Re: house prices

I love reading about your house Realspeed...I really miss doing up houses and selling them on it's such a buzz changing a wreck into a lovely home....

My most successful project was buying a tiny gardeners cottage in the garden of a large house in Leeds....it was a gorgeous position and it was sold along with the tennis court which was overgrown and would form the new garden.....anyway to cut a long story short I turned a tiny two bedroom gardeners cottage into a five bedroom five bathroom house....I sold it to a Barbarian Surgeon who worked in Leeds ...he bought it because he said it reminded him of Caribbean homes.....gosh I had such fun doing it.

Re: house prices

Our first house was a 2 bed middle of a terrace of three and the back entrance was via a path at the end of the terrace on one side. The only front room was very small to say the least and the kitchen and bathroom/toilet behind that.
So we moved in and for the first time shut the front door keeping the world out. What a fantastic feeling, it was ours YIPPEE all ours.

Next was sorting out the gas and what a todo. we wanted to do away with the gas meter and instal a gas fire. Simple yes??? erm no .

The gas man came to do the meter and another for the gas fire, great both at same time. both Sue and I were out at work so my father sat in for us
so they started the work and stopped ,all hell let loose. Seems the gas pipe to the house was so olds 1920 or there abouts it had holes all along it.

Gas men panicked and shut off the supply not only to us but the whole street for safety reasons.

Along come the emergency gas repair gang and by this time dad said there were about 18 gas men there which required a first aid lorry on standby.

Dad just sat there amazed so he said, but the time we got home we had a new gas pipe feed and new gas meter and a working gas fire.

You think that would be about it wouldn't you??? wrong

The house was so old the window frames were cast iron and looked horrible and such small squares of glass hard to look out of.

So my first DIY venture was to get an ally metal frame kit and replace them all. First of all the back windows I knocked out he glass to get to the frame screws and the old couple next door rush out being nosy and told me i had just broken a couple of window panels. ERm yes i know I did it on purpose and continued to do all the house

then they started to cause trouble, why I have no idea

our middle house was a bit wider than the other two so the old git painted the house front over my property to make his look bigger, so I repainted back the the dividing line

Next was a roof tile replacement and suggested we had all three properties done at once. the old couple refuse and the young couple on the other side could not afford it ,so we just had ours done.

Oh have i finished? not quite yet

Two years down the line we decided to move, we only gave ourselves two year to live there anyway.

So we put in on the market and for some reason or other he old couple seemed to object giving it verbal over the fence.

Right now for me to sort them out for good

the path to our back entrance was to narrow it should have been wide enough for a double width pram but it wasn't. the old couple had widened their back garden into the path.

So when the agent came around to give a valuation i explained about it and between us we made a big display of measuring the width from one end to the other, making sure the old couple were watching.

When the agent left they asked what was going on, now me being a bit nasty said I had complained to the council about the path width and they were going to check and prosecute anyone that had altered their boundary. As we were leaving the old git had pulled down the fence off his garden to the path and busy moving it all and the earth back to where is should have been

then we left laughing or asses off, great times when your young

Re: house prices

So on to house number 2 our first step up the housing ladder.

This was a 1930's 3 bed semi with garage attached to next door one.

getting into this DIY lark now, but first we had the pavement curb dropped so we didn't break any laws. First job was to sort out the garden then build a side flank extn behind and attached to the garage.

So the project started. we removed the kitchen chimney stack on that side put in a support (RSJ) not that it really needed one, and then moved the back door to the side. This then stopped any draught going straight from front to back doors, which actually made the house a bit warmer.

Then the project really got under way. Submitted plans and got them passed . Next was to support the tall wall I was going to dig 3 ft down beside, so got some long timbers, won't say where or how but all legit, and braced the wall so it didn't collapse.

So dug a trench 18ft by 8ftand 2ft wide (regs at the time) with a return trench to the house and under by 1.5ft as the house was built on the float system.

Now getting rid if the clay, I had help with as the other neighbour worked for the council and got us a huge skip up our drive for nothing. Taking it away full if clay cause problems as the lorry front lifted due to the weight but eventually with supports shifted the skip out the way

Next was to move he earthenware drain pipes and in the trench to allow the new foundations.

ERm problem ,how do you cut earthernware pipes to size??

My solution was to go onto a building site with the pipe to be cut marked up and saw the site foreman. i explained the problem and he got one of the men working there to cut it for me and wished me all the best on the project.

OK pipe cut and joined with hep sleeves to existing pipe problem solved. And then the building inspected came to do a check before I could carry on. He was so helpful with advice i don't think i could have completed otherwise.

Ok trench dug -waste pipes connected now bridge over a small section of pipe to protect and pea shingle the whole of the pipes.

Next readymix concrete but not shoot it out as normal but into a wheelbarrow to wheel through the garage . nearly killed me.
OK foundations in next to build the extn walls. Here I used 18x18" breeze blocks and cemented the small space between the wall next door and the wall i was building as it went up and also stoned it at the same time

got up to window height and inspector passed so to carry on.
Next was to change the existing rear garage door to a fire protection one and put in window and stable door out to the back.
Final bit was the roof and caused a problem. normally one removes the house brick cement course and insert joist hangers but this cement was so weak a mix it was decide to remove half a brick and cement the joist hangers in instead.

with joists in place then the furlings 11 ft long 2" high one ends to nothing at the other to give the roof a slope
then 8x4 chipboard sheets over the top and had experts in to tarmac the roof.
ok room built but what about the inside? so we had a small radiator installed and next door was a tiler so he tiled out the floor. the wall another neighbour was a plasterer so he did that for us. Room complete at last

on to next project
the front bedroom upstairs showed damp in the plaster underneath so remove to find a support was rotten so cut it out ans splice in a new section which then gave proper support the the window ledge, and replasted job done

several other little jobs like building a front dwarf wall and crazy paving the front wa also some of he other work I undertook
Stayed there for a few years then moved again

Re: house prices

house number 3 and yet another step up the ladder

This time in horley a 4 bed timber frame house double garage and we had to wait for it to be built. Any problems apart from selling house Number 3 to a failed to complete buyer which put us back a few weeks

So this was a new build and the builders pushing us o complete or they would put it back on the market. No way was this going to happen and they were stopped because our solicitors discovered they had built over a public footpath from a small wood copse
Ok nearly time to move in and he snagging check time. on this inspection of ours we noticed a main stop tap for the water had been boxed in so that had to be sorted.

day moving in, great excitement turned up removal lorry ready and into the kitchen we went only to find all the cupboard doors had gone. The builders had removed them for snagging next door, so we complained and got them back

The back garden was sodden so we got pipes put in to drain water away. apart from that not much more
Then after a few years yet another move

Re: house prices

Now on to house number 4 or should i say house plus kennels and cater in west midlands. Wont say much about the extensive upgrade I did far too much to go into here.

next move house number 5 where we are now. Again have in the past said what needed and got done so this is how we got here in the end

Re: house prices

And how lovely it is too .