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Ferdinand

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Everything posted by Ferdinand

  1. Ferdinand
    No win no fee?
  2. Ferdinand
    I think I have found my microwave, one of these: http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/cooking/microwaves/kenwood-k23mss15-solo-microwave-stainless-steel-10100868-pdt.html Took the fascia plate in, offered up and it works OK. And the feet are in the right place to fit my current rails. But I will need to offset it slightly to allow the door to open comfortably, so have gone for a 30mm narrower width than expected. £150 reduced to £70 and I can get another £10 off by TopCashback, plus paying with Curry's giftcards bought under Morrisons PetrolSaver (7.50 off fuel), with a reward Amex card. 60% off. Cool. If the interface doesn't work well for my mum, I will go for this one, which is more and does widgetty-doodah types of cooking rather than being just a solo, but also fits. http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/cooking/microwaves/kenwood-k23cm13-combination-microwave-mirror-finish-19394353-pdt.html Thanks for the help. Ferdinand
  3. Ferdinand
    Should we have this as one of our normal advice points? I Think there have been a couple of examples in the last year where tiny contamination spots were used as reasons to request a lot of sampling. Wasn't there one where the previous owner used to maintain their lawnmower or something similarly trivial? Ferdinand
  4. Ferdinand
    SHould this have been a case of "first remove your oil tank" ... ?
  5. Ferdinand
    Curry have one that looks about right, and 55% off at present. But no mounting kit :-( . Time to visit with my fascia panel to see if it fits, and then to consider commercial. Ferdinand
  6. Ferdinand
    Shall we have a thread for these stories? When we sold out small manor house after 38 years we had: 1 - Our solicitors lost the deeds (in wrong file) durnig my father's probate processing, so we went all the way through the "possessory ttitle" process for several months before they suddenly found them again. 2 - The purchasers were using an online, call-centre type solicitor, who maintained that we didn't have a right to drive out of our drive over the grass verge. The issue was that the verge had been made wider when the lane was realigned when the M1 was built, and a slice was allegedly under some sort of title or restriction from the relevant government department since before 1970. Not much fun. Ferdinand
  7. Ferdinand
    2 Ikea ones appear to be the correct size to a smidgeon. Inevitably they are the £450 and £500 versions. !! The commercial option looks interesting.
  8. Ferdinand
    So first step is probably Ikea or Currys and a tape measure :-) , ordered online so I can send it back!
  9. Ferdinand
    This seems difficult. I need to replace a built-in microwave in my kitchen. The existing one is a Baumatic (brand not relevant really) stainless steel finish model, which appears actually to be a freestanding microwave on a pair of tracks in the mounting kit. Microwave dimensions: 508W x 285H (310 if you include the feet) x 420D. Hole Dimensions: 600W unit. 450H hole. There is a front surround plate which has a hole of size 520W x 290H. I have some up and down adjustment in the existing mounting kit. My ideal solution will be a simple microwave which matches the hole in the front surround in stainless steel. How do I find one to match? I had a conversation with my usual appliance supplier (Appliances Direct), but they could not really help in the showroom and the website is not set up for search by size. Cheers Ferdinand
  10. Ferdinand
    It is worth noting that you will also make mistakes :-), and cost extra money, and kick yourself. If you can find one, it may be worth finding a "mentor" - an experienced self-builder or PM willing to look over your shoulder and point out potholes and pitfalls before you hit them. I am talking about basically paying or finding for free a mentor / sounding board who has done a similar project before. Could be paid in kind, in cash or in beer/wine. I am not aware of any easy ways of doing it, but if you can find a reasonably local one it may be worth it. Good advice could easily save you a few thousand or make your houses nicer. Were I building someone I would ask one of a couple of retired architects I happen to know. Ferdinand
  11. Ferdinand
    Yes, clearly you should get the changes done first. Doing simple transfer etc forms *is* fairly straightforward - we have been moving things around like a politician's fairy story over our recent sale, largely to do with ransom strips etc, and done some ourselves. If doing it myself I have done the forms and gone and sat down at an appointment at the Land Registry, where they will give process advice etc - and they have sometimes been able to obtain documents etc on the spot from the computer. In your case I would put it in the hands of a solicitor or conveyancer, but do check that they don't make mistakes and chase through with the Land Registry to make sure it is all correctly filled in. Solicitors do sometimes make mistakes, and in these cases the LR may just put it aside to deal with later, and it could be on the side-pile for months. We had one problem when we trusted the process, and our solicitor had made a rare mistake which didn't come to light until it hit a deadline then was difficult to remedy. Also, purchasers may themselves be nitpickers (most of us on Buildbub are just that), and their solicitors may be required to be that. And that can poleaxe a purchase. And solicitors will have access to the LR online systems. Be ready for extra costs from the Building Society etc :-) . Ferdinand
  12. Ferdinand
    I'm happy recommending Guides I have found useful, but always treat them with a smidge of scepticism, and sometimes substitute products. If you are starting from scratch there is somethnig to be said for visiting your Wickes and getting a complete set of printed ones. If the Guides were dodgy from big stores, their reputation would be damaged imo.
  13. Ferdinand
    Found it. Determined boundary - Practice Guide 40. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/boundary-agreements-and-determined-boundaries/practice-guide-40-land-registry-plans-supplement-4-boundary-agreements-and-determined-boundaries Land Reg. eg It looks to be where Charles and Di lived after the split. Apparently GPS is not used.
  14. Ferdinand
    This LR blog post (and the 686 comments) may be useful: http://blog.landregistry.gov.uk/boundary-questions-answered/ as may this video (and the other five parts) I think you should put an interesting covenant on it, just for the LOLs. "No peacocks, parrots, penguins or ptarmigans may be kept on this land". Ferdinand
  15. Ferdinand
    The thing you may want is called a "determined boundary" that you can register. A normal boundary relies on "boundary features" to decide the line on the ground. Ferdinand
  16. Ferdinand
    Like it. How did you embed the video?
  17. Ferdinand
    The best place to start imo is with a conversation with the Land Registry helpline. They are always helpful to me. You could also visit their office. My local one has free parking spaces they tend to keep quiet about. Rather than bother with "50mm from the face of the fence" (someone will move the fence at some time :-o ), you could go for a measured boundary done via GPS, which will then say exactly where it is. There will be no consent problems if you own both sides. I take it you are fully in touch with building plot (or not) potential. Large walls are rather nice compared to some fences, but cost about 5x as much as a closeboard fence - but if you are there forever... Ferdinand
  18. Ferdinand
    How wonderful to see officials wanting things done the correct way, and being willing to stand up to "ends justify the means" Councillors making category errors. That is important because it is very very difficult stopping Councils who are doing things unlawfully without laying out 10-50k in the High Court. If this was done over here in the area of rental law, a lot of the inappropriate things shoehorned into Landlord Licensing for the sake of it would be out, and many tenants thousands of tenants would be saved a couple of hundred a year in futile bureaucracy cost. Ferdinand
  19. Ferdinand
    I mentoned Peter Aldington. I have a blog article about him - Houses are For Living - brought over from Ebuild. There is also a video conversation, here, but the embed below may vanish in a year or two. The first words are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNV1_EKo7Tg Ferdinand
  20. Ferdinand
    This thread is for examples of architects who can be looked up, or houses that can be studied or visited, to give ideas, details or simply provocation. The aim is to help us self-builders who haven't designed or seen a wide range of houses gain different views or insights. My top recommendations are: 1 - Go on the London Open House weekend, or equivalent regional events. The next one is due on September 17-18th, when hundreds of normally closed buildings, including domestic, will be open. Even Grand Designs Gin Palaces can have ideas that can be used in ordinary homes, and London has many innovatiev ideas because bnuilding is so difficult. My most enjoyable OH day was spent touring 4 different types of Council House built by Camden in the 1970s. 2 - Go and visit lots of houses with estate agents. Be a Nosey Parker. 3 - Look into ideas of not-quite-famous architects. For example I like Peter Aldington, who is known to many but not to me until recently, who designed modern houses from the 1960s that were also pleasant / practical to live in. For me that is the most important feature. 4- Keep a Notebook of Ideas, which could be a notebook or something like an annotated photo gallery on your phone. Ferdinand
  21. Ferdinand
    I was thinking of those two old men from the Muppets, but that is Wenlock and Mandeville or Statler and Waldorf or something. It is actually Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Projects tend to be 9 months in duration. Or possibly something else involving Oil and Gas.
  22. Ferdinand
    It would probably have suffered a little like overdone melba toast. I think they use planks not featehredge. Ferdinand
  23. Ferdinand
    No commnet :-)
  24. Ferdinand
    Perhaps a fair description would be "allowing people passively to mug themselves" !
  25. Ferdinand
    Welcome. Is this something covered by Spons? I have always found the Wickes How To Guides useful in specific topic areas: http://www.wickes.co.uk/how-to-guides I suspect we need a Checklist of Reference Sources. You can find our existing checklists via the Tag: http://forum.buildhub.org.uk/ipb/tags/checklist/ I have never used one, but there are cost-estimating services out there. that some have found useful. You could probably also benefit from our thread of savings ideas: Ferdinand
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