I agree MAS, I just felt completely overwhelmed by it all yesterday... We have a list of jobs which need doing and it is just getting longer and longer and longer...
Oh well, one bit at a time (and I hope the roof does not cost a fortune - fret)
But you are right, an old house with character is so much nicer! (not to mention that modern 3 bed semis - which are all we could afford - are so much smaller than my little house. Yes the modern house may have a garage and utility but at the expense of kitchen, bathroom and bedroom sizes...
One more question, for you too hotcross. We have a paved hardstanding out the front of our house, which just holds one small car if parked at an angle. We don't have a small car so we never park on it but it does mean we get the space on teh road in front of our house as the kerb is dropped. But the bare hardstanding looks ugly and teh house is very exposed. (we are on a main pedestrian route to the village and everyone can look into our house)
Now, the parking in front of the house is a mixed blessing as both us and our neighbours either side have big cars so parking space is tight. Quite often I cannot squeeze my car into the space left and my bumpers are damaged from one neighbour squeezing into or out of a space no matter what damage he does to the cars...(he is a fallen aristocrat in his early 50's with a huge sense of entitlement who cannot understand why mummy had to sell his porsche, honestly!)
There is the village carpark further up our road, however luckily the village centre is still busy enough that it is hard to get a space on Saturdays and the church is busy enough that the carpark is choccablock on Sundays. Rest of the week it is not too bad. Car park is lit and relatively safe (only twice in the past year have teenagers congregated there adn got a bit rowdy, once a car got kicked)
Now, I want to turn the hardstanding into a little front garden, grow a hedge, plant a tree. That would mean losing the right to park outside the house.
Dh wants to re-pave it (when, we ahve no money ) and put gates up. I worry the gates will be more to maintain, it will still look bare and we won't ever have a car small enough to fit on the 'drive'. Dh maintains it will be handy in the summer as we can park our bikes up instead of having to wheel them to the back garden and I think he is hoping to one day own another motorbike.
I can picture how his idea would work, and with some smart potted plants dotted around it would look quite nice. But the house would still be exposed to the pedestrians... (currently have slatted wooden blinds but want to replace them with something that lets in more light)
So, if it was your front garden, what would you do? If you were buying a house, which option would you prefer?
No cat last night, nor this morning....She was last seen on Wednesday, not looking good is it??