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Jerry's renovation blog


nomadpete

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Happy new year, Pete.. It's 10pm here, and with a cough (not COVID according to both LFT/RAT and PCRs), I am still undecided if I am going to the local pub to see in the new year.. probably won't.

 

Thanks, for settingup the thread, although I am not throwing down any gauntlet. For a reference, I have put the partner's instascam link here: https://www.instagram.com/mylistedrectory/

 

I am not going to say which village we are in, as that will be a giveaway of where we live.. not that I care that any if the contributors to this forum know, but who knows what anonymous people or bots comb these forums..

 

I would recommend looking at the "Our Story" and Planning Approved stories on Instascam, and it will give you some background, and ideas of what we are embarking on.  I do miss the the #farmhouse in Our Story... but, alas, as my partner says in "Our Story", she is more Margo than Barbara from The Good Life, and as I was mostly in London, I couln't really object to moving on.

 

What really pisses me off, though, is that, after our stint in Melbourne, my partner really didn't want to live in Aus, however, shortly before we bought the #FARMHOUSE, my partner said "If we can't find something soon, we should look at moving back to Australia, as if I can be happy living here [in the South West of England], then I know I will be happy in Australia." Literally, 2 days later the #FARMHOUSE came up, we looked at it and then bought it! If I had of known she would be Margo (which, given she grew up in a rural village with her best mates being farmers not 10 miles away from here, I had no idea), I would have said, "Let's get the removalists to Aus in... we're off!".

 

Anyway, back to the reno. Some facts on the property:

  • Originally built 1600s.. Has been extended in the 18th century, 19th century, and 20th century
  • A tad under 6,000 square feet over three floors including a split level basement.
  • Brick construction, with some periiod render on the rear. Slate roof. Has a converted barn, which, amongst other things housed Aussie scholars.
  • General Montgomery used to stay here quite a lot, apparently. The house and associated church were a grant from some monarch (Henry 8th comes to mind, but I am sure that is not it).
  • It is in 1.76 acres of land - all as neglected as the house and in need of a lot of work. There is a retaining wall that surrounds the property that we have had to brace as there are cracks everyewhere. But it was originally around 5 acres ex. the current church land. It was subdivided in the 80s to pay for urgent repairs.
  • The plumbing, electrics, and half the roof are stuffed. There is more damp in this house than the sands of Bells Beach.
  • There are 20 rooms in total in the main house.. although all but 1 in the basement are uninhabitable

 

Current quotes to fix the plumbing are over £40K. I am negotiationg with a very competent builder to do the work for a lot less and just get the plumbers to hook up the bits to the boilers and circuit boards.

 

The 9 months out of work, and the lower income as a result of now being a permanent employee means I now have to launch a totally new business (hence the re-inventing  myself new years resolution).

 

We AirBnB the cottage out, but as there is effectively a crash in holiday rentals through AirNbN, and cottages.com take around 30% of the nightly rate, we are looking at renting to the Hinkley Point contractors (I have to send an email on Tuesday).

 

If I had of known how much work there really was to do on this place.. I wouldn't have touched it with any of your barge poles ;-)...

 

Because of a lot of the unexpected costs, I am tempo wingless (and since I ain't no angel, we know it means my TB20GT moniker on the other siute tempo does not apply).

 

I am also making a yo8utube video on... wait for it.. why docs should move from here to Aus.. Salaried GPs in the UK can expect around £80K; salaried GPs in Aus: $330K (£185K.. over £100K more).

 

It may alleviate the crisis of having to wait 2 weeks to see a GP in rural areas.

 

 

[Edit] Daughter's friend up the road wants to go to the pub for NYE, so daughter wants to go. As she is 16, she can go, but it is incumbent as a responsible parent, to go to provide adequate supervision.

 

Happy new year, all! Hope it is a good one...

 

Edited by Jerry_Atrick
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1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Has a converted barn, which, amongst other things housed Aussie scholars.

I see your economic problem. Renos cost twice as much in Aussie Scholars as they do in Oxford Scholars.

 

1 hour ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

I am not throwing down any gauntlet.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,

 

And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us 

 

Rather proclaim it,

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:

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I would do this place again....  there is a clause that " anything built on a bona-fide farm MAY be exempted from the regulations, so it was cheap to build. We assumed it was exempt.

Just as well....  the buildings inspector had a mental health problem, he is famous for rejecting 90cm square shed footings cos the plan said 90 cm round footings.

The council  once paid for an appeal against him. They told me that they had no choice about employing him, as it was required by statute that they provide the service and he was the only applicant.

Well the house.... oops, shearer's quarters, cost less than $50,000 dollars.

Once, in Alice Springs, I deliberately left off the roof hold-down bolts to see if this would be noticed on an inspection....  it was not, so I told the whole town but not the government of course. The roof ( bare structure without cladding ) was just sitting on the wall tops.

Gosh I hate bureaucrats who cost you time and money. On Grand designs, I often feel sorry for the poor poms who suffer from them.

Edited by Bruce Tuncks
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3 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

I am not going to say which village we are in, as that will be a giveaway of where we live.. not that I care that any if the contributors to this forum know, but who knows what anonymous people or bots comb these forums..

Jerry, an option would be to ask the administrator to move the thread to the health etc. forum where ome has his thread. You have to be a logged in registered member to view that section, whereas all the others are accessible by the non-member public.

Edited by willedoo
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Jerry you have an asset to protect and a largish block, but I find renovating old buildings to be  a great challenge. Like all things assess before committing and make  sure the money improves the value if you sell.   The next person might have other ideas.  Nev

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1 hour ago, willedoo said:

move the thread to the health etc. forum

Sorry everyone. My bad. Hadn't thought of that, butwe don't need specifics of locations.

 

As a survivor of many life challenges (including numerous renovations) I applaud Jerry and OME for saving their particular abodes. And apart from admiring their results, I enjoy reading of the challenges met along the way. Thanks for sharing.

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2 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Once, in Alice Springs, I deliberately left off the roof hold-down bolts to see if this would be noticed on an inspection....  it was not, so I told the whole town but not the government of course. The roof ( bare structure without cladding ) was just sitting on the wall tops...

 

Bruce I trust you did actually tie the roof down. You wouldn’t want it coming off and injuring someone during a big blow.

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4 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Sorry everyone. My bad. Hadn't thought of that, butwe don't need specifics of locations.

Usually the only burglar risk is with posting photos online that have geolocation in the metadata. I'm not too sure how it works, but I think on some sites the photos automatically lose that metadata when they are posted.

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No, Google Image Search will find virtually any photo on the WWW, and it's getting better all the time. So, it's easy enough to find the source, track down posts, and glean information from the posts or threads.

The worst thing is posting photos of the interior of your house on social media such as Facebook, which is riddled with scumbags and crims, looking for all the information they can use. It's best to be cautious.

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I am sure reverse image searches on Google will yield where we are.. And I am not really worried about the burglary risk.. Even the hardest crim will take pity on us, put everything back, and maybe even donate something! 

9 hours ago, facthunter said:

Like all things assess before committing and make  sure the money improves the value if you sell. 

To be honest, in real estate, my partner does the thinking. She is known amongst local real estate agents as the Sarah Beeny of the South West.

 

Although the building materials prices have skyrocketed recently and the housing market is receding, this is a very desirable village in the area (better to buy the worst house on the best street than the best house on the worst street) and a couple of real estate agents say we can yield an immediate 30% - 50% profit if all completed this year. Although, one concern is that a few places have come up for sale recently in the village and have not yet sold (previously, they rarely got to even being advertised). However, even for this area, they are asking funny money, which is silly as the COVID frenzy of moving out of London has not only slowed, but there has been press reporting about how those city slickers are now moving back to London in their droves. 

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Its true about the Indian's perfecting English bureacracy. There was an article once in the gliding magazine about this guy who was going to be posted to India for a year or so. With over a year's notice, he started trying to get permission to fly gliders in India, there was a club not far away from his proposed location. He gave up after filling a big binder with correspondence to their bureaucrats, but no decision.

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