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Photo source: Ficklr http://bit.ly/2wtCBwL

Original reclaimed timber flooring has a truly authentic appearance, which celebrates the marks, dents and scuffs of its age and radiates the richness of its historic past to add a layer of depth and warmth to the home. It also works exceptionally well with under-floor heating or in kitchens with range cookers, as the age of the wood means that it is stable and has already been acclimatized for centuries.

Reclaimed timber can also be a good choice if you need to match existing floorboards to extend flooring into other rooms, or replace damaged original boards. Go for the thickest boards you can accommodate and then maintain them with a light sanding every 15 years or so, to bring the floor back to how it was when you installed it.

Unique history

Reclaimed flooring is often rescued from historic houses that are beyond repair, industrial buildings, factories or dockyards. The majority of available boards are Victorian, made from timber originally used as floorboards, joists, beams or close boarded roofs, but the wood can be more than 400 years old, sourced from anywhere in the world. The planks must be dried in racks to ensure they will not shrink, split or expand when fitted. They should be moisture tested before being installed, but with already so many years’ drying out, the wood is usually dry enough. In order to retain the patina of the reclaimed floor, the wood is passed through a drum sander and lightly brushed, leaving the aged marks undamaged.

Care and attention

Personally, I love the look of a waxed floor but it does need more regular attention than other finishes. A fresh wax every year would be ideal. Water-based varnishes are a close second choice, and will last up to five years without doing anything other than sweeping.

Creative uses

I’ve noticed an emerging trend over the past few years of people getting more creative with reclaimed wood. Such examples are cladding walls to create an alternative focal point, or using it to custom-make a rustic-looking headboard.

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Photo source: Pixabay http://bit.ly/2x5qYhK

Recent reports upon the rent sector showed a increase of £874 in July. The raise in average rent price actually rose slowly during the last 12 months, reaching the 3.1% rise in July.

At a first look, most would say the rise is caused by an increased request on the market. Analysts say it is actually caused by the insufficient offer and the new policies introduced by the government.

Details in the article on Property Reporter:

Average rent up £874 in July

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Photo source: Hometrack http://bit.ly/2x5qYhK

Prices of houses across UK dropped in the last year. Studies that compared July 2016 to July 2017 revealed a decrease of 2.1 %. This July marked a 5.3% growth rhythm compared to the 7.4% a year ago.

However, the tendency is still of growth. Nineteen of the twelve cities in the UK marked a raise. The only one with prices going down is Aberdeen. London ‘bottomed out’ considering the 2.8% growth rate and compared to the top of the list Birmingham (8%) or second place Manchester (7.1%).

To have a full view over the development pace and the actual prices read the whole report on Hometrack.

UK Cities House Price Index – July 2017

The report is actually very revealing and gives a clear idea of how the English property market is developing. Still, take into consideration that it uses the average price of the property and actual sales – point where sellers and buyers actually agree on the value of the house. There are actual situations when the demand is not fulfilled because properties on the market are overpriced and buyers are willing to only pay the right price. Not necessarily the one asked by the seller.

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… and with bigger prices!

Photo source: Property Division http://bit.ly/2vHBgAy

You would never think it matters, but it actually can really count when it comes to the property price. Yes, we are talking about the ‘unimportant’ bathroom problem.

The bathroom might be overlooked when a seller tries to prepare the house for a viewing. However, studies show us that the bathroom can raise the general selling price.

And don’t think it’s actually all about fancy faucets or high-end furnishes. All the improvements can be done by yourself and are quite reasonable for anybody who is handy and wants to cash in some more money by taking care of the bathroom themselves.

How a Desirable Bathroom Really Sells a Home

The article on Property Division lists a couple of things to do in the bathroom that were proven to give the best first impression on the prospective buyer. Paint the restroom in a blueish shade, clean it thoroughly, and improve the lightning are the first three easy steps.

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Photo source: Elle Decor http://bit.ly/2vCSgrF

To continue the baby-themed posts lately, here are some name suggestions based on design accessories for the interior of the house.

20 WALLPAPERS THAT COULD TOTALLY DOUBLE AS BABY NAMES

Based on the article on Elle Decor, you can choose an interesting baby name ranging from Olana to Storm, Paisley, Narina or Otomi. Not only will it sound exotic when you’re going to call him or her in the park, but you’ll actually have the opportunity to show your inspiration on the walls of the baby room.

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Photo source: Pixabay http://bit.ly/2wKeTPG

Preparing to be a parent? Prepare yourself mentally, but remember to prepare your house too, because the impact is going to be major.

Preparing the home for a child is very helpful for parents because it takes them one step closer to the real thing. It takes a lot of imagination to create the perfect child-ready house, but your effort is going to be well rewarded when the baby comes.

First step is to think like a curious baby! Imagining life from the baby point of view is going to make you more aware of the dangers that it might encounter inside the house. For examples, cabinets with cleaning products should be carefully locked before the baby starts moving.

For the kitchen, we suggest you keep only the essentials for you and make some ‘room’ for the baby-food maker or for a bottle rack.

The baby room is a must, but most parent prioritize decorating it for the baby. Instead, you should be focusing on making it friendly – and by ‘friendly’ we mean efficient – for you as a parent. Organize the room properly to easily find diapers, clean ‘outfits’, baby toys etc.

You will find more inspiration on what to do first when preparing your home for a baby in the following articles:

9 Things to Do to Get Your House in Order Before Baby Comes

12 Ways to prepare your home for your new baby

For toddlers you can find some ideas on how to make their life more fun and frustration-free in this article:

7 Ways to Make Your Home Kid Friendly

After you have all these in order you can go ‘over the top’ with these fun ideas to entertain children inside your home:

Top 10 Kid-Friendly Houses

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Photo source: Property Reporter http://bit.ly/2wxWCEQ

Finding your dream house can be difficult, but for Game of Thrones fans things can get even more difficult. Choosing a land is the hard part!

Die-hard fans of GoT can choose to live in one of the lands promoted heavily in the TV series. Apparently some of the places in Game of Thrones have similarities in the real world.

 

Believe it of not, just because of the namesakes, the property prices in these GoT namesakes places have even doubled. The main examples stated by Property Reporter in the article ‘Want to live in King’s Landing? Seven GoT-themed options for buyers‘ are: King’s Langley, Silverhill Drive, Rose Road, Kingswood, Wolf’s Wood, Blackwater, King’s Road.

Obviously, fans are the ones willing to pay the extra price all for the sake of the check-ins on Facebook and, maybe, the location on the party invitations: ‘The GoT inspired Halloween party is going to take place in Wolf’s Wood, near Blackwater and corner with King’s Road’.

The play-pretend was even taken much further earlier this year when specialists calculated the cost of living in the fantasy lands of Game of Thrones. The prices are detailed in another Game of Thrones article entitled ‘How much does it cost to live in Winterfell?‘.

 

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Photo source: Pixabay http://bit.ly/2vnwOr7

Trying to find a style that fits all types of people can be very hard to do when it comes to furnishing the property about to be let. Landlords have to know very well their target tenant and make him/ her comfortable inside the house a long time before letting.

A real trap is to make the house or the apartment personal. It is not about you, it is about the future tenant. Make sure you know the type of tenant moves in the area you are letting and things will be quite easy.

Property Division made a list with top tips for landlords in the Buy-to-Let industry. It is very useful to have a guideline like this when preparing a space for somebody else to live in.

Go through it carefully and try to apply it to the property you are letting.

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Photo source: Wikimedia http://read.bi/2ipsgP4

Education is the most important criteria even when it comes to choosing an area to live in.

Latest studies state that one in four parents move to be near a school they find suitable for their children.

Usual buyers might have a lot of criteria when searching for a home, but families tend to prioritize depending on the schools in the neighborhood. Moreover, parents are actually willing to pay more for a house in their focus area. And the extra money is not to neglect: the average plus 12% the studies show to be paid extra equals about £26,800 to the average property price.

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Photo source: Business Insider http://read.bi/2ipsgP4

Traffic is an important criteria when choosing a place to live. Spending lots of time in the car or other means of transport will cause a lot of frustration for the inhabitants. 

Latest studies upon the traffic in some of the worlds metropolises show that people have to face a lot of hustle to travel from one place to another.

A top was made by the mapping company TomTom with the worst cities to live in because of the traffic. Two entries of the 13 cities that ranked in this top are from England. London and Manchester are the places with the worst traffic in the UK.

The entire top was detailed and explained in this article on Business Insider:

The 13 European cities with the worst traffic

However, some big cities municipalities invested in programs for eliminating traffic jams and hot-spots and it seems to be working out. One example is actually London that made some improvements from one year to another.

Ranking number one in what stressful traffic is Bucharest, Romania – one of the smallest cities on the list, actually.

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