House buying questions

Living in in the sticks is not such a hardship and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages as far as I am concerned.

The rules of thumb are - gas for hob, not oven - certainly not boiler.

Heating preference in this order -

1, ground source
2, air source
3, gas,
4,oil.

Klargester type treatment plant uses a little electric, but not much and very rarely needs emptying.
You get a discount on water rates too.

cbst3 said:

Thanks, that's helpful. Gas is only for cooking, I would assume only for the hob rather than the oven, and I believe that the heating uses no gas at all.

Heating is deffo ground source - it was built, and is currently owned by, a plumber, so I am imagining anything pipe related will be top notch!

Click to expand...

Don't be surprised if your Electric Bill is a little more than usual, the energy required to move all that water around is quite substantial.

The last system I installed had 4 kilometres of underground pipe to collect the heat.

Sol Ford said:

Klargester! That's what my parents have. I don't recall any electrical gubbins attached to it. Maybe some sort of soakaway?

Click to expand...

The ones I have installed have a small motor, slowly rotating the paddle though the 'poo soup' to expose the anaerobic bacteria to the air to keep the process working naturally.

The only thing left after the bacteria has digested everything is clean water and methane gas.

It is best not to put bleach In the karzi if you have this 'digester' system.

GlenAnderson said:

Knowing what I do about tradesmen you have a 50/50 chance. It will either be absolutely top spec and perfectly installed, or it will be utterly bodged using whatever used/free/liberated parts that could be slung together with the minimum amount of time and effort, and will be totally on its last legs. :lol:

If it were me I'd definitely go for the more rural option. The idea of living on an "executive" estate fills me with horror. There's probably a residents' association (or something more pretentious, like "owners' council"), and you'll get aggro for putting your bins out too early, or for having a manual gearbox or some such. :lol:

Click to expand...

Yeah, my Daughter just moved to an estate like that - they have two cars, and a four car driveway.

However, the day they moved in one car was left on the road outside so the removal van could get on the drive - within minutes some septic old bitch was having seizure fits about the parking.

Those soulless tricky tacky 'executive' houses on these sterile estates are my worst nightmare living experience.

Quick update - went to see the country house yesterday, along with another in town (but not the new estate one, this was a large 3 storey stone built end of terrace). The one in town was OK, but it was smaller inside than it looked, and due to it being a main house and a cottage in the garden joined together, it was a weird long layout downstairs, where you had to walk through rooms to get to other rooms. It was also quite shabby in places, and there looked to be a lot of making good. No garage, but a substantial garage sized building in the garden with electrics.

The house out in the country was as expected from the photos, not a huge plot, but substantial front and rear, with views to die for in all directions. Garage is amazing, with a room over it, stairs and all we'd need, plus a generous driveway. House itself is a fairly small 4 bed, although well laid out, and with a large en-suite to the master bedroom. The loft has been made into a useable but occasional room, with stairs. Downsides are that the bedrooms are quite small, and a low roof makes them feel smaller, plus the windows upstairs are in dormers and are also very small. I am guessing that this was a planning constraint, and in keeping with the cottage style, but it doesn't help to open up the rooms.

We did make an offer yesterday, lower than the asking price, and are waiting for a response. We know that there are some viewings today, one of whom is a cash buyer, so aren't too hopeful TBH. We can't go any higher really as we will need to leave some cash to add a necessary outdoor workroom.

I know with a constraint on budget, there's always going to be a compromise somwehere, but it's proving really hard to find what we want.

Viewed some more this weekend, one was a very old cottage right in the centre of a town, but with what looked to be a reasonably large plot. We could see from the pictures that the house was in need of some attention, and was a weird layout (en-suite bathroom with a balcony anyone?) with tiny bedrooms, but it was cheaper, and maybe there was scope for development. It was a definite no on that score - everything was smaller in reality, the garden was all at the front (back of the cottage IS the boundary wall) and on a steep slope, and it was a very damp and small space.

Next up was a bit of a wild card, right at the top of the budget, another rural one, with 2 acres of land. It was a lovely property, originally a gamekeeper's cottage that has been recently extended. Bit quirky, with 3 bedrooms upstairs and one down, 3 en-suites, but no family bathroom or separate downstairs toilet, a lovely bespoke kitchen with oil fired Rayburn doing heating, water and cooking, but with an electric oven and induction hob alongside, study, breakfast room and lounge. Garden is amazing, and there's a massive workshop, complete with authentic barn find car!

It's got decent Internet with a wireless line of sight setup, and as it is used as a repeater to other properties, it's free, apparently. Mains electric and water, septic tank for waste (owner has been there 30+ years and it's never needed emptying!) and an oil tank, that he said is pretty economical. There is a neighbour, but at a distance, and farms all around, plus it is 10 minutes from the nearest town. So far so good.

Big question is about the workshop - it's an old farm building with a curved corrugated asbestos roof, and I am not sure whether that is a problem or not. From what I have read, this use of asbestos is fairly safe, as it's encased in concrete and is a stable material in general. Obviously, it's a problem if there are breakages, and it just feels like a bit of an issue. If we did move there, we'd probably want to remove the workshop anyway, and replace with something in a different place to give more parking and turning options as the house and drive are right in the corner of the plot, making juggling multiple cars a bit of a bind.

Questions for those that know:
- Would the workshop be picked up on a survey as an issue, and would it be a requirement for it to be dealt with, or more an advisory?
- How much of a problem would it be really?

We're still struggling with the decision on whether to go full rural, and are finding the compromises so difficult...
Do we have an older property with character, or a newer one with a more logical layout (and usually bigger rooms)
Do we have space inside or outside?
Do we want to live in town or out of town?
Ideally, we'd be on the edge of town, with a big plot all around us, in a big house, able to turn one way and walk into open country, or turn the other and walk to the shops. Problem is, where those houses exist, we can't afford them!