Messymascot's faith in humanity and ginger safe haven

[Gwladysover]

Well here's a turn up. Just had a call from the neighbour saying one of his one bed flats in Penryn is coming available and was I still interested. I hadn't ever mentioned anything to him. but did slip it into a conversation with either his son or daughter back in early summer and knew it would make it's way back to him. .

Anyway I'm going to go and see it with him later. I know where the property is. It's smack bang in the middle of town with bars, restaurants and takeaways within crawling distance. No parking but that isn't an issue for me. There are 3 supermarkets all within walking distance, including a Lidl, which is quite topical in this thread right now.lol

He mentioned rent of £700, which is just over half of what I'm now paying , but I also reckon when I take into account reduced council tax and utility bills, I'll probably be saving not much under £1000pm. There are also a couple of single blokes around my age or a little older living in the complex too.

There are a lot of upsides to moving, not least financially, but some downsides too. I'll have to lose probably 75% of the furniture/belongings I have, and there's the logistical, not to mention emotional hurdles to overcome with that. I also have a lot of Cal's clothing I haven't dealt with yet, mainly the good cruise gear. But biggest of all is that there is no garden and I do enjoy my garden in the summer, as you all know. Having said that, a grand a month is a lot to pay for a garden (and BBQ) and you don't have to go very far to find wide open spaces down here. It's also just a mile into Falmouth too, which I can walk or there are regular buses. There are also buses and trains into Truro.

The neighbour said there's no pressure on me to move, but given that he has 7 people coming to see the flat tomorrow I suspect that he would want me to make a quick decision one way or the other. I also think he is anticipating house prices to fall going forward and that he would sell the place I'm in if i decided to move. So whilst he said there's no pressure on me, if prices start to plummet my fear is that he would sell anyway and give me the 3 months notice required. If that happened, given the rental market down here I think I'd end up having to move back up to Liverpool. He may not do it, but still it's a worry.

So, lots to think about. Good job I've been on the wagon for 2 days.lol

A lot for you to take in and a big decision for you to make. Your fear that the owner may want to sell is probably well founded given the current conditions and finding yourself with three months notice would be less than ideal. Some friends of ours rented a house on the understanding that it was theirs for as long as they wanted so made various improvements including converting the garage to a workshop. They had a phone call three months ago to say the owners had decided to sell but were relieved when the new owner said she was looking to rent it out so they could keep the tenancy albeit at an increased rent. Next thing they knew a planning application appeared in the local press to turn the house into a vets surgery. Now they are frantically trying to find a new home but the chances of even getting an affordable rented house let alone one with a workshop are slim. Really feel for them.
Best of luck with your decision.?

 

[Vegas Toffee Girl]

Hi All!

Hope everyone is having a good day! Yesterday, we got a decent amount of rain. You might get tired of hearing about it lol , but it's a big deal when we get rain since we only average 4 inches a year. Nevada is the driest state. We are still averaging temps in the 90's (30's C), so I am still wearing shorts everywhere while I wait for it to get cooler.

Here is a cool video of the rain yesterday morning. It would be nice to get slow, easy rain, but we usually get quick downpours. It arrived with a LOUD crack of thunder at 5am lol

 

[Armaghtoffee]

I am a cheddar fan and the ones they sell are great .Lots of good things and one or two terrible .Like the Spanish omelette ,overall though well worth shopping there as we don't have Aldi here.

Never been in an Aldi myself but it gets mentioned on here a lot.

 

[Armaghtoffee]

Cleared out the dreaded cupboard under the stairs and found an old backpack of mine. What I found made me laugh:

 

[Terrarian]

Cleared out the dreaded cupboard under the stairs and found an old backpack of mine. What I found made me laugh:

View attachment 185577

Wow that's impressive, must've been there a good while lol IS When Skies Are Gray Still going?

 

[Barnfred 55]

A lot for you to take in and a big decision for you to make. Your fear that the owner may want to sell is probably well founded given the current conditions and finding yourself with three months notice would be less than ideal. Some friends of ours rented a house on the understanding that it was theirs for as long as they wanted so made various improvements including converting the garage to a workshop. They had a phone call three months ago to say the owners had decided to sell but were relieved when the new owner said she was looking to rent it out so they could keep the tenancy albeit at an increased rent. Next thing they knew a planning application appeared in the local press to turn the house into a vets surgery. Now they are frantically trying to find a new home but the chances of even getting an affordable rented house let alone one with a workshop are slim. Really feel for them.
Best of luck with your decision.?

Sounds ideal mate, looks like you have a big decision to make. I personally love a little one bed flat. Easier to heat and easier to keep clean. You could've done without the pressure though as you've still got a lot of Cal's belongings and furniture which will all hold memories for you I'm sure.

Before I moved here I had accepted a flat by the coast, it would've been great for D but when I considered all other logistics it wasn't really a good idea. I don't drive and would've been miles away from everyone and everything.

That's a big whack of money to save though. I'm sure you'll make the right decision for yourself, good luck Freddo. You'll know as soon as you go in, you get feelings about places.

Is there any more risk of him selling his place than any other landlord do you think?

Big decisions ahead. Financially and logically I can see all the positives. Emotionally it is going to be so hard to make that move. How far is it from where you live now? You seem to get on really well with your neighbours - would you still have that social contact - although I guess you would if he's still your landlord.
Good luck

Ha ha. Turns out I did discuss it with him. It was the night that we polished off a bottle of cognac between us. No wonder I don't remember. lol

And this was very much a courtesy thing as he didn't think I'd be interested anyway as it is so small compared to what I'm accustomed to. Also, even if I was interested, it wouldn't be available immediately because he's committed to renting it out to one of the people lined up by the agent. But he said the likelihood was it would come up again at some stage during the next 6-18 months.

It was quite small actually, but longer term it will probably be the way forward should I stay down here. But if I'm honest I'm not quite ready to move yet. I knew this flat was available as the kids have been working on it for weeks, and I have had ample time to raise it with him. But I haven't and that tells you were my head (or maybe my heart) is on the subject.

I did take the opportunity to raise my concerns about him selling the property I'm living in and he said that definitely won't happen. The long term plan is for his brother to move back into it from South Africa, and that won't be happening any time soon. probably not even within the next 5 years. He said I'm a friend as well as a tenant and that they liked having me as a neighbour. (probably because none of the others speak to himlol) The house is mine as long as I want it, subject to his brother deciding to come back to the UK, and even then they'd find some way to accommodate me.

So the upshot is I'm staying where I am for now, and they will let me know whenever one of the flats comes up for rent and i'd get first option on it. In the meantime I can think about offloading all the excess furniture I don't need in my own time in the knowledge that my tenure here is safe.

I'm comfortable with that to be honest.

 

[Armaghtoffee]

Wow that's impressive, must've been there a good while lol IS When Skies Are Gray Still going?

WSAG is gone T. Bought a copy at my first game and subscribed when I got home (2001). That particular copy is from August/September 2008.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

WSAG is gone T. Bought a copy at my first game and subscribed when I got home (2001). That particular copy is from August/September 2008.

Has it definitely gone completely now?

 

[blue1948]

Cleared out the dreaded cupboard under the stairs and found an old backpack of mine. What I found made me laugh:

View attachment 185577

Post a page per day of the mag -----please .

 

[Armaghtoffee]

Has it definitely gone completely now?

Yes mate. There was briefly a thread on here about it maybe a year ago.

 

[Armaghtoffee]

Post a page per day of the mag -----please .

Yes no problem at all, will start later on after work.

 

[blue1948]

@Barnfred 55 first thing is see the flat as said if you don't like it then it is a no from the start.Secondly of course it will be gut wrenching to pass on Cal's clothes but may be you can find some way of giving them another cycle ,a bit like an organ donor and that could help. A grand per month will provide for a few holidays per year and as you say the loss of the garden can be overcome ,although I am not sure what the Cornish authorities think about a Scouser and a bottle of gin in the parks ( only on Friday's) You can though get single use BBQs .Good luck with the flat as it seems to have a lot of pluses .

 

[Terrarian]

Good news, just had a call and got my health check on Monday morning 11.30, about time.

 

[Barnfred 55]

@Barnfred 55 first thing is see the flat as said if you don't like it then it is a no from the start.Secondly of course it will be gut wrenching to pass on Cal's clothes but may be you can find some way of giving them another cycle ,a bit like an organ donor and that could help. A grand per month will provide for a few holidays per year and as you say the loss of the garden can be overcome ,although I am not sure what the Cornish authorities think about a Scouser and a bottle of gin in the parks ( only on Friday's) You can though get single use BBQs .Good luck with the flat as it seems to have a lot of pluses .

Posted again above Blue.

Think it will be the way forward for me ultimately and will definitely give me a lot more independence than I have now. But the timing isn't right yet. The place is small, and whilst I've no doubt I'll get used to it I'll have to get rid of tons of stuff, some of which were wedding presents and stuff like crystal that we've collected over many years. I'm just not ready for that yet.

 

[anjelikaferrett]

@Barnfred 55 that sounds like a win all round for you. Who knows how you will feel in 18 months time and good to know that you can stay in your current home for what looks like at least five more years. @Vegas Toffee Girl Loving your rain video. The sun has just come out here after about three days of drizzly rain, occasionally heavy - proper autumn weather. @Terrarian so pleased you've got your appointment. Onwards and upwards after that ((like Everton...she says hopefully!)

I must tell you about what just happened to me. Got an email from Haven Holidays saying "thank you for booking with us" The only time I have ever been to a Haven holiday park was about 15 years ago. Scam, I thought and deleted it. An hour later get the all the booking details for a lady called Angela who lives in Seaham who is going on holiday on Monday for 4 days. I have her address, postcode, booking reference, how much she paid for her holiday, where she is going, what kind of accommodation she has booked. I could answer all the security checks when I rang Haven to tell them of the error. Credit to Haven, they were utterly horrified by this turn of events, put me on hold for a bit, came back and asked me to confirm that I had absolutely no connection with the other Angela. None whatsoever I said. Went on hold again. came back, apologised profusely (I'm not slightly bothered, I'm more worried about Mrs X who is waiting for her holiday confirmation) Then the call centre operator said the words "We've no idea what has happened or how it happened , we're reporting it as an IT error" and asked me would I be kind enough to dispose of the email. So I did. Worrying though if that is an IT error. It did slightly make me smile because our IT system in work is completely rogue so I felt some solidarity with the Haven workers if they have a similar system.