The Larder They Come

I’ll be honest here, my reasons for starting this blog were 100% mercenary. It was only later that I discovered writing about stuff not exactly kitchen renovation related was more fun.

I knew that when we’d finished the kitchen we’d have a load of English Rose Kitchen units left over and now that we’ve worked out what we’re using there’s a whole bunch of stuff that we’re going to sell on.

I’ll itemise and photograph them properly later, but at the moment if anyone’s interested in a rather nice ERK larder (about 5′6″ tall) and a wall unit in great condition, both still with the original paintwork (which means they could do with freshening up), let me know. You can’t have the larder yet cos we’re using it to store bits and pieces during the renovation, but this is a heads up!

We also have a few doors, draws, odds and sods. More later. Oh – and we can tell you where to get them repainted too.

 

So close and yet so far

Getting the home improvement loan
Stepping back a bit, I realise I’ve never told the sorry tale of how we’re managing to fund the project.

I bought the property 10 years ago during a slight dip in the market and just before the sustained house price boom of the late 90’s to the mid naughties, so we decided to re-mortgage to raise the money to renovate the flat.

Re-mortgaging
The was just before the credit crunch grew its head of steam so things were a little easier and as it turned out, by switching to a new mortgage company and to a lower interest rate, we effectively raised the entire home improvement loan while slightly reducing our repayments. It’s a tracker mortgage, just below the Bank of England base rate.

 

How I imagine the mortgage company’s lawyers to be

Bloody conveyancing lawyers!
The re-mortgage agreed, the fun began. You see lawyers for mortgage companies, estate agents, buyers and sellers of property have contrived to milk the arcane system of property ownership in this country for all it’s worth. To explain briefly, my property is a house comprising two apartments (OK, flats to us Brits). I live on the ground floor and, as is common in these situations, I share the freehold of the property with the owner of the upstairs flat, while each of us has a 99 year lease on our own floor.

It was with great regret yesterday that we said our final goodbyes to our beloved Smeg FAB28. We had one false start when the original winner of the auction unavoidably had to pull out through no fault of their own, but we were at least happy when the next highest bidder accepted it and turned out to be a lovely couple who’ve been married six weeks and moved into their new house a week ago to the day. We made them promise it was going to a good home and delivered it ourselves. It looks good there and we are tempted to go back an wave at it from time to time.

Bye Bye Smeg. It hasn’t always been easy living with you, what with your temperamental innards and your freezer door that broke, twice, but ultimately it’s been a rewarding relationship and we’re very sad to have to let you go.

When we got back home we realised that the Electrolux American Style Sherman Tank of a Fridge Freezer won’t fit through the door from the living room (where it currently resides) to the kitchen without taking its doors off first and even then we’re not quite sure. That said, our old (so sad to use that term already!) Smeg didn’t actually fit in the intended space in its new kitchen either

We knew this day would have to come, but we’re gutted nonetheless. Because we’re moving in our American fridge/freezer, we regrettably have to part with our beloved cream SMEG FAB28 retro style fridge. The irony couldn’t be clearer – we’re selling a beautiful fridge that looks like it comes from the 50s just as we’re installing a kitchen that really does come from the 50s!

Smegs look great and must be about the hardest wearing fridges around, on the outside at least. It has not so much as a single tiny scratch on it. It’s well documented that parts of Smeg interiors need replacing from time to time and ours is no different. It’s on eBay now at http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180244270294 and you can read more about it at http://www.englishrosekitchen.co.uk/index.php/for-sale/ .