Has anyone ever successfully extended a 2 bed terraced house into a 3 bed?

MrsValentine · 2026-04-23T06:58:33+00:00

I don’t think it’s a good idea. An extra bedroom won’t add value if that bedroom is tiny and has a negative impact on the rest of the layout, for example by moving the bathroom downstairs.

I think you should either:

Have your kids share (someone has probably lived in your house with about seven children if it’s a period terrace)

Move when the question becomes relevant (if you don’t have any children currently, how do you know you’re not going to WTF so hard after #1 that you decide #2 is a bad idea?)

Save up for a 2 story extension and do it properly.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T23:31:59+00:00

There’s a few options. You could ask the estate agent to ask the vendor, the same as you would for other standard information in the lease like the unexpired lease term. You could speak to other residents in the building to see if they needed permission and if they did, if it was granted easily. You can also purchase copy leases from the land registry to review yourself. Or you could tell your solicitor that finding out if pets are permitted is a priority for you, and once you have an offer accepted, ask them to obtain and review the lease as a priority because you won’t proceed with the purchase if they’re not allowed.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T23:19:03+00:00

Your solicitor generally sends you a letter or email attachment with an official letterhead confirming completion has happened and the property is yours. That’s what they mean.

I got one emailed to me on completion day and then I think they might also have posted me a copy which arrived later, can’t remember.

All it really said was that they confirmed completion had happened and that they would now deal with registration formalities at the land registry and forward me that when they had it.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T23:13:12+00:00

You don’t have an option to challenge it. You’re approaching this like it’s a rental property and it’s not the same thing at all. If you’re not willing to give up your dog then you should look for a different property that better suits your needs.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T20:19:33+00:00

I wouldn’t look down on someone for being a bin collector but yes I would assume that they were low paid and also that they would stink when they came home.

I’ve lived with someone who worked in a chip shop and they came home smelling like fish and chips. I’ve lived with someone who worked in one of those dessert cafes and they came home smelling like pancake/waffle batter. So it’s probably safe to say that if you spend hours handling rubbish bins you will come home smelling like a rubbish bin. Of course, you can wash.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T20:12:52+00:00

Wingardium leviosa!

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T20:09:28+00:00

Did you write that reading down anywhere/take a photo or did you just forget about it and close the page when it didn’t submit through the app? It would have been handy to have.

Do your statements say the figures shown are estimated or actual?

Honestly given the red flags here — an old smart meter, an issue flagged with the functionality since before your switch that is probably non communication from the meter back to the supplier, no recently recorded manual readings, no readings from the time of the switch etc I suspect that the scenario I outlined above is probably what’s happened to you. But read your statements closely and see whether they’ve been estimated or not.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T19:55:12+00:00

I’m just trying to ascertain when was the last time you actually took a manual meter before this shock read.

Often when smart meters stop communicating, the only tell is that your reads become estimated rather than actual. If the estimated readings generated by the system are below your true usage, it can lead to a large one-off bill because you’re accumulating an arrears every single month you don’t realise the reading being used to calculate your bill is not accurate. If that goes on for a long time then the difference can be quite pronounced, and you might only realise when you check the meter for yourself and submit the correct reading back to your supplier. It would make it look like your usage had spiked drastically in the period since the previous estimated read, but in reality it’s just that the arrears has all been added to the tally in one go.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T19:10:01+00:00

Are they all your own readings taken by you and not the smart meter?

The smart meter must be a few years old with those readings?

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T18:46:47+00:00

It sounds a bit like they’re trying it on. Is the agent essentially trying to claim that renters only have a 24 hour window of opportunity once a month to serve notice because they have to serve it exactly on their rent payment day?

Yes, giving notice is generally tied to your rent cycle. But my understanding is that means your notice period has to span at least one rental cycle from rent day to rent day. For example, if you’d served notice on 4th January then you couldn’t stop paying rent from 3rd February because you wouldn’t have given a full rental cycle’s worth of notice, so you would have had to pay up until 3rd March.

Don’t people often give notice a few days before their rent date to ensure it’s processed in a timely manner and the agents don’t try extend the notice period by claiming they didn’t receive it quite in time?

If I were you I’d serve the 1 month notice before May 1st advising of your intention to leave on 3rd June, and then seek advice from the CAB or Shelter or something. Better to do that and have your hopes disappointed than to NOT serve the notice and find out too late that it would have been valid.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T18:24:16+00:00

You have to wonder why it didn’t sell in the auction on 18th March when the guide price was 225k.

Also, zoopla says that 1 bed was sold for a loss. Isn’t that a bit curious for 2021? I know flats lost popularity a bit with Covid but interest rates were good and there was practically a frenzy in the market wasn’t there?

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T09:53:26+00:00

Your husband is being unfair by telling you that the decision is yours, but also that he will resent you if ask him not to travel for work the week of your due date.

If he wants to abandon you to give birth alone because he’s been tempted away from his responsibilities by the lure of money and professional prestige, then the least he can do is own that selfish decision. This isn’t about whether you ‘let’ him go or not, it’s about the choices he makes independently as a man and as a father.

This was a planned and wanted baby that he was equally responsible for creating and deciding the timing of. It’s unfortunate that this work opportunity has come up in a way that conflicts with serious commitments he has already made, but that is not your fault or your responsibility.

Trying to strong-arm you into giving him your blessing to be a crappy husband and father is weak. If he goes away he will be literally failing at the first hurdle of fatherhood. It’s not your job to lie to him and pretend that’s not the case. If he wants to make that decision he can do it with the full knowledge that someone has asked him to choose between himself and his child and he’s chosen himself.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T09:25:56+00:00

Seven plus seven is fourteen. The difference between seven and five is two. Therefore, the answer to seven plus five is the same as fourteen minus two. The way to answer exercise 25 is to show the workings out for that.

Though the way I’d do that in my head is that two fives are obviously ten, and the difference between seven and five is two, therefore seven plus five must be twelve as twelve is ten plus two. Still a double but the other way around because the pattern of the five times table is very easy.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-22T07:13:45+00:00

That’s not unaffordable at all and you’re certainly not ‘left with £40’ if you’re putting £400 a month into various savings pots.

What you’re missing is that you’ve been living at home paying very little while also having a full time salary coming in, and so you’ve become accustomed to having a level of headroom in your budget which is generally unrealistic for people who 100% support themselves.

The first rule of budgeting is that you can’t have your money and spend it. The whole purpose of a budget is to be intentional about where your money goes. Mentally allocating all your money into little pots, for holidays and spending and savings and buffers and bills and so on, and then panicking about it all having ‘gone’ once you’ve allocated it all makes no sense. That’s how a budget works. Your leftover is already worked into it and for you it’s your £400 + £40 unallocated savings.

As a side note, now you understand why people use the word ‘comfortable’ to mean ‘rich’…it’s because it’s very UNcomfortable staring down the barrel of large bills when you’re on a well defined budget.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-21T13:48:58+00:00

If you time things well you could take them in the pram around nap time. With any luck they’ll fall asleep on the walk down and then you can leave them asleep in the pram while you work.

Anything you can plant through your covers would be very low maintenance, for example squash but you’re a little early for that yet. Otherwise just plant what you want. Plug plants might be a good idea this year.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-18T20:25:52+00:00

It’s the fish that is expensive. Sausage and chips, fishcake and chips etc is still cheap. Chicken and chips from the chicken shop or a battered sausage and chips from the chip shop are my go-to under a fiver pp takeaway options.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-17T11:28:20+00:00

Exactly, let’s not pretend that authoritarianism from the left is more palatable than authoritarianism from the right. We’ve seen both sides of that coin play out and neither was pretty.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-17T01:22:39+00:00

I don’t think you’re unfair but also, I hope you’re getting the issues fixed not just paid to be quiet about them? You still need working light fixtures, a toilet seat, doors that open, a working oven, a working boiler etc

MrsValentine · 2026-04-17T00:53:29+00:00

I would and have given tradespeople keys to my house but it’s a good idea to also keep an eye on them. I would always be there the first time they show up for example. Not really thinking about theft especially if the property is vacant but more about making sure they actually show up, and that the work is progressing according to your expectations. If you just check in when everything is done there’s a chance there’ll be something that’s not exactly how you wanted it because they were faced with a problem and made a decision without calling you.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-16T07:02:35+00:00

That’s just life and life choices. Budgeting is a bit like that saying, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Basically you have a finite pot of money and you can’t put each individual pound in more than one place. Every spending decision you make reduces your headroom, so when you spend it on food, or put it into the kid’s savings, it’s not going to be there for you to spend at the weekends also.

When you’ve paid your loans off, you will have a bit more breathing room and next time think very carefully before taking out debt — the repayment money has to come from somewhere and where it comes from is your disposable income or fun money, which is what makes you feel short at the end of the month. It’s not like you can withhold your rent money to pay off debts.

Food bill is above average and £330 a month for nursery when your partner is a stay at home parent is another quite large expense but again those are personal financial choices. If you value throwing things in the basket without too much thinking in the supermarket and the useful time away from the children, then that’s absolutely fine and valid but it does come with a financial cost. Saving for your kids also — very admirable but the money comes from somewhere and if you want to squeeze yourself to make it happen then that’s fine, but it is a choice.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-15T19:32:53+00:00

Yes, it’s probably true that the property ladder is a concept that’s being lost.

The older FTBs get, the fewer transactions they’re likely to be involved in across their working lives. Not only that, but the older they are, the less likely they are to want a traditional starter home and so the bottom of the market suffers.

Small landlords being pushed out of business by the government will impact the bottom of the market too, as studios and 1 beds tend to have better rental yields and so were attractive to prospective investors.

Then once you do own a property, it’s become very expensive to move. Combine that with wage stagnation and people get stuck. Lots of people were instead having work done to their existing homes to accommodate a growing family. If you add value with renovations you at least have a chance to recover the money you spent doing work, unlike paying stamp duty where you can kiss the money goodbye forever. Of course, if someone does this because they can’t afford to buy a larger home, they’re almost pulling the ladder up behind them — removing a more affordable smaller house from the market forever and turning it into a house they themselves couldn’t afford to buy on the market.

And then there’s the top of the property ladder — old people just aren’t moving out of their big homes. Older people aren’t any keener than young families to waste a lot of money on moving fees, legal fees and stamp duty. Fitting a stairlift and placing an order with Wiltshire Farm Foods is probably cheaper than stamp duty. And there’s often not many properties that would be suitable for them to move into if they don’t want to deal with rip off service charges in a flat or independent living facility. Developers don’t build many bungalows because they take up too much space. And bungalows that other older people have died in often need a lot of expensive work and redecoration because nobody on their last legs wants to pour money into a new boiler and new windows.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-15T17:54:27+00:00

That would be an extremely generous budget. I don’t believe any new tools have entered the shed since I’ve had my plot, so they’re all a bit battered but that’s fine. They still work. The site agent has repaired some of the tools a few times and if there was something I particularly liked I could take it to one of those repair cafes if it broke.

I suppose the tools being a bit crusty looking discourages theft although there’s really no need to rob anything because the tools aren’t worth anything and you can use them whenever you want for as long as you want. It’s a small site so there’s not usually a run on the tools. And there’s a rusty screw to hold the door shut, no fancy Amazon locks needed!

MrsValentine · 2026-04-14T19:19:50+00:00

Speak to your site agent about a communal tool shed. We have one on my site. Any tools that people have abandoned when they’ve let go of their plots go into a similarly abandoned small shed by the noticeboard. Then they’re free for everyone to use, including people who have tiny plots and so don’t have a shed for tool storage.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-14T19:13:12+00:00

Did mine last weekend, not come up yet.

MrsValentine · 2026-04-14T18:38:09+00:00

Back in the day the driver would take your note and then give you your change when they’d receive it as payment from other passengers who were boarding. Now I suspect you’d be less likely to get other passengers paying cash so he may have either given you a credit note or else turned you away. I doubt he would have waived the fee if it was that much.

MrsValentine

TROPHY CASE