A month of bathrooms
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
I seem to have spent about a whole month thinking about bathrooms. We don’t have much space in the current project, but I’d been sent into William Wilson by my plumber to choose some wet wall for the bathroom in Ethel’s and saw this layout while I was in there, which I really liked – so I borrowed a tape measure off them and sent this picture plus measurements to our architect to see if we could do something similar. Grey and white bathroom layout, William Wilson, Thurso As it turned out we didn’t have quite enough widthways because of the stairs, but using that as inspiration he came back wit ..read more
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We have drawings!
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
The drawings for the tiny fisherman’s cottage are back from the architect and we’re impressed. He has really, really listened to us, taken into account my layout drawings, and given us lots of notes explaining his reasoning for where he’s done something differently to our thoughts. We have a site meeting with him next Wednesday to go through some decisions he needs us to make and then hopefully it’s time to send an application off to the planning department and cross our fingers very hard. I’ve been thinking about how to furnish this place and while I know I’m going to have to get new sofas an ..read more
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Annual maintenance
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
It’s time to hunker down over winter here, so I have some weeks blocked off at both houses to get some maintenance done – they’ve worked so hard for us this year. I have finally managed to get a plumber (hooray!) and he will be stripping out and replacing the whole bathroom at Ethel’s (we did it ourselves originally and it’s not great), so new shower enclosure, tray, shower, loo, sink and two walls are getting wet walled becuase it’s a lot easier to keep clean than tiles and grout. Note to self: I need to buy a nicer bathroom mirror for in there, it’s just a plain square at the moment. He’s al ..read more
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So many projects, so little time…
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
There are so many amazing places for sale around here at the moment that I’d love to dive into, but all my cash is currently tied up, so for the moment I can only drool over them from the sidelines. Here are a few that have caught my eye recently. St Anns, Cromarty This is a house with presence. It’s B-listed, Georgian, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, plus a separate two-storey west wing and a separate bakehouse, neither of which are currently in use. Plus period features coming out of your ears – 12-pane Georgian sash windows, shutters, fireplaces, take your pick… Offers over £435,000 with Galbraith ..read more
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Project 3 is moving forward
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
I can’t believe it’s now over a year since the idea of going into partnership with Pete was first brought up, but we are finally there and setting off on building our business together. We have a limited company and a business bank account and our solicitor is now getting going on transferring the fisherman’s cottage into the company while I transfer the cash across into the account. We also have an architect on board, which is a relief, because they’re all incredibly busy up here at the moment. Architect number 1 came to have a look over the summer when we took advantage of an offer he was ru ..read more
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Tor Aluinn – the costs
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
When I did the post last year on the costs of renovating Ethel’s House, I knew at some point I was going to have to be brave and do one for Tor Aluinn, and I’ve been putting it off because I absolutely knew I’d overspent on it. Well, I can’t delay it any further, so here we go. Tor Aluinn was purchased officially for £110,000, but because the problem with the garage being over the boundary was only discovered after this price had been agreed, our solicitors advised that keeping a retention of £1,000 to be paid back to me after I’d produced an invoice for creating parking space was the easiest ..read more
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What. A. Year.
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
I really thought I was going to be a better blogger in 2021, but here we are at the end of September and this is the first post I’ve made all year. So what have I been up to? Well, 2020 ended with us all going back into lockdown, Christmas and New Year bookings cancelled and, initially, no word from the Scottish government that self-catering would be supported, even though we were required by law to close, so I panicked a bit and took out a bounceback loan that would cover the mortgages and bills for a few months. As it was, government support did come through for us, and we were able to have ..read more
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Ethel’s House – the costs
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
I’ve just realised that I never did a post about what it actually cost to renovate Ethel’s House. And this one is only happening today because I’m procrastinating about doing one for Coldbackie, because I know I’m not going to like the result! So, Ethel’s wasn’t a traditional purchase in the sense that we were buying two croft tenancies that happened to have a house on one of them, rather than buying an actual house. We paid £95,000 and at the time of purchase the croft with the house on was valued at £75,000 and the bare croft at £25,000. Our first purchase on the project was in October 2015 ..read more
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Getting through Covid-19
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
It really has been a funny old year to be in the holiday letting business. What we thought would be a brief shutdown to get things under control quickly turned into a major issue. I’ve been thanking my lucky stars that (a) we’re in Scotland, where things seem to have been handled a bit more efficiently than England and (b) we’re in the Highlands where infection rates have remained very low. I was lucky in that Ethel’s was on business rates and therefore qualified for the £10,000 Covid grant (although initially the Scottish government wasn’t going to give it to self-catering accommodation, unli ..read more
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Some potential renovation projects
The House Hoarder
by Caroline
2y ago
One of my worst faults is that I have a constantly roving eye for a house in need of a bit of TLC.  Here are a few that have caught my attention recently, though they’re all either sold or probably will be before long! The Old Schoolhouse, Halkirk Lovely traditional house in Halkirk, packed with period features – just look at this staircase! Formerly inhabited by a heavy smoker, this would need stripping right back. It’s got damp issues and I’d want to get a loo/shower room in downstairs somewhere (possibly by taking a bit off the dining room), but this house has amazing bones and has ..read more
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