to get it into a satisfactory condition. So this 71 year old has been up a ladder all morning, tarring and nailing the roof. It leaked in about 4 places every time it rained!
 

Yes, there was a survey done. Some of the work needed was obvious. The work needing to be done is more 'annoying' than serious. And will just take a bit of time.
 

You need to take advantage of this good weather, Goldfynche. Think of the satisfaction of fixing the roof before the rain returns.
 
ossian said:
You need to take advantage of this good weather, Goldfynche. Think of the satisfaction of fixing the roof before the rain returns.
Click to expand...

Indeed! The roof was completed this morning. I just have to weather proof the outside of the log cabin. I have found a little bit of wet rot which will need urgent attention.
 
I have to clear the moss from my roof and, apart from the strong wind, this is ideal time for it. However, I would prefer to have someone around when I do this and that is not possible just now. Something to look forward to.

Good luck with that rot and the weather proofing. It will be worth it in the end and you will get that 'feel good' thing once it is all done.
 
OK, I confess to envy, Goldfynche. I would love to be able to just up and move to Scotland.

I had an opportunity to study at the University of Edinburgh 20 years ago; I was accepted for postgraduate study but didn't have the finances to take them up on their offer of a place.
 
Goldfynche, our house which is also located in Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park was built in 1927 and it takes a lot of maintenance. My husband always has some job he needs to do. Today he had to fix our gate which is the original so it takes work to keep it in good condition since it's 89 years old. He also was working on the garage roof, again. We have a detached garage and could really use a new one. But we'd rather spend that money on holidays rather than a garage.
 
We have owned both new houses and older ones. I have found all homes need work, it is just that the nature of the work is different. We are now in home number nine, not counting places that we rented along the way. The next time I move, they will have to carry me out.
 
Hi Goldfynche, this is a great example of the inflated
London house prices.
Your Scottish home will bring you lots of new friends
and lots of your old ones will want to visit.
Congratulations for making the move.

Mike.
 
Thank you. Yes that is true, and happening already. One thing I have found though. Living expenses.....utility bills etc. are way higher than they were in London! Plus I no longer get the single person living allowance, since my daughter now lives with me. But I'm not complaining. As long as she is safe and happy.
 
Morning Goldfynche. Like you, I sold up in Hampshire and bought a much more substantial house (originally c.1830) in rural Aberdeenshire. It had been 'modernised' (read vandalised) by a 'builder' who preferred to spend most of his time in the pub and not spend a penny more than he had to on the house. This was a blessing in disguise because he left all the original doors, mouldings etc.. in place (or covered in woodchip). At least it had professionally installed central heating and was completely re-wired.

We virtually gutted the place and set about restoring it sympathetically, but using modern materials. I spent most of my career in IT, so it was a big learning curve to learn how to tile a roof or build a wall using sandstone. There was an old stone outbuilding that I've virtually rebuilt as a utility room, coal store and workshop. I'm just going to do some work on the roof this morning.

You do surprize me when you talk about utility bills. Ours is substancially less than we paid for a smaller house in Hampshire - AND - the standard of services is much better. The one bad area is broadband which is as slow as a dead slug, and of course BT aren't interested in rural communities (except to take your money).

Apart from that, the quality of life here is far better than I could have down south. I hope you enjoy your life here as much as we do.
 
Goldfynche, I'm surprised that you pay more for utilities. Ours are quite reasonable. I can't compare with London as it's been too long since hubby lived there.

Many of our neighbours are English people who sold their houses in London for lots of ££££££ and bought big Victorian houses here for a fraction of the price and a LOT bigger.

I love our location and even if we won the lottery we'd still keep this house.
 
Down in London with a one bedroom flat, single occupancy. I was paying less than 50% council tax than I'm paying now. And we are using the central heating a whole lot more up here.

It's weird. Outside for the last few days it's been gloriously warm. But step inside, it's like entering a cave! The heat just doesn't get in and it's usually several degrees cooler. So I have to put a jacket or a sweater on!
 
Goldfynche said:
Down in London with a one bedroom flat, single occupancy. I was paying less than 50% council tax than I'm paying now. And we are using the central heating a whole lot more up here.

It's weird. Outside for the last few days it's been gloriously warm. But step inside, it's like entering a cave! The heat just doesn't get in and it's usually several degrees cooler. So I have to put a jacket or a sweater on!
Click to expand...

Doubt you can do this with a flat, but about 3 years ago we took advantage of Scotland's Energy Saving Trust to get advice on the best eco heating for our house - we had LPG gas which was getting more expensive all the time and didn't keep the house warm enough. We got an interest free loan and a grant for an air source heat pump. The house is at a pleasant temp all the time and since it's computerised we can also set it to 'vacation mode' when we are gone. After one year of having the system installed we started getting rebates every 3 months for having a home deemed energy efficient. So we pay very little for heat or electric now.
 
We have oil fired heating - this is the most common form of heating here. The boiler is very efficient and since we insulated the house, consumption has dropped year on year. Following on from what Goldfynche said about her place being cold, the thick walls of our house often mean that the inside temp lags the outside temp by 1 to 2 days.

1. Stripping off the old plaster & lath prior to installing the insulation....
stairs1.jpg

2. 'Kingspan' insulation installed and walls re-boarded and skimmed. Mrs. L is a pretty good plasterer. I machined the dado myself to tie in with the shape of the stairs.

stairs2.jpg
 
Capt Lightning said:
Following on from what Goldfynche said about her place being cold
Click to expand...

Whoa! Steady there Captain! Last time I checked, I was a 'him' not a 'her'!

It will take some time. But I will get there eventually. B&Q has done very well out of me just lately, particularly on Wednesdays (senior discounts day)
 
Mega apologies male Goldfynche. I try to avoid B&Q even on Wednesdays - they just never seem to have what I want. I buy most of my building materials from a builders' merchant. Works out a lot cheaper. They also have a "help yourself for free" bin where they throw all the packing / damaged timber. I've got lost of useful stuff for rough carpentry and kindling wood.
 
Ameriscot said:
Doubt you can do this with a flat, but about 3 years ago we took advantage of Scotland's Energy Saving Trust to get advice on the best eco heating for our house - we had LPG gas which was getting more expensive all the time and didn't keep the house warm enough. We got an interest free loan and a grant for an air source heat pump. The house is at a pleasant temp all the time and since it's computerised we can also set it to 'vacation mode' when we are gone. After one year of having the system installed we started getting rebates every 3 months for having a home deemed energy efficient. So we pay very little for heat or electric now.
Click to expand...


When I read things like this I think America should have just remained a colony. We broke away too soon and now we miss out on a lot of great ideas. I've never heard of the sorts of things you've just described. Grants for heat? Credit for being energy-efficient? Not only being helped to pay the heating bill -- but getting kudos for saving money? Wow. Just ... wow. Independence is all very well, but so would community be, I think.
 
Guitarist said:
When I read things like this I think America should have just remained a colony. We broke away too soon and now we miss out on a lot of great ideas. I've never heard of the sorts of things you've just described. Grants for heat? Credit for being energy-efficient? Not only being helped to pay the heating bill -- but getting kudos for saving money? Wow. Just ... wow. Independence is all very well, but so would community be, I think.
Click to expand...

Tell you what! Why not suggest this to Donald Trump? I'm sure he'll latch on an oblige!:eagerness:
 
Guitarist said:
When I read things like this I think America should have just remained a colony. We broke away too soon and now we miss out on a lot of great ideas. I've never heard of the sorts of things you've just described. Grants for heat? Credit for being energy-efficient? Not only being helped to pay the heating bill -- but getting kudos for saving money? Wow. Just ... wow. Independence is all very well, but so would community be, I think.
Click to expand...

I don't know if they are still doing this. I think they do it in England as well, but Scotland had a great programme. Anybody is/was eligible. We didn't get a huge grant - about £800. The loan was about £10,000. After one year someone came around to check out the house and see that we had energy efficient light bulbs, asked me how much of my laundry is done in the dryer (had to fib) etc. And we started getting rewarded for producing electricity with the system. It's nearly as much as the amount of the loan!!

Scotland is very big on being energy efficient.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top