Weekend update and DIY

The weather in the UK during the last weekend was amazing! Yes, the temperature was in high teens and the sun was bright and beautiful! After the crappy and wet last months, that was such a nice break! And we managed to make the most of it. We spent both days Saturday and Sunday in the back garden. As expected, the previous tenants of our house didn't really pay attention to the garden which was overgrown and ugly. They hadn't paid much attention to the inside of the house, it would be really surprising if they maintained a proper outside!

That's the 'before' picture. JJ had done some work on it already

We decided to start by taking out lots of things that made the garden look small and untidy. We've cleared out some old overgrown bushes, trunks and roots that were just occupying space and cleared out the shed at the back from an ivy (I think). We’re planning a small vegetables area where I plan on growing some food and planting some rose bushes, jasmine and cherry trees.

For the first bit of the work at hand, we got some help. A guy called Abraham arrived Saturday morning to clear out some stuff and get rid of massive chopped roots and trunks. The whole experience was a bit weird because he unexpectedly arrived with his two sons, one aged around 10 and the other around 4! The old one provided some help to him father, but the young one was just walking around looking at things. Two words came first to my mind: ‘child labour’! But then I dismissed them and tried to get along with it! In a sense it’s a nice way to spend time with your father. The old one would want to prove himself to his dad and the young one would like to go along not feeling left out. In any case, Abraham was really nice to his sons.

The family at work

The 'after' picture

We believe however that the young one was eating some chocolate candy from a bowl I had left on the table and was then punished by spending the rest of the day in their van. We found that later when JJ discovered the empty bowl and lots of chocolate papers hidden around the garden. Bless him… And I was curious at some point about where he had disappeared after a while. In any case, Abraham’s help was good and put us on the right track.

Do you remember me saying a couple of posts ago how bad I am bad in labour work? Well, that’s still true, but I've proved to be quite good in gardening. On Sunday, JJ started working on the vegetable corner on the right of the garden, the pile of junk at the end and painting the fence, while I started clearing out the ivy from the shed! As you can see I managed to successfully get most of it out. And not only that, I managed to do it without cutting any fingers off or falling from the ladder! I’m quite pleased with myself!

How it looks now, still a work in progress

I can’t wait to see how the garden will end up, even if I know it will take some years before it actually looks properly grown.  

Manual Labour

I believe that each person has specific talents. Some people are better in certain things than others. And I’m OK with it. I’ve grown to know my strengths and my weaknesses. I’m not saying that through practice and hard work, you can’t improve. It’s just that some people might have a better starting point. I learnt this lesson around the age of 13. By that time I had been playing tennis for a couple of years. I had training sessions two to three times a week. So, upon starting high school, my newly acquired best friend Spyros decided to join me. Two weeks into training Spyros was playing much better than me. He could aim and strike easily, doing things that took me months to learn and even then I couldn’t always accomplish.

That same tennis childhood lesson was reminded to me last weekend. I had planned some DIY with JJ. We had to dig a trench in our front garden, since Monday we would be getting reconnected to the national gas grid. Digging the trench ourselves got us a £500 discount for the connection. That’s enough money to make us do it. The ditch had to be around 3.5 meters long, 30 meters deep and around a foot wide. It runs from the front gate to the entrance door, right next to the footpath. In paper it sounded easy enough.

Woman Digging - Pissarro

However, 20 minutes in, I was reminded how crap I am in manual work. I didn’t mind the rain or the wind. I didn’t mind spending my Saturday morning working in the mud. However, I found that my upper body just seemed to lack the strength needed to dig using a shovel. To be fair, last time I touched a shovel was a decade ago while I was in the army. And I know for a fact from my gym sessions that my biceps are generally not that strong. For some weird reason my triceps are much better.

happy helper

To be fair, I wasn’t totally useless. I was just not strong enough to shove deep enough in the soil to take out lots of dirt at a time. JJ was much better. He could take out the same amount of dirt in less than a third of time. I was doing 3 scoops (is that the right word?), he was doing 1. So, he ended up doing most of the shovelling. But apart from sulking a bit over feeling useless, I was able to help in other ways. I made the coffees and carried buckets of dirt and water. I cut roots and removed unwanted plants. I cleaned tools and provided moral support. These are as important things, rights?

Final result. We will fix the path at some point.

I just like to think that this is what makes us a great team. We have different strengths and weaknesses. He is much better at working with his hands and I’m better at working with my mind (I’d love to think). He’s the really cute one, I’m the… erm… I’ll get back to you on that.

Roof and other various news update

I think that almost all construction projects have issues and ours couldn't be an exception. Last Thursday the roofers announced that they were almost finished and they’d be finishing the next day. However, apart from replacing the roof tiles, they hadn't done anything on the facia of the house and the guttering as previously agreed! Or at least that’s what we thought we had agreed!

Anyway, to cut a long story shorter, the head of the company had visited us before providing us with a quote. We had talked about all the extra work needed apart from the roof tiles. He then provided us with a quote. That quote was very technical. It mentioned a huge list of items with types, measurements and everything. We went through it, concentrated on key words like roof tiles, guttering and facia. We agreed to the quote and the work began. However, what they meant by guttering was the line between our roof and the neighbour’s. What we meant by facia is actually called soffit! So, all this extra work we thought we’d get was not in the quote.

So, we began negotiations. The secretary of the company was telling us that apart from the roof tiles, nothing was meant to be done. We managed to get a hold of the head of the company though that agreed that we had really discussed all the extra bits but apologised for not including them in the quote. He was generally apologetic and we agreed that we’d pay extra only for the cost of the materials and nothing else. Which to be honest is generally a good deal. We should have paid more attention to the quote, even if it was a bit too technical for us. However, it’s an extra cost that we’ll have to cover.

 

Changing the subject, we’re planning a small holiday escape with JJ. Our budget is a bit limited (see previous story) and instead of flying to Zurich to my old housemate as previously suggested, we’re thinking of doing a road trip in the UK. We generally love road trips and visiting a rural part of England that we’ve never been before will be fun. For the time being we’re thinking of going to the Peak District National Park. I believe it to be an amazing destination to escape from the busy London life. We’ll try to go hiking and explore the area there. For the time being we’ve booked a car and we’re looking into accommodation that we’ll book most likely tonight or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to keep up with my running. I’ve registered to do a half marathon at the end of March and I’m trying to train for that. The weather is not really helping but I’m doing my best. I should remember next time not to register for a long distance race in early spring. It’s better to train in spring and run in the summer or autumn. So far this month I’ve run outdoors for more than 50 km. It’s not that great, but I don’t think it’s that bad either. I’m planning on my last run for January tonight after work, I’m hoping it’s not going to rain much. Then try to build up my distances to almost half a marathon two weeks before the race! Hopefully that will make me ready…

Facelift

Not for me… No. No. I’m not considering plastic surgery. At least, not yet. Give me a couple more decades and maybe I’ll reconsider. I hope by then, medicine will be so advanced that plastic surgery will be instantaneous, pain free and without any side effects. That, or we’ll be able to transplant our brains to another ageless host…

Anyway, our poor little house is the one going through a facelift. When we were in the process of purchasing it, we were advised by the building surveyors that some work would need to be done to the roof. Without it being a huge problem (yet), there were some surface cracks in the chimney and some roof tiles looked broken. That was causing issues to the way and cost of the house heating and also there was danger of mildew spreading.

So, we decided to have the whole roof and guttering replaced. We had called a number of roofing companies to provide to us with quotes. We wanted new tiles, guttering, sky lights for the loft and new insulation. Out of all the quotes, we picked a company that looked professional with the best guaranties. We didn’t go for the cheaper and neither for the most expensive of them. We went for the company we liked the best. Hopefully, we will not live to regret our choice.

That’s a photo I took on Saturday morning. The house was without a roof but hopefully water proofed. We’re battling against the weather. Probably January wasn’t the best choice to have the work done, but JJ has two weeks off from work and is able to be there to help the builders out. We feel a bit vulnerable and exposed with the house looking like a construction site. However, we’re hoping for the work to be completed soon and for the house to be warmer with a new loft conversion under way…

DIY, moving and anniversary day

The last couple of weeks have passed in a bit of a blur. We got the keys to our property on the 12th of November and we wanted to make it ready before we moved in. That meant we had 2 weeks to really work hard on it before the weekend of the 30th, which was move-in day!

The tenants of the place weren't the cleanest people I met. On top of that, they had a baby, a bird, a cat and a dog! All these animals (apart from the baby) did wonders to the light coloured carpets of the first floor. We’re talking about serious filth. The moment you entered the hallway, the stink would hit you like a slap to your face. There was so much dog hair everywhere! And we couldn't have that. So, we begun the process of removing the carpets to restore the original wooden floors and also paint the bedrooms.

The before picture with carpet and yellow wallpaper and skirting boards

The second before picture. So much dirt... 

Removing the carpets 

 That's me happily (?!) sanding the floors

The first weekend we spent it removing the old carpets and their joints. We needed to cut them up in manageable rolls and remove the carpets’ under layer. Also, we needed to remove all nails and staples that held everything in place. Because the weekend after that we rented sanding machines to sand the floors and they needed to be clean from everything that might damage the sanding paper. We had never used machines like that. There was a learning curve to it, but I believe we did well. There are so many good DIY websites and YouTube videos to check. Finally, we applied the varnish.

Finish sanding the floors and removing the wallpapers

First layer of varnish and undercoat on the walls

While doing all that, we spent as much time as we had around work hours to paint the rooms and pack our stuff. We removed wallpapers, sanded walls, applied undercoats and paint. And then, finally, the last weekend arrived. I had Friday off and Jeff had rented a van. His company provides him days off to move anyway. So, we did lots of trips back and forth. We had some friends helping us in various stuff, like assemble IKEA furniture or bring food and it went more or less fine. We didn’t break anything!!! I count that as a success.

The second bedroom after we finished it.

So, yesterday, I travelled for the first time from our new place to work. It felt great! We still haven’t completely finished the third bedroom and there are boxes all over the place, but we have all the time in the world to sort things out!

In addition, yesterday was the day of our first mortgage payment AND my anniversary with JJ! I met him exactly 4 years ago in a bookstore that is now a METRO bank (boo) in Fulham Broadway! My life has changed for the better in so many ways since then! I love him to bits. This journey, which I think has just begun, is something amazing that I will treasure!
I’m just so happy!!!!

Home Owner / Land Owner

We did it!!! I’m not sure exactly how, but we did it. And it happened all so fast! When I wrote my last post I had the property pretty much written off. We were still negotiating the price, but there was a gap between what the bank said they’d offer and what the vendor said he wanted. So, we pulled off completely. That’s when I wrote the last post. We weren’t in the position to offer him in cash the asking difference. 

However, he must have been in need for cash quickly because he agreed! He agreed on the money offered to us by the bank, which matches the surveyor’s evaluation. We received that phone call on Sunday the 20^th of October, the day that JJ was flying back to Cape Town to visit his family. We were over the moon. We opened a bottle of champagne and everything. Following Monday we gave the order to our solicitor and mortgage advisor to go ahead.

We can now call this our own (in 25 years).

That’s when the thriller started. On Wednesday of the same week the vendor changed his mind! He said that we’re taking things too slowly (rubbish excuse) and put the property back in the market! There is absolutely no way that a bank can approve a mortgage and the contracts to be created in two to three days! That’s completely unrealistic. He probably thought he could get more money from the property and got more than one real estate agents and put the property back on the market. He even tried to find tenants to rent it! Both I and JJ from South Africa were on the phone with our solicitor and bank trying to sort things out. I can’t point out enough how stressful these weeks have been. We could see the place online on offer. We were also pretty much harassed by our estate agents to hurry up, since they didn’t want to lose the sale to the competition. 

Anyway, on Friday the 1^st of November we got the report. On Monday the 4^th we exchanged contracts and Tuesday the 12^th we completed. For those of you familiar with the property market, you would understand how fast that is! At some point I thought that there could be a bad reason and the vendor is pushing things so quickly. However, we got the property on the exact price that was evaluated which I think doesn’t happen often.  We got it around 11.3% less than the preliminary agreed price, which was already £15k less than the first asking price. We can’t really complain.

And the place is perfect. It was built in the 30’s. It has some really nice features like cute little wooden doors and fireplaces in every room. It has 2 to 3 bedrooms, the third one is very small and could be a study or boudoir. It needs some TLC because it was rented and the tenants didn’t really took care of it, but that’s exactly what we wanted. We wanted to put our own stamp on it and make it our own. So, we’re planning on moving in the following weekend. We’ll try to fix things in the house before then and try to prepare it for our arrival! Exciting stuff!!!

So, that’s what’s been happening. I’m very sorry I lost contact recently with you guys. I haven’t read or commented on almost anything. I hope I haven’t missed something ground breaking. If I have, please excuse me. I’m not sure how I’ll manage to catch up and how often I’ll keep on posting, but I plan on returning when the dust settles down. 

500th Post

This is my 500th post that I upload to my blog! Yay me! I somehow made it this far! I started this blog back in August 2009. My life was so different then! I can’t even start to count all the major changes that happened in my life since then, but I can easily sum it up and same that I’m in such a happier place now.

To be honest, I was postponing this post. I wanted it to occur with the final agreement on our house purchase. I wanted to happily announce that everything went smoothly and even slightly complain a bit about having to start packing now. I had it all in my head already. I can be a bit of an attention seeker that way and whine when I get the chance. I’m writing a blog if you haven’t noticed.

However, things didn't work out exactly like that. The bank that was supposed to provide us with a mortgage estimated the value of property less than the asking price. We knew that the asking price was a bit high but we had decided to accept it, even if it might harm the investment value of the property. In a couple of years and with the improvements of the property we had in mind, we would definitely catch up. The bank didn't see it that way though. They refused to give us more money than their estimate. So, since we can’t cover the difference we’re most likely losing the place. At the moment the estate agents, who appear to be extremely surprised at the low bank estimation, are trying to negotiate with the seller and the bank. But to be honest, I can’t see the vendor agreeing to that price, since the estate agents made him believe that he could make so much money from the property.

I’m feeling a bit disappointed to be honest. It’s not going to be the end though. We’ll start viewing more properties soon and I believe we’ll find what we’re looking for. We learnt a lot during the last couple of months with all this. The property market can be vicious, but so can we.  

Interior decoration porn

One of the best things about buying your own house is the fact that you can do (almost) anything you want with it. You're not restrained from the temporariness of living in someone else's property. Spending a little bit of extra money on it is not a 'waste', but an 'investment'. So, from buying new curtains to replacing the flooring, tearing down walls or replacing the fireplaces is something to consider.

Putting your own 'stamp' on the house is something expected, especially from a gay couple with some sense of taste. Cough cough. OK, I lack this specific gay gene. For everyone that knows me, I admit it: JJ has far better ideas than I do in these things. I'm more of the practical type of person, when he has the 'eye' for things. I'm the engineer while he's the artist (very generally stated). But still, I appreciate sometimes nice things when I see them. And since we talked about it, we agreed on following the same general decoration ideas. While waiting to see what's going to happen with the house we have in mind, we've been visiting furniture stores, window shopping and we've been buying decoration magazines.

Here's a list of ideas I've gathered online. In each picture there is something I like.

    

And we might have found it...

I don’t want to jinx it, so I’m not going to say much about it. But we put an offer on a property which was accepted. We’re now on the process of sorting out the bank(s), solicitors, surveyors etc. It’s a bit tricky. It might even last for a month or two, for everything to get sorted out and us finally moving. Hopefully, we’ll be having Christmas on our new place. And we’ll be landlords!!!!

Overall, we saw more than a dozen properties in various areas. We saw terraced houses, detached houses and flats in big buildings. We even arranged second viewings for one or two of them. What we finally decided on is a terraced house in a very nice and quiet residential area next to a conservation area and even closer to public transport. It has two and a half bedrooms. The half a bedroom can be easier called a study. I can’t see anything other than a dog finding that space sufficient. I don’t even think a bed will fit. However, there’s the prospect of a loft conversion and doing the place up in general, which is exactly what we wanted.

Hopefully it will all go well.

Various News Update

We’re still in the process of viewing houses. It didn't start too well. We saw for example a property that was already falling apart and the cost of renovation would be great (if possible), but still in the high end of our budget. We saw properties that looked like small matchboxes but advertised and priced like mansions.
It’s not easy to check beforehand. Photographs online can be deceiving and floor plans with no dimensions deceptive. The best policy it to visit as many places as possible. However that’s not always easy, trying to arrange something between our working hours and the demands of the estate agents.
Property 6 we saw, was quite interesting. It ticks most of the boxes. The only issue is the area, mostly (I think) because we don’t know it. Also, I think we’re spoiled by the place we’re renting at the moment, which is quite nice located. That property is the one that we might visit for a second time soon. We saw it last weekend and I’d like to get a feel of it during the week as well. It would also be nice to revisit it and try to pay more attention to the details that we might have missed.

On the 5th of October I’m taking part in a charity event organised by the ‘British Heart Foundation’. It’s a 10 kilometers run in Hyde Park, London. Since heart disease runs in my family, it’s a matter very close to me. I fear that it will be something that I will have to deal with at some point in my life. You can find a link to my fundraising website on the right, if you’re interested… Please be interested.
I've started training for the event. I’m not following a specific running plan. With everything that’s been happening recently, I simply can’t. I've been all over the place. But, I've been running outdoors more frequently than before. Even today, for the first time I went for a small run at 6:45 am on the way to the gym. It was so nice watching the city wake up. So, I’m hoping to achieve a personal best in the charity run and finish the 10km faster than I had in the past. We’ll see…

These days, JJ has been exhibiting a couple of his paintings in ‘La Galleria Pall Mall’, in the centre of London. The exhibition’s theme is ‘lust’! Yesterday night was the opening! Unfortunately JJ couldn't attend because he was working, so I took our lodger and headed there for an hour or so. As always, there was lots of wine, interesting characters (eccentric artists), old money (sugar daddies), new aspiring money (big boobs, blonde hair), burlesque figures, etc.
Events like that have a character. Having a very different background myself, being an engineer and looking at the world in straight lines, I was shocked when I first met the type of people that hang around art events. There is a romantic element to them (especially if you exclude some snobbism that might appear here and there). There’re not for too long though…

Feeling like a grown up - viewing houses

It has begun. Yesterday JJ and I, we did our first viewing for a house to buy.

We've been thinking about it for quite some time but kept postponing it for no particular reason. London is not easy when it comes to purchasing properties. They’re ridiculously expensive.  Even rent is very expensive in this part of the world. You can’t easily find something in good condition and to be worth its price, unless you relocate to the middle of nowhere.

Of course compromises have to be made. It might take me longer to get to work. I’m fine with that. But I draw a line when it gets up to more than a 1.5 hours one way. We were also talking about getting something with some potential to be upgraded in the future to have its value increased. So, we wouldn't like a completely refurbished, perfect, property. Since in theory we’re not looking for a house for the rest of our lives, but for something to get us on the property ladder. Something we can work on for the next, let’s say, 5 years, with a little of character till we sell it and move on. That is all of course in theory. Reality is a different matter.

So, we went to south London Thursday evening, after I finished work, to view our first property. In contrast to what I said before, it was a newly finished terraced house, with outside garden and more bedrooms that we really needed that spread into 3 floors. It was in our budget, looked great on the pictures and close to a train station that could take us to central London in around half an hour. So, we couldn't miss the opportunity to look at it, when an agent called me. It sounded perfect, yes?

Well, no. The floors weren't really wooden and the walls weren't that robust. There were unfinished bits here and there and it was generally obvious that not the best materials were used during the construction of the place. In addition to that, there was a ‘park’ right next to our garden. The ‘park’ was probably used more by the local drug lords than by children. Overall, it didn't come as a surprise that when something appears too good to be true, well it isn't…

The Money Pit

In any case, it was a start. Now, we’ll start booking more viewings and see where they take us. You never know. By the end of the next season, we might be property owners, with a mortgage for the next couple of decades!!!

You see? That’s what I’m saying that it’s getting all grown up business! I’m talking about budgets, compromises and mortgages and a commitment that will last 25 years that I’m happily making with my partner! I’m now officially, I think, a grownup! Needless to say that, while we were checking the property, I had in my bag the latest Avengers graphic novel, that I had ordered online, and that I also need to google questions to ask when viewing properties.