If you are an existing homeowner or first time buyer is important to take the time to plan your house move carefully and keep an eye on property news and think creatively. There is a whole manner of things to consider when selling or buying a home as part of the house buying process and it can be a lot of work as well as expensive.

Do not worry, help is at hand.

Getting Ready to Buy?
Whether you are considering purchasing your first home or are an existing homeowner looking to move, Homebase have created a detailed guide to buying a house which takes you through the process step-by-step.

This guide features top tips on buying a house from the initial search, covering off technicalities, making an offer to the final exchange and completion. You’ll be taken through what to look for in the search before you buy a new home, questions to ask when viewing properties and about the local neighbourhood to identify your dream home.  We’ll also take you through technicalities such as organising surveys, instructing solicitors to getting your mortgage.

So if you’re ready to buy then make sure you have a read of the Homebase house buying guide.

Getting Ready to Sell?
If you are a homeowner and planning on selling your existing home, Homebase’s selling home tips will come in handy.

The guide has pointers on everything from preparing your home to make a good impression, being ready for viewings through to de-cluttering and decorating. Through our guide you’ll be taken through the whole house buying process so you’ll know everything about selecting the right realistic price, accepting an offer and instructing solicitors to do conveyancing leading to the final exchange and competition.

On the Move
The time prior to completion, whether buying a house or looking to sell, can sometimes only be a matter of days or a couple of weeks. There is also a downloadable checklist for moving home which will help you plan a stress-free move and includes a timeline of things to do and organise that you can tick off as you go.

If this is the year for you to move home, you can get yourself off to a good start with Homebase. Even if you have only just started to consider buying or selling a house, remember to check out the Homebase house moving guides.

Fortunately the range of living room furniture has evolved with the range of technology available and we can create a living room capable of being both a multifunctional room and one that reflects our personalities and style. Choosing display cabinets, TV stands and entertainment units that match your technology, your personal style or living room décor is now easy.

Homes, Habits and Technology
The living room is where we traditionally spend and share most of our time. It’s a place to relax, learn, play and entertain as well as a place to display our most precious and sentimental treasures. But our home habits are changing.

On average, half of our time at home is now spent using technology products or consuming media content and in the age of mobile technology it’s not unheard of people watching TV, surfing the internet and texting on a mobile at the same time. Our most precious treasures are now our entertainment setups. We’re no longer showing off ornaments, we’re showing off how our television is connected to the computer and how HD or 3D technology is a part of our everyday TV and film watching. Choosing the right TV stand is therefore essential for an optimal viewing experience.

Convenient Furniture for Storing Technology
Comparing modern technology to old technology, we can see the dramatic change in style, size and use. Our televisions are no longer hard to conceal as we don’t have vast boxes dominating a room and our music collection is no longer filling furniture such as a pine bookcase but a single iPod or MP3 player capable of holding thousands of songs. This change in technology has also sparked a change in living room furniture as stylish TV units, display cabinets and entertainment units are now the norm for our thinner, lighter and more advanced gadgets.

The role of our living room and our technology is changing and furniture is changing too. Console tables and entertainment units capable of holding TVs, DVD or Blu-ray players, Sky boxes and much more are no longer uncommon in our home. The latest designs in living room furniture take into account modern living habits, styles and technologies making it even easier for you to make your house a home truly catered to how you work, play and live.

So you buy a new home and now you have a date to move – and you must be buzzing with excitement!

The purchase of your first home is truly momentous and one that often heralds in a new chapter in your life. Your new home could be where you hope to bring up your family or you could be moving to a different area for work. Either way buying a home for the first time promises a fresh start with new opportunities, but the process of moving home is in itself a challenge which you need to plan for carefully in advance and can be scary.

Not sure where to begin? Let us help you get started.

Planning Your House Move

If you are moving for the first time or a current homeowner and planning a move to a new home, Homebase have prepared a step-by-step guide to moving house that will help you make your move smooth and stress-free.

Our guide covers everything from picking the right removals company or packing firm, taking out insurance on your belongings to the art of good packing and getting your paperwork organised.

Getting Packed Before Your Move

Of course you will need to leave your current residence first before you can enjoy your new home. With the Homebase guide you will find useful tips on moving house such as the do’s and don’ts of packing sensibly. Most of us hoard too many things, so getting rid of stuff you don’t need is a good start. You’ll find out methods of packing well-labelled boxes that make it easier for you to find and unpack when you finally get to move to a new home.

Before You Move Into Your New Home

Before you move your furniture and belongings it is worth giving some thought to the condition of your future home, does it need a lick of paint or a new boiler? For further assistance on making the transition smooth, Homebase have put together a detailed downloadable checklist for moving house with a handy timeline which will ensure you tick off these options as you approach your magic move date.

If you are about to buy or nearing completion of the purchase of your new home and beginning to feel the buzz of moving to your future home, remember you are not alone with Homebase. Check out our guide to moving house and we will walk you through all the steps you need to make your move a happy one.

This is also a brilliant time for tidying plants, tying climbing plants back to trellis’s, clearing away dead leaves and discarding any plants that have not been removed from the annual planting from last year. Remember though the optimum time for planting new bulbs for spring is between October and December.

Preparing Your Lawn For Spring
Everyone loves a beautiful lawn and children love to play on them too which is why it’s so important to maintain your lawn on a regular basis.  To get a healthy lawn after the harsh winter, you’ll need to start taking care of your lawn as we come into spring. But there are a few things to consider before you think about lawnmowers. So let’s get started!

One of our top tips on lawn care is to rake up dead leaves and to avoid any build-up of thatch – a layer of grass stems, roots and debris below the grass-line which happens when lawns have never been aerated properly. Avoid skimming at the surface and rake deep to help aerate the lawn. Raking in spring repairs damaged lawns especially after any extended period of snow cover when snow mold may have left matted patches. Fertilizing your lawn in spring helps growth in summer months, but be wary of over fertilizing as it can lead to weed problems.

There is no need to wait until summer – so roll maybe out a new Flymo this spring!  We think you’ll love the Flymo as a straight forward and easy-to-use lawnmower. For the more advanced gardener you may prefer the performance and freedom of petrol lawn mowers which are more powerful and useful for cutting through thicker grass.

Trimming Your Hedges
Gorgeous lush hedges can add value to your property; they provide both privacy and wind protection as well being a home for wildlife such as birds and insects beneficial to gardens.  Treat your hedges as part of your overall landscape design with careful planning and maintenance techniques using hedge trimmers.  Established hedges should be periodically trimmed to cut the outgrowth of small bushes and hedges a few times during the growing season – with the main trimming happening at the end of the growing season.

Don’t forget that strimmers are ideal way to tidy up around hedges as they give you the access you need to trim long grasses and tough overgrown foliage.  Some handy strimmers are also suitable to trim the edges of lawns too.

At Homebase there is a wide selection of all gardening tools to help your garden recover from winter and make your spring gardening work as easy as possible.  Bring the joy into gardening and awaken your garden for the season ahead. We have a wonderful selection of plants, shrubs and trees that are perfect to turn any garden into a tranquil and lush haven.

Before you even start to consider which emulsion paint you want or which paint rollers to buy, you need to put together a simple plan by scoping out your project. Make a note of which interior rooms, doors, windows and any exterior spaces you want to decorate.  This will give you an idea of the size of your project which can then be broken down easily into bite-size pieces, usually working from room to room.

Getting Ideas for Decorating Your Home
To find the right look for your home, you need to think about how the different spaces and existing furnishings work together, the shapes of the rooms, where there is light and dark and colours of existing furnishings or flooring.  The last thing you want to do is to waste a whole load of paint and wallpaper decorating without having done any planning and then for all the colours to clash when you finally put the furniture and soft furnishings back in the room. With this in mind you should go about researching  ‘the look’ you want and find decorating ideas for the rooms that complement existing soft furnishings – maybe through building a scrapbook of interiors or use online tools such the Homebase Decorating Tool to work out your colour scheme.

Once you have decided on the look you want, you should have an idea on which walls and fittings will have certain colours or finishes – who knows you might decide against paint and give your living room wallpaper instead.

Don’t Run Out Of Paint
How much paint for walls do you need to complete your decorating?  The quantity of paint required to decorate your walls can depend on many factors including the type of paint, the brand and the wall surface. Knowing these quantities will help you to price-up your home decorating project so Homebase have designed a tool to help you calculate the quantity of paint required.

Your first step should be to measure all the wall and ceiling spaces you plan to decorate to know roughly the width and length of each wall for each different colour you will be using. You can then enter these measurements into the Homebase Paint Calculator to work out the quantities required for each area and colour of paint. Remember to count the number of doors and know approximate window sizes as the calculator takes these spaces into consideration to provide you with an overall estimate of how much paint you need to cover the wall areas.

Which Brand of Paint to Choose
Each brand usually has its own unique colour schemes of different shades in colour and interior design ideas or even speciality – such as paint for different purposes like bathroom paint. With careful research into ‘the look’ of your home you will be able to compare colours and finishes from different brands to find the ones that suit your home design ideas the best. It is highly advisable that you buy testers so you can colour small sections of your wall to check how it looks especially as paint colours can change slightly when they dry.

Furniture for Relaxing in Your Garden
Whether you have a large rural garden, a city garden or even a yard there are all manner of ways for you to design it to be your little piece of paradise. A good garden is usually one that has had some careful planning and at the very least you need to know the best parts of your garden, such as where the sun falls, at what time of day and where it is the most private. Knowing these things will help you with planning your garden layout and give you a better idea of where to put garden benches or loungers, so when the scorching summer finally arrives you can kick back and enjoy some sun on your face.

Garden Furniture for Entertaining
While your garden is a place to relax and a great space for kids to play safely, it can also be the ideal environment to entertain your friends and family. If you are garden proud then you may well relish the opportunity to show off your garden and give other people the chance to enjoy it at its best. From family picnics to enjoying barbeques in the garden with friends, having a garden table and chairs or even a parasol is an absolute must and there are all sorts of styles to choose from so you can find the right look for your garden.

Enjoying your Garden
There are plenty of reasons to bring your social life into your garden and spending quality time with friends and family is one of them from playing on the grass with your kids to hosting a barbeque. Equally it can be your quiet haven too as a place to relax and unwind. So whilst raking up autumnal leaves may still be a recent memory, this may be the ideal time for you to think about planning your garden to be more sociable and pick up some new garden furniture to give your garden a makeover ready for summer.

So you’ve decided to up sticks and move, but now what?

There are many steps to selling a house and understanding the selling process is one step towards helping you manage the process for a smooth transition.

There may be all sorts of reasons for moving home – you may be downsizing after retirement or needing to move home to accommodate your growing family and want to be within a schools catchment area. But at this stage rather than consider your next purchase you need to think about who might want to buy your current home so you and your estate agent target the right people. Is your home ideal for a family with young children, professionals or an older couple?

Not sure where to start? We can help.

Putting your House on the Market

Whether you are selling your home for the first time or done it before, Homebase have prepared a step-by-step guide to selling a house that will help make the sale process clearer and stress-free.

Before you pick up the phone to find an estate agent, you need to consider what to do to show your home at its best. This guide features some key selling home tips that help you prepare your home, such as de-personalising and removing clutter so buyers can see past your belongings to imagine the home as their own. This might be the perfect opportunity to sneak in a bit of early packing or even do a spot of redecorating to make the interior take on more neutral easy-on-the-eye tones.

If you are selling privately, online or through a traditional estate agent you may need to shop around for one that your trust and which suits your needs best. The Homebase selling guide will help you consider important details such as making sure you have great photographs that really sell your home and quality floor plans that encourage buyers to contact the estate agent to organise a visit.

Getting the Right Price for Your Home

It is worth reading up on property news in your area and check prices of houses of similar size to yours to accurately gauge the best price to advertise your property at. In the Homebase guide are important points such as entering into negotiations with a buyer when selling a home, how to identify the best sort of buyer and calculating how much extra you might need to spend on your next home.

The price you choose will ultimately determine whether a buyer decides to take the next step.

Completing the Sale of Your House

Once you have received and accepted an offer on your home – you will find huge relief, but I’m afraid the wait will be not quite over. The selling guide will walk you through the next few key steps starting with working closely with solicitors who will perform searches and surveys on your property finally leading to the contract of sale and exchange that seal the deal. Once you hit completion then you will at last be able to celebrate and relax fully. It will then be your turn to be buyer and have the excitement of discovering your ideal home.

So, even if you are about to sell or just thinking about it, Homebase have got it covered. Remember to check out the selling house checklist and Homebase house moving guides to help you plan and understand the house selling process from beginning to end.

How to settle seamlessly into the rural English village community,from the international family’s viewpoint. (Read the published article on-line)

England in the summer is like a large well-kept garden that stretches on forever. For centuries landowners and horticulturists have shaped the land and as a result every county in England has something peculiar in its landscape and local culture to discover.

The countryside of England today reflects the wealth of landowners and success of those who can afford to escape the trappings of city life. According to a recent survey conducted by Country Life magazine, some 80 percent of Britain’s population dream of living in the countryside, whilst only 20 percent actually live there.

English village communities are small and often eccentric. They are, however warm and usually welcoming, reflecting local charms of the ‘English character’. The local post office or shop is the communications hub of every village, while the village pub offers an opportunity for new arrivals to get to know local culture and its personalities. But the heart of many rural communities remains a — usually historic — village church around which many community activities—and squabbles—revolve, from village fêtes, parish council meetings to flower arranging.

Fitting into village life

Once a celebrated radio presenter in Shanghai, Maggie Zhang spoke to me about her experiences. She and her Scottish husband moved to a village near York in North Yorkshire shortly after their marriage.  Five years later and still in the same village, she reflects on how she and her expanded family, they now have two children, find village life.

“Village life is wonderful for the kids,” says Maggie. “There is a great sense of community here. Shanghai is all about money, money, money. Here it is more relaxed and you can’t tell who has money and who hasn’t.”

For Maggie, getting to know local people hasn’t been a problem. The post office has been the main place of contact and neighbours often greet her in the street. Through motherhood, attending post-natal classes and now as her children go to nursery she finds herself increasingly involved with the community, meeting new people and invited to children’s parties.

The residents of Maggie’s village are hardly multi-cultural, yet in her view seem easy going. Maggie hinted that even if local people are curious about her background, so far no one has said anything.

“English people don’t ask direct questions, unlike Chinese, English people ‘go around the moon to meet the sun.’”

Children, however, are much more direct and like any mother her greatest worry is her children’s future and how they will get along at school.

Five months ago, Claudia, a lawyer, and her British husband moved from Puerto Rico to a new housing estate within a village in Derbyshire to bring up their daughter of two years.

Despite past experiences as an expatriate working in East Asia, the transition to England for Claudia has been made more difficult because of the isolation she feels through living in the country-side. “In a city it is easier to feel less like a foreigner than in rural areas.” she says, despite the advantage of a rural village being “cheaper”.

For internationals used to city life, living in an English country village presents its own challenges.  For instance, there aren’t so many facilities as in a city and transport links aren’t so well-developed. It can also be harder to find like-minded communities of internationals. For some expats it may be best to select a village near a major city to experience the best of both worlds. Country Life counsels people to take the advice of estate agents on choosing the right place to live and identify the “five Ps: a pub, public transport, parish church, primary school and post office.”

Top tips for surviving in an English village

Maggie and Claudia’s suggestions for making a success of life in the English village are:

1. Improve your language skills.
2. Make an effort to be part of the community.
3. Listen to the radio and read the news to stimulate conversation.
4. Encourage your children to make local friends.
5. Try to explore different places at weekends.
6. “Recharge your batteries” by going to London every now and then to experience what a city has to offer over a country village.
7. Learn about gardening! English village communities love their gardens, so having a nice garden is a matter of pride and a good talking point!

• Author: Peter Orange, 2009
• Publisher: Expatica

(Source: expatica.co.uk)

It is the season to be merry and after a hard gruelling year slogging away everyone is ready for this festive season. As some families polish their silver tableware ready for the Christmas day feast, villages and cities hang up their festive decorations and open the doors to a season of Christmas shopping and anticipation for Christmas day.

What makes a classically English Christmas? Classic poems would probably do a better job of capturing the festive spirit. With so many cultures sharing the Christian tradition of Christmas it is a little tricky pointing out what is truly an original English Christmas. Indeed it would be fair to say that even regions throughout England have their own quirky festivities – as do Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  So it is worth visiting local tourism or government websites to check what’s on in your area.

Also England has become increasingly multi-cultural with families of many different religious faiths, we would advise readers to be sensitive to other’s beliefs during this season. That said, Christmas has perhaps become more of a Western cultural festival in recent years as it has become more commercial. However it is worth noting that its roots derive not only from Christianity, but also Paganism — in northern Europe pagans celebrated the winter solstice, known as Yule.  Yule was symbolic of the pagan sun god, Mithras, being born.

Let’s look then at some of the top things that make Christmas special in England.

The family

For England, Christmas is a time when all the family tend to come together from wherever they might be. Each family has its own tradition’s but in cases where families are far apart, it is an important decision to decide who will host Christmas this year.  Panic in the kitchen with Christmas dinner preparations are fairly normal. Family members tend to buy each other presents and put them under the Christmas tree, to open on Christmas day.

Read the full article at Expatica.com

• Author: Peter Orange, 2009
• Published by Expatica.com

Here is Expatica’s short introduction to the political system of the United Kingdom, and some notable political parties of influence. (Read the published article on-line)

Are the islands called the United Kingdom or just Britain? And what about England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – are they separate countries?

These questions are often asked by bemused internationals, and, depending on whom you ask, you will most likely get a different answer. The ‘countries’ of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have distinct cultures and proud independent histories that identify them. Acts of Union passed centuries ago brought these countries into one political union.

This union is what is formally known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – which is often considered a bit of a mouthful. The historical significance of the Union is important because it underpins some of the political dynamics of the country and possibly contributes as to why it has become so multi-cultural.

Norman Tebbit, once Member of Parliament, voiced a controversial opinion in 1990 that suggested that a person’s origins were indicated by which national sports team they supported.

If you put this to the test today and ask a Scot which rugby team they support, their answer likely won’t be England or Wales. Such proud differences are friendly, but the reasons for them stretch back across centuries of historical conflict.

Read the full article here

• Author: Peter Orange, 2009
• Publisher: Expatica.com