House prices go up, the neighbourhood goes down

[lane lover]

An overgeneralisation. Houses in my street look great - with many recent makeovers despite the poor winter.

The only thing I regret is not being able to erect an electric fence/gate to stop flier droppers from coming anywhere near my front door.

You lot should be banned. This type of marketing is dated, annoying, and a waste of money.

[hpsaucey]

Giacomelli Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It is a shame when you see a lot unsightly front

> gardens but I don't think the huge amount of bins

> help. I prefer big containers in the street as in

> italy france or spain. I am getting my front

> garden redone, new path etc. Unfortunately the

> cost of retiling the victorian path is

> extortionate so laying sandstone instead. Quite

> sad about this but as it is not my forever home

> (small garden flat) I feel after several quotes

> it's not worth restoring the original.

>

> Most people don't sit out in their front gardens

> (maybe due to bins?) So are less likely to furnish

> them with pretty flowers. Also as other posters

> have mentioned we are just exiting winter and when

> many commuters return it is already dark.

At the height of 'bin madness' when the council were just bringing in all the different colours I counted 8 or 9 outside one poor properly on Barry Road. Truly grim. There are some smaller houses near Nunhead Cemetary which used to have a small outside front space - but enough room to put out a couple of chairs and some plants. BUT, now they're all full of bins. Feel sorry for them - I'd be really angry if it were me. We're in a communal block, so are lucky in the sense that all communal bins are hidden away in a dedicated shed.

HP

[monkeylite]

A leaflet from a greasy chicken shop is far more useful than a political leaflet dropped by a person who obviously spends far too much time trying to sound clever, with a help of a thesaurus.

[Robert Poste's Child]

monkeylite Wrote:

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> A leaflet from a greasy chicken shop is far more

> useful than a political leaflet dropped by a

> person who obviously spends far too much time

> trying to sound clever, with a help of a

> thesaurus.

How spiteful you sound.

[Alex K]

Well, Flora -- Robert Poste's Child, may I call you Flora? -- monkeylite probably once saw something nasty in the woodshed. And the experience has incapacitated him / her from writing "with the help of". A phobia of the indefinite article, perhaps. We must strive not to judge, and to be kind.

[FJDGoose]

.

[Nigello]

I think most houses in the area are OK, some are lovely to behold, and a few are eyesores. I'd prefer it if people did the bare minimum to keep their front gardens/exteriors neat and tidy - trimming the hedge or blinding yukka takes hardly any time but judging from the overgrown bushes of SE22 you'd think it was advanced lumberjackery. Think "lack of time" is a misnomer. "Can't be bothered" is usually nearer the mark. It's all about choices, folks!

[monkeylite]

Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> monkeylite Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > A leaflet from a greasy chicken shop is far

> more

> > useful than a political leaflet dropped by a

> > person who obviously spends far too much time

> > trying to sound clever, with a help of a

> > thesaurus.

>

> How spiteful you sound.

No more or less spiteful than people passing judgement on others based on how nice their front lawn is.

[lane lover]

Nigello Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I think most houses in the area are OK, some are

> lovely to behold, and a few are eyesores. I'd

> prefer it if people did the bare minimum to keep

> their front gardens/exteriors neat and tidy -

> trimming the hedge or blinding yukka takes hardly

> any time but judging from the overgrown bushes of

> SE22 you'd think it was advanced lumberjackery.

> Think "lack of time" is a misnomer. "Can't be

> bothered" is usually nearer the mark. It's all

> about choices, folks!

But what about their houses ;-)

[ultraburner]

20 years ago the area looked far rougher imo, so don't see what the point of this thread is....

[charlesfare]

Alex K Wrote:

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> Just out leafletting -- up and down the streets

> off Lordship Lane, dropping flyers into

> post-boxes, shoving them (with a worried moment

> every time -- dogs! teeth! fingers!) behind furry

> cache-sexe "draught excluders" inside doors' mail

> slots.

>

> I came home disheartened by how poor my

> neighbourhood seems, how run-down, how badly

> maintained; or are we British simply not

> house-proud? Front garden paths a tangle of broken

> tile and crisps bags, fences in gaping need of

> picket-denture after picket-denture, gates off

> their hinges, wood rotten... If one can't afford

> to re-paint, then at least one might find the time

> and self-respect to wash down the grimy

> encasements of windows, enjambments of doors. But

> -- not. And the dank stench that wafted outward

> through some of those mail slots! ...Wherever

> humans den is, I suppose, Arkham.

>

> The Chancellor of the Exchequer has freed up

> pension pots: Take the money, he beckons those

> about to retire, and do with it what you will.

> Stocks? Bonds? Ah! Real estate! Another boost for

> house prices, then.

>

> But the higher those prices go, the greater the

> monthly mortgage payment, the fewer the monies

> available for improvements. For re-tiling the

> garden paths, re-hanging the re-made gates. For

> plasterwork and paint. To re-lay, to re-set the

> stoop stairs rather than to trowel-patch the tar

> swilled over tread and riser decades ago when

> first they cracked and chipped.

>

> And for want of those monies, I fear that East

> Dulwich will stay a slum, albeit a more expensive

> one.

Ugh, pull your head out of your arse and stop spamming people with flyers

[lucky]

The quotes from builders in the London area for paving a front garden are exhorbitant as ar e the ones given for home refurbishments

[LadyDeliah]

Burbage Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's not always money or spare time...

>

> The point of prettifying a house in this are has,

> for the last two or three decades, being so you

> can flog it as quickly as possible at a decent

> profit, and move on to the next house you fancy

> painting. To an extent, the graspery of estate

> agents and the credulous compliance of their

> victims has conspired to put the cost of

> second-hand house-paint up by a thousand percent,

> and force the occupants to apply it.

>

> But the market is stagnating a little now. There

> are sales, of course, but they're mostly sales of

> convenience and the tax-efficient shuffling of

> portfolios. So there's much less need to paint

> things.

>

> This is as it should be. All painting ever does is

> bring closer the time it'll need painting next.

> The same goes for dusting or cutting back

> rosemary. It'll grow again, and you'll have to cut

> it again, and eventually you'll get bored, or

> dead, and then it'll be as if you never bothered

> at all. So what, unless you've got the avarice of

> a moonstruck puppet in a nasty suit to pleasure,

> is the point?

>

> Go to France, and you'll see people living without

> any of the pretentious fantasies of whatever ICI

> has become. They paint their shutters to celebrate

> the end of every world war, and even more rarely

> bother with the walls. Yet, despite their

> reputation for shruggish misery, they're happier

> than Britons, who have to put up not just with the

> assumed snobbery of pretentious neighbours on the

> make but also, it seems, the snottiness of the

> leaflet-stuffing familiars of our lowest political

> pawns.

>

> So, Alex K, if you don't like it, do yourself a

> favour and keep off other people's land.

Post of the month! Love 'graspery' :-D

[LadyDeliah]

One side of my front garden is left wild for bees, butterflys and other wildlife, so fcuk anyone who doesn't like it. The other side is a veg bed. Garage door is tatty but secure (full of tatty but fully functioning bicycles) and outside hasn't been painted in donkey's years.

Not lazy, just have more important things to spend my time and money on plus I think consuming our planet to show off to neighbours/passers by shows an underlying insecurity and sheep-likeness.

[fazer71]

Most people are too scared to get a decorator or builder in to carry out maintenance work, hardly surprising given generations of crooked untrustworthy overpricing nasty trade people which have made 99% of home owners avoid any contact unless absolutely necessary, usually too late.

Home owners are clueless on prices.

I was once told everything is priced per sq metre or linear metre and that helps work out what most work will cost. It covers everything from tiling a bathroom to building an extension.

Anyone who?s been out looking at a home to buy or at neighbour?s home will know home owners / tenants who don?t know or don?t want to know how to use a broom, brush, mop, bucket, sponge they have no idea how to get rid of weeds not a clue about regular maintenance. They allow a progressively worsening filthy unmaintained state to develop around themselves, until gutters are growing turf internal walls are covered in mould windows are rotten and floor joists are riddled with wet / dry rot. They never open their windows and exist in humid overheated unhealthy atmosphere.

A whole generation oblivious, clueless people who are prepared to live in mess.

Others the minority are obsessively clean with perfect homes.

It?s not about having the money it?s about caring and knowing many just don?t know!

[Penguin68]

home owners / tenants who don?t know

There are quite different obligations on tenants and home owners (including leaseholders). There are many landlords who would be very happy for tenants to be undertaking, on their own budgets, remedial work which is the landord's responsibility. One of the arguments made by the Thatcherites was that selling council houses to their tenants would get them to become house-proud. I can quite understand why a tenant would not want to invest in something from which they cannot get a return.

Who are you to argue about where to point what may be scare resources? I would go for investment inside the house (which is what I see everyday) before investment on the outside to please the sensibilities of passers by. I would 'invest' in my children's needs before I worry about what the neighbours (or strangers) think.

There are of course issues about health hazards - where household waste in the garden attracts e.g. rats etc. - but I don't think that is the driver for this thread - it's about wanting others to spend money so that your sensibilities are placated.

Of course 'pretty' front gardens are nice to walk past, and I am very happy with what my general neighbours do in my neck of the woods - and, at a certain level of untidyness it can impact general house prices and saleability - but the front gardens I see in ED, in general, may (some of them) be unkempt, but are not screaming eyesores. (In fact the worst front gardens are those where the house is in the throes of extensive and expensive makeover - where they are often effectively building sites!).

[JohnL]

In my experience a small DIY job quickly becomes more time consuming - especially if you

don't have every tool under the sun - the one you need is the one you don't have.

Example

Wanted to replace my cistern input flow last weekend - get the part, but quickly discover the input

pipe connector is almost inaccessible - in all the internet plumbing videos it's easy to get to

and on the right - mine requires you to work almost blind.

and on it goes -

I'm absolutely sure some newer designs are purposely difficult.

[Zebedee Tring]

Someone who describes ED as a slum obviously hasn't spent much time in those areas of London, the south east or indeed any parts of the UK that really are slums. A sense of proportion is called for here.

[????]

self-indulgent whimsy? - discuss

[EDLove]

I can fully relate to most people preferring to spend their time and their money on the interior of their house (or other more interesting/important things), rather than the exterior.

However, a lot of the issues with people's front gardens wouldn't actually take much time or money to remedy. Mostly, just picking up the litter, getting the council to collect your old sofa, and giving a quick lick of white paint to the steps would make a noticeble difference.

The reason for this should'nt just be because it preferable to walk past (and buy) a pretty house on a well-kept road, but because a maintained enviroment could prevent an area becoming a hot-bed for vandalism and other crime.

That being said, the vast majority of ED is presented well and has clear signs that people are prepared to invest time and/or money, so I can't agree with the OP's description. In fact, I think the opposite is true - the area is becoming prettier and tidier the more the house prices go up. Perhaps the OP should have a wander into some other less gentrified parts of London and compare?

[MrBen]

to be fair the past decade I've lived here the streets are incrementally much smarter than they used to be. There's a broad correlation with general affluence. Check out mean streets of Catford terraces for how I remember it ten years back. See Dulwich Village and SE22 streets like Woodwarde, Beauval Roads for a notch up. Symmetrical topiary ahoy.

Speaking of which, I used to love the guy who hand carved a zoo out of his box hedge in Whately Road. I think he had a swan up there once. Is that still there?

[MrBen]

And a Victorian tiled path is about 2-3 grand to re-lay properly. That, a decent door painted in Farrow and Ball sludge, twin bay trees, and new beds /shrubs wont leave you much change of 10k.

[LondonMix]

Front path is that expensive, though a new front door and planting won't push it to 10k.

I think most houses are presented reasonably well and some are very well presented. The ones that look the most rough look like they are occupied by the elderly (judging by style of curtains etc) which is entirely understandable on a number of fronts.

One thing I have noticed is that one person smartening up the front of their house tends to have a knock on effect. 4 houses on my street are currently being painted. The first person started and it reminds others their place might be due for a freshening up.

[Penguin68]

I would hate to think this thread encouraged anyone to get rid of their tumble-down front garden and replace it with concrete or asphalt. Gravel over membrane, yes, brick loose laid over sand, yes, but please don?t tidy things up so that you get run-off and soil drying. I'd rather see untidy beds and eroded grass than an impervious parking space.

[EPB]

MrBen Wrote:

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> And a Victorian tiled path is about 2-3 grand to

> re-lay properly.

I'd love to know why it has to cost that much. Topps Tiles do a pretty convincing range of little black/white or black/brown tiles, with border patterns to match, for an affordable price, and surely it can't be beyond anyone who can tile a wall or a floor to use them to tile a Victorian style path?