The Perils of Buying a Second Hand House

Posted on June 21, 2017 by Fiona Martin

So it’s the middle of the night, the hottest day of the year and in fact it’s Summer Solstice, yes that’s right the longest day of the year and I’m lying here hot, tired, sweaty praying for some sleep before the morning routine starts again. Just as I start to drift off for the 23rd time tonight my dream comes true, you know that inbuilt sprinkler system you wished you had above your bed that gently sprays cold water over you to cool you down in this sweltering heat.

Oh HELL NO!!! Sitting bolt upright I suddenly realise that I haven’t fallen back into the land of nod, I do in fact have water splattering in my face from my ceiling above my bed, soaking my duvet that has casually been pushed to the bottom of the bed throughout the night in my bid to cool down. Until the droplets appeared on my face I hadn’t concluded what was going on lower down my bed and the main trail of water appears to be coming through scarily close to the chandelier light fitting in the centre of my bedroom leaving my duvet pretty much drenched!

Rushing to my feet in utter horror, I run up the attic stairs and see that the loft conversion bathroom floor is swimming in water and spreading a couple of feet across the main room carpet. Help!! At this point my 9yr old comes running up and I yell at her to grab some towels, find the mop, just anything and she starts telling me about her tooth fairy visit that happened in the night (well about 10am – shhhh!) and is trying to read me the note the fairy has left her!

Next mission is to find the cause of my middle of the night rain shower, bearing in mind it now feels like I’m in 100 degrees heat, the attic should be reincarnated as a sauna in its next life I tell you, the sweat is now dripping off my face faster than the water dissipating through the floor!

Bingo!! Mummy struck gold – well not literally – but I have single-handedly resolved my current predicament and discovered that due to the sink tap being left on with a very slight drip and a missing aerator under the bottom of the sink tap, the water didn’t actually drip into the sink but came back on itself under the tap and went over the edge of the sink causing the sea of mayhem I’m in right now.

Quite frankly, this is the story of my life with my recently purchased second hand house. At first glance it looks ok, nice area, great layout, large extended space downstairs, amazing garden, just a little modernising required here and there, a touch of tlc and a fresh lick of paint and you’d think it would be a lovely family home. But no, once you move in you find out that a previous owner who carried out the loft conversion, downstairs extension and all the other botched DIY jobs that we come across quite literally bungled his way through fixing things up, ditching official tradesmen along the way to add his cheap mismatched fittings, and scrapyard finds, leaving doors hanging askew, unfinished jobs and to put it bluntly extremely shoddy workmanship in every aspect of our house. So of course with this attitude, who would care if a little thing like a tap aerator fell out – you wouldn’t bother putting it back in or buying a replacement would you – well not if you were my previous owner!!!

It just goes to show how little things left undone can escalate into substantial issues for the future. Running through my head I wonder what would have happened if I’d just gone to work for the day…. Please fix any problems as you find them, don’t leave them. Not only does a slapdash attitude send a house into a downward spiral of DIY disarray, the jobs seem harder and costlier to fix in the long run ultimately devaluing your home. Houses are a huge investment and one I want to continue to grow for my future. The events of the early hours of this morning are proof of that – with some love and care I WILL turn this house into a home!

P.S. My 6yr old slept through the commotion – oh to be young again!

Melt & Make Chocolate House – Review

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Fiona Martin

The Melt & Make Chocolate House by choconchoc is available from what2buy4kids and is a high quality, fun to make activity suitable for children aged 4+. The kit comprises of the house moulds, a garden scene colouring sheet, two bags of good quality chocolate buttons (one white and one milk) and a chef’s paper hat for the child to wear.

My two children, Miss M age 8 and Mister B age 5, didn’t need any encouragement in participating in this activity, in fact their eye’s lit up in delight at the prospect of building a house out of chocolate which they could then eat!

The kit is simple and well thought out to make the job really easy and the first task was to melt the buttons in a bowl. Miss M was in charge of the white ones, and Mister B the milk buttons. I microwaved each of their bowls which they then stirred up to turn the buttons into gooey, runny chocolate. At this point they were both begging to lick their spoons but I told them to fill the moulds first which they eagerly did using a teaspoon to spread the molten chocolate around.

Next came the obligatory spoon licking while the moulds were put in the fridge to set. They also used this time to colour in the garden sheet upon which you can rest the finished house on to create a little 3D scene.

Once the chocolate had set hard, I helped the children to press the shapes carefully out of the moulds to ensure we didn’t break any pieces. I thought the pieceds looked great with a good depth of detail that was really clear and made the house look really effective. We then put them carefully together using a little molten chocolate on our fingers to glue the pieces in place – the kids loved this idea and wanted to put ‘glue’ everywhere!

I have to say I’m quite impressed by the finished house, it looked really good for quite minimal effort. The children were really pleased with their finished piece and looked longingly at it wondering when they could start tasting it. I made them wait until after dinner so that we could admire our handywork for a couple of hours but when we did taste it, it was very good – the bonus of having good quality chocolate in the kit!

This kit was a great activity which both of my children thoroughly enjoyed. The set would make great gifts for children at any time of the year, so well worth looking out for.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

Tom and Jerry Tricky Trap House – Review

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Tom and Jerry Tricky Trap House from Flair is a calamity filled house of traps and jokes that keep Tom and Jerry on the tails of each other as they frantically chase each other around. Tom and Jerry are one of my childhood cartoon memories, always on for five minutes in between other things that always captured and en-tranced both me and my younger brother.

The Tom and Jerry Tricky Trap House is a fold out playset house with 10 mechanical traps along with 2 character figures, Tom and Jerry.

Upon hearing about this house I thought it’d be right up Mister B’s street, being the little joker that he is and I wasn’t wrong. His eyes lit up when he saw it and being only vaguely aware of Tom and Jerry beforehand, he soon grasped the idea and had poor Jerry being chased around the house by Tom!!

The house opens up to reveal two floors on each side with numerous traps awaiting our two friends Tom and Jerry. I guided Mister B around the various traps available which he found really exciting and couldn’t wait to begin play. I had to be Jerry and he was Tom as he chased me round the house, his favourite was trapping me under the drop down chandelier!

There are various traps across the house such as the drop down chandelier, a drop floor shower, a smash through door, a drop leg piano, a pop out fridge, a hidey hole in the roof with drop through floor, a flip up bed, a hide behind sofa and a blast off rocket. Outside there is also a swing seat that once you sit on, it snaps in half!!

Mister B loved the blast off rocket and that led to hours of fun, putting either Tom or Jerry inside and flying it across the front room. He particularly thought it was hilarious blasting Jerry into space when mummy was being Tom and laughing at me as the rocket flew through the sky as he escaped and poor Tom was stuck on the ground!

The quality of the playset is a little less than I was expecting and does look at bit plasticy and cheap. We also had the shower wall fall off which I luckily mended as Mister B is rather fond of letting someone fall through the floor of the shower!

Saying that, the quality didn’t bother Mister B who did actually have endless fun with this and has thoroughly enjoyed playing with it as I thought he would. He had a constant grin on his face whilst playing and found it hilarious every time he trapped someone, declaring himself the winner!!

The Tom and Jerry playset has proved to be lots of fun and kept Mister B entertained, I like the way it folds up and it isn’t overly big so doesn’t take up too much room. Make sure you put both Tom and Jerry inside when packing away so they are always there when you want to play. Jerry is quite small so can easily get mislaid amongst other toys.

Retailing around the £24.99 mark, I guess it’s a fair price for what you get.

We’ve had lots of fun with the Tom and Jerry Tricky Trap House, more than I expected so for me it’s a been a good value toy that has encouraged a lot of imaginative play. I think any little Tom and Jerry fan would be happy to receive this if they enjoy the antics they get up to and want to replicate them. Mister B certainly gives this a big thumbs up!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the playset in order to write the review.

Peppa Pig World of Playsets – Review

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Fiona Martin

We were asked to review the Peppa Pig World of Playsets by Character Toys for izziwizzikids.

Being a massive Peppa Pig fan, Miss M was thrilled when I told her we were going to be reviewing this toy. When she saw the box her eyes lit up in amazement and she couldn’t wait to get inside. Out came the Peppa house with carry handle which opened up to find a further 5 buildings stacked inside. Miss M thoroughly enjoyed the process of unpacking the buildings (a bit like russian dolls) and happily lined them all up across the floor.

And then the role play started – I was actually quite surprised at the conversation that I heard!! With the 1 Peppa Pig figure supplied there was a constant flow of chitter chatter from Miss M as Peppa Pig visited the cafe, bought an endless supply of cakes, then went home, had a bath, played with her doll’s house, then off to the vets, in and out all the opening doors as she went.

Although the play houses are all plastic they are very sturdy and well built and will entertain little ones for houses with plenty of room for imagination. It would be nice to have some extra figures and accessories for the playsets so these were immediately requested by Miss M to go on her list to Father Christmas. (Shh – mummy may already have some bits stashed in the loft) so can’t wait to see the further play value and Miss M’s delighted face on Xmas day.

The fantastic thing about these sets is unusual way they stack into each other creating a really compact, easy to store toy – fabulous!!

A delightful little set worth buying for any Peppa Pig fan this Christmas for hours of fun and entertainment.

Here is our video review for izziwizzikids:

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.