The Renovation Game

The Renovation Game is a new program on Channel 4.
Property show in which a crack team of up-and-coming builders and designers put their own fees on the line if they fail to raise the value of a property.

Next on Channel 4 Tue 08 Nov, 11AM
Missed one yesterday but it’s there to watch on 4onD so I will be switching it on shortly and writing a review.

Series 1 Episode 2
The Renovation Game

The team are in Oxfordshire to meet Pam and her daughter Tracey. Their detached three-bedroom house was brand new in the 1960s, but is now in need of a drastic makeover.

Series 1 | Episode 1 | The Renovation Game

Presenter –
Jonnie Irwin
Presenter
– Simon O’Brien

The team are in Brighton, at the home of Dave and Katy and their seven-year-old son Freddy. Katy’s a teacher and Dave works for a credit card company. They bought their house just over a year ago and had great plans for it as their first family home. But with no experience of house renovation, the funds have run out sooner than they expected.

Downstairs they’ve been left with a bit of a building site. They’ve spent thousands making it warm and water tight, leaving no money to add the finishing touches. With the piggy bank empty, their dreams for a new kitchen-diner have been turned into a living nightmare. The cheap and nasty kitchen units have given up the ghost and there’s not enough room for Katy’s culinary creativity.

Before any work begins, three local estate agents will value the house in its current state. With the valuation done, now it’s down to the Renovation Game team to add £15,000 to this house – otherwise their fees will be taken.

Can the team hit their target – and get paid?

loft heat pump

Another new one on me – the loft heat pump takes heat from the loft and does something useful with it.
They will be noisy though, may require sitting on firm foundations and be a bit tricky to get into the roof space.

Whilst looking up info on this I discovered this site which looks at case studies.
In particular I thought the solar hot water report was interesting – that people don’t always use the free hot water that the systems make and so as with all eco systems it’s worth considering whether it’s right for you.

Grand Designs is running a campaign about The Great British Refurb – This campaign can help you live in a low energy home that is cheaper to run, more comfortable to live in and massively reduces your carbon emissions.

Bedgebury Manor

Bedgebury ManorBedgebury Manor is a Grade II* listed mansion dating from 17th Century and further extensive accommodation. Currently a school it is a massive and very imposing building. They want £7,500,000 for it!

Suitable for continued educational/institutional uses or re-development and refurbishment to a range of alternative uses, subject to obtaining the necessary consents.
So if you’ve ever fancied running a school then this is perhaps the building to buy!

Beautiful georgian farmhouse

CHURCH FARM, CHURCH STREET, BABCARY,Beautiful 5 bedroom georgian farmhouse at BABCARY. Between Castle Cary & Glastonbury in a delightful village – a Georgian Farmhouse with 5 ACRES.

How lovely does that look? It looks so peaceful and inside the house is lovely too.

It has a whopping 5 acres with it too for only £850,000 which sounds a steal compared to some of the places I’ve seen. The staircase doesn’t look original though which is a shame.

Cavity wall ties

Building surveys often report that cavity wall ties may be corroded. Of course the only way of finding out for sure is having a look. If you have a camera on a stick you could drill a hole and investigate.

You could of course ask for quotes from cavity wall tie firms, but these have a vested interest in selling their service. Costs vary.

There is an alternative apparently – something I’ve not heard of before:

The alternative is to inject polyurethane foam into the cavity. This glues the two walls together avoiding the need to replace the wall ties.

The polyurethane foam then also insulates the cavity and is supposed to be twice as good as blown mineral wool fibre or polystyrene bead. Polyurethane is also impervious to water so won’t be affected by flooding or water ingress.

Isothane Technitherm and BASF WallTite are tow companies which offer this service. Have never heard of this before though – have you had cavity wall ties replaced or new ones put in or tried this new system?

The old hall

The Old HallThe Old Hall in Todmorden is run as a restaurant but I would be so tempted to turn it into just a house. Not just any house though, one packed with amazing features.

The price is £795,000 – and it’s such an amazing house for that much money! Apparently it became the Post Office for the town from 1921 until it was closed in 1969. With Stone mullion windows and timbered panels and an amazing fireplace or two it is amazing.

It is a stunning Grade II* Listed Elizabethan Manor House

LHA to make landlords pull out

This is a mildly amusing article presumably aimed at frightening the government into increasing rent paid under LHA. (Local housing allowance).

3/4 of landlords will stop renting to LHA tenants says a survey by Landlord Today.

Interesting to see who they think they will be renting to.

If hundreds of landlords get rid of their LHA tenants, then who will take their places? Are there really enough working people looking for flats who will be willing to pay more?