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Valkyrie

Herefordshire here we come!

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We just need to tidy the garden a bit.  Aunty Mostin will be fostering the girls for a while - I do hope the flu thing is lifted soon though.  This afternoon we've visited 2 estate agents (one to go) and the solicitor - very quick as we already have the quote!  Handy because now we can work on that.  One agent is coming next Wednesday for a valuation so we will have a rough idea as to what we can play with.  We've booked B&B at Huntlands Farm where we usually like to stay and already contacted an agent to view a house that we know is in our range.  EEEEEK, exciting yet stressful.  O.o

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It is super - I do rather like Kimbolton.  We did rather fancy one house but it was removed from the market.  Boohoo.  Maybe it'll go back on after Easter?  They seem to stay on the market for ages, then get taken off then on and off blah blah so that people won't notice the dates.  But as I've been looking and lurking for years I know what's been on a long time!  Maybe it's just waiting for meeeeeeeeeeeee!  Actually it might even end up on the Worcestershire borders.  I've not ruled out Shropshire either.  I want Stokesay Castle LOL!

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We love popping over to Herefordshire, but yes Worcestershire is gorgeous too, but more expensive. We went through somewhere in the foothills of the Malverns a few weeks ago, not sure if it was Hanley Swan or Welland, lovely village.

Don't spend too much in the antique place by the side of the road at Bringsty ;)

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LOL!  That's Murray's favourite place - last time he wanted a tin bath or two but I managed to dissuade him!:lol:  When we've got our house I'll let him loose.  Tin baths would be great for chooks!  

Meanwhile Live and Let Live is like a highwayman's haunt - nice food!

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Market appraisal being done next Wednesday!

Definitely Luvvie!

Thanks DM. I'm relieved that one that OH was initially interested in has been removed - I didn't want to spend the next 10 years renovating!

I agree Patsy - the land that time forgot.  Still unspoilt in that neck of the woods.  Not ruling out Worcestershire or Shropshire.   As OH said, if the right house appears we will dive in.

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3 hours ago, SeramaSilly said:

Ooooo good luck - I'm verrrrrry jealous!! :D x

We may not sell our house yet!  But I'm hopeful.  If the worst comes to the worst, then we still have a very nice house and garden to play in!  OH phoned another estate agent today only to find they are closed on Wednesdays!  He said no wonder these houses are on the market - nobody is ever there to do appointments - those who are selling their property and the agents who are not open all week!:lol:  I'm thinking the owners who have tried to sell for ages probably have given up hope and got caught out (they still have lives to live until the house is sold, so I'm not too worried) and then there is that laid back approach which suits me fine - frustrates the heck out of Mr Makeitsnappysnappysnappy.  I think I'll call him Phil Silvers from now on.  The other day he wanted to do something while I was on the phone and he started flapping his arms up and down - I said stop it or you'll hit your head on the ceiling and I'll come when I've finished.  I'm not the performing doggie!

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Grandmashazziemakeitsnappy!:lol:

Yes, we could advertise privately but we can make ourselves scarce and let them work to sell our house.  Also owners hovering around makes potential buyers a little uneasy whereas an agent is neutral in that respect, also any down pointers would be mentioned to the agent but probably you'd never know what was wrong to address the situation.  With regard to the estate agent in the village, we think it has now become a satellite branch and the agent is not there much, hence the young girl just keeping shop and only has lunch cover.

Window cleaning today and shutting the doors on the rooms done.  Only 2 of us now so only a quick dust and hoover before visitors.  I made his lordship work with me today - I was brandishing the whip this time!:lol::dance:

Well worth a visit to pretty much all over the country.  So many beautiful spots and so little time to explore.  I've not been to Northumberland, Durham or Lincolnshire but I'd like to visit.  I've just looked at the English counties - I've been to all the others over the years - even if they were brief visits!  Yayyyyyyyyy!  

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Very nice man came to do the energy report.  For the first time we also have laser accurate room sizes.  He said most older houses are D or E because there comes a point when you cannot improve it any further.  DD told us that their new house was an E - which was a surprise.  Apparently she was looking at her council tax bracket!:lol: Hers is A!  And ours came in at C!  :dance: Apparently if we spend out £18,000 on insulating the solid floors, solar water panels (and a couple more LED lights - most are anyway) we would cover our costs in the next 30 years at a pittance a year!:roll::lol: So if we stayed and I lived to be 95 we'd be quids in!

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Estate agents round today.  Only the two - the last of the 3 never responded.  Both said exactly the same price - but then it's as much as people are willing to pay, so we will be happy with whatever.  We chose the one working for himself and not a firm - he has more to fight for.  Both seemed very pleasant people, but he is also going to act on our behalf with regard to engaging with the estate agents at the other end.  Sooooooooooooo we are off tomorrow - looking forward to slow broadband or zero broadband!  Not!:lol:

On the other hand no excuse not to sew!  And maybe I'll get an even better longarm machine - thank you OH, you know it makes sense dear!:whistle:

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Charlottechicken - guess what!  Those tin baths are still there - I was driving so my foot accidentally on purpose pushed the accelerator down a little.  I'm sure that's the only reason he wants to live there!

Update - we went and visited a very nice place.  We loved it.  A little wildlife haven in part of it - frogspawn, newts, voles, shrews - a big buzzard!  Lots of skylarks.  What was there not to like?  The industrial units that were not near, but very imposing across the field.  Once I was in the garden I never noticed and forgot they were there, but OH was location location location so nope.  If we could have lifted it up and popped it down in a nice spot we would.  We also had a walk around the 2 properties that we couldn't get to see because the owners were otherwise engaged.  One looked nice in the photos but yuk - boating pond was nigh on invisible due to tree growth - goodness knows when those photos were taken - but it wasn't in the last couple of years!  The other looked like a little too much work needed.  It wasn't a black and white after all, but painted bricks, although the wooden frame was still there.  I think I preferred the red bricks with the wood.  Got chatting to the neighbour when we looked around a church.  Nice lady!  Got lots of information like docs, etc from her.  Lucy at Huntlands was also very helpful and happy to answer our silly questions - her husband mentioned a few pointers too when looking at older properties.  So back to the drawing board - there are lots more properties popping up.  But the estate agent will send us things that we don't want and haven't asked for - apparently the 2 bed one bath no garden is one of our criteria.  ARGHHHH!  Acres!  ACRES you silly people!

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Exciting now everything is finally moving :dance: 

My parents have spent a few years looking and last year we sold, bought a really nice house with a paddock for goats and pulled out as surveys showed ground floor floods every year which vendor lied about :roll: Vendor knocked £50k off but we couldn't get home insurance etc etc so we haven't moved!
I get bored of looking at listings, would rather just go and see 'the one' when they're about to put in an offer

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Oh no!  I thought your parents had found THE one!  It's so different up there - vendors show you round while here we scarper while the agent does it - which suits us fine.  Although I can appreciate in the sticks the agents would be spending hours travelling if they were showing people round!  So compact here - and getting worse with another 700 houses going up soon.  That's in addition to the non brown fields but green fields now dug up and half already houses on part.  :sad:

It is a real headache Lewis.  So many to sift through - and I've been doing my own checking for floods - one was up a hillside with lovely views.  It did have a stream with a little waterfall - super!  But nope, liable to flooding and so was the rest of the area!  

So anyone else looking at houses I recommend this site big time:

http://Flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk

Saves a lot of hassle and helps wheedle out the pile into the Not on Your Nellie pile.  So far we have 3 piles :

Want to See, Asking Too Much but Like and the Not on Your Nellie pile.  

So far 2 people like our place.  One not even on the market but now our agent is going to them to quote today.  The second have 1st time buyers.  There are 3 more to come on the launch day.  Fingers crossed (although I rather like today's people - wife is about to pop with baby mark 2 - and that was how I was when we came here!) - looks like a little one has had a run around the grass too - we can see the foot prints!:lol:

Edited by Valkyrie
Linky highlighted - doh!
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19 hours ago, Valkyrie said:

  So anyone else looking at houses I recommend this site big time:

http://Flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk

Saves a lot of hassle and helps wheedle out the pile into the Not on Your Nellie pile.  

Ummm, whilst it’s a good starting point it does use generalised info that sometimes over looks common sense!! 

I am technically in a high flood risk area, that’s true I live next to a river on a flood plain. However, whilst this is hard to describe and visualise, my house is lower than the river - there’s a flipping great river bank between me and the river which is higher than my house. Every year they deliberately flood the river and it flows the other side, creating beautiful welney washes, and by doing so it protects the farms / land this side. 

Try explaining that to an insurance company! We do get insurance from sensible companies but we can’t use the online comparison sites. Do you live within 100 meters of a river, yes, how much higher than the river are you???? Computer can’t accept that we are lower and safe!  Frankly if our side flooded half of east Anglia would probably be gone. 

Ive lived here 12 years without incident despite the deluges in recent years.

Good luck with your search. 

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I'm thinking of the Netherlands!  LOL!  My in-laws live in Staines but not near the river.  It was the water table that rose up twice in recent years - they've been living there nigh on 50 years without any issues before then.  The last time the water was within half an inch of flowing inside their house!  You are lucky that the water is released onto the other side and easing the pressure.  From what the in-laws said about it all was that the Enviromental Agency messed things up by diverting the flow from some areas but not realising the effect it would have further downstream.  I don't know what the outcome was, or if they admitted fault (which I doubt even if it was their fault).

We have been having very strange weather lately so for people who don't know the area very well, it's very helpful. It does state that the homes may be at risk, but I'm guessing that if Lewis's parents found that site first then they may have had less trouble before they went ahead with the purchase of the house.  It also mentions surface water in heavy downpours - so having driven through a few of those I agree with their findings!

Incidentally my friend lives in Tunbridge Wells and had a difficult time getting her house insured because she was deemed to live on a flood plain - she was up the steepest and highest road in the area.  It would have to be a tidal wave to reach her!:lol:

But now I'm waiting for some nice weather - it's long overdue and we all need the water to subside - the stream at the bottom of the hill here is a raging torrent at the moment!

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