littlespark

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Just gauging the collective intelligence here on perils and pitfalls of renovating a possible house my middle daughter (19yp) wants to buy with her own money. She pays the bills, daddy does all the donkey work.

The market around here is slow at this time, so there’s not a huge choice of properties in driving distance to both our house, and her place of work.

I’ll show you all what we viewed last Friday… and possible plans.


IMG_6554.jpeg

Property is 50 to 60 year old ex-local authority stock. 3 bedroom. Semi detached with cavity walls. Garden of grass to front, hoping to put in a driveway, and all slabbed to back and side areas.

IMG_6555.jpeg

South facing living room. Solid fuel burner that feeds some wet radiators. No mains gas on this street. Other heating is a few night storage heaters and immersion tank. Not sure if it’s one or two immersions… but must heat overnight and has a boost control.

Ceiling appears to have been newly plastered, but that might just be to cover old cracks or whatever.. there’s no evidence of flooding above.

Strange small room past the left of the fireplace. Not really big enough to do anything with.
Was originally a storage room with solid wall here, and access door to outside.

IMG_6556.jpeg

Kitchen needs redone. There’s no door for a start. A lot of the drawers don’t shut and there’s no wall units. There’s a serving hatch into the living room.

IMG_6558.jpeg

Bathroom is pretty good… but no extractor fan. There’s a separate shower cubicle to the right of the picture, where space has been taken from a bedroom to fit it in.


IMG_6557.jpeg

Hallway. Big wasted space under the stairs there. Space for a WC?
The cupboard at the end holds the consumer unit, which is a dual rcd Hager board for 24hr, and an older fuse board for the storage heaters via a mechanical timeclock.

There’s ample space under the timber floor for running new pipes and whatever. Will want to insulate under there as well, but don’t know if it’s best with spray foam, polystyrene blocks of just rock wool held up between the joists.

Another plan would be to take that end wall of the hall away, moving the CU, cutout etc and putting the kitchen under the stairs, and into that small area. Open plan into the living room.

Current kitchen could be split into a WC and utility room.



In summary. Lots to do, many ideas. Wife doesn’t like all that plain wood.
Is rooftop PV doable? Or does one still need to be MCS registered to get any payback?
Get PV, get battery storage.
Daughter might be eligible for green home grants from Scot.gov


What’s your ideas?
 
That looks good enough to move straight into compared to what my daughter has taken on. They don't have a wall left on both floors. The previous owner took a dividing wall down and the RSJ wasn't supported properly so the upstairs floor is at an odd angle. The floor is going to be jacked back into place and new RSJs fitted. You can see light through bits of the roof. Total rewire needed, new central heating etc.
 
I would recommend she finds a decent electrician.
Well, thats not very effing funny.... ;)

I'll be the electrician, the plumber, the joiner, the tiler, the painter......
or do you think i should get a professional in?


That sounds awful, Moley.... a sagging RSJ... What did the home report say about it?
 
Looks really nice for a first home at 19. Solid fuel is a nice touch, you could use A/C for upstairs and kitchen/lounge , much better than storage heaters (yuk)
If the gnd floor is coming up and and its wooden joists, you could staple net to the underside of the joists and drop rock wool in, will make a big difference.
 
I'll be the electrician, the plumber, the joiner, the tiler, the painter......
or do you think i should get a professional in?
Yes, I have done a lot of property development, bathrooms first kitchens.
If room down stairs the extra bog. Double gazing is a must
If no gas, central heating electric.
 
Property is 50 to 60 year old ex-local authority stock.
Ah, from when they built decent homes. Maybe not very efficient by modern standards, but I'd rather have our 80 year old ex-council house than the modern chap the cobble together.
Solid fuel burner that feeds some wet radiators. No mains gas on this street. Other heating is a few night storage heaters and immersion tank.
My first thought is to fit a thermal store in place of the hot water cylinder - as large as you have room for. Feed the wood burner into it, and run the heating from it. You can still have multiple immersion heaters.
It means you can use the WBS to provide both heating and hot water - and use the immersion heater(s) to top up as required.
There’s ample space under the timber floor for running new pipes and whatever. Will want to insulate under there as well, but don’t know if it’s best with spray foam, polystyrene blocks of just rock wool held up between the joists.
If doing all that, wet UFH is worth considering.
Is rooftop PV doable? Or does one still need to be MCS registered to get any payback?
I think it has to be registered to use an export tariff - but you can use it internally, such as heating the thermal store.

Obviously it all depends on your budget and available time.
 
hoping to put in a driveway
Don’t underestimate how difficult a new dropped kerb can be to put in.
Scotland might be different, but for my local council you need planning permission and the local highways authority to approve the installation. The latter are a nightmare to deal with, thought getting the DNO to attend is difficult, it’s because they’re waiting on the highways authority to show up.
Not to mention having to use one of their approved contractors, which will happily charge you an « approved » price.
 
scaffold board against the kerb? might just be ramped enough to get up with her little car.

im going back tomorrow for aanother look. going to look in attic, under floors etc where i can..... check the cutout etc.... See how easy it would be to move.
Plans are to shift the kitchen to the back.... to make it lighter... so the head, timeclock, CU all need to move out the cupboard if its coming out... .. possibly just along the back of the fireplace area.

Of course i'll ask the DNO/MO to move it for me..... 😇

If all goes well, we'll put in a cheeky offer this week.
 
scaffold board against the kerb? might just be ramped enough to get up with her little car.
Without a dropped kerb, the pavement is effectively a ransom strip - you can't legally cross it with a vehicle.
A dropped kerb also gives you a 'no parking' zone for others across the front of it. Without the dropped kerb, your vehicle can legally be blocked in.
 
The drive isn’t going to be a problem….. there’s other houses on the road done it, and I know a few of them as customers.

First job would be to sort the heating out. I might leave it as 2 systems, so if there’s a powercut, can still use the stove for heat.
Getting rid of the storage heaters and will replace with rointe or whatever.

Solar water heating is a good idea.
 
Just gauging the collective intelligence here on perils and pitfalls of renovating a possible house my middle daughter (19yp) wants to buy with her own money. She pays the bills, daddy does all the donkey work.

The market around here is slow at this time, so there’s not a huge choice of properties in driving distance to both our house, and her place of work.

I’ll show you all what we viewed last Friday… and possible plans.


View attachment 119360

Property is 50 to 60 year old ex-local authority stock. 3 bedroom. Semi detached with cavity walls. Garden of grass to front, hoping to put in a driveway, and all slabbed to back and side areas.

View attachment 119361

South facing living room. Solid fuel burner that feeds some wet radiators. No mains gas on this street. Other heating is a few night storage heaters and immersion tank. Not sure if it’s one or two immersions… but must heat overnight and has a boost control.

Ceiling appears to have been newly plastered, but that might just be to cover old cracks or whatever.. there’s no evidence of flooding above.

Strange small room past the left of the fireplace. Not really big enough to do anything with.
Was originally a storage room with solid wall here, and access door to outside.

View attachment 119362

Kitchen needs redone. There’s no door for a start. A lot of the drawers don’t shut and there’s no wall units. There’s a serving hatch into the living room.

View attachment 119363

Bathroom is pretty good… but no extractor fan. There’s a separate shower cubicle to the right of the picture, where space has been taken from a bedroom to fit it in.


View attachment 119364

Hallway. Big wasted space under the stairs there. Space for a WC?
The cupboard at the end holds the consumer unit, which is a dual rcd Hager board for 24hr, and an older fuse board for the storage heaters via a mechanical timeclock.

There’s ample space under the timber floor for running new pipes and whatever. Will want to insulate under there as well, but don’t know if it’s best with spray foam, polystyrene blocks of just rock wool held up between the joists.

Another plan would be to take that end wall of the hall away, moving the CU, cutout etc and putting the kitchen under the stairs, and into that small area. Open plan into the living room.

Current kitchen could be split into a WC and utility room.



In summary. Lots to do, many ideas. Wife doesn’t like all that plain wood.
Is rooftop PV doable? Or does one still need to be MCS registered to get any payback?
Get PV, get battery storage.
Daughter might be eligible for green home grants from Scot.gov


What’s your ideas?

Looks absolutely lovely!

With regards to PV been looking into that myself the only reason for MCS certification (for own solar install) is if you want to sell to the grid (the energy supplier will require it as part of SEG Smart Export Guarantee)

The only areas to consider with doing your own Solar Install would be if the place is mortgaged, the affect on the home insurance and if selling in future with the solar included the impact of not having an MCS certificate.
 
Looks absolutely lovely!

With regards to PV been looking into that myself the only reason for MCS certification (for own solar install) is if you want to sell to the grid (the energy supplier will require it as part of SEG Smart Export Guarantee)

The only areas to consider with doing your own Solar Install would be if the place is mortgaged, the affect on the home insurance and if selling in future with the solar included the impact of not having an MCS certificate.
Fair points there.

I could still get battery storage that charges overnight on off peak… leave the PV side of it just now.

There will only be her living there just now, but we suggested she could get a friend to rent the spare bedroom.
Her boyfriend is at uni, so unlikely he will move in… in fact, I think he’s heading to Norway for a year on some student exchange programme.


In other news…. My youngest has had an unconditional offer for Napier uni in Edinburgh…. So we really will have an empty nest come the latter half of the year.
 
That's a nice house and ripe for many projects, but it's easy to get carried away trying to make everything perfect from the start. I'd recommend that your lass lives in it for 6 months before making any major changes.
The only specific point I would change is turning that bath throgh 180 degrees so the taps are in the room, not against the wall...don't ask me how I know!
 
That's a nice house and ripe for many projects, but it's easy to get carried away trying to make everything perfect from the start. I'd recommend that your lass lives in it for 6 months before making any major changes.
The only specific point I would change is turning that bath throgh 180 degrees so the taps are in the room, not against the wall...don't ask me how I know!
I must be getting slow.
I'm thinking.... whats he talking about? 180 degrees?... the taps are still on a long side... He means 90 degrees.... have the taps at one end.... Not much of a sailor if he cant get angles......

Then the penny dropped.

Yes... a leaking pipe will be a PITA to fix behind there.
 
Many years ago, in a previous house, I refitted 3 bathrooms. The main one had a nice whirlpool bath with taps midway along one side.
It was not a big bathroom. The bath was 1.8m and the wall was 1.9m so just enough space to fit the bath below the window. It took a while to juggle the bath into position, but I was really happy with it because the taps were in the middle, not at the outside wall, but in the room. Also, the big pump/motor assembly was at the RHS, so if it ever failed, it was accessible by opening up the plasterboard wall on the landing, so everything was fixable.
SWMBO said "NO!" the taps must be against the wall...meaning pre-assembling the H and C feeds...and the pump would be against an inaccessible wall. I took the bath out, assembled the piping etc and slotted the bath into position...
My wife took her first bath in the newly finished bathroom and after bathing she used the taps to haul herself upright...and the tap rotated...I can only say I was fortunate because the push-fit connectors didn't ever leak, and I superglued the tap base to the bath...but 2 years later the pump failed and all the fitted units had to be removed, then the bath and some of the tiling...basically the whole bathroom had to be re-done.
Trust me, it's just not possible to replace/service taps fitted midway along a bath if that side of the bath is against the wall...
Unless you have access from behind that wall or from below. It may not be so stylish, but taps at the end of a bath are much easier to work on.
 
We put the offer in on Friday, a good 10% less than the asking price…(considering it’s been on the market since September) but we haven’t heard back today…. So either;

1. The sellers are disgusted with the offer, and aren’t responding to such an insult. Or

2. They are seriously thinking about it.

Either way, it’s not a “no”



More thoughts on the plans, and I’m thinking this wall I want to remove is brick….. so structural engineer and an RSJ? Or, is it not actually holding anything up?

IMG_6554.jpeg


This space at the window was an outside store… so there has already been a brick wall removed, and RSJ added from the end of the chimney to the top wall…. (Marked grey on plan)
So if that wall (and now RSJ) was supporting joists… is it likely the other wall, which is running perpendicular, isn’t supporting anything? (The red bit)

I should have paid more attention to the floorboards.
Downstairs boards are running front to back… so joists left to right…. Do upstairs boards normally run the same way, or at right angles to the bottom floor?

I may be putting in a partition wall further forward from that position… to the other end of the chimney breast, just to give the kitchen more space… or I might leave it open.

Another thought is that where the outside store was will be a concrete floor…. Rather than floorboards elsewhere…. Then the thought of, could it have been an asbestos ceiling in there?

Home report hasn’t brought that up.
 
I don't think there's any rule, and I've seem houses where different rooms have different directions for joists. Or even different ways within a room !
My guess is that the wall between hallway & kitchen/lounge ran all the way to back wall, and joists run left to right as the plan is shown.
 
I KNOW the downstairs boards run front to back... theres no carpets down, and a i lifted a loose board on viewing to check space under.... What i didnt check was wether that back area was concrete or not.

For a 50 year old ex council house, im pretty certain the joists will run uniformly left to right downstairs.... but upstairs.... i just have an inkling it goes the other way.... ie front to back
 
We put the offer in on Friday, a good 10% less than the asking price…(considering it’s been on the market since September) but we haven’t heard back today…. So either;

1. The sellers are disgusted with the offer, and aren’t responding to such an insult. Or

2. They are seriously thinking about it.

Either way, it’s not a “no”



More thoughts on the plans, and I’m thinking this wall I want to remove is brick….. so structural engineer and an RSJ? Or, is it not actually holding anything up?

View attachment 119477


This space at the window was an outside store… so there has already been a brick wall removed, and RSJ added from the end of the chimney to the top wall…. (Marked grey on plan)
So if that wall (and now RSJ) was supporting joists… is it likely the other wall, which is running perpendicular, isn’t supporting anything? (The red bit)

I should have paid more attention to the floorboards.
Downstairs boards are running front to back… so joists left to right…. Do upstairs boards normally run the same way, or at right angles to the bottom floor?

I may be putting in a partition wall further forward from that position… to the other end of the chimney breast, just to give the kitchen more space… or I might leave it open.

Another thought is that where the outside store was will be a concrete floor…. Rather than floorboards elsewhere…. Then the thought of, could it have been an asbestos ceiling in there?

Home report hasn’t brought that up.
house i am hoping to buy at the moment.
1st offer was 13% under the asking price.
they came back with a figure 9% under the asking price.
we have settled on that.
I might have pushed more but I have a wife that has started to make plans that now can not be upset!!

I dont think your original offer was insulting.
 
For a 50 year old ex council house, im pretty certain the joists will run uniformly left to right downstairs.... but upstairs.... i just have an inkling it goes the other way.... ie front to back
Largest downstairs area is the living room. The span here sets the size of the joists for the whole place, if the upstairs floor and downstairs ceilings are to al be on the same levels.
The room is rectangular and well off of square, so the joists would preferably go across the shortest way, which would allow smaller joists. It looks like there's a load bearing downstairs wall, originally running from front to back, carrying the joists from each side, with a trimmer between what may be double joists, forming the stairwell.
The upstairs floorboards will then, of course, run front to back.
 
Hey....

I think i updated this story on another thread... but to bring anyone up to speed, we lost out on this property, as the offer was too low. They wanted over the asking price and wouldnt entertain anything less... so we walked.


Fast forward to today, and the property above is still marked as "under offer".... but thats by the by....


We were going to leave it a year or so before she bought a house, but something else cropped up more in her budget... We viewed it tonight.

Upstairs 2 bed flat stretching across 2 shops below.... looks like it used to be 2 upstairs knocked through into 1.
In the town she works in. No garden, no parking... but she can walk to work. Private front door to street, into a hallway, and stair up to the living accomodation. Large living room/ kitchen with all new units... less than 5 years old anyway. 2 bedrooms, and a very nice bathroom.
Would suit her very well...

Question though.... does anyone know of websites that show old plans of buildings? In scotland.

This house has had some work over the years, and theres nothing on the council website about planning applications. The front hall seems to have nothing behind it, but part of the bedroom above ... so my thoughts are it was once an alleyway through to the back. Other houses have been built up around it... so cant see... but have heard theres a courtyard behind accessible from one of the neighbouring shops.

1746039313386.png


1746039367548.png





1746039405687.png
 
everything is in motion... she's just waiting for her mortgage to be accepted, and she's good to go.

how long are these things supposed to take? i dont remember it taking so long when we bought our first house in 1998.
 
industry standard for estate agents is 120 days if i remember correctly.
 
industry standard for estate agents is 120 days if i remember correctly.
That seems an incredibly long period of time.

Mortgage lender seems to be the hold up at the moment. She received a letter from them in the post yesterday, just stating the info that she put down on their online form about a week ago. Nothing to sign, nothing to send back unless there was a mistake.
Her LISA could have a full year on it before this gets settled.

We’ve started stockpiling “gifts” from family and free stuff from Facebook. My storage unit is looking like a cross between an ikea and a charity shop.

What we don’t need is it to finish too quickly. The road outside the flat and most of the town centre is closed for the Jim Clark Rally for a few days… so moving in at that time would be impossible.
 
My daughter bought a house early last year and the conveyancing took about 8 - 9 weeks to completion even with all the questions on how the large deposit was being funded and the having to provide evidence that some of it was inheritance and the rest savings
I think a lot can depend on the chain if there one and whether the solicitors want to get their fingers out and do the job in a timely fashion rather than dragging their heels to justify high costs
 
Well, luckily there is no chain. It’s my daughter’s first house, and the sellers are offloading an extra property. No one is waiting for anything else to happen.

Just had an email from lender asking for valuers details….
It’s on the flipping sales page of the estate agent. Home report link, containing surveyors credentials, date of survey and valuation for mortgage.
Do your job. Stop asking for things on a Friday…. Because by the time we reply, you’ll be out of office for the weekend, and another weeks gone by with no progress.


Rant over
 
Well, luckily there is no chain. It’s my daughter’s first house, and the sellers are offloading an extra property. No one is waiting for anything else to happen.
Always a plus point but doesn't necessarily mean the process will be any quicker
Just had an email from lender asking for valuers details….
It’s on the flipping sales page of the estate agent. Home report link, containing surveyors credentials, date of survey and valuation for mortgage.
Do your job. Stop asking for things on a Friday…. Because by the time we reply, you’ll be out of office for the weekend, and another weeks gone by with no progress.
Too many people trying to justify their existance and charges these days by asking unnecessary questions when the information they need is already available to them if they choose to look for it. When my daughter was purchasing a house last year they had my details and my wife's details as we had helped with the deposit from the early stages of the process then hours before completion they wanted me to confirm my middle name which was on at least 2 or 3 forms that we had to fill in for the audit trail for the money we gave her so they already had information but clearly needed to know I hadn't changed my middle name in the last 8 weeks
 

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littlespark

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My kid’s moving out! House buying.
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