Beedubya

I have had BT Infinity since last May, the standard one, then when I moved here I now have the fibre optic thingie which means I now have a new white modem thing that sits under the black modem that I was told to bring with me from my last place, I can't say as I notice any big difference in the speed really though I don't download movies but do watch ITV player and youtubes which don't buffer, I've been pretty happy with BT from the start despite the bad "press" they seem to get.

sallysimmons

You may have had decent speeds already, so that's why you don't notice a difference. It all depends how far you are from the exchange when you're on regular broadband.

The story of my life these days is seeing a fabulous rental property and then checking Uswitch only to find out that it has Internet speeds of no more than 2MB. I'm getting really tired of it!

So far we've found two properties we liked that also had fiber optic Internet. The first I already mentioned (after we put in our offer, the lady decided she's not sure if she wants to move at all and she's still dithering) and then we bid on one in Cheshire (Bollington) but they got an offer at the same time from a close friend and so went with that one. I'm beginning to think we're doomed to live in a modern house on a housing estate, which I really didn't want.

jasper123

Whats wrong with a nice modern house, it doesn't have to be in a housing estate, Why not get a nice completely detached 3 or 4 bedroom bungalow
with a fantastic view, nice and modern and fairly new with no dry rot or having to worry about re-wiring the whole electrical system and replacing all the plumbing, all this is not only a major headache but would cost macho bucks,
And I just dont get how some rich people over here would want to pay half a million pounds or more for a 300 year old cottage that saw its best days more then 200 years ago, and then spend another 100k or more on re-furbishing the darn thing,
Oh well each to his or her own I suppose, but little old me if I was in the market to buy a house AND had that kind of cash to spend I would much rather buy a nice new or fairly new modern house with nice big rooms and
kitchen with a nice front and back yard, a nice up to date house where I can just move into and not have to do a darn thing for a long long time,
ehhhhh Just sayin!!!!

sallysimmons

There's nothing wrong with a new house Rodney - it's just not for me. We're the ones you think are nuts The ones who would buy the old house and do it up. I just don't like modern houses - well, unless they're built to look and feel old, which is rare. I realize that some people want the spiffy new build, but for me, I want character and quirkiness and the feel of history.

jasper123

Yesterday Sunday my Nephew and his wife picked us up and drove us to a lovely little village in the country called east meon in Petersfield, we went to a nice old 15th century country inn & restaurant called (Ye Old George Inn) we all had a roast beef dinner with roast potatoes and roast parsnips and carrots, it was really nice, but they were a little skimpy on the meat
We each had a nice desert, and we had two rounds of drinks each, me and nephew had two pints of strong ale each,the two ladies had two glasses of wine each,
The bill was a total including vat of £98.00 for four people, so me & nephew paid half each, not cheap I suppose but it was a nice drive on a lovely sunny & warm day with really beautiful scenery everywhere you looked, next time though we will probably go to Mcdonalds

sallysimmons

Sounds wonderful! How lovely it must be to be able to spend time with family like that And the drive sounds glorious.

cheers

So how much would it have cost if you weren't a "lush"

chriswinter

Jasper...how nice that all of you were together, and enjoying a nice meal (even if the meat was on the skimpy side) and drinks. Sounds like a perfect Sunday! Pricey, yeah, I think a bit...equals $158.00. Though like the commercial says...am sure in years to come, the memory will be ...Priceless!

Chris

Beedubya

Bollington!!! That's not far from Wilmslow, my old stomping ground.

cheers

I don't follow you???

sallysimmons

I know, we were getting all swanky thinking about living there in Cheshire with all the millionaires

cheers, we tried to rent a house and put in an offer, but the owners also got an offer from a relative and so they accepted that one and we lost out. This is the second house we've had a failed bid on. The first one was in Yorkshire and the lady had an existential crisis and ultimately decided not to move. I'm figuring third time lucky so all we need to do is find another house that suits us and hopefully it will be the one (fingers crossed!).

In the meantime we've rented a furnished holiday cottage in Yorkshire for a few weeks so we're not homeless when we get back.

chriswinter

Sally....this is what I've been looking into for a maybe extended stay in England, come September. Though some of the rental prices can be daunting, depending on the area of the country. Any tips you can offer would be greatly appreciated...on holiday cottages. I'm trying to stay away from the rural/out of town ones. I need easy access to public transportation.

Some of the holiday cottages are adorable looking (from the pics I've seen)...hope you enjoy your stay in the 'cottage'.

Chris

cheers

I agree but they are lower in the off season-January

Celticspirit

Sally, say a house is advertised as renting for say, one thousand pounds per month. Does one negotiate on the price or just the terms ie length of rental, dogs etc.,?

sallysimmons

I had struggled to find something in town until it struck me that I needed to think about towns that were business centers. I picked Harrogate as a starting point because I know they have a big conference center - and sure enough, there were lots of furnished short-term rentals. We ended up in that general area although not actually in Harrogate itself, but we had quite a few choices even with pets. Not cheap though to be honest, although they did discount the rates because we're staying longer than 2 weeks.

I recommend choosing a town then typing that town plus 'short term rental' or 'holiday let' into google. Good luck!

In both cases, we offered the asking price because we didn't want to lose out (FAIL!) but there was a third house we were considering and we were going to put in a lower offer. So yes, I believe that everything is negotiable. Sometimes landlords might be willing to let your have a 'no pets' property if you're willing to pay more in rent. Or they may be willing to take a lower rent if you're willing to sign for 12 months.

We haven't run into too many problems with the pets but there are two properties we wanted that will not consider pets no matter what we offer. The crazy thing is that one of them has been empty for 6 months and yet still they'd rather have it sit empty than let two little cats in.