The next challenge

[Andrew May]

No inside photographs. That is always suspicious. I wonder what has been done to it to make the EPC so bad.

[GB]

There's probably a hole where the patio door should be. Replace that, and the rating shoots up.

[Dave Liquorice]

Is exposed from NWish to South via East but the ground rises quite steeply in other directions. It's also only at about 400' and in the middle of a forest. It'll be nice, sheltered and snug. B-)

[whisky-dave]

I'd be put off by the name "Windy gates" sounds like a persnal problem.

Where's the nearest tube station ;-)

[tim.....]

Could this be my next challenge? STWNFI is keen to go view it!

grand for a wreck that's in CT Band C seems way too much. The CT banding assumes that the property is in fully repaired condition and whilst it varies by area, round my way Band C equals a selling price of 150-220K

tim

[tim.....]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It says "cash only" :-)

tim

[Jules Richardson]

It's better than my guess of "She that wants no feckin' iguanas"

[Muddymike]

He,he! I'm not sure John Betjeman would have loved that interpretation but I do :-)

I've been having some serious thinking about how to power a house with no mains supply and have the following thoughts. So as not to need a generator running all the time. The house is in a forest so fire wood should be in plentiful inexpensive supply but is labour intensive. However it could still be used for cold weather heating via a wood burning stove or two, with back boilers these could even top up the hot water supply.

Oil could be the power source for heating and by having an oil fired Aga/Stanley stove all cooking could be oil powered right down to boiling the kettle. With that much land surrounding the house ground source heat could be used to reduce the oil bills. Solar panels and a wind turbine could in theory keep a bank of batteries charged which if linked to low wattage bulbs would easily provide adequate night time lighting, and run a computer, TV, radio, etc. but what about other electric domestic appliances. Washing machine, Iron, dishwasher, vacuumed cleaner etc.? I wonder if a back up generator, running on the same oil supply as the boiler/range could be set up to self start when demand went above that supplies by the above?

Just musing over how modern life could continue with minimum effort/reasonable cost without mains power.

Mike

[John Rumm]

Yup, heat should be doable from many sources...

Ground source would require lekky to make it work though.

You would need a decent bank of inverters as well...

(wonder if you could use a scrap milk float or submarine as a source of a battery bank ;-)

Thinks like washing machine etc you may be able to keep the load down with a close supply of hot water...

An iron you can live without (or use a traditional one on the aga!)

Centralised ducted vacuum cleaner run from a petrol engine?

Yup, that with careful use a UPS on the appliances that would be upset by interruptions.

Alternatively, depending on the price, you may be able to afford to spend 50K on getting mains in, and still be onto a winner!

Might be worth querying with a supplier what it would cost to get it on grid?

[Owain]

And unmortgageable. I know repos can be rough inside but they're not usually unmortgageable provided there's a kitchen sink.

It looks in quite good condition outside, apart from the fact that an old person probably didn't do the garden for a few months. I've condisidered buying far worse.

Owain

[Bob Eager]

She Who Than No Fairer Is

[The Natural Philosopher]

Snow White and the sSeven Persons Of Restricted Growth.

[Chris J Dixon]

Maybe someone who failed to get "Half Built House" to come round and fix it for nothing?

Perhaps even that is a mixed blessing, as I just found this:

made over) that neither Sian or the builders should be allowed near any more homes as sooner or later their lack of proper building knowledge(apart from the excellent plasterers) and design skills will catch up with them. I don't know about the others but I can tell you that our programme was full of lies - our kitchen was a work in progress (1 year not 11 as a building site with all the major work already done) and neither the electrics or the stairs were dangerous. They have destroyed and seriously damaged original features in our house and run away in a tantrum and ignored us when we challenged this. DO NOT believe what you see- it is all lies and trickery for tv and even then it's not impressive. Good professional help it definitely is not

Chris

[Dave Liquorice]

Well Duh! It's a TV programme that costs money to fill in the gaps they have to have between the adverts that bring in the money. They ain't going to spend any more money than they really have to are they.

I suspect there are people out there that do start "simple" jobs on their homes without really thinking it through or having the skills/knowledge/experience to finish. Knocking holes in walls and ripping up floors is easy, putting 'em back much less so... These same people probably believe everything they read in the newspapers, on the internet, see on the telly and what a TV researcher tells em...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Mrs McDonald had a rough time of it... "My husband died 6 years ago in the bathroom" Must've been a helluva tiling job.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Thinking back over the past decade when various TV researchers have asked us for DIY disasters, I wonder if any of them had links to any of the multitude of programmes that eventually made it on air. More relevantly, did they get any leads or participation /cooperation from any victims on or via here or diybanter or diynot?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

It's all been done before and plenty of people live off-grid, still. Some through choice by buying a plot or house in the boonies, just like that. Have a look at Homepower magazine and there is still a homepower newsgroup extant, although I haven't used it for years.

Ground source heatpump, solar, wind, all charge you up and store your leccy in a massive battery bank - modern low voltage appliances really make a helluva difference to the quality of life without mains. You can even get 12 or 24V washing machines. Modern invertors make life easier, too. Avoid running a diesel genset if at all possible, but you do need one just in case and load-start ones have been around for decades. They're better now than they've ever been, but it's still an expensive way to power a house.

It's all a bit specialised but can be done relatively easily - just put aside enough money to replace your battery bank every five years or so - which might be a good several £K. If the place is really cheap, it can be a go-er.

[The Natural Philosopher]

make an idyllic setting into an eco freak nightmare.

And cost an arm and a leg. Cheaper to get leccy run in.

[Brian Gaff]

Grout poisoning, a bad thing that.. Brian

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Might have known you'd stick your poisonous oar in. Why don't you f*ck off?