Buying a hoose

[baggy89]

Most kitchen fitters appear to have next to no experience of fitting things or even following simple diagrams.

[Kowalski]

Most kitchen fitters appear to have next to no experience of fitting things or even following simple diagrams.

 

It's no wonder that some of these small companies sink without a trace.

[CtS]

I wouldn't tackle a new kitchen or bathroom project unless you're a very experienced DIY'er.  Especially in an older flat or house where the walls and floors are less likely to be square and level.

 

 

DIY. Don't Involve Yourself. 

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

I wouldn't tackle a new kitchen or bathroom project unless you're a very experienced DIY'er.  Especially in an older flat or house where the walls and floors are less likely to be square and level.

 

 

DIY. Don't Involve Yourself. 

 

Is the right answer.

[Tyrant]

I wouldn't tackle a new kitchen or bathroom project unless you're a very experienced DIY'er.  Especially in an older flat or house where the walls and floors are less likely to be square and level.

 

 

DIY. Don't Involve Yourself. 

 

 

Absolutely.

 

Some of you seem to think it's like putting together a kinder egg toy or something. 

[glasgowdon]

 

Absolutely.

 

Some of you seem to think it's like putting together a kinder egg toy or something. 

 

I'm sure you'll find some good online tutorials.

 

[Andrew]

I've found a house for you. Cheap and ready to live in.

 

http://www-e.aspc.co.uk/cgi-bin/public/LiveProperty/291256?ID=GNKPKBKA#picture

[Tyrant]

I appreciate the effort, Andrew and I'm very pleased that you've found me a property that has sanitation facilities. I will take it into consideration. 

[Superstar Tradesman]

I was specifically looking at properties that required renovation for the very reasons you specified. (Have you seen the way half the hooses oot there are decorated?)

 

There's a huge difference between decorating and renovating.  No matter how nice a place is when you move in you're likely to 'decorate' it to your particular taste.  'Renovating' on the other hand is a whole new ball game but doesn't have to cost thousands.  You will however save thousands on buying the property though as this will put a huge slice of punters off and you'll subsequently make thousands when you take a step up the ladder.

 

My first place needed completely gutted.  The first job I did was lift the kitchen floorboards as they were all loose.  By that I mean I lifted most by hand they were that fucked.  I bought a shitload of new floorboards for @£100 and spent the next fortnight after work laying a new one.  Zero experience in doing so but a huge sense of achievement standing on the finished product.  Cost next to nothing and by then I was most of the way onto my next pay cheque.

 

It's the same for paint, plasterboard, scraping wallpaper, lifting/fitting carpets, stripping paint, skirting boards, etc.  It all costs next to nothing but it'll take time to do if you're only doing it in your spare time.  In the meantime save for a kitchen or bathroom, the big jobs.  Tile, paint, rip out the old stuff yourself so you only need a plumber in for an hour or two to fit pipework or a joiner in for a day if you're still not up to speed by the time you fit a kitchen.

 

Fucking wire in punk, it'll make a man of you.   

 

Or, sit about with your thumb up your arse moaning about house prices like everyone else that's used to getting stuff handed to them. 

 

[amp]

'Work hard, get off your arse, do some extra hours to earn the money'.

 

Etc, etc, etc.

 

Perhaps some of the older generation need to understand that a lot of the younger generation work just as hard as you did. Do the same amount of hours that you did. Are probably significantly more intelligent aged 25 than you were when you were age 25.

 

The difference being that the older generation (buying houses 7-20 years ago had access to a HUGE amount of lenders, offering you 100% mortgages and the like, whether you had a good credit history or not. You probably had to pay a tiny deposit. Today, such lenders simply do not exist. One missed/late credit card payment will stop most from getting a mortgage. And if you get past that stage, you are probably going to have to raise at least a £20-30,000 deposit in order to prove to the bank that you can pay back what they lend, plus interest.

 

We (wife to be and I) are in mid 20s, and were lucky enough in that we had the deposit money and a decent credit rating 2 years ago when we bought. Most others don't have that. It does bug me when the young are told to get off their arses and work harder if they want to get a property - this is simply missing the point by a huge margin.

[Kowalski]

Perhaps some of the older generation need to understand that a lot of the younger generation work just as hard as you did. Do the same amount of hours that you did. Are probably significantly more intelligent aged 25 than you were when you were age 25.

 

What's the source for this?  From what I can see, exams have been getting easier and easier over the years.

[Penfold]

What's the source for this?  From what I can see, exams have been getting easier and easier over the years.

 

By that you actually mean pass marks have been increasing...

[dave_min]

What's the source for this?  From what I can see, exams have been getting easier and easier over the years.

 

You sure it's not just a little bit easier each time you resit them?

[Madbadteacher]

The exams ARE easier. Stuff I did in my Highers in '81 is now 2 years into university courses!

 

As it getting a "degree" from a "University"

 

In my day (yawn I know) there were 7 universities in Scotland (2 of which were even then just glorified techie colleges) and now........??

 

Yes I may sound elitest, but in them days a "degree" actually meant something (unless it was sociology of course!)

[dave_min]

The exams ARE easier. Stuff I did in my Highers in '81 is now 2 years into university courses!

 

As it getting a "degree" from a "University"

 

In my day (yawn I know) there were 7 universities in Scotland (2 of which were even then just glorified techie colleges) and now........??

 

Yes I may sound elitest, but in them days a "degree" actually meant something (unless it was sociology of course!)

 

You really are a fucking moron aren't you?

 

Of course exams aren't "easier" now, they're just fucking different.

 

No doubt back in your day it was useful to learn how to make fire and avoid the fucking plague, but teaching that these days would be next to fucking useless.

[tom_widdows]

Cant comment on your experience Dave but during my final year of uni I was wandering the corridors looking at the final presentations of the 1st & 2nd years. The tutors etc were bragging on about how proud they were and yet all I saw was laziness and severe lack of effort from both parties. That was in the space of 4 years so either we were something special or they lowered the bar drastically.

 

In the cold light of day I think my degree certainly wasnt worth the hassle and stress it caused.

 

it all started going downhill when they brought in this tuition fee malarky. I believe pre 1998 you were subject to more strenous interviews or maybe even had to follow the yankee example and had to write essays saying why they should take you because the Unis were only given a certain amount of cash and had to show proper results at the end of it. Now its all about how many students you can get £2000 - £9000 a year out of and results have taken a back step. My course was meant to have a total of 15 places. They let in 35. The other section was meant to have 50 places but they let in 90. I cant believe that was the only one.

 

However I have a slight prejudice to any degrees that arent essentially job titles. Doesnt matter when you got them, yer all a waste of space 

And anyone who says they are 'reading' a subject is a fuckwit IMO

[Madbadteacher]

You really are a fucking moron aren't you?

 

Of course exams aren't "easier" now, they're just fucking different.

 

No doubt back in your day it was useful to learn how to make fire and avoid the fucking plague, but teaching that these days would be next to fucking useless.

 

Now, now Dave.....

 

The Higher Maths exam I did in 1981 was a hell of a lot more theoertical and advanced than what they do now, I should know I was an examiner in 2009!

 

owever, I agree, to a point, with your very poor attempt to involve modern technology by insult!  I agree with the use of technology, computers, calculators, et al, after all I dinna take my claes doon to the river and bang the off rocks to make em clean (or as my mother would have said "why have a dog and bark yourself") but....

 

 

Big but........

 

 

The buggers need to know what the techology is doing, they just dinna need it to make life/exams "easier"

 

Real life example, in 2002 I was shopping but the toon I was in suffered a massive powercut. All APOS/tills down etc. I could still count out how much I was due, but the number of people my age (40's) t5hat couldn't was frightening. Virtually no-one under 25 had a hope. But the grannies all could!

 

Point?

 

You can use the technology to help, but you need to know what it's helping you do, and modern exams dinna teach that!

 

Teachers these days are under too much pressure to produce results that they "coach the exam questions" they dinna teach, one of the reasons I HATED being a PT in a big school in Aberdeen where that was all that mattered, not "have they actually LEARNED anything"

 

Oh, and exams ARE easier now.

 

I passed 6 highers in 81, 4 A's and 2 B's and by todays standards I'd be a fucking genius, today we have kids doing 3 highers who are the "best"?

[Madbadteacher]

Oh and BTW I was teaching in 2000's

 

 

[mini59dons]

And Passing exams improves intelligence does it?

 

Are the young 'uns more intelligent cos more of them pass exams?

 

But more of them get the chance to sit exams!

[Tyrant]

There's a huge difference between decorating and renovating.  No matter how nice a place is when you move in you're likely to 'decorate' it to your particular taste.  'Renovating' on the other hand is a whole new ball game but doesn't have to cost thousands.  You will however save thousands on buying the property though as this will put a huge slice of punters off and you'll subsequently make thousands when you take a step up the ladder.

 

My first place needed completely gutted.  The first job I did was lift the kitchen floorboards as they were all loose.  By that I mean I lifted most by hand they were that fucked.  I bought a shitload of new floorboards for @£100 and spent the next fortnight after work laying a new one.  Zero experience in doing so but a huge sense of achievement standing on the finished product.  Cost next to nothing and by then I was most of the way onto my next pay cheque.

 

It's the same for paint, plasterboard, scraping wallpaper, lifting/fitting carpets, stripping paint, skirting boards, etc.  It all costs next to nothing but it'll take time to do if you're only doing it in your spare time.  In the meantime save for a kitchen or bathroom, the big jobs.  Tile, paint, rip out the old stuff yourself so you only need a plumber in for an hour or two to fit pipework or a joiner in for a day if you're still not up to speed by the time you fit a kitchen.

 

Fucking wire in punk, it'll make a man of you.   

 

Or, sit about with your thumb up your arse moaning about house prices like everyone else that's used to getting stuff handed to them. 

 

 

You're telling me stuff I already know. I'm fully aware of the difference between decoration and renovation. Indeed decorating is something that's going to happen anyway but renovation, no matter what experiences you had requires money. You might have been lucky enough to get a shit load of floor boards for a good price so lucky you but If I have my mortgage to pay I also have to buy all the bits and pieces for renovating (and decorating eventually) and I also have to save for a new kitchen and/or bathroom. I'm sorry min but that's just not realistic. Not for me anyway. Maybe you were on a higher wage when you get yer hoose? Nae sure but if it was just a case of working hard then it wouldn't be a problem. More than happy (as I have been my whole life bar a dodgy spell in 2004) to work hard and do whatever I can myself. Cars for example. Rarely does my car go to a garage if it needs work done because I get off my arse, work hard, learn about them and do it my fucking self which has probably saved me thousands of pounds over the years.

 

Again.. it irks me that people think I want an easy ride. My point all along (as Amp has also said) is that the goal posts have changed recently making it more difficult than it's ever been.

[Superstar Tradesman]

Goal posts have changed but it's the previous generation who have to pay off 5 times their salary on an over-inflated house price that I feel sorry for.  Or your old man who had to buy a 5 grand house on a weekly wage that was handed to him in a brown envelope and only had of a couple notes and a load of coins in it.

 

Not the people rocking about with the latest iphone, despite their previous model of iphone having been binned due to it being the 'wrong' model number proclaiming "the bank won't let them borrow money from them".  Boo fucking hoo.

 

The way I see it is; once you've saved up 20-25% of a deposit for a house then you're a quarter of the way there to paying off your mortgage.  Happy days.

 

As for people being more intelligent these days..........pffffffffffft!  Half the young bucks I work with have more letters after their name than I have in my name and they're all thick as mince.  If that were the case they'd have worked out how to get better jobs to put a roof over their heads.   

 

As for telling you stuff you already know.  Well you're obviously not listening.  There aren't many jobs you can't do around the house without a fistful of hand tools, a workbench and a step ladder, all of which costs peanuts.  Along with wood, plasterboard, tiles, grout, paint, plaster, cables, varnish, paintstripper, brushes, buckets and dust sheets.  The best bit is, if you fuck something up it's not going to break the bank buying more wood, plasterboard, tiles, grout, paint, plaster, cables, varnish, paintstripper, brushes, buckets and dust sheets to sort it out.  Needs must.

 

As for kitchens being some great expense, well they don't have to be.  Sure you can spunk £20k on a kitchen but a quick search on the Homebase site and you can pick up an 8 unit kitchen that would fill most flats for @£600.  What's that these days, about 3 or 4 away games or a week in Magaluf?

 

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HomebaseStaticPageSecondLevel?langId=110&storeId=10151&includeName=HBCreateTheLook/kitchens_strasbourg.html

 

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HomebaseStaticPageSecondLevel?langId=110&storeId=10151&includeName=HBCreateTheLook/kitchens_napoli_maple_feat_asti.html

 

There's 0% credit cards out there if you can't afford £600 after you've bought a place.  Free money!  £50/month for a year.  As long as you pay it up that is and don't spunk it all on the latest iPad in 3 months time. 

[Tyrant]

Goal posts have changed but it's the previous generation who have to pay off 5 times their salary on an over-inflated house price that I feel sorry for.  Or your old man who had to buy a 5 grand house on a weekly wage that was handed to him in a brown envelope and only had of a couple notes and a load of coins in it.

 

Not the people rocking about with the latest iphone, despite their previous model of iphone having been binned due to it being the 'wrong' model number proclaiming "the bank won't let them borrow money from them".  Boo fucking hoo.

 

The way I see it is; once you've saved up 20-25% of a deposit for a house then you're a quarter of the way there to paying off your mortgage.  Happy days.

 

As for people being more intelligent these days..........pffffffffffft!  Half the young bucks I work with have more letters after their name than I have in my name and they're all thick as mince.  If that were the case they'd have worked out how to get better jobs to put a roof over their heads.   

 

As for telling you stuff you already know.  Well you're obviously not listening.  There aren't many jobs you can't do around the house without a fistful of hand tools, a workbench and a step ladder, all of which costs peanuts.  Along with wood, plasterboard, tiles, grout, paint, plaster, cables, varnish, paintstripper, brushes, buckets and dust sheets.  The best bit is, if you fuck something up it's not going to break the bank buying more wood, plasterboard, tiles, grout, paint, plaster, cables, varnish, paintstripper, brushes, buckets and dust sheets to sort it out.  Needs must.

 

As for kitchens being some great expense, well they don't have to be.  Sure you can spunk £20k on a kitchen but a quick search on the Homebase site and you can pick up an 8 unit kitchen that would fill most flats for @£600.  What's that these days, about 3 or 4 away games or a week in Magaluf?

 

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HomebaseStaticPageSecondLevel?langId=110&storeId=10151&includeName=HBCreateTheLook/kitchens_strasbourg.html

 

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HomebaseStaticPageSecondLevel?langId=110&storeId=10151&includeName=HBCreateTheLook/kitchens_napoli_maple_feat_asti.html

 

There's 0% credit cards out there if you can't afford £600 after you've bought a place.  Free money!  £50/month for a year.  As long as you pay it up that is and don't spunk it all on the latest iPad in 3 months time. 

 

 

Show me where I said anything about me or anyone being more intelligent these days. I've had a roof over my head for years which I've supported myself.  ???

 

Aye all those things cost peanuts. But all that mounts up. Buying it on a credit card isn't much help unless you don't have to pay it back. I think it's you that's not listening. I don't doubt Kitchens can be procured cheaply but cheap isn't fucking free and it still needs to be paid. As I've said all those expenses which are "peanuts" will mount up and when you're paying a mortgage and the rest of your bills it's not that straight forward. Not saying it's impossible but with me having zero experience with renovations I wouldn't like to take on a huge amount of work when I'd just be winging it with next to no money if things go tits up. That's being sensible if you ask me.

 

You can fuck off with all the patronising iPhone nonsense. I don't have the latest iPhone or iPad. Should I use my saving to get up to date ones? I could cut out away games but I don't go to them any more anyway so that would be largely ineffectual on my finances. And I don't think I've ever spent more than £50-£60 on an away day.

[Kowalski]

By that you actually mean pass marks have been increasing...

 

No, I mean they are easier.

 

e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17909242

 

GCSEs and A-levels in geography and science are easier than they were 10 years ago, the exams watchdog warns.

 

Ofqual says standards have slipped, with pupils often facing more multiple-choice or short-structured questions, with less scientific content.

 

It reviewed biology and chemistry GCSEs and A-levels between 2003 and 2008, A-level geography between 2001 and 2010.

[glasgowdon]

You really are a fucking moron aren't you?

 

Of course exams aren't "easier" now, they're just fucking different.

 

No doubt back in your day it was useful to learn how to make fire and avoid the fucking plague, but teaching that these days would be next to fucking useless.

 

Post of the Week.

 

I assume all the villains that think old exams were harder won't use a service (legal, health etc.) if they purveyor of said service is younger than 50 or whatever?

 

Seriously MBT, you post some amount of drivel.

 

 

[Superstar Tradesman]

 

Show me where I said anything about me or anyone being more intelligent these days. I've had a roof over my head for years which I've supported myself.  ???

 

Aye all those things cost peanuts. But all that mounts up. Buying it on a credit card isn't much help unless you don't have to pay it back. I think it's you that's not listening. I don't doubt Kitchens can be procured cheaply but cheap isn't fucking free and it still needs to be paid. As I've said all those expenses which are "peanuts" will mount up and when you're paying a mortgage and the rest of your bills it's not that straight forward. Not saying it's impossible but with me having zero experience with renovations I wouldn't like to take on a huge amount of work when I'd just be winging it with next to no money if things go tits up. That's being sensible if you ask me.

 

You can fuck off with all the patronising iPhone nonsense. I don't have the latest iPhone or iPad. Should I use my saving to get up to date ones? I could cut out away games but I don't go to them any more anyway so that would be largely ineffectual on my finances. And I don't think I've ever spent more than £50-£60 on an away day.

 

You're off on one now and missing all the carefully placed winky smilies that were meant as little pokes of jest.

 

So I'll keep it simple.

 

Yes 'things' are going to mount up but since you don't know what you're doing then you're not going to be buying everything at once then what's the rush?  Your mortgage will have 25 years on it, take your time.

 

If you can only afford to pay for paint and brushes one month then make that your mission.  You'll need to wait overnight whilst the first coat dries and it could well need 3 coats.  That's say 5 rooms, 4 walls each, a roof each, fiddly bits round doors and windows, 3 coats each.  BOOM!  A month is gone and you can afford to buy skirting boards to cut, sand, prime, paint or varnish.

 

There'll be a thousand shitey wee jobs like that if you buy a place that needs work.  All of them will take time.  None of them have to cost a fortune.

 

But I can see you're not up to some hard work.  <<<<    <<<<  That's a wee joke btw way.