Author: Hannah Freya

You hear thumping above the ceiling at 2 a.m. Then scratching. Maybe a low chittering sound near the chimney. If that sounds familiar, you are probably searching for how to get raccoon out of house without making things worse for you, your family, or the animal. Do not rush, do not seal anything yet, and do not try to handle the raccoon yourself. The safest approach is to find out whether babies are present, encourage the raccoon to leave on her own, confirm the space is empty, and only then close the entry point for good. First, Make Sure…

Can I move house on a fixed rate mortgage? Yes, you can. Being in the middle of a fixed deal doesn’t stop you selling your home and buying another. What it changes is the cost. Leave a fixed deal early without a plan and you will usually face an early repayment charge (ERC). Plan it properly and you can often avoid that charge altogether by taking your deal with you, which is known as porting. What Is an Early Repayment Charge (ERC)? An ERC is a fee your lender can charge if you pay off all or part of your…

Every renovation starts with the same question: what do you want to still love in ten, twenty or thirty years? When you are renovating your home, paint colours and light fittings are easy to change later. Floors and wall coverings are not. They are the surfaces you walk on, look at and live with every single day, and they are the hardest and most expensive things to redo. That is exactly why more homeowners, designers and builders keep coming back to natural stone. It is one of the oldest building materials in the world, and it is having a real…

It’s one of the most common myths in international property circles: spend enough on a UK home and the right to live there for good will follow. Plenty of buyers also hear that holding the property inside a company is the smarter, more private way to do it, which is why “how to buy a house under a corporation” has become such a popular search. Does buying a house in the UK give you residency? Immigration lawyers are unusually unanimous on this one. Property ownership and immigration status operate in entirely separate legal frameworks, according to London firm Gherson, and…

You walk into the living room and there it is: a warm, sweet, spicy scent of cinnamon. The oven is off. No candle is burning. Nobody has baked anything in days. So why does my house smell like cinnamon? It is a strange moment, and it is more common than you might think. In most cases the answer is harmless: a scented product, a spice, or new materials in the home. Sometimes, though, a “random” smell is your home or your body trying to tell you something. Scented Products You Forgot About This is the number one culprit, especially in…

You pull back the bath mat, switch on the kitchen light or move a plant pot, and there they are: a scurry of grey, many-legged little creatures. If you have been typing “why are woodlouse in my house” into Google, you are far from alone. Woodlice are one of the most common creepy-crawlies to turn up indoors, especially as the weather turns cold and wet. Why Are Woodlouse in My House? The 5 Main Reasons You Have a Damp or Humid Area This is the big one. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) explains that woodlice can wander in from the…

Can I buy a house and keep my council house? With rents still climbing, more working families are sitting somewhere uncomfortable in the middle. They earn too much to feel secure on a low wage, yet not enough to buy comfortably without help. If that sounds familiar, understanding how income limits really work is the first step. Social housing in Ireland is designed for people who cannot afford a home of their own, so owning another property that could meet your housing need generally puts your eligibility, and potentially your tenancy, at risk. The detail matters, though, and it depends…

The cost of an average 3-bedroom house in the UK depends on its location, property type, condition, and local housing market. Prices can vary significantly between cities, towns, and rural areas, with properties in London and the South East generally costing more than those in many parts of northern England, Scotland, and Wales. Average Price by Property Type: Where the 3-Bed Fits Here is where things get useful. Three-bedroom homes are overwhelmingly terraced or semi-detached, so those two rows are your real benchmark. Detached three-beds exist (bungalows, mostly) but sit higher. Flats rarely have three cozy bedrooms, so ignore that…

Ask three estate agents about house prices in Teddington and you may hear three different numbers. One will quote an average of around £650,000, another will say £900,000, and a third will tell you detached homes here regularly go past £1.5 million. None of them is necessarily wrong. They are simply measuring different things. If you are buying, selling or investing in this corner of south-west London, knowing how to read the numbers matters more than memorising any single figure. Why Teddington Prices Are Hard to Pin Down Teddington sits in the London home Borough of Richmond upon Thames, between…

A summer house is the part of the garden where you read, work, host friends or simply switch off. So when the roof starts to leak, it stops being a pleasant retreat very quickly. The good news is that learning how to felt a summer house roof is one of the more approachable DIY jobs around. With the right felt, a dry day and a methodical approach, most people can finish it in an afternoon. Why Felting Your Summer House Roof Matters Roofing felt is the waterproof skin on top of your roof boards. According to Screwfix, felt protects a…