Morning Dogsey Daily Thread - Wednesday

Morning all Dogsey Peeps

Just when I thought I had a whole week to myself, it all changed yesterday, when the pilot light on the NEW boiler went out Off up to the park this morning to try and get the gas supply checked, cos all plumbers are now completely baffled as to why it's doing this, and I'll probably end up spending another day up there tomorrow with whoever can help. It's getting very frustrating now that I've just spent all that money replacing the boiler.

Sun's making an appearance again today thank goodness, cos yesterday we had a lot of rain, and it feels quite muggy today. Tomorrow we're back in the 30's, oh deep joy

Hope everyone is ok today along with the doglets, so enjoy your day doing whatever, I'm sure it'll be a lot better than mine

Morning Helena, and all who follow

(Feeling subdued having just read Northernsoulgirl's post about her beloved Ailsa having gone.)

Boiler problems are horrible and I used to be plagued by them (usually when just either having bought or just ready to sell a house grrrr) one of my long term solutions to a tricky and baffling one was a strategically placed BUCKET in the cupboard under the stairs (for quite a few years!) but of course I had to bite the bullet when I sold the house and get it sorted properly.
(Am thinking you must have been very bad in a former life taking all these 'accommodation' problems into account? Maybe you were an Estate Agent in a former existence! lol!)

Hardly worth me keep mentioning the weather here now until about November - sun, humidity, more sun, more humidity! The sunshine is accompanied by the noise of a steamroller outside today - so that's different! They have laid a new bit of road from just past my block. (They'll probly dig it up within a month or so to lay phone cables and water pipes under it - that's how it usually goes here. Nice new paving - dug up 3 months later and not replaced - they then fill the trench with asphalt and leave it at that) of course they don't dig up again until after they've painted the nice new white lines on it!

My day is already slightly better than yours - Jen took Bella out for the early walk and didn't even wake me until they were back! How nice is that? In view of me getting hardly any sleep on Monday night and having a bit of trouble getting off last night too. (Just popped out onto the verandah and Bella is alternating between walking up and down on Jen's back and licking her ears out lol!)

She put us through her 'ignore them altogether' period yesterday after we collected her - spent most of her time indoors in her summer lair which is UNDER the daybed now it's a bit too hot to lie on it all the time! Is now back to her usual demanding licky, waggy self but strangely is NOT barking at everything? Changes in accommodation seem to either bring it on or stop it with that little menace!

I am now deeply embroiled in 'all stuff tenanty' not just the Moneth saga (which I will get around to doing a long update on separately I think as it reached ludicrous heights and is ongoing!) but the long standing tenants in the big seaview apartment are moving out this week. (Honestly I only have to leave the block for a few days for things to go tits up here!)

(Perhaps you and I could co-write a book on the subject? You do the refurbishment and design section and I'll do the PITFALLS bit!)

Morning H, pat and all,

Firstly ((hugs))) to Jenny and Flash this morning, sending lots of dogsey vibes your way and hope Flash is better very soon.

H, I hope you get your boiler problems sorted and I hope you get your tenancy problems sorted too Pat, nice you got a lay in this morning though.

I am going to have a day off packing and sorting stuff out today as started to feel unwell with chest pains last night. I am sure its all down to the stress of everything lately. So I am going to have a sofa day with lily and watch Jeremy Kyle and any other rubbish, day time TV throws at you .

Take care all and have a good day.

Thank you madmare. To be honest - having my lovely daughter here and looking forward to picking up her pal Vicki later today (she fosters guide dogs and is a lovely woman) and then Jen's boyfriend hot on her heels and then the Newly wed Bracknell land army - makes all the rubbish concerning tenant shmenants fade into insignificance.

Just read Jenny.g's post. How dreadful for her and poor flash.

As for you - yes TAKE IT EASY woman! If you are anything like me, you find the strength to cope with chaos and too much to do while it is all going on but then zonk right down when it's all done and dusted. Those chest pains don't sound good and I hope it is just 'stress related' but if they persist - get yerself to a doc woman!

*am now hoping Mr Kyle doesn't bring on more palpitations for you

Morning Helena, Pat and Bev.

Helena I hope you get to the bottom of this boiler saga and it gets sorted once and for all.
Pat here's hoping the tenant problems get sorted and you can enjoy your time with your daughter. Glad Bella is over the sulks.
Bev enjoy you relaxing day with Lily just what you need I think.

Same old same old here more trawling for properties to view which means another trip later this week I suppose.
Not that there are many left within the distance, price and size garden we are looking for left.

Has anyone heard form Brierley ? I hope everything is alright with her. Haven't seen Moetmum either for a little while hope she is ok too. Maybe her internet is still on go slow. Hope so anyway.

Have a good day all.

Lynn

I remember vividly being at the stage you are at right now when downsizing from Cornwall to Devon and having to make the daily trips of around 250 miles there and back to view everything that came on the market in my price range. I was a cash buyer but even that wasn't helping me back then when the property market was booming.

I'd set off with a heavy heart just KNOWING they'd either be gone before I arrived (cut throat EAs not even bothering to let you know to save you the time - and I was checking before leaving home). Or they'd be crap or have some restrictive covenants or boundary issues or structural problems or other stuff I'd made quite clear was a no no for me. In the end I did buy one with restrictive covenants but it only covered not putting windows in one gable end wall and that suited me just fine as I neither wanted to overlook or be overlooked by the next nearest place anyway.

You will find the house. It's a lottery though and the task would of course be made much easier if EAs were more dependable, if descriptions were more honest (and photos were not mainly restricted to JUST that house - ignoring anything AWFUL right next to, behind or in front of it!) and full floor plans or at least honest dimensions of ALL rooms were given.

I recall seeing bathrooms where the washbasin overhung the bath! Dimensions of all other rooms given but not the bathroom - and was obvious why when you saw it!

I demanded UPSTAIRS bathroom (even tho' in old houses that sacrifices a bedroom) but was still shown ones where bathroom came off the kitchen downstairs - one of them that said 'and through to the family bathroom' turned out to have the bathroom door (containing the only loo) sandwiched between the cooker and the fridge in the kitchen (and it was a blerdy sliding vinyl door to boot!)

Those were the days ... not! You soon get a feel for what you will get for your money in a given area and know what to expect after viewing zillions. If it sounds too good to be true it most likely is. If it's a good bit cheaper than similar properties in same location there will be a good (bad) reason for that too. If it's been on the market for a long time - ditto. But sadly it takes viewing a lot of unsuitable stuff first before you become quite savvy about it all.

I had a mile long checklist of properties to avoid if even one of the phrases on it were used in the descrip.

'Good investment property' was one of them! Hell I'd even become wary of things like 'suit first time buyer' or 'suit cash buyer' thinking JUST DESCRIBE THE BLERDY PROPERTY ACCURATELY and let ME decide what it is 'good for' lol!

*and with a then 12 yr old daughter - I was also having to check for suitable secondary schooling in the area where any house was - a nightmare in Torbay as they still had 'selective schools' and she'd passed to go into a grammar but they were oversubscribed and those with spaces were 'sink schools' most having failed OFSTED. Ended up buying and driving her daily into the next school area for years until she was old enough to go by train and I then later moved again to where her 6th form college was! At least you don't have that problem but of course you have a problem I didn't have - area in relation to being able to travel to work daily - I worked from home as I do now.

Nightmare Pat isn't it.
Gorden will be working away from home 4 days/nights a week so it has to be a house and area I feel comfortable living in on my own for that time alone with the dog, plus we will be approaching winter when we move. So far the areas have been good its just the house has been disappointing or the garden there are several houses and gardens if we could swap would suit us fine.
Some of the houses have been ok but I am just not feeling it and cannot imagine living there even when like yesterday in the second viewing the agent stayed out of our way and we spent an hour planing and moving things round in our head I still came away with a negative feeling.
I suppose its out there somewhere just need to find it and pretty quick now.

Morning all.
Very muggy here, damp and dull.
(((hugs))) to Jenny and Flash, horrible that you have to go through all that again. I hope he is well soon.
My son had his first morning back at work yesterday and got on very well but of course was cream crackered when he got home. Apart from anything else he had to drive for 2 hours there and back, so its hardly surprising
The butter is out of the fridge softening ready for.......banana cake! and one or two other treats! See you soon!

T'was almost exactly the same for me back then Lynn. Ex worked away and home weekends. He didn't even VIEW any of them with me (let alone get involved in schools etc) in fact he only took one day off when we moved, leaving me and Jen on our own in the new place the first night with a broken back door and no curtains (you might be getting some idea of why I ditched him lol!)

All I can say from my experiences is you have to sometimes 'switch off the video in your mind' about what you want and your list of requirements etc. because to be honest if your budget is fixed, it's hardly likely you will find something that meets strict requirements. And start thinking more in terms of properties with 'possibility'.

I was never interested in the 'newly decorated' rubbish (just made me wonder what was lurking under the new paint and paper!) or 'new bathroom/kitchen' wouldn't be to my taste anyway and putting in a new bathroom or kitchen is not totally outside the realms of feasibility at a later stage. Ditto for sheds, outbuildings, conservatories.

My priorities were

*Have to like the look of it from the outside (in the flesh, not in photos)
In fact even have to like the 'approach' to it, walking or driving. Didn't want to be returning home every day and hating the walk or drive approaching it!
*Has to feel like somewhere I could be living as soon as I step inside it (they say most buyers decide within seconds of walking through the front door of properties they view) I wouldn't even view inside if I didn't like outside.
*Must have suitable outside area for my pets didn't want to be panicking every time a door was opened (icing on the cake if can walk to nice area to exercise the dog but no objections to driving a short distance to one instead)
*Surrounding and nearby properties not to be cluttered with rusting cars, disgraceful yards or old fridges and cookers lol! Didn't want my own house to be a rose in an onion patch!

You can ask about neighbours. But I wouldn't expect truth if they are awful and the sellers want rid of the property! I've knocked at neighbours before now and very glad I did for one in Newton Abbot. Had Jenny with me and she was surprised to see a girl from her class lived there - nice ... UNTIL we found out it was the house of the mother of the seller (how strange not to mention that when I'd specifically asked about the next door neighbours?) she'd just said to me 'don't see much of those' and assured me that the constant barking dog there wasn't 'usually that noisy'. We found out coz Jen's schoolmate told Jen it was her older sister's house! I had a lucky escape from that potential purchase but it cost me over £1K solors fees when I pulled out.

Good morning

Another warm & humid night here. Tommee has just about recovered from agility yesterday, not the actual agility as he is way too young to do anything other than walking through the tunnels & over the dog walk(fully supported). No it was from the apres agility play with Jenny & Greta's new puppy, Trudy.

Before the training Trudy said hello to all the dogs & then went indoors to keep safely out of the way.

But afterwards she & Tommee just hit it off being the two youngest present. We had several zoomies around & under the jumps, mouth wrestling & body slamming, the strange thing is it was all toally silent !! We left & Trudy was zonked out indoors for a couple of hours & hopefully she will have slept right through the night I know Tommee did

It will be interesting to see what they get upto at the"serious"(as in you must not smile or laugh)dog club tonight