The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: kelly58 on December 05, 2013, 06:13:22 am
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4:30 wake up call ! Thunder and lightening, Poppy the jack russell has decided to tell everyone by running up and down barking ::) Not had it like this before, lighting up the sky. Oh well time for another cup of tea before
surveying any damage ! Hope everyone on the west coast is safe and sound :fc:
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Its rattling the roof tiles down here on the Pennines in West Yorkshire.
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Thunder and lightening here - right over us, very noisy - hope it moves off before I get well wrapped up and check the sheep - how many layers can I get on at once?
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Its pretty horrid and scary here on my Aberdeenshire hill side. Cant imagine there wont be damage, i heard a worrying bang/thud a bit ago and im sure we must be losing slates :-( hate gales!!!!!!!
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central scotland, our house is at the top of a hill and catches the wind easily, stupid builders...
our house was shaking in the wind this morning, me and mrs b up stupid early as our roomtakes the brunt of it...
kids still asleep, expecting some loose tiles hopefully nothing else,
its still disgusting out there...
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My son is currently bobbing about on supply boat off Peterhead. Hope he's taking anti sick pills :o
Brucklay and lachlanandmarcus, he is nearer you than me so regular updates please.
Mojo
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It sounds nasty up there. Hope you all keep safe and sound :fc:
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Very sleepless night with noise from the wind. We did have some lightening, don't know about thunder couldn't hear it over the wind. To dark still to see if there is any damage. My chickens aren't getting let out yet.
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My son is currently bobbing about on supply boat off Peterhead. Hope he's taking anti sick pills :o
Brucklay and lachlanandmarcus, he is nearer you than me so regular updates please.
Mojo
Local radio not reporting any issues re offshore (one platform was evacuated before the storm tho). I think it's generally ok on boats out at sea (tho not at all fun), the ones tied up are more at risk.
We've lost a portakabin roof, can't check the house one yet. All my outdoor round bale hay has been soaked as the tarp is gone. Can't see what else yet....
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We've had rain and it's been windy (still is) but I think we've missed the worst. Just waiting for full light to go out and see what's what.
Doesn't seem so scary in daylight.
Hope everyone is OK
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Horrid here too, one of the chimney stacks is off our house, a few slates gone, and the end of the pig ark. Think that's it so far.
Keep safe, everyone.
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It sounds really horrid further north. I hope you all keep safe and don't sustain too much damage. I shall be thinking positive thoughts for you all.
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hope none of you up North had too much bad damage and that everyone and their animals are all safe. Did think of you when the wind woke me during the night.
I know its knowhere near what you have had but the old name of my place was Winthill (Windhill) and I look right out to Hay Bluff and the Brecon Beacons across Herefordshire and the Wye valley so it can get pretty windy here
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been out and checked roofs etc one ridge tile gone.... been to town not much traffic on roads everyone staying at home I guess...
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Not far from Peterhead here and OH is in Fraserburgh - hard work getting the car door open he said and I'm struggling with gates but so far everything seems fine - goats are in of course and all sheep sheltering behind their "pallet wind breaks", ducks have rooted themselves to the spot in a huddle.
Lots of rattling and banging and my stock trailer went for a wander on it's own ...........
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Tree down over a fence I fixed a few months back an easy fix, lots of loose stuff in the corner of the fields not as bad as its sounded earlier on, easing of now. Hope everyone is ok.
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Just heard from son, Peterhead and Aberdeen harbours closed. Bobbing about at cruden bay.
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Started writing this some time ago and it crashed - thought that was that for internet access, too...
Just read that all trains are cancelled in Scotland - we had a hellish trip on the bus this morning, too - now I'm seriously thinking I should have stayed home this morning! The wind is supposed to calm down this afternoon - maybe; so should I stay here until then, or try and get home while the going is good?!
Update - just read the winds will calm down everywhere except the east coast - oh bloody brilliant! I think I'd better pack up and make tracks.
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been up since 3am. one of my chicken runs is matchwood :( chickens all fine thankfully. lots of trees down, can't currently leave home as A72 is backed up through branches and accidents and the A702 was shut as well.lots of rain, ponies are fetlock deep in water (got to love Exmoors though, they just keep eating!). This is the worst storm I've seen since I've been up here, and I was here for bawbags, but we are much more exposed where we are now. snow is coming and going, not laying.
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I only woke once, couldn't see much damage and wouldn't have tackled it in the dark anyway. Had a Leylandii come down last week, but none this time fortunately.. Lost my new plastic mini tunnel though, and garden furniture all over the place. Birds all Ok, did wonder about letting the new ducks out as the burn is over the top - thought they'd enjoy it, but not sure I'd get them back in at night.
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Very large tree down in pig paddock, breaching fence into ewe lambs' paddock. All stock in paddocks ok, haven't been out to check the rest of the farm yet. We have had a call to say there's a tree breaching a fence from a garden to a field where we have some stirks, but she didn't think the stirks were nearby.
Stupid man has gone off to mart with cow in large livestock trailer :rant:
I am just going to say this to you now so that if something happens and your family are all blaming me for letting you go... "I forbid you to go"
Like I can make any difference ::)
We had flickering lights earlier but it is a little less wild and windy here now, and the skies are a little clearer. I don't yet know if it's a lull or whether it's starting to clear through now.
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Having a duvet day after going to save the tarpaulin off my housemates logs pulled the door shut and NO keys three hours in the stable later the landlady appears to let me back in, (At least I finally had time to rearrange the hay bales) Lots of damage in the Dumfries and Galloway 50 to 60 trees down on the Carsphairn road! Luckily none at my house just one very wet smallholder and some wet animals. Tomorrows job is getting a spare key cut! :roflanim: Keep safe everybody
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:wave:
My parents and family were in Scotland on a coach trip. The hotel they were staying in last night had a power failure, part of the roof blew off and rain poured in! At least it was the last night of the holiday, but was quite scary in the middle of the night.
It's just very blustery here in Lincoln. I keep heading round the place to close our front gate and check for fallen branches. Bit of rain now, but not enough to stop the hoards of people heading here for our Christmas Market for the next four days!! Lincoln becomes hellish this time of year!
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Heavy winds and rain this morning. Sliding door on poly blew open. Luckily the
giant balloon poly is ok and doors now securely bolted.
Poor new bald rescue hens not happy, soggy and cold. I've made a makeshift Perspex wall on 2 sides of their covered area as the rain was horizontal so they were still soaked undercover ( they haven't quite got the idea of going indoors in bad weather ::) )
The sun broke out for 10mins but now it's blowing a gale, halestones and rain :gloomy: The roof of the hen storage shed blew off down the road and blew one door off. Makeshift repairs made :fc: it's holding.
Still don't think its as bad as you poor guys up north or west of here
Stay safe everyone :sunshine:
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Hope everyone is safe.
It was dark until 9am, and the wind blowing terribly, so struggled round the livestock, and left the hens inside, fearing they may get blown over the neighbours wall!!
Wind has got steadily worse through the morning, and its been raining. Just off to check both farms now, as worry about roofs taking flight, and injuring the livestock. At least I was walking down the hill from farm to house, and the wind was behind me - would have been a difficult journey walking up the hill!!
How strange - internet working in this weather - most days its useless!!
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Hope you guys are all ok and not to much damage, sounds awful up there
:fc: it moves away quickly
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Still bad with us. animals inside but had thought that they may have got out by now. Wind is suppose to die down. Not happening yet. should have been going out to lunch with my son but I cancelled as did not want him driving out from Aberdeen in this. Can see bits of blue sky, if only the wind would drop.
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I have finally achieved my mission since arriving in scotland, for the first time today i got every major weather group, high winds, rain, hail, snow, and beautiful autumnal sunshine...
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West coast Wiiiindy! Got to school to find it closed (got an email informing us just as we pulled up)....after driving around fallen trees & a shed roof in the middle of the A77. At home, fence down, barn window gone!!! where we don't know!!! Slates off, branches everywhere. Oh and we had no electricity all morning, kids petrified until we found the candels :innocent:
Currently hailing (sun was shining 5 mins ago...now its gone black out)....Fire roaring, Christmas cards written, just gunna crack open the Christmas decorations with the kids :knit:
(Edited to add its snowing) very festive. Stay safe x
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No damage here at all, even our loose felt on the shed is OK...but Steve could not get to work, he got to Stirling but trains were cancelled so we went for breakfast and had a nice dog walk, there we did see trees down but the sun was out and it was quite warm although there was some snow. We have been let of lightly I think!!
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Just driving home when a broken telephone wire whipped the car windscreen :o . Once I had got out of the way and swallowed my heart back down I phoned BT to let them know, also local police as that little country road is now dangerous to travel down. I was lucky, someone else may not be. When I drove past the village cricket ground their nets had travelled from one side of the ground to the other and toppled over an adjoining fence into a corner of a field with sheep. Thankfully there was someone there anchoring it down to the said fence with rope otherwise one more gust and it would have been on the road. Sheep were all safely at the other side of the field.
On a personal front, the only damage so far is the loss of a laburnum tree. Although a shame to lose a beautiful tree it is quite a relief as I will no longer have to worry about it poisoning any paddock/pen/run escapees.
Hope everyone stays safe. :fc:
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Hope no one has been too badly affected.
Do you remember all the hype a few weeks ago when a storm was forecast along the south coast; it was pretty much going to be the end of the world according to the media.
This time because the storm was 'up north' it wasn't originally receiving that much media attention - now that the sea is starting to threaten the east coast of England; guess what? The media is starting to get more excited.
Me cynical about the media being London/south east centric? Never.
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No damage here either, although the seashore car park and the main road near Mallaig were covered in stones first thing.
Wind was a bit more northerly than usual, I think, because the big aspen in the field in front hasn't lost any branches for once. I get the impression it was much worse further south.
No electricity since 4am though, so no schools and no shops. Still, nothing memorable, unlike 8 December 2011...
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Hope no one has been too badly affected.
Do you remember all the hype a few weeks ago when a storm was forecast along the south coast; it was pretty much going to be the end of the world according to the media.
This time because the storm was 'up north' it wasn't originally receiving that much media attention - now that the sea is starting to threaten the east coast of England; guess what? The media is starting to get more excited.
Me cynical about the media being London/south east centric? Never.
agree totally. The Metoffice had predicted us getting 100mph gusts at 9am this morning yesterday morning. The News said it would be 'windy', it was almost ignored on National news and it wasn't taken seriously until they saw the damage and saw it was on its way down. in fact on the BBC this morning, someone actually said 'Scotland always has bad weather, why is this news'! well, maybe we don't wet ourselves at 50mph winds up here but last night was something else.
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feed shed - gone
cockerals shed - gone (to next doors field!)
wooden gates - gone
greenhouse - twisted pile of metal
power cuts and schools closed
crazy lightning through the night mixed with hailstones and 100mph wnds...nice! animals thankfully all fine and house in fine but major clean up job required when its calms down a bit, its still very windy up here in the north
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Got up 4.30 wind speed 100 miles an houre none stop rain .Then it snowd it is minus 3 naw all ok .Never seen it like this .They say a nother storm next week.please take care
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Feistyredhead, that sounds awful!
My (large and heavy) goosehouse was blown over, fortunately after I'd let them out. Assorted small damage. Me blown across the field and into the beck ::) No doubt it looked pretty funny at the time, but I raunched my damaged knee again and sat down too heavily for even my well-padded behind to protect me from the rocks, so I was unimpressed.
Power out for a couple of hours, but Aga and campinggas lamp did the necessary.
Small beer on the scale of things.
:fc: for all the folk down the east coast tonight.
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Gales here and had heavy rain this morning, lots of trees down on roads and the Power went off at 10am and still not back on.
I am at my sisters at the moment and the drive over was fun :-\ there is thick ice everywhere, whoever built the fell roads is having a laugh because at the bottom of every steep hill there is a very sharp bend !
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High winds heavy rain then sunshine snow more sunshine now hard frost talk about changeable
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Well, the Tyne has burst it's banks :o :o :o all the rivers around here now flooded and many roads closed. Coast at north and south shields sounds bad too. Glad I wasn't at work today ( Newcastle ) don't think I would have got home very easily :relief:
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I lost my magnolia tree but it was dead so I'm not too upset. OH has just moved it as it was blocking the entrance to the goat shed (it was in their yard, which is why it was dead). Wheelie bins went flying. I was out this morning and the wind was trying to whip my sticks from under me which made me very nervous. I wished I'd stayed in.
My family are in the south-east so I hope they're alright. I'll ring tomorrow and find out.
I feel for all of you who have suffered damage. :bouquet:
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Checked livestock at lunchtime, and found two sheds, which house the goats had blown upside down, and one of them had moved across the field. Goats were in them at the time. All ok luckily, found younsters and Darren the male, huddled up in a corner trying to eat grass. Was fun trying to put the sheds in their rightful place. A few dents in the tin roofs but thankfully not smashed. Then the snow came .....thank goodness the wind dropped late last night.
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Gardensden harbour got it bad. Right mess. We are not too bad but had to keep all the animals in yesterday. Managed to put them out this morning so they had a good run about. No power this morning, tiles and chimney cover gone.
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Skye did get quite a hammering.
I spent the day before, from around 06:30, getting everything in order, packed away, strapped down/weighted down, tied-together etc. It paid off as, in the end,
we had 4 ridge tiles lifted. one of which was broken. Luckily I have spares and the 4 are now cemented back on as of this morning ;D . The B&B sign was smashed but that's nae bother as i had planned on making a new one this winter.
Winds gusts peaked at 94 mph just 6 miles from my place. North of the island got a peak of 102mph. Aonoch mor (8 miles-ish East of Fort William) got the max at 142mph.
The oddest part was the Thunder and lightening at 05:40am. With the winds howling at their max around that time it really was like a tropical hurricane.....just not so warm!
A goodly smattering of snow has been had and, from tomorrow afternoon, the winds are coming again but only to a peak gust of mid 40mph.
good to hear all survived resonably intact. Take care one and all.
rgds
Sskye
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I was meant to be viewing a house in Orkney on Thursday morning. I flew in to Kirkwall wednesday night and stayed in a BnB. The plan was to get the ferry to Westray in the morning, get the plane back in the afternoon and fly home again to Birmingham in the evening. But my two day trip turned into a rather harrowing four day trip!
i picked the absolute worst time to go up there!! The wind was howling round the BnB Wednesday night and was still raging in the morning. The ferry was cancelled so I went to the airport where I spent all day waiting for the wind to rip the roof off the terminal!
There was no way I was going to make it out to Westray that day so they re-arranged my flights so that I could try and get out there the following day. Even then, the plane meant to leave at 8.30am didnt go until 1.00pm and i had to get the ferry back.
I have never seen anything like the wind they had up there on thursday, it was insane! But, I eventually got to see the house and the weather at its worst and we have put an offer in!
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Well done you ! Dont let the weather dictate your future happiness everywhere gets adverse weather at some time or other and its going to get worse, climate change etc. lts a beautiful place your going to be living in :fc:
wish you luck and happiness. :wave:
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so which property on Westray have you gone for?
google shows me there are some nice properties available up there, good luck!!!
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If for some reason you dont get it, our place is for sale, mainland, ready to move in animals and all !
Check out this link http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/31192774?search_identifier=4df273c67bf9fbbfae2dc321f5cc12b9 (http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/31192774?search_identifier=4df273c67bf9fbbfae2dc321f5cc12b9) :wave:
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Fantastic
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Good luck and well done Clarebelle :thumbsup:
:fc: all goes through swiftly and without hitch.
Nice actually to see the worst it can be. With some knowledge, planning and common sense we all (mostly survive intact) the Mega foul weather when it does hit.
I think it's why we see so many move to Skye, then away again. They see it during the times when all is calm and beautiful and they cannot cope when the really bad weather comes in.
Best o luck
Sskye
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Thanks everyone! Definately seen it at its worst now, and it was still beautiful! The property is this one http://www.orkneypropertycentre.co.uk/FileLibrary/Schedules/Sandihall%20Westray.pdf (http://www.orkneypropertycentre.co.uk/FileLibrary/Schedules/Sandihall%20Westray.pdf)
Its at the top of our budget so I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to buy yours instead Kelly, although it looks lovely!
Fingers crossed everything goes through ok. My main concern with moving there is getting a job, but i won't need to get one straight away anyway.
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very nice good luck
love the stone walled greenhouse!!!
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Beautiful.
very best of wishes
:thumbsup:
Sskye
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That is gorgeous. I love that greenhouse too. Hope you get it.
Kelly, yours is lovely too. Why on earth do you want to leave it?
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So were any of you affected buy the flooding in North Wales ? My grandparents were flooded. It will take 4-6 months before they will be able to move back in. Everything that was in the water has been condemned. My Nan is most upset about no one getting any Christmas gifts this year. My Grandad is most upset about his bottle of whisky ;D . They are both in there late 80s and to have to replace everything you own is very difficult. I feel bloody useless :'( . They have somewhere to stay, for however long they need. so they are safe and warm with a good friend keeping an eye on them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25220290 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25220290)
The second video down is my grandparents road.
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Bert,
Feel very sorry for them. Never been flooded but it must be terrible!
I hope that they manage to get sorted as soon as possible and that nothing of great sentimental value was lost....apart from the whisky o course ;D .
Rgds
Sskye
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WOOWOW, I love the houses, we have not sold as yet...loads of people interested and 3 people thinking about it...but the biggest shock we got is how much money we can borrow......answer, not much at all....even with a big big deposit, the main reason is my husband does agency work through an umbrella company and his tax shows a very low wage, same for me with the B&B, next year I will get a pension so we can borrow more, the reason I am saying this is £130,000 is possibly our top whack too..love both houses.......if we go mortgage free we can live anywhere as then a wage is not so important...it must be wonderful to be able to earn an income from working at home, I do to some extent but not enough and not transportable, anyway, back to the storm, looking at all sorts of houses has made me realise how safe we are here.....pretty sheltered, we went for walks at the weekend and were shocked at the amount of trees down again, I collected some branches from the dead fir trees, people were chain sawing them up as they blocked their road, now they are in my living room with baubles and lights on and I am happy I gave them a bit more life!!!
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im desperate to move too, but in reality our house we live in now is very safe. impossible to get snowed in, walking distance to the shop, on a hill so no flooding., no obvious crime (touch wood) close to the most beautiful beaches and absolutely stunning cliffs and plenty of jobs around. lots of land for the livestock.
i often wonder if im doing the right thing by moving away.
the westray property is lovely. why did you choose orkney? i think we will end up somewhere like that too.
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I love the idea of a remote island, we may move to Dunnoon area, depends on what's around when we sell! We love the house we live in and the area but its too expensive for us to stay!! I look at houses and think of things like flooding, storm damage, access to emergency services, easy for my family to visit and visa versa, near to Doc, dentist etc and yet rural.....Shygirl, we have a lot in common although I am not a farmer at all...just adore the countryside and animals!
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We chose Orkney because the house prices are much lower than other parts of the UK, its about the only place we can get a big enough house with a bit of land for our budget. Its also beautiful, has loads of community facilities, plenty of schools, low crime, great place to raise kids and I'm not too fussed about the weather, the lack of extreme temperatures makes up for the wind. Loads of reasons really! We are also considering the isle of Lewis but we prefer the more sparse layout of the houses on orkney rather than the corfting townships you tend to get on Lewis. We considered Skye but the house prices seem to be slightly higher and we rarely found anything suitable within budget.
Sorry to keep going off topic!
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are you going to do a blog, clarebelle? id love to read how you get on. :thumbsup:
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I had thought about doing a blog, i probably will, it will be an adventure!
The vendors of the house in Orkney have come back today to say they want 135k which we cannot afford which is really frustrating as I wouldn't have spent £700 going to view it if I had known! They are thinking about our offer so we will see, we might be back to the drawing board tomorrow though
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Clarebelle (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=27211) , fingers crossed and sit it out and they may well come back.....we only had that much and it was for a house that they wanted over £150,000, they told us that when we viewed, we put the offer in for £130,000 and sat back, well we had no choice as we were unsure of our sale, it since fell through...they rang back and accepted it.....what will be will be, I am glad we have a limit that's fairly low...the funny thing is, any mortgage we have would be lower repayments monthly than the cost of hiring a shed or storage!!
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I had thought about doing a blog, i probably will, it will be an adventure!
The vendors of the house in Orkney have come back today to say they want 135k which we cannot afford which is really frustrating as I wouldn't have spent £700 going to view it if I had known! They are thinking about our offer so we will see, we might be back to the drawing board tomorrow though
im sure its been on the market all year, so i would be tempted to call their bluff. though things are selling up there. i had my eye on a little shop but that sold this week :rant:
it cost us £1200 for 4 of us to fly up and view the farm we have now. we wanted to view one in caithness but that was 3 flights from south of england and the thought of driving with a baby was too much. its funny - i wouldnt think twice about driving for 12 hours now. im used to it..lol
good luck, its a gorgeous looking place.
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its a bit naughty when the brochure says fixed price, is that allowed...
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oohh, i never noticed it was fixed price. thats very cheeky.
what nationality are the sellers? they are probly taking the p as you are english.
our seller told us we were english idiots for paying his asking price :tired: :tired: (we bought in scotland)
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Hi Goatwoman ! We have lived here for 13 yrs an now we have decided we would like more land.
We have bought 21 acres just 10 miles away and have plans to extend our campsite and l keep finding more animals needing saving :innocent: Wouldnt move any further we love Caithness and the friends we have made here. So exciting times ahead :excited:
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We thought it was pretty cheeky too! They are english themselves originally but have lived up there for 9 years. Fingers crossed they decide overnight to accept our offer, i'll be pretty gutted if they don't! I'll keep you posted.
Kelly, your place does look lovely, I hope you find someone for it, fingers crossed for you too :fc:
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If it's a fixed price they can't increase it without changing their schedules and that costs money. But you can offer less. :innocent: If it's been on the market for a few months I'd reduce your offer, or keep your offer as it is but make conditions to suit you.. Your own agent should be able to find out if there have been recent other viewings - don't you watch Kirsty and Phil :roflanim:
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Clarebelle,
That's awful. I hope you have spoken to orkney property centre and mentioned you spent £700 to view and you offered the Fixed asking price?
I'd leave it at that, they are just being cheeky and selfish. buyers market still so take a step back and make a pot of tea and try to wait it out.
Very best wishes
Sskye
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Thanks everyone,
Yes I did point out to the estate agents that we wouldn't have come up to view if we had known the fixed price wasn't so fixed! But they said they weren't aware the vendors wanted more money until they told them we had offered 130k so I guess theres not much they could have done, its just a very frustrating situation. Hopefully the lure of having the house sold will outweigh their need for the extra money.
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Thanks everyone,
Yes I did point out to the estate agents that we wouldn't have come up to view if we had known the fixed price wasn't so fixed! But they said they weren't aware the vendors wanted more money until they told them we had offered 130k so I guess theres not much they could have done, its just a very frustrating situation. Hopefully the lure of having the house sold will outweigh their need for the extra money.
I think that's really shabby. But I would call their bluff and sit tight - if they haven't sold in a year, it is unlikely someone else will have enough guts to travel up to Orkney in the midst of winter to view and make an offer.
Also as far as I know fixed price in Scotland is just that - you can offer anything above or below the asking price, but they cannot ask for more than the fixed price. Let's hope their solicitors would rather see a sale than a house possibly on their books for a few more months...
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Well, they have refused our offer and are now advertising the property at offers over 135k. After speaking to my mortgage guy, he says we could go up to 135k but that would be the absolute limit. So we could put another offer in but I'm not sure if I really want to anymore!! The whole experienced has tarnished my view of the place really, although I know thats silly and its still the same property.
Oh well, maybe we will leave it until the new year and re evaluate it then.
You'll all know if we buy it coz I'll be popping up asking for lots of advise! :excited:
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I def wouldn't play their silly game. Even tho it's hard. I just wouldn't reward that kind of greed.
The only saving grace is with the Scottish system if they do accept your offer in the end, they won't be able to play silly beggars after that as they will be committed to the sale (as given your experience so far, I'd worry about that otherwise! )
Hope it all comes right and you get the place and realise the dream!
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theres a croft on sanday for £88k, 3 acres. not far from water.
or the village shop on westray, next the water, £185k with a fair set of accounts.
im suprised the way its gone for you.im not sure what id do.
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Sorry to have to say that the estate/letting agents aren't always playing fair either - when we were looking for a 3-year rental to cover my partner's initial job contract "North of the Border" we got caught-out too - decorated and laid new carpets downstairs, only to be told just before we'd been there for 6 months that the farm needed the smallholding back as their son was getting married in 2 months time!
No money back, deposit retained - as we had dogs & they had to get ALL the carpets professionally cleaned :thinking: - we didn't allow the dogs upstairs & we put down NEW carpets only a month beforehand!
Letting Agent told us that she hadn't been told about this by the owners & was very apologetic - only then to find out a year later at the hairdressers in the village we'd moved on to that the Letting Agent was a relative of the farm & her daughter was a bridesmaid, also that the wedding date had been arranged for 2 years to coincide with the farm manager's retirement :o :o
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That's disgusting, Beewyched.
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Sorry to have to say that the estate/letting agents aren't always playing fair either - when we were looking for a 3-year rental to cover my partner's initial job contract "North of the Border" we got caught-out too - decorated and laid new carpets downstairs, only to be told just before we'd been there for 6 months that the farm needed the smallholding back as their son was getting married in 2 months time!
No money back, deposit retained - as we had dogs & they had to get ALL the carpets professionally cleaned :thinking: - we didn't allow the dogs upstairs & we put down NEW carpets only a month beforehand!
Letting Agent told us that she hadn't been told about this by the owners & was very apologetic - only then to find out a year later at the hairdressers in the village we'd moved on to that the Letting Agent was a relative of the farm & her daughter was a bridesmaid, also that the wedding date had been arranged for 2 years to coincide with the farm manager's retirement :o :o
was it a 3 yr lease?
its hard to evict tenants if their lease hasn't expired unless you go to court. things have changed now in Scotland with the deposit scheme - as it has to held in a trust account and landlords cant get it without good reason. tenants can oppose retainment too.
I cant evict my tenants even though I have to chase every single penny and they are a month behind with rent.
my ex was an estate agent in Australia and they are all crooked. they are commission based so compare them to a used car salesmen. :o
though in Scotland they are more likely to be solicitors.
im sure in spring there will be a lot more properties for sale. things are selling below valuation at the moment. Aberdeen property market is picking up but that ripple effect hasn't hit Orkney yet.
what was the valuation on the croft Clarebelle? I presume it had a homebuyers report?
my estate agent lead me to believe nothing sells over the valuation price in the homebuyers report, and a lot are sold under the valuation price.
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The home report valued the place at 140k and now I've seen it I think it is certainly worth the money, they have made alot of improvements to the house and is in walk in condition.
We upped our offer to 135k which is the absolute max we can go to but the vendors are away until tuesday so we won't find out if they accept or not for a few days yet. I can understand why they want more money for it, they just havent gone about it the right way! At least we know, if they accept, we are protected from them trying to change the goal posts again.
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Shygirl - it was supposed to have been, but they included a 6 month probationary type of clause into it - something to do with them having to evict the previous tenants (the ones before them had been there nearly 40 years apparently).
I can totally appreciate problems with tenants - we rented-out our house while we were up in Scotland - nightmare that is probably going to cost us more than 10 times the rent that we managed to get out of her. We're also finding-out that she even left owing money to local businesses that are harassing us to settle :furious:
Clarebelle - I really hope this works out for you :hshoe:
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We have heard back today, they have accepted our offer! yay! :excited:
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Nice one Clarebelle.
All the best for the future. I am sure you will have a super life, enjoy the community and, as we do here, always seem to have loads to do, people to see and life is generally great.
:excited:
Sskye
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welldone !!! I was wondering how it went. it is a lovely looking place. im so pleased for you. id love a place so close to the water :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
can I ask what you are going to do for work?
its just im seriously thinking of moving somewhere like that (maybe sanday) but with the outer islands its a fair way from the mainland for work. I have seen each island does advertise a few part-time jobs each year but how many people apply for those I don't know. I have been told that orcadians (quite rightly) give jobs to other orcadians before ferryloupers. so id very interested in how you will pay the bills etc. (sorry if its rude to ask.)
have you a move in date?
congratulations :trophy:
btw Malcolm who used to be on here is on westray. he was a friendly chap but haven't heard from him for ages,
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Of course its not rude to ask, its a major consideration when making such a big move!
basically, my husband is in the armed forces and he will be staying in and commuting every other weekend up to Orkney to see me and the kids. His wage is enough to provide our mortgage payment and living expenses.
I do plan to get a job as soon as I can once we move up there and the plan is that once I am working eventually my husband will be able to leave the armed forces and get work up here aswell. I have been working as a carer and there is a care home on the island which i am hoping to get work at, in fact, the woman whose house i am buying currently works at the care home.
It is shift work though which i can't really do until my husband has moved up with us because of the kids, but really, i'll do anything, i don't need to earn much to cover our expenses and there are a few shops/the fish processing plant etc where I could work. Also, one of the lures of the house we are buying is that two of the buildings are halfway to being converted so we are hoping to use them as holiday lets.
We are lucky in that it I won't need to find work imiediately, we will have the luxury of being able to wait until something comes around.
Obviously, if you look at the mainland/south ronaldsey then you open up a whole world of jobs, the flip side is that the property is more expensive.
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thanks so much. I just need to find a husband , lol.
the schools are suppose to be excellent too.
yes the property is more expensive on mainland, especially land.
let us know if you going to do a blog!
congratulations :thumbsup:
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Massive congrats Clarebelle!! :thumbsup: :trophy:
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Great news. :thumbsup: