If you are planning to buy a rental home, or you're thinking about what to do with one you have just acquired, this is the place for any questions about starting out in the rentals business.
Hi everyone. I've been lurking around for ages - in fact a year to the day since we put an offer in on a house in the Peak District national park, and today having had much to-ing fro-ing and being let down by tradesmen (you don't say!) our house is ready to be floored and furnished - ready to let within about a month. It feels rather like we have clambered up a near vertical slope at times - especially as we don't live in close proximity to it. Lessons learned already I think quietly to myself.
Anyway, we're going through an agent for letting and marketing for now - we're too tied up in our home town to move up there and manage it ourselves for the next couple of years, but that is definitely on the agenda. However, when this house came up for sale my OH went all gooey because it's on the street where he was brought up and it felt as though it were meant to be...
I have had loads of questions already answered just by reading the forums - it's a fab resource so thank you all - and I have just one thing that is making me really wonder - someone advised me to screw the pictures and mirrors to the wall. She's got holiday lets and I am obviously completely inexperienced, but it seems very very how shall I say over the top? Or is it..... over to you
I certainly don't screw pictures to the wall. If it is to avoid theft then there are plenty of other things that could be stolen. If it is to stop them falling off accidentaly then I could understand that but it does seem OTT to me.
I agree - seems a bit over the top to me. We have lots of pictures and none of them are screwed to the wall.
They are in the local pub and I think that's probably a different thing as they're all local/historical pics and I think the tendency to nick those is probably quite high! And/or get knocked off the wall ...
I think it probably very much depends on how many of your guests arrive by car. All our guests fly in so have no room in suitcases for those desirable extras like bathtowels, hairdryers, pictures.
We do know that those guests who drive to their holiday accommodation are more likely to take the half used kitchen roll, foil, cling film, jar of coffee, tea bags and anything else not actually screwed down!
Hi Chilligal.
That does sound a bit extreme to me; none of mine are screwed down and none have disappeared. Although, one of my mirrors was taken down recently as mentioned on another thread. I find that guests are far more likely to take practical and useful things like all my alarm clocks, and weirdly more recently, those biodegradable food bags (they are quite expensive) and wooden coat hangers with wire ones left in their place. On the other hand guests will sometimes leave you useful consumables!
Last year one of our pictures 'fell' off the wall and smashed the glass. According to the guests it must have happened between them leaving and the caretakers arriving. It's in the corridor from sitting room to toilet so I think it was more than likely drunken staggering/sliding along the wall that caused it to fall. The cord and screws were intact. The pictures in that corridor are now screwed to the wall.
Kathy
Waterfront location in Le Faou
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
greenbarn wrote:
Life's too short to screw pictures to the wall, unless you happen to run a Premier Inn.
But it's definitely quicker to screw a picture to the wall than print off a new photo, buy a new piece of glass, buy a new frame and put the whole lot together again......
Kathy
Waterfront location in Le Faou
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
Thanks everyone - I'm not inclined towards thinking people will nick pictures off of the wall, but perhaps I won't leave the family Rembrandt there.....
Looking forward to getting involved on here and learning absolutely LOADS. Thank you for the welcome.
I think it probably very much depends on how many of your guests arrive by car. All our guests fly in so have no room in suitcases for those desirable extras like bathtowels, hairdryers, pictures.
We do know that those guests who drive to their holiday accommodation are more likely to take the half used kitchen roll, foil, cling film, jar of coffee, tea bags and anything else not actually screwed down!
Welcome ChilliGal I have guests ask me about certain pictures in my property, but not one has yet felt the need to remove the object of their affection. It depends upon the environment you are trying to create - a home away from home or a place littered with laminated signs carrying instructions about what not to do. I am sure from your post that your Peak District property is going to be lovely, and your guests will be mostly lovely, and even the unlovely ones will just be plonkers and not thieves
I'd go with Cathy-g especially if they are on stairs. People are unbelievably clumsy.
Knocked off has two meanings.
You don't need to think in terms of screws. There are some discrete fittings you can buy that will ensure your pictures don't get knocked off the wall. Picture frames are expensive to replace and also the glass. A repair can cost more than the picture did in the first place.
If you have pics with glass in a room for kids, FIX THEM WELL or take them down.
Very interesting to read this thread, I have put a number of nice printed canvas photos on our place. I found a place that prints them at very reasonble prices.
We want some nice bold pictures for the living space and my photos are not really up to it. We are about to order a couple of A1 canvas prints from a local photographer aroudn £120 each. I had considered accidental damage but not theft!
It's in the corridor from sitting room to toilet so I think it was more than likely drunken staggering/sliding along the wall that caused it to fall. The cord and screws were intact. The pictures in that corridor are now screwed to the wall. 
I have guests ask me about certain pictures in my property, but not one has yet felt the need to remove the object of their affection. It depends upon the environment you are trying to create - a home away from home or a place littered with laminated signs carrying instructions about what not to do. I am sure from your post that your Peak District property is going to be lovely, and your guests will be mostly lovely, and even the unlovely ones will just be plonkers and not thieves 