Ferdinand

I very much appreciate all the comments. I can’t go the charity shop route easily, as they are all electric recliners than are nearly 15 years old, and therefore excluded afaik. And unfortunately they will only come out in pieces as they are about 50% bigger than a standard door in any dimension, and I am built right up to both boundaries. Ditto the Council Service will only take things from outside the house. At the moment it is Big Spring Clean where they take 3 large items for free, but for that we have to get them outside and put them back together. However phoning round I have found an acquaintance who works in a local furniture factory making high end sofas, who has agreed to do the dismantling and take it to the disposal point or perhaps put it back together outside. We just need to decide. So problem probably solved ... he is coming round tomorrow for a look. Cheers all. F

It beat’s a month’s rain in a day as per the BBC report !

That is an excellent thought but TBH I do not want random (as opposed to paid and chosen) strangers in the house when I am processing mum’s estate. I may have to bite the bullet. The IVAR shelves you can see is my prototype green wall which is going where the sofa came from ? .

Consider a 2 seat sofa with two electric recliners (which weighs a ton). I also have a 3 seater sofa and a one seater chair. All of which weigh a ton and are recliners. They are as uncommfortable as they are heavy, and ginormous. These are going because they were bought for when dad was seriously ill back in 2006. To be replaced with a Guy Rogers converti-sofa and 2 chairs which I still have stashed upstairs. Does anyone know how I get these dismantled and removed - really not a job I want to tackle? Even the label is underneath so I had to behave like a car mechanic with no lift to find out what it is. I think they are these - by Centurion Furniture of Lancaster (who have now closed). Lazyboy Recliners. There is no prospect of sale due to the electric and it is only worth tuppence. I think I will need to hire 2 men for half a day, or similar. All comments welcome. Ferdinand

Oh dear. If not in place it may have helped. Mine just canned their local plan again, and have been trying to get one done since about 2010.

Do they have a 5 year housing supply in place?

I am not sure that people in Wales think they have come down in price ! ???

Might be tempting to go for Outline with a local architect / planner who knows the foibles and prejudices and PEZs (planning erogenous zones ie hot buttons *) of the particular Council, then your ideal one to do the Detailed Design. F * Eg detail of the weak provision towards the required housing mix that you can leverage, or the status of the Local Plan that might engage the NPPF presumption to develop even in a possibly marginal application.

2.4m will not be wide enough for the minimum width for a fire engine even with all allowed compromises made (think it is 2.75m), so you will either need the entire dwelling to be within hose reach of the road (I believe 45m) or plan alternative allowed provision, such as a complete sprinkler system. Or get an extra bit of width from somewhere. Check those numbers with planning (just phone up and ask what the policy is) but I think they are correct. If it has Ashes and Oaks on it then I would suggest getting all the ashes out now, since most of them will die anyway in the next few years. ATB Ferdinand

I think you have a decent chance of a modest detached house or a bungalow on that. if you are talking about rentals a small 2 bed bungalow would be a superb proposition .. you would get 5-10 year tenants no problem from parents of a local family. I would start from making it symmetrical across the corner with the neighbour to give a consistent appearance. You can perhaps have part of the garden on the corner as your private amenity space since you can just grow the thick hedge to 2m with no need for approvals. Driveways and access will be the challenge, with the proximity to the junction. The distance to the notional apex of the junction corner is likely to be 10-15m, and that car you can see will be 4 or 5m, so you may have a fighting chance of getting a new drive the far side. Many oldsters will want a low maintenance patio garden, which may help. Needs very careful planning, but could work. I would also try and buy a hunk of their corner side garden from the neighbour before breaking cover, which would help.

Thin sinks also have the issue that they flex just with finger pressure and therefore feel cheap.

I think this acoustics debate may go round in circles to an extent for want of specific experience / reference. Can I suggest you ask for a few people with varying constructions where you can go and visit, and take a ghetto-blaster or computer plus speaker with a recording of the type of noise you are concerned about (or a person with a trombone ?) to gain some real examples of how the acoustics work for you with various known types of construction? You may be pleasantly surprised, or at least could rule things out more authoritatively. I am sure there will be some near York, and BH members are always pleased to welcome fellow self-builders. Having a less complex outline and roof would potentially save 10-20k. On a more general - but perhaps too detailed for this early stage - point, I think that beds in corners will be difficult to look after eg change fitted sheets if you have movement challenges, unless you know you will have a carer / cleaner who can do it. Ferdinand

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Have you a plan (from largest scale on Council Map website would do). Ferdinand

The demolition must have been quite satisfying. My pet hate was Orville the Ventrilloquist's Dummy.

Yay Bagpuss and Professor Yaffle. You could have gone for "Parliament of Owls".

Looking for a suitably consoling/encouraging quote, I had to rely on a German Translation as the Latin text is not out of copyright yet so not findable on the net. F (English : Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We will get there in the end.)

Time for a tea break ! In the coop yesterday I saw an infusion flavour which was Turmeric and Star Anise, which I didn’t dare smell never mind purchase. That would reinvigorate anyone.

i find that thinner sinks yield if leaned on. Suspect that thickness if an issue because people want cheap sinks ... may be a rental property thing maybe and cheapskate restorations . A driver on that may be that the deposit schemes in resolving disputes can assume shortish lifespans on eg a kitchen, so if T damages it after that the recovery of cash from the deposit may be very limited. So limited point in putting in eg high end stuff. As I go for long term and hopefully civilised tenants, if I buy from eg Howdens I always go about halfway up the range for both sinks and taps ... it is part of the thing about investing in the things that get used all the time to give it a quality feel as far as possible and so that it lasts for the long term and Ts stay. Ferdinand

Stood on your feet not the head next time :-). Looks like an opportunity to learn repointing, but on an old house it is just wear and tear.

That's rather a good idea. You could name it for the three words that make up the location. "Goat cactus dirigible".

I was quoted 4K for a black on black 4kWp install 3-4 years ago as a best price for a straightforward install on a bungalow, and 4.5k for something which was more branded. I think now you should be some way below 5k, unless the squeeze in the trade has driven prices up again. Get some quotes. F

Remember that you will be able to use it to power the ASHP in cooling mode should you choose that type of ASHP in summer. But given your suggested sizes, that will apply to all of them. F

Sure. At root it is "my word is my bond" between people who trust each other. I have known the family for a number of years, and their parents were former tenants (with a number of labrador retrievers) who rented a slightly difficult property from me for 2-3 years (which was quite doggable since the plan was to turn it into a road and they rented knowing that it would be time limited). Parents were trying to set up for retirement, so I suggested such a deal to them as Ts/friends - subsequently a grown up offspring was getting married (one partner had previous children), and they asked me to think about the same for them, as their credit was seriously shot (6-7 years recovery shot). I did that whilst the couple were renting elsewhere. They found one house, which I warned them off as it would be a stretch and needed 20k spending. Then they found this one, which fitted the bill - after 2 years or so. A early 20C semi in an unusual situation renovated (not that well but to Regs standard) by somebody else. The deal itself was for: 1 - Initial 3 year fixed rent at a little below market (ie take bottom of the suggested range from EA) for a slightly easier on-ramp. 2 - Ignore credit checks ?. To be fair the parents would have stepped in - that sort of people. 3 - Letter of intention giving the not-quite-binding right to purchase at half way between purchase price and market price at purchase point, adjusted for any long term expenditure - eg my extra 3% Osborne Stamp Duty, I have fitted a ventilation system and a loft storage area (loft legs), and they have built a small conservatory economically (which I made them insulate properly) and fenced the garden. In practise it will be 20 minutes horse trading. 4 - 3 years are nearly up so I get to put it back to a market rent plus a bit from this year (had conversation about it last summer), now that maternity leave is over and they will have 2 incomes again. 5 - When their credit is back they get to buy it as above. The "not quite" in 3 is just in case my business melts down entirely (unlikely). So I get (hopefully) a low risk and OK rental investment (7% yield ish), and they get to have a family home, do stuff, be secure and have an easier way onto the housing ladder. Estd. 75% chance of a one way bet for both sides imo. At the end of the day my arse is covered as I still have the house should things go entirely wrong, or they not follow through, and it is slack I can afford to cut for people whom it helps make significantly happier / more secure. A more usual thing is for LLs to leave rents fixed for years and years in cash terms for really long term Ts on fixed incomes; a lot do that. Also quite commn to offer first refusal of a sale to a sitting T. At the end I will get a reasonable increase, which hopefully will be small enough to not engage CGT, and they get a house at maybe 10-15% below true value (hopefully within the negotiating margin so avoiding Below Value issues) and may end up with a lower mortgage percentage at the end of the day. In 2.5 years property is up by about 16%, so we are both safe if it doesn't spontaneously fall down. It's a little intricate and very bespoke, but that's the deal. I would do another one in the right circs, though it takes care and I would not have more than a small number of them at once, as it is all tighter now. F

Suspect my local pigeons are too fat to fit.