Diane – Page 116 – House Critic

Listed building surveyors

When you’re buying a listed building how can you be sure the owners have not done work without geting the proper permissions?

You can look up on the council’s building control site and see if there’s anything there but there are specialist surveyors who’ll help you.
Two points out of many that this surveyor will take into account when looking at a listed building are:
Historic documentation relevant to the property including the setting of the property
Unlawful alteration works undertaken by current, or previous owners

Los Angeles Mansion of Aaron Spelling being sold

The Los Angeles Mansion belonging to Aaron Spelling has a flower-cutting room, a china room, a “Prince Charles suite,” named after its one-time royal guest, and a library in which Ms. Spelling bound her husband’s scripts.

Photos and more info here

The buyer is Petra Ecclestone, daughter of the F1 racing boss Bernie

Interesting thatched house for sale

Semi detached cottage The interesting thing about this is it’s actually as two cottages – hence the thatch has been done more recently on one half than the other.

It’s in Post Office Lane, South Chard, Chard and it a pretty thatched house!

Parts of the house are believed to date back 600 years

Jacobean Mansion

Detached house for sale for £2,650,000

WOOKEY HOLE, WELLS Impressive Glencot House – a Jacobean mansion with its own cricket pitch & mature grounds. About 18 acres.

The ceiling in picture 4 is amazing! The house is lovely inside and out!

Entrance hall, Drawing room, Withdrawing room, Study, 2 dining rooms, Breakfast room
Billiard room, Library, Cinema, Sauna, Office, Kitchen, Utility room and domestic offices
Cellar

15 bedroom suites

Garaging, Therapy room, Summer house, Cricket pitch and club house Pond and stream. Croquet lawn

Sounds divine doesn’t it!

Fab house in Bristol

Abbots Leigh House 8 bedroom house for sale on Church Road, Abbots Leigh, Bristol, Somerset
Price on application (But is about £4m)

This is a wonderful Grade II listed family house – very beautiful to look at and has this stunning conservatory that unusually has a staircase in it!

It’s called Abbots Leigh House and it was originally built in about 1780 as the Dower House to Leigh Court.

It’s got lots of bedrooms and reception rooms – and has in the basement a large snooker room, laundry room, a gymnasium and wet room.

Opposite the garage is the coach house; a self-contained two storey cottage.

The gardens and grounds include a rose garden, Venetian water garden, large croquet lawn and pergola occasionally opened to the public through the National Garden Scheme. Beyond the garden are 2 paddocks complimented by 2 stables and a tack room with its own vehicular access.

Interesting shape house at Lyme Regis

lyme regis house This house is very interesting to look at. Perhaps a little industrial compared to the normal houses I end up sharing with you but it’s certainly different! Its a 3 bedroom semi overlooking the sea at Lyme Regis – it also has a roof terrace with views of the coast and town! It’s a shame the stairs are in the curved bit as I think they’re one of the features of the building! I’m not sure it’s for me though even with it’s sea view!

It’s on at £485,000.

Arched window

arched window I love this window – it’s in this 7 bedroom detached house for sale in Black Dog Farm – in Chapmanslade, Westbury at the edge of Black Dog Woods.
Parts of the house date from the mid 1600s, the staircase looks georgian though, and it has a recent rear extension. It’s certainly an interesting house with 12 acres of pasture for only £860,000

House for sale – run as musuem

museum An interesting one this – house run as a musuem is packed with bikes and other items.

The building is currently arranged as a small museum based upon a unique similarity arrangement of objects from the natural and man made worlds. Ideally the property can be purchased including the entire contents with stock at valuation or alternatively the building can be purchased without the contents.

Grade 1 listed property in Canonteign

grade 1 listed 10 bedroom character property for sale is on at a Guide Price of £3,250,000
Canonteign Manor – Canonteign Near Exeter EX6
9 bedrooms (5 en-suites), 2 further bathrooms
2 bedroom staff accomodation
60 ft gymnasium, sauna/steam room, office/boardroom
Beautiful gardens with terraces, sunken walled garden with heated swiming pool
Garaging, parkland and orchard. In all about 10 acres
It’s got everything I want in a house!

Help! My House Is Falling Down Series 2

Help! My House Is Falling Down series 2 started last night.
It’s available on 4onD now

In Narborough, Sarah Beeny meets Jamie and Charlotte who fear their house is sinking.
They recently discovered an alarming slope in the first floor of their Edwardian home and are terrified the property could be tilting to the point of collapse. Not only that, the roof is leaking and black mould is growing on the walls.

I think this is the house.

One of the few new property programs at the moment. Just check out the dates on the other programs to see. Although we know Homes Under the Hammer are visiting a local auction house for their next series.

I watched a few of the first series of these and thought it was quite interesting to see Sarah encourage people to tackle structural problems themselves – although with unseen structural engineeers giving advice of course. For most people the thought of doing major structural work is just too scary and it’d be time to ring the builder.

The main advice I can garner from the first series is “a survey is a good idea…”