Made a start

Right a quick update, before we start knocking the place to pieces proper. Quick background reminder, we moved in October last year 2013, and decided to NOT do any alterations till we had settled in and “got a feel for the place, so what have I done? Well first thing was fit a porch, as winter approached we wondered how the previous owners had managed with the draft that came thru the front door, original wood circa 1927, still fitted as good as it should, but didn’t hold back the cold like us modern day softies like.

So ordered porch, chap I spoke to said there wasn’t the space to have the doors opening in, so we would have to have them opening out, I was sure that they would work but bowed to his experience and CAD computer calculations. When the porch arrived the weather had really set in, it was now early December. I checked the weather and decided there was the promise of a dry day weekend so with the assistance of meJulie we got on with fitting the new porch doors. I offered them up, nice fit, in fact darn good and as tight as you’d want them, nearly didn’t need any fixings, but I wasn’t happy. I suggested we take them out and just see, so we removed the doors turned them around so they opened in and guess what? They worked, it was close but they did clear the old door and opened fully, so the man with the CAD and years of experience didn’t know jack, never mind. So I fitted it the wrong way, that means they are glazed from the outside, the drain holes when it rains are inside and the letter box for the mail is on the wrong door, oh and the wrong door opens, but hey, at least when the wind blows the door doesn’t get snatched out of your hands.

Not fussed anyway, as, we decided we wanted black and white like the old windows so we’ll be replacing it anyway, with one that opens in and has a black frame with white doors. No big deal, in fact did me a favour, because if they were right I’d have begrudged swapping then, given what they cost, not cheap, so know I’m gonna have a fancy garage door when I replace them with the black and white. So with the weather being held at bay at the front we settled in for winter. The house was full of boxes with nowhere to put the stuff; you know the type of boxes? Those that you store in the loft and never look in until you move house, you then move them and store them in the loft ready to move them again next time you move home. So what to do? I had to get in the loft and make some storage space, first thing loft opening

Far too small, so a trip to Costco and we buy a new loft ladder, nice quality and far too good to use on the few occasions we will, putting these boxes up there and bringing them back down when we next move, so we’ll be using it twice, right. So I go in loft, sort joist location and after some umming and ahring we decide where to put this new opening. I made the frame, meJulie kept me supplied with tea, then the moment, the break thru, I sheeted off all the stairs and sealed the bedroom doors just in case there was any mess. We then positioned a ladder under where I had started sawing thru the ceiling; this ladder meJulie climbed while I went in the loft and finished cutting away the opening. Now the idea was Julie would hold up the ceiling as it came free, stop it falling to the floor and making a mess or even damaging something, last couple of inches, “are you ready I shout, spread your arms to take the weight”, last bit and it went. She did a great job of holding it up but had I realised she was wearing a white t shirt I’d have told her to get changed, I shouldn’t have laughed but she looked like she had been up a chimney, in fact she hadn’t looked that dirty since we removed the chimney breast from the old house, two white eyes looking back at me from a black soot covered Julie, she’ll laugh about it one day I’m sure, me? Oh I was ok, dust falls down and I was upwind, I’m not daft. So we fitted the ladder and now had access to the loft, I took the opportunity to rewire all the upstairs lights before I put down a wood floor to stand our boxes on and it was another job well done. Couple of days later and we had the boxes neatly packed in the loft not to be seen again till we decide to move house.

Other job was sorting out the garage, this was probably the most important and no I am not telling this story in order, I did do the garage first
I did have a before picture for the garage, but can’t find it, anyway it was/is a basic brick built flat roof construction,
Just 4 brick walls and no insulation, that wouldn’t do, so I battened the walls, filled with Rockwool and panelled with 9mm OSB, walls and ceiling, it’s still not finished, got the plugs to wire and lights to finish, but for now it is warm and dry and a cosy little resting place for the bike. That’s it, brickie’s in next week and we start proper, building a small extension so meJulie can have a “utility room “ off the kitchen and…………………well I’ll post as and when we are doing it, loads of work to do, the place is 90 years old, original windows and not really been touched, great blank canvass. Oh discovered dry rot in front room last week when I returned from Italy, that wasn’t the best, so another job, replacing the front room floor, wonder what else unexpected the place holds for us, we’ll see. I’ll post regular on this as if I don’t I’ll forget to tell you bits and wouldn’t want you missing anything. Till next time

Moving on

Did I tell you we were/are moving house? Well what a saga that’s turning out to be I can tell you, I’m sat here the day before we were/are exchanging contracts and it appears the house we were/are buying isn’t registered with the land registry and well, it gets rather complicated but having taken legal advice independently from our existing Solicitor (I’ll tell you why later), and having been told to NOT proceed without an indemnity policy in place (that could take, who knows how long) it looks like we’ll be homeless. The last time I looked at homelessness as an option I wasn’t going to consider, was when I (nearly) went bankrupt in the crash of the 80’s/90’s (24hrs away from default and repossession, but that’s another story,) I swore I would never go there again and what the heck we’re here, and you wanna know why? Well let me tell you. It’s now some 7 weeks since we first made an offer on the house in Newton le Willows, remember we instructed the solicitor on the Monday when we were in France, actually sat on a cobbled street in the beautiful village of Gerberoy, France, sun warming our faces and looking forward to the start of our holiday and a new direction in life, free from the stresses and strains of………………………… We got a call last week saying there was a problem with the lease, this information should have been discovered within the first week of instructing solicitors, the reason it wasn’t apparently was because the file had only just landed on the desk of this particular solicitor, where it had been prior is anyone’s guess, me I think they thought, “cash sale, easy case, do it in a week or so, no worries”. In some of the little talks I do/used to do, I talk about putting things off and the reasons why sometimes you may be tempted, but how you never should, and more importantly how to avoid ever doing so, (that will cost you, maybe set up lecture and open invite). It is a fault of not only solicitors but many in business, contracts and deadlines are lost and missed all because of procrastination and deflection and the often wrong belief that, “that is an easy one I’ll do it later” and you know, more often than not it is put back because you feel you have more important things to do. OK, so have we established that the solicitor has/did drop the ball (or picked it up too late)? Think so, they of course are blaming the sellers Solicitor for failing to respond to questions asked, I should imagine they were more than surprised when they were asked these questions so late in the day, we were. So what do we do, we have started emptying our cupboards and dismantling beds and units we are taking, our new house is slightly smaller (at the moment) than where we are, so some stuff has to go to France (there’s a thought we could live there for a few weeks least I could, meJulie would have to stay in the UK for work, no she wouldn’t let you, stop it Mick). I’ve already made one trip to France with a van load and am at this moment looking at the contents of cupboards on the floor that need packing away in heavy duty boxes ready for transport. See we are the last link in the chain and everyone below us is in place to exchange contracts tomorrow, if we pull out the chain breaks, and well, I guess we’d have to go back on the market and start over, a better option than homeless? (Wonder if we can sue anyone, proving incompetence is difficult especially within the legal profession where you need a solicitor to assist, closed shop and all). So I suppose we need to start looking at storage firms and B and B’s, see that’s all going to cost, I know we have a choice but do we? Yes sure it will all work out, it did in the 90’s, but that still doesn’t help the anxiety at this present time, to quote a friend “someone needs the shit kicking out of them” And here starts the saga of Mickmanchester and his Julie’s new home. Oh on amore positive note, I’ve just checked the lottery and we have six numbers, unfortunately 3 on one line and 3 on another, but that’s £20 we didn’t have yesterday. Since writing I did a search of the land registry, and you’ll never guess what I discovered? Go on have a guess, I’ll put the kettle on while you think about it . . . . . . . . . . . . well what I found and downloaded was a copy of the title for this property, oh yes I kid you not, it’s only the freehold but it shows something registered so half the battle. Of course I phoned the solicitor and after allowing her to attempt to wash her hand of any sale should we proceed, I shared the information, after a silence that was longer than it just took me to make this cup of coffee I am now enjoying she spluttered something about the buyers solicitors should have provided her with that info and could I forward a copy to her and but and but and but but but but………………………... Not the ass kickin’ I was thinking of, but close A story you’d like to follow? Believe me when I say it will be a roller coaster and yes we will be seeking recompense thru whatever channels we can. Further, email received from solicitor, she still wants assurances re lease title details, ok I’ll go with that, (I had anticipated this and had further enquired with the land registry, I await their response) but she is also saying she is not happy we do not want window certificates and gas boiler service records, and oh we shouldn’t have considered exchanging on old house till she was good and ready to exchange on new, well boy oh boy if we had waited till then we’ll be retiring and still living here. Think I’ll get this posted before anything else develops LOL. Moving on