Archived Entries
July 2009
Orchard Planning Solutions welcomes Maltings Structures
Orchard Planning Solutions is delighted to welcome Maltings Structures as its latest advertising partner.
Maltings Structures was founded in 1978 and over their many years in business have gained considerable experience as Chartered Surveyors, Architectural & Building Consultants.
Their expertise includes all pre-contract, project management and post contract works. In addition, they are also able to help with, RICS Homebuyer surveys, reports, domestic energy assessments, residential management, CAD drawings, party wall legislation, planning and development.
For more information, please telephone Tony Woodfield on 01582 872 617.
Our Six Point Guide to a Rejuvenated Bathroom
Along with Kitchens, we often equate their improvement as being costly and in these times of financial restraint, we are all looking at ways of saving both money and time. Fear not, in this article entitled how to improve your home, we will consider six imaginative ways of improving your bathroom without having to go to the costly expense of ripping it out and starting again.
Our first tip is don't despair. In most cases, a degree of imagination and inspiration will help rejuvenate that space. Setting aside the sanitary ware, which can often be costly, think about those elements, which can be replaced fairly readily and easily. By these, we mean the lights, taps, tiles, bath panel and colour scheme together with your toot paste holder and towels for example.
Our six-point guide to a rejuvenated bathroom:
- Flooring: If your floor covering is unattractive, have you thought about removing it and painting the floorboards or concrete which sit below?
- Taps: An instant success is to replace the basin and bath taps together with the toilet flush handle. There are some many styles to choose from that you will quite literally be spoilt for choice. If you want to go for a contemporary look, the vogue is for brushed steel. If you live in a period property for example, why not visit your local architectural salvage yard. You will be surprised what bargains you can find there!
- Bath panels: A bespoke bath panel can often set your bathroom apart from the rest. In choosing the next generation of panel, be sure to choose one that is not painted MDF (will often not stand up to repeated splashing) and that can be removed easily in order access any pipe work hidden behind it.
- Mirror: As we have done in our bathroom, how about completely mirroring one wall? This instantly creates a sense of space, light and openness. If you do opt for a full width mirror, do pay the extra fitting fee a glazier will charge as believe you me, screwing a 6 foot mirror to a tiled wall is not fun (particularly if you really don't know what you are doing). If you can't afford a new mirror or indeed are looking for something out of the ordinary, do visit your local second-hand shops or flea markets.
- Tiles: Tiling the entire bathroom may be too expensive and therefore not an option. In that case, how about tiling small wall areas in order to provide visual contrast?
- Accessories: Once the hard work is over, let your imaginative side take control and go for those colour co-ordinate accessories. Good quality towels in sophisticated colours can in their own way make the space. Add to this a few candles together with an unusual towel rail and you have created your very own sanctuary. One you will be proud of and be completed in time for the locusts!
What to do when the neighbour's hedge becomes all too much
For many of us, it can often prove mission impossible to love our neighbour when it comes to disputes. Other than noise, one of the most common disputes literally arises from that unloved evergreen hedge which appears to grow at a faster rate than our utility bills. Normally, high hedges are dealt with under Part 8 of the Anti-social Behavioural Act 2003 which came into operation on 1st June 2005.
If you have tried and exhausted all other avenues for resolving your hedge dispute, you may as a last resort contact your local authority. However, in order to register a complaint, you will be asked by your local authority to pay a fee and in certain cases, this can be substantial. The reason for the large fee is to dissuade you from taking this course of action unless it is the position of last resort.
The role of your local authority is to adjudicate on whether - in the words of the Act, the hedge is adversely affecting the complainant's reasonable enjoyment of their property. The local authority must in its role be seen to be striking a balance between the differing interests of the complainant and the hedge owner as well as the interests of the wider community. For example, is the hedge a feature that by virtue of its height and location, positively contributes to the local character of the area?
If the authority believes there is a cause for complaint, it will issue a formal notice to the hedge owner which sets out what they must do to rectify the problem and by when. If the owner fails to do this, it could land them with a £1,000 fine.
Please recognise that local authority intervention is the position of last resort.
