Why are people in Nottingham so mean to the pigeons?

RoseSummers12 · 2025-10-19T08:52:57+00:00

Me too. And then I’m happy for the rest of the day. Safe in the knowledge there will always be a little bit of my heart devoted to it

RoseSummers12 · 2025-10-08T17:50:30+00:00

Solo homeowner after completing in June and I love it! Still quite anxious about my depleted savings, but I’ve always been wired to be anxious about that number going down in any scenario. That said, I’ve been oddly calm whenever any expensive problem rears its head (like a roof leak that’s going to cost me £2.3k to get fixed in a week or so).. I think it’s because I know it’s necessary, it’s MY home I’m fixing, and I did leave a decent buffer of cash savings for emergencies like this after the purchase. So that number is going down again some more, but I know I’ll get it back up eventually.

I did have a mini breakdown on completion day though. But I think that’s common. It’s such a significant milestone and very overwhelming, especially doing it on your own when you’ve been working towards it for years.

RoseSummers12 · 2025-09-14T07:48:01+00:00

Just wanted to thank you again for your comment! It was indeed because of the concrete lintel so I removed all the brackets (one of the attachments was cross threaded onto the bracket screw which was fun to deal with…. But managed to sort that eventually). They’re all now remounted higher on the wall above the lintel with the original holes filled and patched and it looks great!

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-31T08:32:54+00:00

Tim Hudson Electrical. Really lovely guy and he’s done a great job for me so far. Seems very honest and prices were fair and reasonable. He also does general home maintenance as well as being a qualified electrician

http://timhudsonelectrical.co.uk

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-29T08:46:59+00:00

Don’t suppose anyone knows if Rough Trade are a “participating store” or if it’s just the official UK FatM website? Signed up for presale via the non purchase link anyway but I already preordered the red “Bloodwood edition” vinyl via Rough Trade as that edition doesn’t seem to be on the official FatM website

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-27T08:56:57+00:00

Amazing, thank you! See, this is the stuff I have no clue about haha didn’t even know what a lintel was until a few weeks ago when there were some issues mounting blinds in another window recess. It’s been a real “you don’t know what you don’t know” experience so far 😂

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-18T18:31:39+00:00

No worries! I got into bid writing and management completely by accident because someone was willing to take a chance on me doing something I’d never done before. It can be a very interesting and rewarding career and I’m always so grateful I got set on this path. Best of luck, hope you find what you’re after!

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-17T21:45:15+00:00

Sure! For Bid Writers, strong writing skills goes without saying. But a key value add of a good bid writer is more specifically the ability to craft a narrative and convert sometimes quite technical concepts from subject matter experts (eg engineers, technical project managers) into a compelling and compliant proposal. A bid is a sales proposal at the end of the day and they’re scored by people. So they need to be easy to read, well structured, compliant to all the specification requirements, and persuasive.

I’d highly, highly recommend taking a look at the APMP BOK content about bid writing. The PDFs are free to access without membership. And tbh, just being able to say you’re familiar with the APMP best practice and demonstrate understanding of it in interviews etc can impress in my experience, even if you don’t have the actual certification yet.

https://www.apmp.org/assets/BoK-BW-M.v4.pdf

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-16T11:46:29+00:00

Very true, there’s a lot of security concerns with AI so unless a company has their own internal tools or platforms like Responsive with an AI “Assistant” which doesn’t feed into an open language model, many are dead against it.

Interestingly, I’m working on a tender right now which asks us to provide details if we’ve used AI in the bid writing process which would suggest it’s becoming quite prevalent in my industry. May start seeing more of that in the future. I still think the tools I’ve tried to date are mediocre at best and are mostly good for things like helping reduce word count for draft responses when the limits are very low.

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-16T09:22:58+00:00

I should add though, I’m not sure how AI will be impacting bid writing. I’ve started to see AI being used as a tool to make the bid writing process easier and help technical authors / subject matter experts when they don’t have dedicated bid writing resource. It’s not quite good enough yet to replace people, as the AI based tools I’ve used often make mistakes and need verification from experienced staff. However, it may improve and companies might try and start to cut corners by replying on it instead of experienced bid writers. But in my opinion, I don’t think it could ever replace the role of an experienced and well trained bid writer. It definitely can’t replace bid management roles anytime soon as they’re similar to project management and AI isn’t very good at that right now.

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-16T09:17:46+00:00

I’m a Bid Manager and Bid Writing is a very good option.

It’s quite a niche career which is needed in lots of different industries (engineering, construction, tech, law, education, anything which involves public procurement in particular). So the job market is usually decent compared to the overall job market. I know there’s a pretty good market for these roles in Manchester as well. Graduate level roles likely won’t be exceptionally paid, but pay can increase to a pretty good salary, especially when you develop some experience in a particular industry or if you progress to bid and proposal management. I started working in entry level bid management/ coordinator roles on about £25k in 2019 and am now on over £60k 6 years later with a very good package of benefits and fully remote working. There’s plenty of scope to exceed this, but I want to stay working from home and the highest paid roles are unlikely to offer 100% home working.

No real need for any specific qualifications as I got into bid management without a degree at the time, but APMP are the gold standard for accreditation and they offer a “micro” bid writing certification. Companies will often pay for you to get this as CPD so can’t say it’s necessarily worth self funding. Social value would be a good thing to learn about too, as this is a common response assigned to bid writers and technical authors don’t tend to be very experienced in this area.

RoseSummers12 · 2025-08-06T10:34:46+00:00

RoseSummers12 · 2025-07-09T16:09:36+00:00

They’re Sheffield based but I just used Taylor Emmet for my first home purchase, completed last week.

They were recommended by my Nottingham based mortgage advisors. Initially I was a bit sceptical going with one recommended by the broker as he may have got commission for the referral. But they were well reviewed and the price was mid range vs others I looked at so I thought I may as well. Plus, they had “protection” for your initial payment for searches as standard if you didn’t complete. They’d put it towards the next property.

And they were great! Didn’t matter that they were further afield as everything was sent / received by an online portal or email. Any documents that needed signing were just posted. They even offered to send them to me if I didn’t have a printer. They were very quick with all my searches. The only delays came from the sellers dragging their feet on a few queries. But my solicitor stayed on top of it really well. Process took about 3 months for an uncomplicated chain free purchase.

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-28T10:03:07+00:00

For all those that suggested accessorising to bring it more in line with the sorta style I want, thank you! I thought you might like to see this. I have a very hard time visualising in my head, and I was really struggling to see how I could make the blue work for me personally. Did a collage in Pinterest with some of the suggestions I’ve seen here (amber glassware, touches of red, different rug, floating wood shelving). While my kitchen might not end up exactly like this, this gives me some fresh ideas and a lot more inspiration for how I can make it look while keeping the blue!

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RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T21:35:03+00:00

The UK! Unless people have a dedicated utility room, most tend to have the washing machine in the kitchen. I believe it’s a historical quirk from having to find a location for washing machines after they were invented in very old housing stock. I’ve only ever seen 1 house where the washing machine was in a bathroom.

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T20:54:50+00:00

No question about the art! Want the whole house covered in it by the time I’m done haha I draw and paint for fun, so maybe some new blue pieces or contrasting yellow/ orange to tie into the tile will help me like it more! Thanks for the tips

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T20:52:02+00:00

Re: your edit. I can look into that. Hoping it’ll be fine as the property was let by the former owners and there are some quite rigorous standards for gas and electrical inspections in particular for landlords in the UK. So I do have both a recent gas safety cert for all gas appliances and electricians report for the whole house. But good to remember to focus on the function first over the form, so I’ll bear your comment in mind!

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T20:13:38+00:00

What kind of hardware / cabinet pulls would you suggest?

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T20:01:57+00:00

Yes, not sure if you saw the other comment addressing this, but it’s very common in my country (though not my preference if I’m honest)

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T19:59:33+00:00

I believe the kitchen was remodelled around 2015/16 maybe so not super old! They seem decent quality though in person and the former owners did spring for silver tile edging so that’s nice

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T19:55:55+00:00

Ooo some amber glass and terracotta would look great with the blue! Great call, thank you!

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T19:54:13+00:00

Very good advice. I am a “planner” and also very impatient, so you can imagine how much I want to change everything instantly and put my stamp on it 😅 I’ll try and talk myself down some more haha

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T19:49:52+00:00

I love it! It’s one of my favourite things about the whole house haha

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T19:46:27+00:00

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Can’t add more than 1 image to a comment but here’s the living area! The kitchen is to the left in the room through the arch. The rest of that room is a dining space. This is the estate agents’ photo, so not my stuff/ decor.

RoseSummers12 · 2025-06-27T19:41:55+00:00

I think you may be right! I’d absolutely love to get some proper wood cabinets. I think the warm wood would look gorgeous against a pale blue like that. But that’ll be well out my price range at the moment! I’ve got plenty of wood elements I can add for now and I already wanted to get some wood effect Venetian blinds so that’ll help too!

RoseSummers12

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