Ferdinand

Suitable top hung roof light in the right place and a telescopic ladder from Aldi... The common one will be sweeping snow, and you want to be secure in such circs.

Could the “modified After Henry” gambit apply? (*) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzQ8YazBG9Y I am am not clear how the nitty gritty of ownership, transfer, and expenses division would work. Although presumably the freehold or leasehold Is being split. Usually the best solution is to keep it simple, which might be targeting the most expensive conversion for CiL, or some other obvious option. Contriving things usually costs more in the contrivance and buggeration. And welcome. Ferdinand * ie Grandmother, Mother and Daughter living in the 3 flats, modified as required for 2x sisters etc, and sell after y years?

Wonderful stuff if you like attention ! For long term security, the National Forest should be a happy hunting ground, as it will continue to transform the area. Welcome.

In Joint Enterprise with the Head of Building Control? Or even the Secretary of State? F

.

For many people, the kid's play park would be a plus for kids, and also for active streets / security. OTOH it would depend what the other backed onto. I would probably go for the doer-upper, in the knowledge that I would then know what had been done. For the other, but I would be demanding about the restoration. Wearing my LL hat, I have been offered houses with restorations where the fabric was not done underneath, so they would have to be gutted before meeting expected EPC standards (though as mentioned there will be exceptions). Cavity and loft insulation are usually free or nearly free, and (depending on status) so is a new boiler sometimes. F

I think Central Vacuum is a bit like fully-integrated-rainwater-harvesting, much vaunted but the reality does not match the promise. For your list (and there are lots of threads on things like "what would you do differently"): - Provision for your dotage (eg downstairs full shower room, potential granny flat, strengthened space for lift shaft). - Appropriate access to flat roofs for maintenance. - Outside taps and power points where they will be needed, - Charging facilities for electric cars when they are all electric. F

Your question - How then, shall we live? (stealing a quote entirely inappropriately) Well - how do you live? ? is it a useful trick for you to sketch out a design of your rooms as separates, then just remove all the walls and see if it feels different? Just leaving a wall out (esp. to separate circulation space) can be a creative move. I often shout about *hinterland* - relevant background knowledge. I have the joy that I still have many of my dad's architectural and artistic books, including fantastic stuff like 50s and 60s copies of Domus. Taking a flyer, can I recommend a book by Sir Terence Conran, which are usually available for a few ££ secondhand. There's something wonderful about practitioners from 20-50 years ago who were still active until recently. Terence Conran Kitchens: The Hub of the Home (2002) (Or similar). If it doesn't help, you have only lost £5-10, and can try something else. I would argue that a peninsula plan is a possibility if the flow of a kitchen was that it was a cul-de-sac - eg if there was no exit to the garden or other room at the far end, or perhaps if you have one person who overhwelmingly does the cooking. It creates more of a private domain, while still allowing interaction. We had one of those in a huge kitchen (19x15 ft ish) whilst I was growing up (70s-80s), and it was replaced with something with more open flow later on. Of course, another alternative to an Island is a movable work / storage trolley - an "island on wheels". Ikea also do these. Ferdinand

That's not an Island as we know it, @lizzie - that's the other side of a galley kitchen with the back wall and the end wall removed ! And that's not a quip or a dig - I think that in some ways such a large run has gone beyond being something that is walked around, because walking-around becomes an expedition. It is a different type of thing - equally valid, but different I am sure that usage patterns would be quite different from something say 2m long. F

I use Ikea Franklin models in a student rental I look after for the family. Seats are formed ply, they have backs, come in 2 seat heights 63cm and 74cm, and fold. When they are unfolded it clicks with a feeling like a tomb closing in a pyramid ... very solid. There is a footrest. Cost are £25 or £27 each, and they are in black and white. The ones I have were put in in about 2012-13, and I am not aware that any have been replaced. The only wear I have seen has been through the black along the edges where they are grabbed. Easy to repair (boot polish or spray paint). Recommended - and if you want posho or fashionable ones later then these would be a good interim. But do go to Ikea and sit on them. The back support may not be right for you. Ferdinand

Just off the phone to my EPC man, who runs Energy Performance Consultants of Ripley, and his initial opinion is that one would also need to achieve a good reduction in CO2 output in addition to an increase in floor area to make a significant difference. Which raises the spectre of replacement of the boiler with an ASHP as one thing that may be worth a look. He was very emphatic on the need to analyse and model any changes first because the calculation is unpredictable. Ferdinand

I’m waiting for the pantry-panty cockup.

This may or may not be acceptable to you. I use a PIV combined with fans with a continuous + boost mechanism for the extraction rather than through the gaps. That seems to work for me in being robust to whatever tenants do. Can post more info if required. Ferdinand

Customers required for sofa delousing unit...

Volunteers required with sofa sized freezers...

Tenants can be educated. More generally they tend to hit themselves with a cluebat after they have once moved from a property running at £60 per month bills, to a seemingly identical property with a £25 a month lower rent costing £150 a month to run. But such culture will take a looooong time to develop. As ever, if you can buy a restorable E, spend £x on it, and by upgrading to a C gain £2x value on it in capital or the NPV of increased rent over your relevant timeframe, then it is potentially worth doing from a business POV. If people can restore things at half the cost of doing it as a layperson employing Trades, that opens up opportunities. In-tenancy projects are more interesting, but Eg I can count them against the 500-2500 I would need to spend for every tenant change. That is one aspect of this loft conversion, plus it also justifies the project in value terms ... just. I agree there in insufficient knowledge in the market. But the flip side of that is opportunities. Cheers Ferdinand

So have you worked out the amount you can charge them to put a pipe through your track ? ? Ie £1 less than it would cost them to do it the other way ?.

I think "mains service" would include the obvious. This phrase, of the bit you quoted, seems to be the key to me: What is this transfer? And who's benefit is it for? If the field owners' were not a party to the transfer of the track (to you?), then I do not see how the right to install services could apply to them. Probably need more information, but that looks like the angle of interest. Ferdinand

Looking at the EPC, boiler is +3, heating controls are +1, flue gas HR is +1. Presumably shower HR device is also +1-2. So I need about 10 more points. The intention has been in law since the Energy Act 2011 ,but it will be in regulations so there is still scope for variation. "Proposals for improving the energy efficiency of domestic properties also include a legal obligation requiring the government to take action to raise the EPC ratings of as many fuel poor homes "as reasonably practicable". EPC ratings should reach Band E by 2020, Band D by 2025 and Band C by 2030, according to the consultation. " https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2014/july/uk-government-sets-out-long-awaited-energy-efficiency-standards-for-new-property-rentals/ There are exceptions (eg listed, or LL who can prove it is not viable within a 7 year payback), but the system for registering an exception is complex and the register is public. Given that EPCs are a political document that changes every few years, the draconian nature of the punishments, and unpredictability of the process and the environment, that any changes will be reprospective, and other factors, my stance is that I renovate to a high-C or a B, or at least know how I can get there, and charge some % more rent to cover it; I work on me getting 50% my estimate of the tenant's savings on the bills. We need the same system for Owner Occupiers, enforced at sale time. Ferdinand

> so not a true Islam Cough, cough, splutter. I spy with my little eye a fellow iPad user. F

Those are two very different photos (or 3d models of your proposed kitchen?), and I want to go on a perambulation before talking about kitchens. This is something I am thinking about this AM, in the context of marketing a student property. I thought I would do my thinking here, if that is OK. These are musings, and I am quite open to being shot down in flames. One is perhaps a good example of a cheap-and-cheerful which can be replaced by 2 in a decade. First of all - DRESSING AND PRESENTATION. Need to filter out the presentational differences before looking at the substance. How much is the presentation affecting your perception? The light is different in the pics. The first looks washed out and with less variety of colour. Compare the histograms - (this is luminosity, but colours all also have a far narrower depth of palette in the first than the second). Your "next level" piccie is on the left. What does that mean? You can see the difference in the histogram. To me the one piccie looks like a snapshot, and the second looks dressed (in addition to the furniture differences) fro eg Instagram or Dezeen. I would say that is an artefact of our culture now being more universally visual (as opposed to in islands and subsectors such as Architects or Artists or Photogs or Models). In a way the first looks like an aspirational room from Ikea Gen 1 (say 1975 in design environments, as popularised by early Ikea). The second is more sumptuous with a greater range of colour, which we are now getting perhaps ith the 1940s/50s (rather than 1960s/early 1970s) being in fashion. I think that just with a small adjustment to the 'old gen' kitchen makes it more attractive to 2019 eyes. All I have done is dialed in richer colours via changing the Gamma for the photo. Here is the luminosity histogram for this pic: Content Differences However, there are also some photo / lighting differences - the second one is photographed to include the snug, and more sitting places. The first one says "kitchen with nowhere to relax", like something out of a Hall of Residence which is primarily functional; the second one is clearly a home. (This is one way my letting agent describes their philosophy of designing / marketing student houses). These are probably subliminal, but communicate a different environment where the viewer might be ore comfortable existing. (A great example of this was when digital artists started displaying their Gicle images on Ebay as if hung on a wall behind a sofa by plonking a floating sofa at the bottom of the pic. I first noticed that in about 2005 when on Ebay when a photo-printing blogger pointed it out). There is also (not sure whether intentional) the classic "before and after" manipulated photograph thing as you saw on Trinny and Susanna. Compare those 2 kitchen piccies to this weightloss before and after: There is a weightloss, but also mucho photo-shenanigans. On the left - flat frontal lighting, no highlights to give depth or definition (eg rh picture, lighting from rhs giving a halo to skin and boob), body and bounce in rh hairdo not there in lh piccie, stomach on rhs tensed (LH to me looks relaxed), rh picture has model smiling and engaged (lh has just been told her puppy got run over), variation in colour/tone on rhs and depth of colour palette ( not on left) etc. It may be instructive to compare the colour histograms. And those arms and waist look Photoshopped. There is a lot similar going on in your 2 piccies - especially eg flat colours in the first compared to the second, and perhaps lighting. But that is also true of the design. Not saying that it is deliberate as in the model piccies, but it could be affecting the subliminal perception (does with me). So, where are we? Underneath all of that, to me the second one looks about twice as expensive eg compare the material for the island worktop, or the designer staircase. But there is a big difference bewreen the 2 piccies before we get to "what is in the kitchen". So my comments are: 1 - Visit as well as look at pictures. 2 - "Klotzen nicht Kleckern" - don't spend on everything. Work out the bits that matter to you (eg by working out where you spend your time or use most, and spend money on that). Spend the money where you will often touch the quality. 3 - Focus on reducing price for a given quality , not on buying cheaper things with extra gewgaws. 4 - Think about external factors - how you use the rooms etc, layout and so on. Fabric.First. 5 - Really pay attention to the detail. 6 - As for Designers etc, you need someone to facilitate your process with their skills, not someone who will tell you what to do. 7 - For colours, a limited range of contrasting colours with different tones, rather than a range of shades of similar colours. The current Renovate Don't Relocate does this well (I think it is a product of murderous Stamp Duty in London). You also get to see a TV series with Sarah Beeny not pregnant. For an example - I have an expensive (£600 bought online for £400) sink with a non-standard drainer-sink-halfsink arrangement as I use it a lot, and like to be able to flap around with guts and gore in the halfsink *away* from the drainer. I think you start with your own philosophy and perhaps a "statement of needs", then evaluate different things against that. "Next Generation Kitchen" is not a statement of needs - unless you are a Boutique Hotel. Buzzword-driven kitchen design (which I do not think you are doing except a list as a way to provoke debate) ends up with a lottery-winner's gin palace or a City-Boy's never-used swank pad kitchen; it's a kitchen version of a trophy-wife. Sorry for the long post. Hope it was useful. Ferdinand

@puntloos What interesting questions you are asking. Just responding on the other thread. Oh No it isn't ! You are being subliminally conditioned by the Zillons from the Planet Tharg. Take care and at least watch other options. I did a fish cookery course last year in the Cook's own kitchen, and she had a hole in the island worktop, with a lid, which went straight through to the food bin below. So just sweep all the waste straight in. Great idea - for a cook. Alternatively, if you build model soldiers on your Island - Bugger! I just lost General Wolfe! F

Perhaps plastic sofa coverings will come back into fashion...

I am hoping someone has done this, I am currently looking at doing a loft conversion in a rented property. One aspect is that I am likely to need an EPC grade of C by 2030 to be able to let it legally at that point. I have done most of the low hanging fruit already .. 50mm celotex IWI where needed, 250mm loft ins., 2G and so on. there is a boiler swap to condensing and HR to be done at some stage, but the EPC is currently D58, which is quite poor given that energy bills only run at -60 per month, and I do not think that a boiler alone will give me 12 more points. So I need to take some care. If I do a well insulated loft conversion .. say to add 25sqm to the loft area in addition to the existing 85sqm area, does the per area algorithm for an EPC mean that in practise I get a nice boost for the extra area with only a marginal increase in energy use? (I am in a position to do a cost-effective conversion for various reasons.) Cheers Fedinand

if you have time to wait, find a friend of a friend who works in a furniture factory as an upholsterererer. I have such a tenant, which is perhaps an unfair advantage :-). I have no idea where furniture is made for Scotland. F