I remember standing in a Victorian terrace over in Chawton back in ’94, looking at a homeowner who had just spent three thousand pounds on “specialist” anti-mould sprays that did nothing but mask the smell for a fortnight. He looked at me like I was the intruder, but the truth was, he was fighting a […]
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I was walking past the old parish hall last Tuesday—the one built in 1894, if memory serves—and noticed the damp is finally starting to creep up the north-facing wall. It’s a bit of a worry, seeing as the roof hasn’t seen a proper slate replacement since the late seventies. It got me thinking about how […]
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I remember sitting in a draughty study in Chawton back in ’94, looking at a stack of papers for a client who thought he’d bought a sprawling orchard, only to find out he didn’t actually own the access track to his own back gate. Most people think you need a law degree or a mountain […]
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I saw a lad in the village shop last Tuesday fumbling with a little silver gadget, trying to measure the exact temperature of his water as if he were conducting a chemistry experiment in a laboratory. Honestly, if you need a thermometer and a degree in thermodynamics to figure out how to make a proper […]
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I was out near the old tithe barn last Tuesday—the one built around 1740, with the lovely flintwork that always seems to be shifting—when I caught myself doing a sort of frantic, uncoordinated jig just to stay upright on a patch of moss. It wasn’t a graceful movement; it was a sudden, jarring realization that […]
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I was standing in the hallway of a mid-Victorian terrace in Amesbury last Tuesday, staring at a patch of wall that looked less like a feature and more like a topographical map of the Andes. The homeowner had spent a small fortune on high-end emulsion, but because they’d skipped the sanding and the priming, the […]
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I’ve seen plenty of people get themselves into a right muddle trying to figure out how to start a book club, usually by treating it like a high-stakes committee meeting. They start talking about formal memberships, complex voting systems for the next month’s reading, and renting out function rooms that cost more than a decent […]
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I remember sitting in a drafty solicitor’s office in Salisbury back in ’94, listening to a man in a pinstripe suit drone on about “legal frameworks” while the rain lashed against the window. He made it sound like we were launching a rocket rather than simply moving a family from a semi-detached to a cottage. […]
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I saw a glossy magazine in the waiting room last week suggesting that the secret to a vibrant life is joining an expensive, high-end golf club or embarking on a luxury cruise around the Mediterranean. It’s absolute nonsense. If you’re looking for a manual on how to stay social after retirement that involves a membership […]
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I spent thirty years valuing properties from the old flint cottages in the Test Valley to the newer builds in Salisbury, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a kitchen is only as good as its utility. I see these glossy magazines claiming that learning how to cook for one requires a […]
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