If I won the lottery

[Graphic Design Pete]

3 hours ago, blutarsky said:

I'll just go on record as saying I have no idea who Hugh Mungus is. They just follow me around this site.

[blutarsky]

On 2/7/2022 at 11:49 PM, blutarsky said:

Property for sale in Pilton alert 🚨 

Would suit older couple or anyone certain  they won’t be having children. 
Is it time to downsize and get free tickets too? 

Anyone who buys having seen this post is contractually obliged to donate two of their locals tickets to me and Mrs B for the next 5 festivals*. 

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/60678419?utm_source=v1:5bWFDybfWx7C7AGpeagt7mP3PgcqjuqJ&utm_medium=api 

* not legally binding, but… please? Pretty please. 

It’s less than a mile from the Pyramid. Walkable in less than 20 mins. 
we’re actually looking to move now and I’m trying to convince Mrs B but it’s a non-starter. We’d need to extend up… footprint of the plot not big enough either. 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

2 hours ago, blutarsky said:

It’s less than a mile from the Pyramid. Walkable in less than 20 mins. 
we’re actually looking to move now and I’m trying to convince Mrs B but it’s a non-starter. We’d need to extend up… footprint of the plot not big enough either. 

That's a bastard, that is. How annoying. Depends on how much loot you've got (and on the severity of your Glastonbury addiction) but isn't there, technically at least, the potential to knock the existing down and build a 2 storey house, but also utilising the roof space for a room or rooms? Live in a caravan on site and take the pain and also earn a mental amount in the equity on the final build. 

 

[blutarsky]

22 minutes ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

That's a bastard, that is. How annoying. Depends on how much loot you've got (and on the severity of your Glastonbury addiction) but isn't there, technically at least, the potential to knock the existing down and build a 2 storey house, but also utilising the roof space for a room or rooms? Live in a caravan on site and take the pain and also earn a mental amount in the equity on the final build. 

 

We’re looking at doing exactly that tbf, just local to us rather than in pilton. The cost leaves us room in the budget to extend a bungalow upwards (c£100k cost) and make it a 2 storey, but the plot isn’t very big. 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

7 hours ago, blutarsky said:

We’re looking at doing exactly that tbf, just local to us rather than in pilton. The cost leaves us room in the budget to extend a bungalow upwards (c£100k cost) and make it a 2 storey, but the plot isn’t very big. 

Yes I can see why a small plot could be a non runner, especially if a large garden was required. I used to live near a bungalow that somebody bought for what I seem to recall being £380K. Then he got permission to knock the bungalow down and build 4 (!) 3 storey houses on the plot, which sold for about the £465K figure each. They mustn't have barely been able to swing a toy cat around in their rear garden.

The next option is to buy a 2 storey property which has land at the side, or a even a brick garage that can be knocked down and extended upwards to meet the original main house. Seen plenty of those go up. 

Anyway, my dad was a successful property developer. His main rule was to always buy a bad house in a good road, and not a good house on a bad road. Worth remembering.

All the best with your quest.

[blutarsky]

1 hour ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

Yes I can see why a small plot could be a non runner, especially if a large garden was required. I used to live near a bungalow that somebody bought for what I seem to recall being £380K. Then he got permission to knock the bungalow down and build 4 (!) 3 storey houses on the plot, which sold for about the £465K figure each. They mustn't have barely been able to swing a toy cat around in their rear garden.

The next option is to buy a 2 storey property which has land at the side, or a even a brick garage that can be knocked down and extended upwards to meet the original main house. Seen plenty of those go up. 

Anyway, my dad was a successful property developer. His main rule was to always buy a bad house in a good road, and not a good house on a bad road. Worth remembering.

All the best with your quest.

Now that is a good mantra - I’ll remember that. Bad house, good road. 
All houses are equal, but some are more equal than others. 

[gigpusher]

3 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

Yes I can see why a small plot could be a non runner, especially if a large garden was required. I used to live near a bungalow that somebody bought for what I seem to recall being £380K. Then he got permission to knock the bungalow down and build 4 (!) 3 storey houses on the plot, which sold for about the £465K figure each. They mustn't have barely been able to swing a toy cat around in their rear garden.

The next option is to buy a 2 storey property which has land at the side, or a even a brick garage that can be knocked down and extended upwards to meet the original main house. Seen plenty of those go up. 

Anyway, my dad was a successful property developer. His main rule was to always buy a bad house in a good road, and not a good house on a bad road. Worth remembering.

All the best with your quest.

Yes I've always heard people say the best area you can afford  rather than the best house but I would say a lot of the time people who say that talk about a house solely as though it's an investment when you have to live there it's important to balance it having the things you want/need as well. For most of us it's not just a house but our home. I do think it's important to look at what you can fix and what you can't. Decor can be fixed, location can't be. 

[gooner1990]

11 hours ago, blutarsky said:

We’re looking at doing exactly that tbf, just local to us rather than in pilton. The cost leaves us room in the budget to extend a bungalow upwards (c£100k cost) and make it a 2 storey, but the plot isn’t very big. 

Would you not struggle to get permission to knock something down and start again if its semi detached like this is?

 

Shutwell Ln - Google Maps 

[gooner1990]

I think if I was to relocate to Pilton purely because of the festival I would have to be involved in working for it in some capacity, moving there to just get free tickets and then have to commute back out each day for work seems madness to me, but then I appreciate that some others would do it. 🙂 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

I think that’s just a saying people have picked up from watching too much location, location, location in the noughties and it gets parroted round. It’s really not that simple, better areas can have lower ceiling in terms of growth potential, you could buy a property in ‘bad’ area and then it gets regenerated and shoots up in value. Look at all the gentrified places in London that used to be absolute dumps. At the end of the day if you buy a house for x, spend y on improving it, then it will be worth z at the end, whatever the area, but you could potentially make more in the long run by buying in an undervalued area, not an already expensive area.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Deaf Nobby Burton

[gooner1990]

3 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

I think that’s just a saying people have picked up from watching too much location, location, location in the noughties and it gets parroted round. It’s really not that simple, better areas can have lower ceiling in terms of growth potential, you could buy a property in ‘bad’ area and then it gets regenerated and shoots up in value. Look at all the gentrified places in London that used to be absolute dumps. At the end of the day if you buy a house for x, spend y on improving it, then it will be worth z at the end, whatever the area, but you could potentially make more in the long run by buying in an undervalued area, not an already expensive area.

Not sure that I agree with that, I've seen houses fairly similar to mine nearly half the price because of location either in areas which are more 'rural' or further up north.  (I live just outside Oxford) 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

3 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Not sure that I agree with that, I've seen houses fairly similar to mine nearly half the price because of location either in areas which are more 'rural' or further up north.  (I live just outside Oxford) 

That’s a different point really, of course houses are worth different amounts in different places, it’s just supply and demand. I was talking about the mantra of buying the worst house on the best street/area, it’s really not that’ simple, and the opposite can often be true in the long run.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Deaf Nobby Burton

[gooner1990]

Just now, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

That’s a different point really, of course houses are worth different amounts in different places, it’s just supply and demand. I was talking about the mantra of buying the worst house on the best street/area, it’s really not that’s simple, and the opposite can often be true in the long run.

Ok, get what you mean now.....in my town (Abingdon) there are (were) a lot of 1930s built houses with plenty of big plots that lined the main road leading into Oxford, what has happened in the last 10 or so years is that small developers have bought the plots (sometimes two or three together) knocked them down, then built either 4/5 houses, flats or small little cul-de-sacs and then sold at a vast profit. 

Its completely changed the landscape and aesthetics of the area, looks very odd to see lots of grand houses then all these various modern developments pepper potted in between. 

[gigpusher]

19 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I think if I was to relocate to Pilton purely because of the festival I would have to be involved in working for it in some capacity, moving there to just get free tickets and then have to commute back out each day for work seems madness to me, but then I appreciate that some others would do it. 🙂 

I work from home pre- and post-pandemic so wouldn't need to commute but we do have occasional travel which is our stumbling block at the moment as currently we live 6 miles from Manchester Airport and house prices in Pilton are quite high. 

[Hugh Jass]

12 hours ago, blutarsky said:

We’re looking at doing exactly that tbf, just local to us rather than in pilton. The cost leaves us room in the budget to extend a bungalow upwards (c£100k cost) and make it a 2 storey, but the plot isn’t very big. 

Looking forward to seeing you guys on the next series of Grand Designs...

"Bluto is already six months behind schedule, this is mainly because he has spent all that time posting on eFestivals rather than actually building anything..."

Edited February 11, 2022 by Hugh Jass

[blutarsky]

20 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

I think that’s just a saying people have picked up from watching too much location, location, location in the noughties and it gets parroted round. It’s really not that simple, better areas can have lower ceiling in terms of growth potential, you could buy a property in ‘bad’ area and then it gets regenerated and shoots up in value. Look at all the gentrified places in London that used to be absolute dumps. At the end of the day if you buy a house for x, spend y on improving it, then it will be worth z at the end, whatever the area, but you could potentially make more in the long run by buying in an undervalued area, not an already expensive area.

I'm not in it for profit though - we just want somewhere nice to live for the next 30-40 years. 

 

27 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I think if I was to relocate to Pilton purely because of the festival I would have to be involved in working for it in some capacity, moving there to just get free tickets and then have to commute back out each day for work seems madness to me, but then I appreciate that some others would do it. 🙂 

I'm a teacher so would be able to find work nearby with relative ease. Mrs B is a psychotherapist so she'd find work anywhere and can always work remotely. 

23 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Would you not struggle to get permission to knock something down and start again if its semi detached like this is?

 

Shutwell Ln - Google Maps 

The one I posted isn't semi-detached, it was detached. Regardless, we wouldn't be looking to demolish and rebuild as it would be too expensive. The current build cost of the sort of home we're looking for is c£200k, so this £200k bungalow would become a £400k house, and still quite small. That's not an unreasonable cost but near to the ceiling of our budget. 

The cost to extend a bungalow upwards on its existing footprint is c£100k. As some bungalows actually have pretty large footprints and large plots, this seems a good route to go down. We could probably end up with a pretty big home with a big garden in a nice area near us for c£350k.

Another option we're looking at is buying a plot. The cheapest way to do this will be to buy without planning and acquire permission ourselves, but this is risky. Around our way a plot with planning for a 4 bed costs in the region of £175k. Add the c£200k build cost and we end up with a reasonable price, built to our specification. 

Ultimately we'll probably end up buying something which is close to what we need, with the plan to extend and refurb a little over time. 

 

[blutarsky]

1 minute ago, Hugh Jass said:

Looking forward to seeing you guys on the next series of Grand Designs...

"Bluto is already six months behind schedule, this is mainly because he has spent all that time posting on eFestivals rather than actually building anything..."

No plans for anything grand - Kevin McCloud would find whatever we end up doing pretty vanilla! 

Edited February 11, 2022 by blutarsky
Mcloud / McCloud / MC Cloud

[gooner1990]

15 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

I work from home pre- and post-pandemic so wouldn't need to commute but we do have occasional travel which is our stumbling block at the moment as currently we live 6 miles from Manchester Airport and house prices in Pilton are quite high. 

Each person is different I guess.

I hated WFH during COVID and was back in the office as soon as I could.

[gigpusher]

1 minute ago, gooner1990 said:

Each person is different I guess.

I hated WFH during COVID and was back in the office as soon as I could.

Yep as soon as we all learn that I think we could all be onto a winner 😄. In an ideal world I think I'd like to have a job where I went into an office once or twice a week but I have a friend who volunteered to go in during the pandemic because working from home was doing her bulb in but then her home is basically a bedroom in a house share with people she neither loves nor hates and I have the relative luxury of a 3 bed semi with my dogs and husband. Commuting every day made my days way too long as dogs still need to be walked at the start and end of a work day and it's much better if that's not before and after an hours commute. 

 

[gooner1990]

50 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

Yep as soon as we all learn that I think we could all be onto a winner 😄. In an ideal world I think I'd like to have a job where I went into an office once or twice a week but I have a friend who volunteered to go in during the pandemic because working from home was doing her bulb in but then her home is basically a bedroom in a house share with people she neither loves nor hates and I have the relative luxury of a 3 bed semi with my dogs and husband. Commuting every day made my days way too long as dogs still need to be walked at the start and end of a work day and it's much better if that's not before and after an hours commute. 

 

Personally I just can't stand being at home all day, I live in 4 bed detached with my gf and dog and it still irritated me to the point I volunteered to go in when needed. 

My commute is only 30-40 mins each day and I get to work in Oxford city centre which is good and vibrant. 🙂

My girlfriend has no issue walking our dog before and after work whether she's been into her office or not....and if there's a rare occasion she can't do it my newly retired mother is on hand to help. 🙂 

[Ayrshire Chris]

16 hours ago, blutarsky said:

It’s less than a mile from the Pyramid. Walkable in less than 20 mins. 
we’re actually looking to move now and I’m trying to convince Mrs B but it’s a non-starter. We’d need to extend up… footprint of the plot not big enough either. 

Bimbling around the the village last week, watching the renovations on the local pub and strolling up and down the lanes paths etc  reckon we saw the property. Lovely but then anything in the village is nice!  Wouldn’t like to think it would be bought just for tickets and then left uninhabited most of the year by some lottery winner though. Houses need to be lived in, preferably by locals, especially in small rural communities .  If I copped for a big lottery win then probably would get tickets by buying those obscenely expensive all inclusive glamping packages.  Then pitch a tent on Hichin hill as usual! 

[blutarsky]

11 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Bimbling around the the village last week, watching the renovations on the local pub and strolling up and down the lanes paths etc  reckon we saw the property. Lovely but then anything in the village is nice!  Wouldn’t like to think it would be bought just for tickets and then left uninhabited most of the year by some lottery winner though. Houses need to be lived in, preferably by locals, especially in small rural communities .  If I copped for a big lottery win then probably would get tickets by buying those obscenely expensive all inclusive glamping packages.  Then pitch a tent on Hichin hill as usual! 

I'd want to live there. Not full time, but for a good chunk of the year - providing I'd won enough to not have to work. 

Edited February 11, 2022 by blutarsky

[gigpusher]

1 hour ago, gooner1990 said:

Personally I just can't stand being at home all day, I live in 4 bed detached with my gf and dog and it still irritated me to the point I volunteered to go in when needed. 

My commute is only 30-40 mins each day and I get to work in Oxford city centre which is good and vibrant. 🙂

My girlfriend has no issue walking our dog before and after work whether she's been into her office or not....and if there's a rare occasion she can't do it my newly retired mother is on hand to help. 🙂 

Yep different personality types. I prefer listening to my own music than a lot of the inane chatter. I like getting my housework done on breaks so I have less to do on weekends and can go out and enjoy myself. As I say my ideal would be 1 or 2 days in an office and the rest at home but my boss works in Barcelona and the teams I interact with for work are all over the world so if I did go into an office I wouldn't be with colleagues any way. Homeworking doesn't suit everyone but on days when I am quiet like today I'm so glad I don't have to spend my day pretending to look busy and can actually get some stuff done around the house (or spend too much time on eFestivals) When it's busy it can be a pain as you are never away from work but at least I don't have to stay in an office to get something done and I can fit it around my life. Often I will take the dogs for a walk, make dinner and then go back to work rather than having to work until 7 or 8 at night and then do the home stuff. 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

10 hours ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

I think that’s just a saying people have picked up from watching too much location, location, location in the noughties and it gets parroted round. It’s really not that simple, better areas can have lower ceiling in terms of growth potential, you could buy a property in ‘bad’ area and then it gets regenerated and shoots up in value. Look at all the gentrified places in London that used to be absolute dumps. At the end of the day if you buy a house for x, spend y on improving it, then it will be worth z at the end, whatever the area, but you could potentially make more in the long run by buying in an undervalued area, not an already expensive area.

Well, I'm not sure why you would say it's just a saying from location, location, location when I had indicated that my dad used it as his MO as a successful property developer himself. That doesn't add up. 

In addition your theory on gentrification 'can' be right but isn't guaranteed in places which aren't London, Bristol etc. Whereas the rule of thumb that I expressed would be an avenue for more around the country .It  would be proportionately be financially beneficial to a larger number people, as opposed to being financially off the scale beneficial to the few.

Well, that's the way I look at it. If you were a pension company and time didn't matter (or less so, at least), yours would be the wisest investment.However, if you want to enjoy the money made in your own lifetime, then you can't really afford to hang around for the longer term investments to come to fruition. 

As a aside, I have known wealth (not everybody gets to get Christmas presents in the six figures) and I have known considerable poverty too. I don't give a fuck for either nowadays. I'm just trying to hold on to life itself. 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

11 hours ago, gigpusher said:

Yes I've always heard people say the best area you can afford  rather than the best house but I would say a lot of the time people who say that talk about a house solely as though it's an investment when you have to live there it's important to balance it having the things you want/need as well. For most of us it's not just a house but our home. I do think it's important to look at what you can fix and what you can't. Decor can be fixed, location can't be. 

I agree with you. I have ddne p more houses than I care to think about. Some of them purely for financial gain. Not one of them was a home. Now I have my home. I wouldn't swop it for a mansion, penthouse, or any other similarly extravagantly priced property.