I need to sabotage a bid.
Discussion
I've been installing thin double glazed units from CN Glass into stone mullions.
The restoration glass is fantastic, a gentle shimmer and they can toughen it, if required. I probably had a decent price as I supply to them, but it wasn't stupidly more than normal double glazing. They do a fair bit of work in London.
The restoration glass is fantastic, a gentle shimmer and they can toughen it, if required. I probably had a decent price as I supply to them, but it wasn't stupidly more than normal double glazing. They do a fair bit of work in London.
Harry Flashman said:
Luckily the floorboards are in awesome condition as it has clearly been carpeted for most of its life, so they will sand back beautifully and I can avoid the cost of tiling everywhere, and have some cool rugs down. Even the bathrooms will be painted or poliched wood floors, with some boards cut out where the sunken/flush walk-in shower trays will go. My experience in my Victorian flat means that UFH is not something I feel I need with nice wood floors. Family bathroom will be tanked and tiled, but adult/guest bathrooms will be boards. This is basically the plan for Lady F & my private bathroom:
This is similar to what we're doing 
We had the floors done before we moved in last Friday, the guy was very reasonable & travels if you would like his details?
Me too Ali - thanks! Have sent him an e-mail.
Mortgage approved this morning, so we are a GO!!
Was not straightforward due to nature of the property and the fact it a) needs renovation and b) has Japanese Knotweed.
I can give good feedback to Accord Mortgages, so far. A good rate on a 5 year fixed, but also exceptional service - you are assigned your own underwriter (Kim, in our case, who seems very good), and they keep you informed at all stages where you are.
This sort of thing may not matter for a standard purchase, but when making one like this (nervous seller who has cash offer from a developer on the table, property needing things done to make it mortgageable, and an intelligent valuer needed to see past the fact that it looks like a wreck and has potential).
The seller finished installing kitchen and bathroom last Thursday, valuer went in Friday, they underwrote the financial stuff Monday/Tuesday, dealt with the Knotweed questions Wednesday, and got final approval and issued formal offer today. Constant communication with my mortgage broker, and accepted documents instantly by e-mail (e.g. Knotweed treatment plan/guarantees). That is pretty good going in my book. A Spanish high street lender whose branches are red took six weeks to do something similar (without Knotweed issues), and required everything by post/in writing when we bought our current house for renovation two years ago,. Those fools nearly (along with our awful solicitors) lost us the purchase.
Let's hope that we get to exchange, folks – and then you get a another renovation thread to look at and think “thank God that isn’t us”.
Mortgage approved this morning, so we are a GO!!
Was not straightforward due to nature of the property and the fact it a) needs renovation and b) has Japanese Knotweed.
I can give good feedback to Accord Mortgages, so far. A good rate on a 5 year fixed, but also exceptional service - you are assigned your own underwriter (Kim, in our case, who seems very good), and they keep you informed at all stages where you are.
This sort of thing may not matter for a standard purchase, but when making one like this (nervous seller who has cash offer from a developer on the table, property needing things done to make it mortgageable, and an intelligent valuer needed to see past the fact that it looks like a wreck and has potential).
The seller finished installing kitchen and bathroom last Thursday, valuer went in Friday, they underwrote the financial stuff Monday/Tuesday, dealt with the Knotweed questions Wednesday, and got final approval and issued formal offer today. Constant communication with my mortgage broker, and accepted documents instantly by e-mail (e.g. Knotweed treatment plan/guarantees). That is pretty good going in my book. A Spanish high street lender whose branches are red took six weeks to do something similar (without Knotweed issues), and required everything by post/in writing when we bought our current house for renovation two years ago,. Those fools nearly (along with our awful solicitors) lost us the purchase.
Let's hope that we get to exchange, folks – and then you get a another renovation thread to look at and think “thank God that isn’t us”.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Friday 14th July 11:37
Re-reading this thread last night. I simply cannot believe we even got to this stage...
As I said to Lady F last night: even if it goes wrong, we will know we did everything we could, so if it doesn't work out, we get to live in our own lovely home and know we gave it our best shot.
The trouble is, the closer you get, the more invested you are, and the more you really want it to all go through...
As I said to Lady F last night: even if it goes wrong, we will know we did everything we could, so if it doesn't work out, we get to live in our own lovely home and know we gave it our best shot.
The trouble is, the closer you get, the more invested you are, and the more you really want it to all go through...
Harry Flashman said:
Our current house, by contrast, was a mess, so we stripped it all back and insulated. It got us a C Energy rating (which is pretty damned good on a 1930s house), and our winter fuel/electricity bills were around £90 a month on a 5 bed, 3 bath, 3000 square foot house. I suspect this new house could be quadruple that if we are not careful...
The place sounds a amazing.In terms of hearing I had a 3000 sq ft high-ceilinged Victorian house with single glazing at the front and it cost a fortune to heat compared to the fully modernised and insulated 30's 3200 sq ft one we moved into.
Get some jumpers :-)
When it's done, though, have you ever thought about renting it out for photo shoots? You can get £600-£800 a day and the agencies love properties like that. Do that twice a month over a year and you've got knocking on £15k to put towards windows or whatever.
We did that quite a few times in our Victorian one.
Really? That is a great idea! Mind PM'ing me with some contacts for that sort of stuff.
I love slightly quirky design, so hoping that the odd fashion shoot will like the house (not at all to do with the fact that I fancy having some models hanging around the place whilst I am unexpectedly off work etc etc.).
Lady F and I went to the annual Josephine Avenue Art Fair in Brixton last weekend and bought a shedload of quite cool and not very expensive art from local artists, which I am really looking forward to sticking around this lovely old house if we actually manage to move in...
I suspect that this house will have slightly more midcentury feel to the chairs/sofas and distressed ethnic feel to the wooden furniture - this works well with C19th houses with stripped wood floors and high, ornate ceilings). It will probably also look a bit "artfully distressed". The latter mostly because we won't be able to afford to make it look smart. Or do the garden. Or heat it.
I love slightly quirky design, so hoping that the odd fashion shoot will like the house (not at all to do with the fact that I fancy having some models hanging around the place whilst I am unexpectedly off work etc etc.).
Lady F and I went to the annual Josephine Avenue Art Fair in Brixton last weekend and bought a shedload of quite cool and not very expensive art from local artists, which I am really looking forward to sticking around this lovely old house if we actually manage to move in...
I suspect that this house will have slightly more midcentury feel to the chairs/sofas and distressed ethnic feel to the wooden furniture - this works well with C19th houses with stripped wood floors and high, ornate ceilings). It will probably also look a bit "artfully distressed". The latter mostly because we won't be able to afford to make it look smart. Or do the garden. Or heat it.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Friday 14th July 12:03
Harry Flashman said:
I love slightly quirky design, so hoping that the odd fashion shoot will like the house (not at all to do with the fact that I fancy having some models hanging around the place whilst I am unexpectedly off work etc etc.).
Photographer here. If the new place is like your old place, we'll love it and you will probably get booked. Perhaps not just for high fashion but also the plain jane lifestyle stuff like M&S etc... Would have to say be careful though, we're not the most careful of people but there are producers and location managers to keep us in tow. A few libraries I use and am signed up for, pretty much just Google 'London Photoshoot Locations'.
shootfactory.co.uk
amazingspace.co.uk
1st-option.com
lightlocations.com
london-collective.co.uk
locationworks.com
Harry Flashman said:
Really? That is a great idea! Mind PM'ing me with some contacts for that sort of stuff.
Just hired a £2m house for a three day shoot for thousands! Good money to be made but consider the supervision element needed, the dirty gaffer's boots and flight case dings in your walls! You have my email I think mate - happy to advise/chat :-)
Harry,
Long term lurker and follower of your projects here - mainly because we've done much the same over near Blackheath.
Our house is an Edwardian/Late Victorian of similar size as your new one (cica 5000sqft) and it was far more of a wreck than your new purchase (congrats by the way) e.g.15/16 ceilings had collapsed due to a boogered roof, it was previously multiple council flats with multiple broken water/ heating/ electrical systems, etc. It hadn't been lived in for two years, by anything other than pigeons and so on.
Anyway, we recently (as in they finished yesterday) had the front of the house double glazed where they retained the original wooden boxes, but remade the wooden sashes with thin double glazing and fitted the furry strip things everywhere.
Obviously the thin double glazing isn't quite as good as the much thicker retrofit double glazing in terms of sound deadening (we are in a conservation area so we are limited in terms of what we can do), but it's still very good - we were lying in bed this morning marvelling at the difference. Aesthetically, you can't tell that the originals have been replaced.
We originally had a quote to redo all the boxes and sashes in wood from one of the leading top quality wood replacement crowd just for the roadside front of the house (9 x 2m+ high sashes) and it came to £34k... The guys who did our windows did a fabulous and spotlessly tidy job for just under £8k... Hoovered everything up every night and you honestly couldn't tell that they had been in the building 5 mins after they left. We have no commercial connection with them, but met them when they did a new near neighbour of ours who told us that they had done his previous two houses and that he couldn't speak highly enough of them.
If you're interested in getting them round for a quote then drop me a mail.
Good luck with the project
Long term lurker and follower of your projects here - mainly because we've done much the same over near Blackheath.
Our house is an Edwardian/Late Victorian of similar size as your new one (cica 5000sqft) and it was far more of a wreck than your new purchase (congrats by the way) e.g.15/16 ceilings had collapsed due to a boogered roof, it was previously multiple council flats with multiple broken water/ heating/ electrical systems, etc. It hadn't been lived in for two years, by anything other than pigeons and so on.
Anyway, we recently (as in they finished yesterday) had the front of the house double glazed where they retained the original wooden boxes, but remade the wooden sashes with thin double glazing and fitted the furry strip things everywhere.
Obviously the thin double glazing isn't quite as good as the much thicker retrofit double glazing in terms of sound deadening (we are in a conservation area so we are limited in terms of what we can do), but it's still very good - we were lying in bed this morning marvelling at the difference. Aesthetically, you can't tell that the originals have been replaced.
We originally had a quote to redo all the boxes and sashes in wood from one of the leading top quality wood replacement crowd just for the roadside front of the house (9 x 2m+ high sashes) and it came to £34k... The guys who did our windows did a fabulous and spotlessly tidy job for just under £8k... Hoovered everything up every night and you honestly couldn't tell that they had been in the building 5 mins after they left. We have no commercial connection with them, but met them when they did a new near neighbour of ours who told us that they had done his previous two houses and that he couldn't speak highly enough of them.
If you're interested in getting them round for a quote then drop me a mail.
Good luck with the project
Great news on the mortgage hopefully all will go through smoothly.
I am using a really good contractor for flooring at the moment in Central London, we are working in a large central London Hotel at the moment, (it has been smashed to bits inside, we are fitting out the bars and restaurants as joinery manufacturers)
I am using a really good contractor for flooring at the moment in Central London, we are working in a large central London Hotel at the moment, (it has been smashed to bits inside, we are fitting out the bars and restaurants as joinery manufacturers)
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