Estate Agents In York

Friday, September 11, 2020

Gardening in time of crisis has brought me closer to my mother

She once brought to life a neglected back yard and after years of distance we have now reconnected over plants and vegetables

It was the deck that sold me in late 2016, when we saw the Bronx apartment we now live in. For years, I dreamed of living somewhere that overlooked a forest. I imagined plants hanging on the windows, and a backyard garden like the one my mother had created in 1980 behind our first-floor apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn – although I hadn’t inherited my mother’s green thumb so I didn’t know how I’d care for all that greenery. The only plant I hadn’t killed was a golden pothos, also known as devil’s ivy because it’s nearly indestructible. But that’s the thing about fantasies: you don’t have to figure out the how. You get to dream up a garden you don’t know how you’re going to maintain, until you get the chance and you do.

Related: As an anxious, cerebral internet nerd, my relationships are thriving during lockdown

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Thursday, September 10, 2020

Homes for sale with an orchard – in pictures

From a 10-bedroom historic moated manor house to a one-bedroom London flat

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How to make a rental house a home: Five top tips Nottingham Estate Agents

When renting a home it can sometimes seem difficult to make it your own. Here OnTheMarket suggests five ways you can personalise your rental property. Rising property prices in recent decades have made it harder than ever to get a foothold on the property ladder. Richard Snook, Senior Economist at PwC, said: “We estimate that by […]

The post How to make a rental house a home: Five top tips appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.



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Reprieve for renters facing eviction in England and Wales

Housing secretary offers lifeline in lockdown areas and announces Christmas ‘truce’

Renters facing eviction have been offered a reprieve – but only if they live in areas under local coronavirus lockdowns.

Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, confirmed that court proceedings for evictions would restart in England and Wales on 21 September after being suspended early in the pandemic.

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A bit of painting and repointing: that'll be £5,450 upfront

Southwark Council asked for the money without itemising what was to be done

My partner and I own a flat in a semi-detached house in London. Southwark council is the freeholder.

In 2016 it informed us of planned works – although the building is in good condition – and requested £5,450 upfront. I was obliged to take out a loan to pay it. The owner of the other flat in the house was presented with a similar bill, taking the total for our small building to £11,000.

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I was happy living alone in my studio flat. But the long, dark solitude of lockdown changed everything

Solo living offered sanctuary after mental ill health. Then came our coronavirus summer, and I felt a new yearning for community

When I moved into my tiny top-floor studio flat in 2018, it was a blank page. After the removal men had gone, I stood in the middle of the one-room apartment, just me and my boxes and bed linen in bin bags, and worked out I could walk the length of the place in nine steps. Still, it was mine, just mine (for as long as I was willing to pay the extortionate rent).

For the previous eight months, I had been living on a blow-up bed in a box room in the home of my enormously generous friends and their baby son. After a lengthy period of mental ill health (with a stint in a psychiatric hospital followed by a bad breakup and a period of unemployment), I was taken in by my friends, who treated me as one of the family and helped me heal. When it was time to move on, I thought living alone would give my mental health the best chance of continued recovery. It could be a retreat, a place where I didn’t have to pretend to be well, or sane, if I wasn’t. A place where I didn’t have to “belong”.

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I was happy living alone in my studio flat. But the long, dark solitude of lockdown changed everything

Solo living offered sanctuary after mental ill health. Then came our coronavirus summer, and I felt a new yearning for community

When I moved into my tiny top-floor studio flat in 2018, it was a blank page. After the removal men had gone, I stood in the middle of the one-room apartment, just me and my boxes and bed linen in bin bags, and worked out I could walk the length of the place in nine steps. Still, it was mine, just mine (for as long as I was willing to pay the extortionate rent).

For the previous eight months, I had been living on a blow-up bed in a box room in the home of my enormously generous friends and their baby son. After a lengthy period of mental ill health (with a stint in a psychiatric hospital followed by a bad breakup and a period of unemployment), I was taken in by my friends, who treated me as one of the family and helped me heal. When it was time to move on, I thought living alone would give my mental health the best chance of continued recovery. It could be a retreat, a place where I didn’t have to pretend to be well, or sane, if I wasn’t. A place where I didn’t have to “belong”.

Continue reading...

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