Upkeep of homes and gardens Re: TOT: the time of year

[alexander.keys1]

>

> >It was just so depressing. It was as if all the problems and agonies > >that we would face in later life had come at once and were facing us at > >that moment. In those days there wasn't much to take your mind off > >things. The house was warm, but only near the fire. Telly was pretty > >dismal, as was the radio. We should have been carefree little children, > >but the atmosphere of the council estate, the school, and home, was so > >oppressive. > > A council estate? =A0Luxury. =A0Indoor bathrooms with toilets and hot > running water. =A0No traipsing up an icy yard to the outdoor privy in > the middle of the night with only a feeble torch to light the way? >

Exactly, don't know what he had to winge about, I live in a 1950's council house, now belonging to a private landlord after being owner- occupied in the Thatcher sell-offs, it's soundly built and well designed, and still in very good condition. It's got a big back garden too, at least 20m by 5m (I've measured it with a view to putting up HF ham radio dipole aerials, just need to find some wire that will also work as a washing line). I'm also half way through digging over part of the garden for a vegetable patch.

These houses do take a bit of work to look after, and you really need to be a car owner with a wage coming in to live in a suburban estate, as things get dysfunctional otherwise. The problem with council housing was that they were given to people who didn't deserve them, what started as affordable homes for the workers became free homes for criminals.

[Ron Lowe]

We have a big garden too, and autumn is the worst.

We have many trees in the garden, including some huge beeches which must be hundreds of years old, horse chestnust, and lots of others.

The quantity of leaves to be cleared is *vast*. I've had to clear a thick carpet of leaves from the grass every w/end for the last 3 w/ends. I reckon another 2 w/ends to go. And then clear the guttering.

The bloody gardener is meant to do this, but he always mysteriously dissapears at this time of year. A bloody good thrashing needs to be administered, to keep the other staff in line.

[Rob]

Yes, I think Bill's experience was more the exception than the rule.

Indeed - 80s cuts have left a legacy of avoidable capital works.

and you really need

While I don't agree that council housing was 'given' to the 'undeserving' your view is far from uncommon IME, and successive governments have fuelled the stereotype.

Not saying that your view is unsubstantiated - I'm sure you have substantial verifiable data and your moral code is pretty sound! It's just that I haven't seen the evidence - could you share at all?

Rob

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Same here - but I've got no trees in my garden, save an apple tree. All the leaves come from neighbours' gardens. They're a generous lot round here.

[Geoff Berrow]

I think it was more of a direct result of the right to buy. In the nicer estates, people bought their houses. No one would buy in the worse estates and most probably couldn't afford to anyway. So you had this polarisation of occupancy. The good estates got better and the bad ones got worse.

I was unfortunate enough to lose my business and ended up in a 'problem' estate. Except I was lucky in that the bit I was in was quite decent. Everyone thought I was stupid when I decided to buy it.

The council, in its infinite stupidity, decided that the only way to fix the problems of the estate was to knock most of it down and bought the house back off me. Even though it was only a couple of years, I made over £60k on the deal.

Elsewhere in North Staffs loads of perfectly good terraced houses are now boarded up ghost towns. Except that the money for regeneration is not there now.

You couldn't make it up.

[Yeti]

Not quite.

In my experience, occupants in a decent area bought their council house, and then later sold it to a private landlord. They'd then rent it out to a DSS-funded problem family, or with larger houses (like the 4 bedroom next door to my parent's) turn it into bedsits.

THIS would then bring down the area - as has happened in mine.

And to think the local busybodies thought my 6 ele HF yagi would devalue their houses!

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

where would the new FLs come from then ? .......