Self-Sufficiency in Style
Buying your smallholding - Part Eight
Examining the House.
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Self-Sufficiency in Style Buying your smallholding - Part Eight Examining the House. |
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Concentrating on the issues. |
Some of the things you will
need to consider when examining the house will be exactly the same as for a
town house, unconnected to self-sufficiency. Other considerations are quite different. We will emphasise the latter. |
| In hot climates,
you need high ceilings. In cold climates they are not a particular disadvantage...until you need to heat them and have to handle all the wood yourselves. Low ceilings in cold climates are preferable. Small-holdings are normally in quiet areas. If it is hot in summer, open the window. |
Natural energy efficient air conditioning - the window. |
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If you get a horse, you don't even need fuel to remove noisy teenagers to the meadow.
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When giving a brief
description, British and Irish estate agents normally concentrate on the
number of bedrooms. On the continent of Europe and down under they tend to
emphasise square metres and in the US it is square feet. The importance of total area reflects hot summers, the number of bedrooms colder climates. You can't afford to supply, heat and maintain extra bedrooms for occasional guests on a smallholding and, wherever you are, you are not going to be able to rent the place out! One good master bedroom with en-suite bathroom and a second for occasional guests, also with en-suite if possible. Any other summertime arrivals go in a caravan...cheaper, better and more fun. If they get on your nerves tow them down to the meadow. |
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Downstairs, make sure the floors near the garden entrance are tiled and
white carpets are non-existent. There should be a bathroom with a shower
downstairs near the main route outside. Try as you will, you cannot avoid dragging mud into the house. Aim to allow it no further than the kitchen. |
Table on tiles. |
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You cannot escape paperwork. It comes into a smallholding accompanied by muddy boots. |
The kitchen is always the
heart of the smallholding.
It should be warm in winter and welcoming, with enough space to seat half a dozen for a winter lunch or coffee on a summer wet day. You get a lot of visitors who pop in for a small job and come into the kitchen to complete the paperwork. |
| Conservatories are a subject
all of their own. They need to be connected to the house heating system. They need a good electric ventilation system with a timer and a floor that can take the occasional water spill. They also need some kind of insect control system and perhaps shading. |
They also need a large comfortable armchair for an afternoon nap. |
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Modern extensions will have been approved by the authorities. They will have
foundations reaching down to middle earth and be insulated beyond belief. The woodwork will be softwood that warps if you look at it. No self respecting insect will eat it. |
| Older buildings will often be
listed and protected by law. The powers that be like all repairs to be done
using mud, sticks and stones. Since the construction is so primitive, the
least handy small-holder will manage repairs with ease. Insulation will be nonexistent, but the wood will be oak or elm and completely indestructible except for death watch beetle. The rest of the year you can console yourselves with the thought that the timber has three hundred years' experience of giving bugs indigestion. |
You only need to worry in the Spring when you hear the noise of their mating rituals above the TV. |
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Horses for courses. |
Most smallholdings will be a mixture of old and new. You simply need to
apply different standards of inspection. Indeed, officialdom forces just such a situation. |
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When examining the house, go with the flow. |
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You may return to
Buying
your smallholding - Part One -
Don't complicate things! In future articles, we will tell you why you cannot avoid the "crunch" moment - and why it should come sooner rather than later. In the meantime, if you are so inclined, you can return to FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS which deals specifically with Hangman's Cottage or perhaps UNDERSTANDING ESTATE AGENTS will offer you some help for any sale or purchase |
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...commonsense - from a practical Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
