“The volume of transactions is very low and is not going to get any better, especially when asking prices are 35-40% above actual selling prices.”
Article on BBC about house prices and why they’re still so high!
Category: General
A link for those with oil central heating
If your home is heated by oil – then have a look at the heating oil club. THOC is free to join. I don’t have heating oil myself so havent’ compared this to other information sources. If you have used THOC then get in touch!
If you have oil heating make sure you have a good padlock on your tank to stop the oil being stolen.
Water Towers for Sale
Plot for sale – this would be a really huge project! But if you’ve been watching Grand Designs and thinking that you could do that then this The Water Tower, Cut Throat Lane, Great Doddington, NN29
Is for sale at Offers in Region of £169,950
Water Tower at Millfields, Plymouth
Has been converted into a 3 bedroom detached house for sale
Offers in Excess of £400,000
Water Tower at Cromwell Lane – for sale
Guide Price of £395,000
Burton Green, Kenilworth, Warwickshire
These have sold – 
Barming Water Tower6 bedroom detached house for sale BARMING WATER TOWER, NORTH POLE ROAD, BARMING, MAIDSTONE, KENT
Was at Auction from £250,000
PUBLIC AUCTION : Monday, 06 June 2011, including Outstanding Residential Conversion Project For Completion
Water Tower For Development, Off Nightingale Walk, Ormskirk, Lancashire
4 bedroom house for sale The Water Tower, Swynnerton, Stone, Staffordshire
Guide Price £499,000
Outstanding converted Victorian Water Tower with magnificent views
Packing
Your options are to pack everything yourself or get a company in that packs everything for you. You could opt for something in between so you pack everything you don’t want anyone seeing and take that yourself, and allow a professional packing and moving company to get on with the rest!
Pack a small box of tea things separetly so if you get to the house before the removal van does you can enjoy a brew whilst waiting.
Don’t forget to empty the sheds, garages and loft. There are stories of people coming back months later when they realise their winter sports gear is still in the loft!
If you started the moving house journey properly you might well have decluttered already. If you didn’t or have aquired more books, junk and clutter, then moving is a time to get rid of it. Do not leave it in the house for the new owners. Pass it on via friends, freecycle or donate to charity. Do a tip run with anything else.
Harry Potter stars magic money into property
Perhaps these three are the youngest first time buyers in the UK at the moment. With the average age of a FTB in the UK being about 39 then the three Harry Potter stars (link to the sun article) are significantly younger than average.
Between them they have spent £25 million on property in the UK and in New York.
12 rooms and one shower?
Scary prospect – 12 rooms and one shower!
12 bedroom end of terrace house for sale
£589,950
Green Lanes, Harringay, London
Kirstie’s Homemade Home
This book – Kirstie’s Homemade Home – is available to buy from Amazon or you could ask at the local library if they have a copy. It looks quite a good book to sit and read if you enjoyed her TV series on which it is based.
Kirstie’s Homemade Home
It will guide you through the different crafts and ideas as well as giving you information about each room in your house. When you read that Kirstie thinks a kitchen is all about “food and entertaining” you might be tempted to stop reading, but if you want to make some kitch things for your home you should carry on. Vintage is huge and learning basic skills that our grandparents took for granted such as knitting and sewing should be encouraged.
This book will whet your appetite for finding out more about different crafts – so you might prefer to go to a more indepth book on the areas you’re interested in. Again the local library is worth a look for these. Whilst you might love having a book of pictures of the lovely Kirstie Allsopp in your house you might find it a bit too twee and decide that she had as much stuff crafted for her as by her. The TV series will almost certainly still be being shown somewhere on the globe. You can watch Kirstie’s Homeade Home on 4OD
My recommendation? Bookmark this page, go watch a few episodes and if you enjoy the TV show then buy the book.
Listed or not?
Most buildings built between 1700–1840 are listed says the wiki entry for listed buildings.
But this house from 1832 isn’t.
I’m not sure when this one dates from but it looks pretty old to me! It isn’t listed either.
Wood burning heating systems in flats – district heating
On Radio 4 this lunchtime they just talked about some district heating system in Yorkshire that uses wood chip!
There’s more info here about the Sheffield Road Flats in Barnsley – hearing system
One 320 kW and one 150 kW woodchip boiler supplying heat for a block of 166 flats in Barnsley.
It’s certainly something that is of interest to me – we have a wood burner and I’ve read about CHP systems which can generate heat and electricity from burning fuel. Whilst the Barnsley flats only heats – it’s certainly very interesting.
We certainly lag behind other countries – Denmark has 60% of all it’s heating from district systems.
Sarah Beeny no planning permission
Story in the Daily Mirror about Sarah Beeny’s property not having planning permission
The couple bought Grade 2 listed Rise Hall near Hull for £441,101 in 2001 and the series last year showed part of the former convent being turned into a wedding venue.
Fans will find out what happens when a second series of Restoration Nightmare, currently being filmed, is screened.
RISE HALL, RISE, HULL, HU11 5BL
Is shown as no mixed use on the council tax records and isn’t registered for business rates.