Lay My Hat

In addition to what everyone else has said about ventilation - particularly for kitchens and areas near bathrooms, also consider whether you need guttering or not... We used to have a severe damp problem in one of our downstairs bedrooms which had 2 outside walls. My husband realised that it really ...

There are shower heads available now that are ecological and are designed to use less water (and need less water pressure) because the head is aerated. Therefore the water feels like it's a power shower but it isnt'. Win win... Try doing a google search for 'low water pressure eco shower head' or si...

yeah, we've had the same thing with the oven after powercuts - in the end I made a copy of the 'reset clock' directions from the instruction manual and taped them to the inside of a cupboard near the cooker so that when it happened I could tell the guests to refer to the reset instructions.. much ea...

we bought a halogen cooker once to take on holiday abroad with us to Centerparcs, where they had only microwave ovens and hob and it was Christmas so we wanted to cook a roastie dinner for 5 of us. The halogen cooker was so successful at doing several roast dinners (pork and beef plus roast potatoes...

Excellent news, yeah, go buy that lottery ticket and continue the good news streak...

oh, god, we came to dread Canadians booking! Not ALL were terrible but about 3/4 of our Canadians were a problem. Of the problem ones, it was the same type of behaviour. Things always seem to get broken; the house was really grubby on departure - sticky worktops, food crumbs all over floors and in a...

ooh, sounds lovely. I'm doing a lot of home baking now that we have moved to spain and I'm no longer doing holiday lets - or anything. I'll try those. Think I might amend it a bit more and put some stem ginger in - I'm sure I've got a jar hanging about somewhere.. I love stem ginger in anything cake...

We gave up all 3 of ours too in October. It was precipitated by our decision to move to spain and into our house which was previously HL during the summer but we could have held on to the London HLs. Decided not to for much the same reasons already outlined. I felt that we'd need a pretty hefty refu...

Our accountant didn't have a clue about FHLs to begin with - still not certain he does now TBH... I have to read up about it myself and then spoon feed him how I want to be taxed and see if he disagrees or not... I got a lot of info from Tax Cafe and Colin Bayley's tax guides. http://www.taxcafe.co....

I read this thread with interest.. my husband is exactly the same. He isn't a kitchen fitter/builder/electrician etc - he was an IT professional but previously worked in the pro sound industry so used to do a lot of cabling etc and so he is very competent as an electrician. But he is a real perfecti...

Well done TGS; it's a lovely business to be in (most of the time). When people love your property and tell you they've enjoyed their stay, you'll have a little warm glow. There may come times when you get a less warm feeling but generally if you get it right, and I'm sure you do, it's very rewarding.

oh god... I can't belieeeeve it! (best Victor meldrew voice!)

You can't please all of the people all of the time.. and sometimes you can't please any of them any time...

ah thanks all. We are bricking it a bit really - but I think that's natural. We'd be mad if we thought it was all going to fall into place without any stress. Had a great family/friends party at the weekend and I now feel I can box up our lives and knuckle down to it all. it IS pretty stressful but ...

I've been a bit quiet recently because we are upping sticks and moving to our house in spain shortly and been really busy putting our house on the market and getting things sorted. After 8 years or more of London Holiday lets, this is our last week of renting our two London properties; we are going ...

my heart sank a little when I saw the title of the thread as I knew what was coming... so sorry for the loss of your lovely little companian. Cats are such lovely little things, full of personality. Poor little Zoe sounded like she was becoming dreadfully unwell.. you did the right thing even though...