We’ve been fairly busy preparing for the demolition, so I haven’t had much time to sit and type. But things have been progressing, here’s what’s happened since the last update:
- Turns out Stirling doesn’t need the site plan for demo.
- Got a copy of the title from Landgate.
- There was a bit of running around with the bank re did we or didn’t we need permission – turns out they didn’t care, they seemed more concerned that we’d refinance with a different bank.
- I submitted the verge permit, this will cover both demo and building.
- Contacted Synergy and got a final meter reading and electricity disconnection.
- Took down the solar panels and chandeliers, which are now in storage with my parents.
- Demolition got approved! That was very quick, it only took 7 days when they were estimating 3 weeks.
There’s still a big long to-do list, mainly relating to selling random bits of furniture that we left behind, which I hope to do this weekend.
On another note, we’ve decided to trial a Kanban-style project management tool called Trello. It seems OK, and comes with an app, which is handy. Seems to be missing a way in which to assign priority and dependencies though, which is kind of annoying. I like it so far but am not 100% convinced.
Isn’t it great to tick things off the list? That’s good news about the demo. When are you demolishing the house? Will you have a pre-sale demo?
Sure is! The demo company said they can start as soon as they get the permit, but we still have some stuff to sell/move out and also the verge permit hasn’t yet been issued. So realistically, it will be another week or so. I don’t think we will have a pre-demo sale, too much stress to organise! We just have a couple of things we want to put on Gumtree, that’s about it.
What’s a verge permit? I think we’ll try to have a pre-demo sale on EBay or Gumtree. I’ve spoken to a few people who did and they were amazed to sell a whole lot of stuff that would have otherwise ended up as landfill. I’d love to find new homes for the fruit trees at least.
A verge permit is a permit for the council to allow us to place a skip bin on the verge. We’re not technically allowed to use the verge unless we get a permit.
Our demo company has a salvage yard so anything salvageable won’t go to landfill, which is good.
If you are giving things away try Freecycle or my site Oddswop (use the http://renovators.oddswop.com/ for best fit – it’s free to list.
I love Trello for the right reasons. I have a heap of boards for various things (including a shopping list to share with DH for things like groceries as it has checklists and you can add photos etc). For priorities just use the colours / labels or use the ordering (you can drag and drop the order). I create cards and use them as dividers too e.g. “Low Priority” or use another column for lower priority tasks.
Thanks for the suggestion, though the demo company has a salvage yard so it’d be easier just to give it to them if we can’t sell them. Thanks for the tips on Trello too!