15 - One journey ends a new one begins

 I’ve now come to the end of my time property developing in West Yorkshire. Finally managed to save up enough money to buy our dream home in Cornwall with Jayne and Louie.

                                              

                                              

                                              

                                              

                                             

                                              

             

            

           

 

A proper little Cornish gem - mid terraced granite stone cottage in need of renovation, located  in the  village of Heamoor  just above Penzance in Mount's Bay.  

We were down here already, house hunting when it came on so it was a case of right place right time.

On at offers over £135k - we offered £140k and was a cash no surveys offer - one which they couldn't refuse 😀 

It’s been an ambition of ours for some time, to buy and move down here. We’ve been coming  for a number of years for holidays and me with work. Plan is to renovate and live in it, semi  retire - carry on doing a few days a week electrical work, and lots of surfing!

 Porthleven 

St Michael's Mount  

It's been a journey  - full of highs and lows  - underdwellings overdwellings wombelling free

Back to backs flying freeholds and leaseholds are we! 

 West Yorkshire - amazing place,  great people - some of the best you’ll ever meet. I’ll always  have a place in my heart for you.   

14 - Marsh Huddersfield

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62502588.html

Very nice 1 bed back to back in Huddersfield.  Great location in Marsh,  close to Greenhead park, the town,  shops, supermarkets, cafes + bars, commuter links, plenty of parking, south facing, oozing with potential -  there's so much to go at re-configuring, renovating , refurbishing. It will easily make a good sized 2 bed  as is, with  even further potential to go up into the loft and down into the basement should the next person choose to do so. 

It was on with Bramleys at 75k, the housing market is going crazy after brexit so did well to grab this when I did for 73 despite some predictions of a recession and a house price crash due to the pandemic.

Covid19 Update 24.03.2020

The country has gone into lockdown and nearly everything's at a stand still  - Im going ahead with the purchase regardless. All my electrical work has just about dried up, one cancellation after another came all at once - like lights out on take me out, and this will be the only thing keeping me going. 

I know this is a bad time and everything only I’m really looking forward to it. 

The house belonged to a self proclaimed electrician by the name of Stephen Moorhouse and belonged to his mum prior to that   - she bought it in 1979 and passed away 15 years ago. Since then it's been rented with very little maintenance and upkeep apart from a new fusebox, the house needed renovating throughout including a full re-wire! 

Someone lost heart stripping the wallpaper  early on

Small on space big on ideas!

Now that's just a waste of space!

Step inside the time capsule of a shower cubicle and be teleported to 1979 

18.04.2020

Got the keys on the 26th March so it's been just over 3 weeks. 

In that time its been stripped out, re-modelled, boarded, re-wired. Frank the the plasterer would have been a week in by now upstairs but due to lockdown there is no manufacturing of plaster so he can't do anything yet. so just catching up with various other things to do until then like mainly going to town on the electrics. 

If you look at the first floor plan above then see below how it is now. We've moved the bathroom to the back of the main bedroom and the existing bathroom will become a second bedroom. Had to notify building control for this work and it's all been passed as acceptable (paperwork is needed for this type of work when it comes to selling)

bed to left bath to right 

new bathroom

main bedroom

Rustic brick and lintel  - wood burner!

Chimney within a chimney

Studwork  - No it wasn't my work  it was Roy the joiner  - what a stud!

Accoustic cavity wall insulation  for the bathroom.

Need to get on top of this situation when's the skip man coming?

variant on the mexican sugar skull  

02.05.20

Update - still no plaster being manufactered at british gypsum so getting up to speed with a few other bits n bobs + electrical work's picked up again  https://electricianholmfirth.com/

Blown out, leaded and obscure glass replaced 

Now that's a fireplace and a hearth!

Waste water and sewerage C/O Frank the builder

  closely followed by Frank the plasterer / renderer  - 2 different Franks one great job!

Chris Wood plumbing and heating - throughout, boiler to go inside fitted wardrobe  - neat job!

Had roof repaired now aswell, along with a mushroom cowl fitted in roof for bathroom extractor thanks to PJ roofing

Update 25.08.20

 Here it is in all it's glory - my latest renovation and finest one to date. 

It's been tough at times, through it all we got there in the end (5 months) 

What a fantastic team of trades - 

Roy Kaye -  joinery, Chris Wood  - plumbing and central heating, Frank Shaw  - Plastering, PJ roofing, Fluetech (wood burner), Alan Hirst - decorating, Glass man Steve, Frank the builder. Wayne Carpets, New addition Jayne Lodge and last but by no means least -  Louie!  oh yes and me of course 😀

Update 19.2.21 

Sold

Went with Boultons estate agents this time, they really were exceptionally good at their job, highly professional throughout. My solicitor James Smith of Holden Smith also did a great job throughout it all.

Bought back in March last year day before the first lockdown, went on the market beginning of September - it was on at offers over 115k  and I accepted an offer for120k within a couple of weeks. First time it fell through with the buyer changing her mind after 6 weeks, using the all too familiar Covid situation as her excuse to pull out. Back on it went at 120k and  2 days later it was sold again for 120k. The sale went through this time, the buyer had also gone with the Homebuyer's survey which passed with flying colours. A good one to end on. 

13 - York

                          

Whilst waiting for the one at Hebden Bridge to go through with the solicitors an offer arose to renovate a house in York for a customer of  mine. This was a great opportunity.

The property is a victorian 2 bed mid terraced just outside the city walls - within easy walking distance of the centre and plenty of on street parking.

  The customer hadn't realised when she bought it, the house had  rising  damp throughout the ground floor, there were a few contributing factors to this - blocked drains, and rainwater going to ground, there  was no ventilation anywhere,  a high water table. I didn’t know before but most of York is the same in fact in the short time we were there I saw 3 other houses being damp proofed within 50 yards of us and there hadn't been any recent flooding. Just about every single house is diverting and keeping out water best way they can,

 I drafted in my team of tradesmen including  damp proofing expert Keith Taylor to sort it out and he did an amazing job with a channel, membrane and rendermix with waterproofer,  to the entire ground floor. I also installed some additional ventilation with continuous running fans, and removed row of concrete flags round perimeter wall  and replaced with chippings for a soak away. We had a camera down the drains  then had them unblocked and repaired where broken. A few weeks later and the house feels so much drier already.

 Then there was Chris Wood who did the plumbing / central heating, and Roy Kaye for all the joinery and Kitchen fitting. 

Update 27.05.2019

8 Weeks later finished  - we absolutely blitzed it  - long days, crammed it all in, and with the builder's merchants etc all close by for materials we could really crack on  - the end result was a great job!

The owner rents it out as an air b&b with a current rental income of £1200 per month