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Posts Tagged ‘what to expect in a london flat’

What to Expect in a London Flat — Part VI (a.k.a. Some Like it Hot)

Thursday September 3rd, 2009

Author: Colleen

Thanks for joining us again–we hope you were inspired by our profound last posting.

Now then, breath easy.  Inhale, exhale.  When you discover there may be no air conditioning, central or otherwise, this, like most of the other “issues” I’ve addressed thus far in this series, truly ends up being a non-issue, really.  Piece this circumstance together with all those rumours you always hear about London weather, and voila:  it doesn’t get very hot here, erego, it isn’t that necessary to have air-conditioning (unless you really love to spend your money on, well, air).  You will definitely be equipped with heating, which I was personally delighted to see was centrally operated even with the separate radiators in each room.  In my Chicago apartments, a radiator was a scary coiling mass of iron painted over in decades of chipping paint that literally hissed and spit at me each time the heat ran through–and that water it spat burned my hand each time I manually screwed and unscrewed the knob to regulate it.  Here, the radiators may actually be modern installations that are flatter to the wall (if not covered up with a practical and more aesthetically pleasing cover that provides additional shelving) and may have a centrally located thermostat dial that lets you set them to a specific temperature (rather than just regulate the degree of said hissing and spitting).  You can then use the dials on each radiator to regulate the degree to which they individually heat up, which is energy saving if unused rooms can be shut off completely, or, say, you only want the towel warmer to heat up during spring and summer.  But okay, back to the air-conditioning, as we all know it’s easy to add layers when it’s cold, but there’s only so much you can take off when it’s hot.  Saying that it doesn’t get hot that often is bittersweet news for summer-lovin’ outdoor activities, but it does help for indoor climate-control, yet for those days that it does warm up, it admittedly gets quite stuffy, especially when the sun beams through the windows and heats your rooms to higher temps than what it is outdoors.  The trick is simple:  go to Argos or Homebase and buy a little fan.  This works really well if you situate it in front of your open window to keep fresh ventilation flowing through; all it takes is a little air movement to feel like the uber cool person you are.

London Relocation can also help to chill you out by alleviating the stress of your move!  See you soon in Part VII, our thrilling conclusion to this series on What to Expect in a London Flat.

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What to Expect in a London Flat — Part V (a.k.a. Sink or Swim)

Wednesday September 2nd, 2009

Author: Colleen

If you joined us for our last post, hopefully you have found a place to store all your precious knick-knacks so you can now tend to yourself within another very important aspect of the London flat.  Every king of the palace needs a throne room, and it’s understandable why standards should be high for this.  The “loo” (also commonly referred to bluntly as the “toilet”) serves multiple functions (which I won’t list out in the interest of propriety), so to meet these functions, the size of this particular room has grown ever larger in new construction or home renovations.  Ladies like their counterspace and large tub to soak in, and men like a good mirror for shaving and enough room to comfortably…er…read.  It’s not like I came from a home with a lavatory big enough to be a spa in and of itself with a mammoth jacuzzi tub, yet I still couldn’t help but fear a bleak bathroom future on my first several viewings of flats.  What I saw most often were pedestal sinks with nary a shelf or cabinet to compensate for lack of counter space.  Bathtubs (if there was one) were likewise diminutive (one must figure people themselves were smaller years ago) and showers were tight.  You may also find that your shower is not its own freestanding entity, but instead a sort of after-the-fact head attachment connected to a pipe raised from the bathtub, the kind that has a cord so you can detach it, hold it in your hand, and aim it as you will.  Clearly, there are always exceptions to the rule–my task here is simply to adjust your expectations so you won’t be disappointed, and many landlords have made much of what space they have with nicely renovated fixtures and tiling.  Some of the quirks that may persist regardless, though, old or new, is that your Hot & Cold may be reversed and you may see two buttons for flushing the toilet (as pictured to the left.  It’s simple, the smaller button is #1, the larger one #2.  It’s all in the name of water conservation).  A positive feature is the common use of towel warming racks in lieu of a radiator, perfect for those chilly winter mornings, and they dry your towels so much faster.  Until next time in Part VI, London Relocation wishes you happy movements, I mean, moving!

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What to Expect in a London Flat — Part IV (a.k.a. Wardrobe Malfunction?)

Tuesday September 1st, 2009

Author: Colleen

At this point you’ve finished peeking around to find where all your kitchen appliance goodies are behind those cabinet doors (it’s like a large-scale Advent calendar of sorts, without the chocolates, unfortunately).  One thing, however, you can just keep on looking for but will rarely find is…*drumroll*…the CLOSET.  It’s a crying shame the Victorians did not utilise the concept of a built-in closet, using instead separate furniture pieces to house their clothing.  Any closets to be found in these period buildings will have been built OUT from the wall to occupy even more of your dear bedroom space or in the form of a free-standing wardrobe (if you’re renting furnished).  I therefore pray for those of you with WALK-IN closets at home, as you may suffer a stroke upon seeing the utter lack of equivalent here.

Relax.  It’s really not all that bad.  As mentioned, modern-day landlords recognise the need for additional storage space, so many have incorporated that priority into their renovations, building out decently-sized closets and making the most of the taller than usual vertical height of ceilings to build UP in the form of cabinets where you can stow items you don’t need to access  on a daily basis (luggage, out-of-season clothing…snow-shoes…I could have kicked my husband for bringing those!  It doesn’t even snow here!).  If you don’t have cabinets built in, as you can see from the photo, those wardrobes or built-out closets provide “shelving” space for additional storage containers.  As you can also see in the photo, when the furniture is not enough to accommodate all your clothing needs, many home furnishing/storage solution stores like IKEA or Homebase sell temporary clothes racks, with or without fitted coverings.  Further, people often have an erroneously negative perception of garden flats (they are no less safe than any other type of flat), which very often have more storage than their higher-floor counterparts in their front entryways.

Needless to say, whether it’s buying storage containers for above the shelf or below the bed and/or getting one of those handy vacuum bags to shrink your stored clothing down, you’ll figure it out.  Everything will find it’s place.  And with London Relocation‘s help, you’ll find YOUR place!  Take care, and we’ll see in you Part V of our series.

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What to Expect in a London Flat – Part III (a.k.a. Crouching Tenant, Hidden Dishwasher)

Friday August 28th, 2009

Author: Colleen

Now that you’ve made it up the stairs to the London flat and accepted that space is not going to be quite what you’d hoped, what may next strike you as peculiar is its hidden treasures.  Where are all the appliances?  This little aspect is actually quite the bonus, I think, as it is very characteristic of renovated flats to have major kitchen appliances like the refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, and washer/dryer (you heard me) concealed behind cabinet doors.  I’m assuming this concept stems from the space-saving survival techniques one has to employ–how to bundle everything you need together in this limited space whilst still preserving aesthetic appeal.  The old If-You-Can’t-See-It-It-Isn’t-There psychological trick, if you will.  And yes, I did just list the washer and dryer among the kitchen appliances–mine is located just beneath my stove, which is just brilliant, as my Chicago apartments never had in-unit washing options beyond Woolite and the sink.  In the states, most apartment complexes require you to use a communal basement laundry room or haul your laundry in a sack like Santa Claus to the nearest laundromat, either of which options cost $$$.  What is even better than having a washer right in your flat is the whole washer + dryer-in-one combo, as your little front-loader might indeed serve both functions.  Yes, again space becomes the issue as the washer drum is not all that large, requiring smaller, more frequent loads, and yes, you do have to air-dry clothing if wanting to wash consecutive loads before able to machine-dry any, but so what.  It really is not costly to invest in a drying rack (much less so than the gas you’d use to machine-dry), which is probably better for a lot of your clothing anyway in protecting it from shrinkage and other heat damage, depending on the fabric.  Some flats likewise offer radiator covers that might give you a bit more shelving surface, and many landlords have added cabinetry around the boiler and gas/electric meters (if the latter are in fact located in your unit as mine are) that can provide additional storage space to an extent.  If you’re viewing studios, in a few (perhaps now rare) cases, you might be just about to ask, “Where’s the bed?” when the agent proceeds to demonstrate how to pull the Murphy bed from the wall.  It’s all very in the spirit of IKEA smart space solutions, and I do give London landlords major props for that.  See you soon in Part IV of our series!

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What to Expect in a London Flat – Part II (a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven)

Thursday August 27th, 2009

Author: Colleen

Welcome to Vertical London.

Welcome to Vertical London.

Welcome back, folks, for the next post in my series on What To Expect When You’re Expecting…What You Had Back Home.  Yesterday, we addressed Size.  Today, we focus on another ‘S’ word.

Many visitors I’ve hosted have commented that they lost weight after coming to London.  The primary culprits?  Walking and STAIRS.  Ooohh, the stairs, people.  Whether at the Tube station, parks, museums, EVEN THE BUSES (double-decker, remember), you can’t even escape them when you come home.  Especially when you come home.  Once you turn the key and heave the heavy door open to your lovely building, you will most likely be staring down (get it?  Stare?  Stairs?  Ha!  Okay, you got it but chose not to laugh.  Fine.  I won’t pun again) a few flights of steps.  “That’s fine, I’ll just take the elevator,” you might say.  First of all, the term is “lift,” not “elevator.”  Second, um, er, well, yeah, no.  Not likely to be a lift in that building (and the movers hauling all of your stuff will just love that fact).

Initially, the daily ascent and descent may leave you gasping.  The landing before the last flight of steps to my 2nd floor flat (3rd floor by U.S. standards) was officially named after my mother last spring, as it was the point in the climb where she needed to pause to catch her breath each time.  Think of it this way–the money you save by not having to join a gym thanks to all the unsought-but-necessary exercise you get commuting daily can help offset that high rent.  At any rate, you and your bum WILL strengthen as a result and, in no time, think nothing of the stairs anymore.  If anything, it will just make you lament how out of shape you’ll be if you return home and regress to your driving-everywhere/couch-potato ways…

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment from London Relocation Ltd.…

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What to Expect in a London Flat – Part I (a.k.a. Size Matters…or does it?)

Wednesday August 26th, 2009

Author: Colleen

So pretty from the outside...but what lies within???

So pretty from the outside…but what lies within???

Before I go into this series of blog posts, I must preface that this will not be the end-all be-all, fully comprehensive guide to London flats on which to solely rely…there are obviously a lot of factors when it comes to properties, and exceptions to every rule.  I am simply going to write off the top of my head what I consider to be the initial impressions (shocks) most people seem to have once they relocate to London.

At this point, we just have to agree to leave cost concerns at the door.  The property market is what it is, and we at London Relocation Ltd. unfortunately have no more control over rent prices and currency conversion rates than you do.  We just have to accept this as an unfortunate reality and optimistically look to the vast opportunities London does provide us.

Let’s start with the obvious, shall we?  SIZE.  Just before you catch yourself mid-eyeroll upon seeing your first flat (especially in light of what you’re being asked to pay for it), let’s get some perspective here.  You are in London.  Not the sprawling landscape of America that encouraged Manifest Destiny.  You are now living in a city that still has roads based on paths the ancient Romans once wore into the soil.  If they appear too narrow, that is because they were originally established to accommodate horses and carriages, not your SUV.  It’s a city that experienced explosive growth under Queen Victoria’s reign, resulting in the abundant terraced housing that largely characterises London residential architecture–built closely to accommodate the population back then as single family homes before being broken down further into the levels of apartments you see now.

For example, upon doing some research, I learned that the living room of my 2nd floor terrace flat was once used as a master bedroom, our master bedroom once being the 2nd bedroom, and our 2nd bedroom not intended to be a bedroom at all (which is obvious with the way we crammed a bed in there), but, rather, a dressing room of sorts.  In fact, garden flats were the kitchen, ground-floor flats were the dining and morning rooms, 1st-floors were the parlor/reception rooms, and 3rd floors were the servants and/or children’s bedrooms.

Ready for some irony?  The mews homes located off the alleyways behind many of these terrace homes (you may be shown one as part of your flat-hunt with us!) originally housed horses at the ground level and servants’ quarters on the 1st floor–Americans will recognise this as the “coach house” concept.  The 2-story mews houses now accommodate the more affluent that can afford them, whereas the regular likes of us squeeze into the individual flats that the 5-tiered middle-to-upper class Victorian home has been cut up into, so there’s been a reversal of sorts in the social hierarchy where housing is concerned that some might find to be poetic justice.

Thinking in these terms not only justifies the sizing issue, but should also enhance your appreciation of the living history of which you are now a part.

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