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Ecoman

Full Member
Sep 18, 2013
934
2
Isle of Arran
www.HPOC.co.uk
Some of you may have noticed that I have been a bit quiet over the past few months (not that its a bad thing!) I have been devoting a huge chunk of my time to moving house. The landlord dropped it on us that, after telling us that while we were renting the house he would never sell it, he announced he had put the property on the market again! This put us in a bit of a situation as we had not yet saved up enough of a deposit to be able to buy it off him. Also we didn't want to rent another house, only to get moved on again. We needed some security and so we decided to buy our own place.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we decided to buy a house that we had our eye on since moving to the island. The house belonged to a couple of SWMBO's bosses and after a bit of toing and froing we settled on a price that we could afford. Its an old farmhouse and has a huge kitchen. Its in need of a bit of work but nothing that's scaring me...yet. Its a rolling restoration shall we say!

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Clouston98

Woodsman & Beekeeper
Aug 19, 2013
4,364
2
25
Cumbria
Nice one mate! I know that stressful feeling! Glad you got it sorted. We moved house and finally ship the last of the stuff in tomorrow, we slept in for a week doing the renovations etc and more to do in the coming week- great to finally get in though. I'll stick some pictures up in the next week or so :).
 

Ecoman

Full Member
Sep 18, 2013
934
2
Isle of Arran
www.HPOC.co.uk
Thanks Cameron, yes it's a stressful time alright and it didn't help by BT playing silly buggers with our telephone and internet line.

12 weeks to place and order and have a phone line swapped over at the same exchange. We are Half a mile closer to the exchange and all the wiring to the house was there but BT couldn't even get the order through to Openreach!!!!!!! 6 weeks after we moved we still had no phone in the new place. I was on the phone to them daily which was costing a fortune on my mobile. In the end I told them to "go do one" and I put and order in with Zen internet. 1 week later and I had both phone and internet!!!

Good luck with your new house too:cool:
 

Clouston98

Woodsman & Beekeeper
Aug 19, 2013
4,364
2
25
Cumbria
Thanks Cameron, yes it's a stressful time alright and it didn't help by BT playing silly buggers with our telephone and internet line.

12 weeks to place and order and have a phone line swapped over at the same exchange. We are Half a mile closer to the exchange and all the wiring to the house was there but BT couldn't even get the order through to Openreach!!!!!!! 6 weeks after we moved we still had no phone in the new place. I was on the phone to them daily which was costing a fortune on my mobile. In the end I told them to "go do one" and I put and order in with Zen internet. 1 week later and I had both phone and internet!!!

Good luck with your new house too:cool:

Sounds about right- only bothered when they might lose money!

Cheers :).
 

Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,438
2,859
W.Sussex
That's a cracking good find, lovely, plenty of space. The kitchen's lovely :)

I had a landlord entice me in with talk of a long let. I settled myself in and made it my home. Then he said someone was coming round to value it "for tax purposes". Next thing I got my notice, him saying it was worth a bit more than he thought. I don't like the insecurity of renting, but I don't really have a choice.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Glad your back Ecoman and since my Gaelic is pants I'll just give you the traditional home greeting of "Lang may yer lum reek!"

New house looks lovely and hope that you have many happy years there. Looks a great place for wee one to grow up in.
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,106
2,833
66
Pembrokeshire
That looks a nice place!
Before I was 22 I had lived in aprox (hard to keep track) 10 places .. the longest was 6 years, the shortest 6 months. I also lived out of a rucksack for a year and lived "on the job" as an Asst. Warden in a Youth Hostel.
I got tired of moving - you always lose something precious when you move - and since I was 22 I have lived at one address (although work has also seen me take temp accom near the job for up to a year).
35 years in our own home!
You will be amazed at how the clutter builds up ....
Good luck in your new home :)
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,569
S. Lanarkshire
Now that looks like a kitchen to be the heart of the home :) and a garden big enough to do very good things with too :D
I hope it's a very happy home for you and your family :D
atb,
M
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
Very happy for you, that looks a fine place to settle into. Good luck with it and I hope it brings you happiness :)
 

Ecoman

Full Member
Sep 18, 2013
934
2
Isle of Arran
www.HPOC.co.uk
Thanks for the kind words everyone. LOL @ Goatboy, that saying always makes me chuckle. The first time it was said to me I misheard it and thought the chap was telling me to have long term flatulence!:lmao:

We thought we had settled in Aberdeenshire for life, until Cathy got offered this job that was. We were there for 12 years and 11 of them were in our own cottage. Before that I had a hug string of different addresses. My friends used to go nuts as I would take up several pages in their address books!! When we started packing to move to Arran, we suddenly realised how much stuff you can accumulate over 11 years of living in one place! We decided to be ruthless and sell/dispose of/donate a huge amount of stuff. That was a good move as it meant we had less clutter at our rented house and it also meant we didn't have too much to move to this house either.

The kitchen was one of the selling points. To give you some idea of scale, the table in the picture can seat 8 people easily and there is still enough room to put in sideboards and even park a car between the table and kitchen units. Its cavernous!!! The kitchen units have seen better days and the lot will be ripped out and replaced when I get to that room but since the deposit has cleared us out I will just have to keep patching them up until I can save enough up for new ones.:rolleyes:

According to the locals, part of the garden used to be an amazing veg and fruit garden. So, we are going to rip out the trees in the middle of the garden which marked the boundary of the veg patch and plant fruit trees and bushes in their place. We are also planning to espalier a plum and a pear tree over the wall of next doors stables. Once we have the garden established and have a bit of cash behind us we will be getting a greenhouse and we are planning on growing a few vines and tomatoes etc. But for now it will just be potatoes, carrots, courgettes, onions, beans etc. Just to get things going. The garden should be ready for planting next spring as I have a whole list of jobs to do on the house before then.

I start my new job next week so I'm spending this week on the house and trying to get most of my urgent repairs done or started.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Thanks Red. Yes its an oil fired Rayburn Royale, although we are not using it. We are wanting to rip it out and replace it with a wood burning equivalent. The house has central heating and an open fire in the living room so we are in no rush to get that done.

EXACTLY what I would do. You may be able to do a deal with someone who reconditions them. Only Rayburn and Esse now do solid fuel cookers, you might find an older Aga if you are lucky. Well worth doing, easy to cut fire brick to size yourself.
 

Ecoman

Full Member
Sep 18, 2013
934
2
Isle of Arran
www.HPOC.co.uk
To be honest I got all excited when I was told the house had a range in the kitchen. I was really disappointed when I found out it was oil fired :(

I have been looking at getting an old Rayburn Royale with a right hand flue. You can still pick them up on eBay for not a lot of money and all the parts are readily available. Because there are so many at the moment up for grabs that would fit the space I have decided to hold off for a good one. I missed out on one a few weeks ago but that's only because the chap said that if I bought it he wanted me to collect within the week and I couldn't get there until a few weeks later.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Makes complete sense - keep your eyes open but hold on for the right model.

Looks like a lovely home - I wish you joy in it :)
 

Mike313

Nomad
Apr 6, 2014
272
30
South East
Nothing beats the sense of security of owning your own home. Congratulations. I wish you many years of happiness there. Looks lovely.
 

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