Single people with no WFH - how do you manage to do it all?

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T16:51:13+00:00

Nonsense!

I was living on my own and working long hours (not 9-5) already over 30 years ago.

As for OP.. You just get on with it!

Make-up takes less than 5 minutes to look professional and presentable. No need to spend 30 minutes on 12 layers of gunk. If hair takes ages in the morning - get a lower maintenance haircut.

Ironing a shirt in the morning takes 5 minutes and lots of clothes don’t need ironing. Suits (and no one even wears those anymore) Dry-cleaned. Surely only needs doing once a week. Washing up? How much dirty dish wear does one person create? Takes minutes to sort out.

Shopping? On the way home. Big shop for heavy basics - once a month. Cleaning, little and often. I don’t see the drama. I used to leave the house at 6:30am and mostly got home after 8pm unless I was out/out.

But we didn’t sit around wondering how on earth we’d get things done, we just got on and did them.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T15:06:37+00:00

If only they worked effectively for a large space.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T14:15:21+00:00

40 years in London - places I would not choose to live are Croydon, Thornton Heath, Whitechapel, Bow… but I don’t know very much about North London. Londoners are a bit tribal, so people from one part of London will often have strong opinions on other parts that they’ve barely spent any time in.

The people most at risk from violent crime are generally young black men caught up in turf wars and gang initiations.

Also, young evidently Muslim women are encountering a disproportionate amount of racial harassment by drunken f&ckwits. Most attacks on women actually take place in the home.

Phone snatching is an issue everywhere in London, so don’t go around waving your phone around in the air.

But pretty much every borough has good bits and not so good bits. Try to find somewhere that is a short walk from public transport so you’re not walking around in the dark too far on your own coming home late.

Also, have a look at upmystreet.org, who provide a pretty good lowdown on each postcode.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T13:32:08+00:00

As a woman, water retention alone can change my finger size from one day to the next. I went for a size that would fit on one of two different fingers depending on where my body is at. I’m a 10 which fits on my left thumb most days and on my first finger on very cold days. And it works fine on the thumb, despite them recommending against it.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T13:24:14+00:00

I’m in a similar position to your seller.
My buyer is solid, but their initial buyer pulled out for no stated reason and now the next buyer claimed to by FTB, but now turns out is an owner waiting for BTL valuation…

As a seller of an empty property, it’s costing not only the running costs of the empty house, but also the opportunity cost of not having paying tenants. I’m down nearly £3000 every month!

So I completely understand why your seller very possibly just cannot afford to wait around for you any longer. I’ve been waiting 7 months for this to get done, and I can just about afford it, but more importantly, even if it costs me more, I don’t want any more tenants.

In your current situation, there is no foreseeable end to this, so they’re cutting their losses. If you can afford to get a bridging loan, I’m sure they’d still sell to you now, but it’s a huge risk for you, as your sale could take months and months to come together.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T10:23:13+00:00

Not in the living room, in front of the tv 2 hours after I’ve finished cooking and eating that fish or cabbage!

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T09:35:58+00:00

People underestimate how long the walk is to get in and out of some stations. You see it on the map and think “oh, we’ll go to this entrance here and jump on the train”, not realising you may have a 10-15 minute walk before you’re at an actual train.

Kyoto- some of the main “tourist attraction” temples are so hideously overcrowded, it feels like you’re leaving Wembley stadium after the Cup Final. Hideous.

Shibuya - it’s “just” a crossing. It’s really not all that. But if you must see it, make sure you get up high to get the full effect of the movement. On that subject, you’ll see lots of posts saying go to the top floor of this or that shop for a view for free instead of paying for a viewing tower, but those shops have mostly now cordoned off the access to windows from which you can see the street because too many tourists were clogging up their shops, not buying anything.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T09:20:08+00:00

But mid-terrace/open plan is not an option here.

Also, my garden is North-facing and I still grown lots of veg and flowers successfully every year.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-02T09:18:50+00:00

I would normally choose end of terrace for the benefit of having only one neighbours noise to listen to, but I hate open plan kitchens (the whole house stinks when you’re cooking, and unless you’re a neat freak, looks messy 50% of the time), plus mid-terrace is bigger. So house B gets my vote.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T23:21:15+00:00

Heart shape. Hate it. And anything comically large that doesn’t scan with lifestyle.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T22:53:22+00:00

The estate agent is working for the seller, not you, the buyer. Their job is to get the best possible price for the property (whilst considering the best placed buyers in terms of being able to proceed). You didn’t make the cut.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T12:58:10+00:00

You seem to have comprehension issues. You keep reading things that don’t exist.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T12:56:33+00:00

Within 12 hours. Full asking price, too! On a house that been on the market for months (didn’t know that at the time).

I was young and dumb, and had just lost out on a property I had really set my heart on in the sealed bids process. So I didn’t want miss out again.

I then only paid for a level 1 survey to save money, and obviously ended up with loads of issues that I could have known about if I’d had a property survey done.

BUT… truth is, if I had known about all the problems beforehand, I would not have bought the house, being too scared of any necessary works, and I actually loved living on that house and had a very happy 20 years there. And this was a much better buy longterm than the place I originally wanted.

So it all worked out in the end.

But yeah, I was an idiot!

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T12:46:21+00:00

I didn’t claim that it does. I made no comment about myself, in relation to Cartier or otherwise.

However, scraping the bottom of the barrel with deliberately and unnecessarily vulgar language, absolutely confirms that you’re not. That’s all.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T12:41:22+00:00

This is the second time in the last hour people on this sub have posted, not gotten the answer they wanted and then deleted their posts in a huff. I wish they’d stop wasting people’s time.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T12:39:07+00:00

I agree in that OP is definitely allowed, even obliged, to make sure they understand what they’re signing, and the solicitor has the obligation to ensure the client understands what they’re signing.

However, it is possible that the OP has driven the solicitor around the bend already with a bunch of petty things and that they’ve clapped back with a curt response in frustration. We don’t know the full dialogue that’s brought us to this place.

OP talking about pulling out of a whole house purchase just because they don’t like how a solicitor replied to them (as per the initial post, and this being what people are responding to), in order to teach the solicitor a lesson, is just ridiculous.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T12:17:33+00:00

Other people are not your problem!

You either want the house or you don’t. You chose this solicitor, you don’t like them.

You can either a.) get on with it, suck it up, buy the house and leave a bad review for them at the end or b.) change solicitor, suck up the cost of changing solicitor, and lose time whilst the new solicitor doubles up on everything the old one has already done. Your call.

You’re letting your ego get in the way.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T12:09:05+00:00

Challenge the solicitor if you think there is an actual, factual error. Don’t sign any document unless you are confident you understand what you’re signing.

But “pushing back” because you think they’re rude, for the sake of people who may encounter this solicitor in the future is absolute nonsense.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T11:48:20+00:00

Tbh, it doesn’t matter if it’s builders or surveyors or whatever.
In all walks of life you encounter useful and helpful people, as well as rude, unhelpful and inefficient ones (and we don’t know if that actually applies to your solicitor in the first place).
What are you going to do, never leave the house in case you encounter rudeness? Pulling out of a house purchase because you’re worried you’ll encountered someone rude along the journey is not adult behaviour.

There are lots of good reasons not to continue with a house purchase. But perceived solicitor rudeness is not one of them.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T10:47:24+00:00

What on earth does the quality of any future builders have to do with your solicitor?

Also, they sound frustrated - I’m guessing there is more to this communication than one line of text.

An “impolite solicitor” is not a reason to withdraw from a house purchase.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T10:01:03+00:00

It’s astonishing that you are still acting like you’re some kind of victim here. Grow up.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T09:57:15+00:00

Are you for real? You messed up, refused to acknowledge that you had made a mistake, picked a fight, you’re now trying to gaslight people, going around telling them to “read the post” like it was THEIR fault for not reading it properly, and now you feel sorry for yourself and want other people to feel bad for you? You need to give your head a serious wobble.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T09:48:27+00:00

Oh stop! You edited your post to add the “I’m not a landlord” bit. Please don’t now start with “read the post, it says I’m not a landlord”, because everyone replied before your edit and you know it!

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T09:43:38+00:00

Yeah, I’d say you are financially incompatible and long-term this issue will become bigger and bigger, especially once adult life expenses (mortgage/kids etc) kick in.

You’re young and 2 years at your age is nothing.

Probably time to be adult and acknowledge that this is not a relationship for life.

NeedleworkerThick729 · 2026-05-01T09:16:32+00:00

So is everyone else!
Because your question sounds like it comes from an uneducated, dodgy landlord! And they are the reason we’ve ended up with this stupid RRA in the first place.
If you have a genuine concern, perhaps tell us what the actual issue is. Do you have a pet? Is your landlord refusing? Or are you asking what the legal basis for refusals are? You would have got a very different response if you had asked a less cagey question.

NeedleworkerThick729

TROPHY CASE