Category Archives: Home & Garden

The Easiest Dessert Ever!

June 10, 2015Food & Drink, Home & Garden, Lifestyles, Recreationbaby food jars, quick dessertadmin

This really is the quickest and best tasting dessert in my humble opinion! Anyone can make it and look like a great cook.

I made up this recipe a short while ago when I wanted to do some individual desserts for the adults at my son’s birthday party. It had to be something quick and easy as I had loads of other stuff to prepare and I was running short of time! What I came up with was not only simple but also really tasty, easy to make in small or large quantities but also made use of the old baby food jars I had saved for just such an occasion!

You can also make this dessert in ramekins, old creme brulee dishes (you know the glass ones that you sometimes get when you buy them) or just in any small bowls you might have. You could probably do a large one in a flan dish too but I haven’t tried that yet.

What you need:

butter (optional)
digestive biscuits
yoghurt
squirty cream

Quantities obviously depend on how many you are going to make but you need about a small knob of butter, 1 digestive biscuit and about 4 large teaspoons of yoghurt per serving, plus a squirt of cream.

How to make it – well there are 2 ways, the quick way and the really quick way!

Well the really quick way is to crumble a digestive biscuit up into the pot you are going to serve it in. The slightly less quick way is to put a small knob of butter in the microwave for 10 seconds and mix the crumbled digestive into that. if you are making a batch, melt about an ounce of butter in the microwave or on the hob and add half a packet of crushed digestives to that. Put the biscuit mixture into the bottom of the dish and press it down. If you have used butter you may want to put this in the fridge for an hour but you don’t have to as it tastes just as good if you don’t. 🙂

Next step is to choose your yogurt – basically any flavour will do but may favourite to use for this is Yeo Valley Lemon Curd Yoghurt – it makes the end result taste similar to a lemon meringue pie. But really, any flavour will do as the end result is just like a cheesecake too.

Add your yoghurt into your pot – if you are using the baby food jars then add until it’s just over half full so that you can still put the lid on for transportation if required.

Then just squirt some cream on top and it’s done! The beauty of using the baby food jars is that you can see the layers of the dessert through the sides, and of course you can transport a bulk load in a box if you have all the lids too. If you want to do this as a desert at a dinner party then use ramekins or small glass pots to look even better.

Great use of old baby food jars for a dessert — Use baby food jars with lids for easy transportation if you are taking these desserts to another venue.

How Much is the Average House in England?

June 4, 2015Home & Garden, Real Estateadmin

With average house prices increasing at a steady rate, the average price of a house was just over £195,000 this week (June 2015). But what exactly can you get for £195,000 and what is an average house? We checked out various areas to see what the price of an average house could buy…

house East Anglia – prices varied quite a bit depending on if you were looking in towns or coastal areas and also how far away from London you looked. £195,000 in East Anglia could buy you a 2 bedroom flat in Norwich City centre, a 4 bedroom townhouse in Peterborough, a 3 bedroom refurbished bungalow in Whittlesey or a 3 bedroom semi in Stowmarket. So £195,000 could actually give you a reasonable choice of properties in this area.

North East – £195,000 could buy you a 3 bedroom detached house in Nether Edge Sheffield, a 3 bedroom semi in Howden, East Yorkshire or a 2 bedroom apartment in Leeds City Centre. So prices are a little bit similar to East Anglia but you will also find quite a few spots where you can find much cheaper property.

North West – for £195,000 you could buy a 4 bedroom detached house in Fleetwood, near Blackpool, a 3 bedroom semi in Nantwich, Cheshire or a 2 bedroom apartment in Manchester City Centre.

Midlands – in the Midlands you could buy a 2 bedroom semi in Stratford-upon-Avon, a 4 bedroom townhouse in Kettering, a 3 bedroom detached in Oldbury, West Midlands or a 2 bedroom flat in Nottingham.

London – Interestingly when I started this research I thought that I would have nothing to put in the London section! However, you can buy property in London for £195,000 and the selection includes – a garage in Knightsbridge (OK not exactly a habitable property!), and a selection of 1,2 bedroom and studio flats around the outskirts of London including Greenwich, Catford, Wanstead, Wembley and Walthamstow. The majority of property avaiable at this price was in the east and south east of London so if you are looking to buy in London on a small budget those might be better areas to focus on. The map bel;ow shows the distribution of properties between £190-200k in the London area available in June 2015.

South West – the South West also covers quite a wide area so a big variety of prices but £195k can still get you some good property. You could buy a 2 bedroom terraced house in Plymouth, a 3 bedroom town house in Taunton, a 1 bedroom apartment in Newquay, or a 3 bedroom semi detached in Paignton.

South East – In the South East, once again as you would expect in a London commuter belt, there is a bit less choice for your £195k. You could buy a 1 bedroom flat in Redhill, a 3 bedroom end of terrace in Deal, Kent, a 2 bedroom park home in Hailsham, East Sussex or a 2 bedroom flat in Eastbourne.

So, looking at the research, £195k would in fact buy you a pretty average home (if we call a 3 bed semi an average home) over the majority of England. It is only really once you get to London and the South East that you won’t get anywhere near as much for your money for £195k and you will be looking for flats in London and flats or terraced houses in the South East (if you are lucky!).

Can I Use a Wallpaper Stripper to Strip Paint?

May 7, 2015DIY, Home & Gardenadmin

So if you are in the unfortunate situation where you need to strip paint from walls (and this really must be one of the most hated jobs around!) then you may be looking for some easier way to do it other than scraping it off bit by bit.

Well unfortunately there isn’t really a quick solution to scraping paint off a wall but if you are wondering if using a wallpaper stripper will get the paint off quicker then the answer is yes! you need to be careful to not damage the plaster, just as you would if you were stripping wallpaper off the wall, but the steam from the stripper does make the paint a bit softer and easier to remove.

Remember to keep your scraper sharp as you continue the process as this will also make stripping the paint a bit easier and I also found that it was a good idea to steam some of the paint and then strip it as it was easier to remove the paint using both hands rather than just one.

Renovating Property For Profit

December 6, 2014Home & Garden, Moneyadmin

Renovating for Profit

OK so I don’t profess to be a total expert, but I have done up 4 properties for profit, all of which i have made money on, so I hope to be able to give you some valuable tips if you are doing this for the first time.

There are some key things that you need to remember to start off with before embarking on this project:

Buy the property at the right price: this means knowing what the property will sell for once you have done it up and knowing how much it will cost to do up. Once you have these figures then you need to figure out how much profit you want to make and figure out what the maximum price is that you will pay for the property;
Sale Price – Cost of Renovation – Profit = Purchase Price
Know the costs involved in renovating the property. This is a bit of a tricky one if you have not done up a property before as a lot of this knowledge comes with experience. It is easy to put a budget together with big ticket items like central heating and double glazing but also easy to forget things like doors, light fittings, paint and wallpaper etc that can all add up to hundreds of pounds. It is also really difficult to know exactly what needs to be done on a property by just looking around a few times as there can be hidden problems.
Know your market. For example, if you are buying an ex-council property on a housing estate then you may want to keep the budget relatively low key and not go for top level fittings as you may not get your money back. Conversely if you buy a property in a nice or up and coming area you may want to spend that small amount extra on say nicer bathroom fittings or wall sockets.

Living in a property whilst Renovating it

This is a key fact that you need to decide on before you go ahead. There are (some) pros and a lot of cons for doing so.

Pros:

you may have all of your money invested in the property and not be able to afford to live elsewhere, thereby saving you rent or mortgage payments on another home.
you can keep a close eye on the works as they happen
you can be there for any deliveries
as the property will be your main home, you will not have to pay Capital Gains Tax on it when you sell.

Cons:

never underestimate the amount of dirt and dust involved.
you will likely have to have a lot of your belongings in storage for a while.
there will be times where you probably won’t have heating and/or hot water or possibly even a toilet!
you can’t get away from the place.
dust
dust
and more dust

Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the key areas that can sell a house for you. You don’t have to go out for a high spec kitchen as quite often, a brand new kitchen from a budget range will look really good anyway. Choose light colours and nice worktops with neutral tiles and incorporate as much storage as possible. If you have space then add in a dishwasher as this always looks impressive.

Many of the high street DIY chains have good value kitchen units and will provide a service to plan out your kitchen for free. Some stores sell the carcasses, doors and handles separately (B&Q and Homebase to name 2) and some sell the units as a complete package (e.g. Wickes). Work out which makes better financial sense for your design.

Some kitchens come with soft close doors and drawers which can add an extra touch of luxury to the kitchen.

Bathroom

The bathroom is the second key room. If a house has a brand new kitchen and bathroom then you are already half way to selling. As long as you keep it pretty neutral. Try not to put your own taste on the design.

Hunt around for bargains for bathrooms. You can get a really nice bathroom suite for less than £500. Don’t forget to also factor in taps and a heated towel rail. There are lots of bathroom stores online where you can check out their designs and prices. If you can fit one in then a separate shower is good but if not then a shower bath or else a bath with a mixer tap and riser rail will do just as well.

You can buy very cheap taps on eBay and some of them can be quite good but others you get what you pay for and they may not be great quality. Watch out for items that are for sale in the DIY stores as a half price sale tap there can be great value.

If you have a small space to work with then don’t forget that you can get smaller baths to fit in these kinds of spaces. For one bathroom I used a 1500mm bath as there was not enough room for a full length one but it worked just as well.

The Budget

OK, now this is the trickiest part, and I think the best thing that I can do is to include a list of all of the items that I ended up paying for in my budget so that you maybe don’t miss anything. Of course some properties will require different work and the costs will be different depending on the size of the property.

Stamp Duty
Light fittings
Tiles for bathroom
Bathroom Suite
Bathroom taps
Bathroom floor
Bathroom fitting
Towel Rail
Kitchen units
Kitchen tiles
Worktop
Extractor
Kitchen Fitter
Cooker/hob
Paint
Wallpaper
Flooring
Plasterboard/Plaster
Plywood
Skirting/architrave
Electrician/Wiring
Outside (painting/gutters/fascias)
Knock through walls
Double doors
Plastering/Coving
kitchen tap
kitchen sink
Loft ladder
Dishwasher
Plumbing/Central Heating
Garden
Doors + handles
Light Switches & sockets
Skips
Fireplace
Hall
Radiators
Double Glazing
Building Regs Fees

This is obviously not an exhaustive list. It also assumes that you will do the painting and decorating yourself to save on labour costs. Hopefully you will also be able to do some of the other jobs yourself too as this can significantly save on costs which at the end of the day means more profit for you.

I would say that if you want a rough estimate of what I have spent in the past I can give you the following info:

Small 2 bed terrace that needed general minor updating, most of which could be done by yourself – up to £5,000 including updates to kitchen and some extra double glazing
Large 2/3 bed terrace, full modernisation including adding central heating upstairs, moving bathroom upstairs, new kitchen and bathroom – £15,000
2 bed bungalow – in low value area but needed complete CH installation, new kitchen and bathroom, some rewiring, plus redecoration and some plastering work – £12,000
3 bedroom semi – new kitchen and bathroom, complete rewire, new ceilings and total replaster, boiler moved, walls knocked down – £20,000 including stamp duty.

It is possible to cut down on these costs, as I say, if you do more of the work yourself. You also need to remember to add in fees when calculating your profit. Also none of these projects needed a full new set of double glazing so that would add to the cost.

Summary Tips

Know your market in terms of buying/selling prices
Stick to your budget if possible (sometimes things will come up that you just have to pay for) and don’t add personal touches
Know what you are going to buy in advance and wait for special money off deals or try and get big budget items when there is a sale on or 10% off weekend.
Get an expert round to tell you what needs doing before you buy somewhere if you are not totally sure yourself.
Add in a contingency as there will always be extra costs.
Be prepared for delays.
Book tradesmen in advance as the good ones will be booked up.

Do It Yourself

If you are keen to do some of the projects yourself then there are loads of tuition videos on YouTube that you can follow. It is likely that you will need a whole bunch of tools for a house remodel but you may well have some of these already.

Be aware that one way of learning is by making mistakes! Try not to make ones that are irreparable but just accept that if you do make a mistake on something then you know that you will do it right next time. Also be aware that sometimes there is no substitute for a skilled craftsman for some jobs in the house and also you will need to be certified to carry out jobs involving plumbing and electrics.

How Do I Paint a Roller Garage Door?

December 2, 2014Home & Gardenadmin

So if like me you have an automatic roller door on your garage and you are wondering how do you paint a roller garage door, then I have a solution! It’s tricky to decide whether to paint the door with standard exterior paint or whether this will withstand the door rolling open and shut. The roller door itself seems to be made of metal so I thought a metal based paint would be what I needed. I did actually google whether there was a special garage paint available, and in fact there is, but the reviews on it were all one star and made me think twice about buying it. Continue reading How Do I Paint a Roller Garage Door? →

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