SCU's Blog

As a person who works from home a lot I must take my health into consideration. My employer does offer support in furniture for home office e.g. desk and chair, but after careful consideration I think it would be better if I build one by myself.

I’m used to focusing on my screen for quite a long time, say 2 hours. This is definitely not a good practice and may cause HIVD (herniation of intervertebral disc). One of the precautions is – work on your feet! Just stand up and you can continue your work on screen.

That is to say, having a height adjustable desk could be one of the best options. I started from pre-assembled standing desk at first, however, they are pricey and their desktop are usually made from cheap materials including pine, plastic or even particle boards.

Then I decided to make it my own. Obviously I need two stuff – desk frame and desktop. Very fortunately I have found quite a few desk frame products on Amazon.co.uk and the brands include Flexispot, MAIDeSITe and so on.

(AD) Height Adjustable Electric Standing Desk Frame on Amazon.co.uk

For the sake of my wallet I added this MAIDeSITe T1 Basic to my cart. With around £180 only, it still offers:

• Powerful motor & stylish panel
• Adjustable height 72-120 cm
• Suitable desktop size from 50*100 to 80*180 cm
• 4 heights in memory

This desk frame is sold by MAIDeSITe and dispatched from Amazon, so you can enjoy the speedy delivery by Amazon with such a great deal.

(AD) Height Adjustable Electric Standing Desk Frame on Amazon.co.uk

And now since the legs are in place, it’s a good time to pick a desktop. A trendy option is the veneer worktop (yes, the one used in kitchen!) from IKEA, and from a comment below a Flexispot product I must say that it looks pretty nice!

Now all the parts are on the way, and I’m excited to see them work together!

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The date of contract exchange is approaching, and it’s time to imagine what could be added into the decoration series of my new home!

Personally I’m really in favour of green plants. My mom sometimes reminds me of my ‘anecdote’ that I was given 20 quid (which is a substantial amount at that time) for a school trip when I was in primary school, and there was no surprise that at the end of the day I spend all of them in exchange for several pots of flowers and green plants!

As I finished college and started working, seldom have I got time to stay long around the plants market, but fortunately Amazon still offers a wide range of choices – both the live and fake ones. Below are a few that come from my list:

This Areca Palm is the one I liked the most. It’s a tropical one, stunning and stylish, and is very easy to take care of. With only occasional watering, it gave my flat a very modern look.

Of course this is probably a huge one, and is not meant to live on my dinner table, so a mini or succulent one can be the best alternative.

Surprisingly I found this one. What makes it stand out from the others is that you can enjoy the happiness of growing a succulent plant – all in a box! It comes with three packs of seeds (Kalanchoe, Aloe, Agave) and six sets of pots, discs, markers and two packs of soil. That’s basically everything you need.

On the contrary to real plant comes artificial plants. I have to say that know it is artificial does undermine the happiness it brought slightly, but the advantage can’t be more obvious – it’s fake, so almost no maintenance is required. Keep the leaves away from dust and that’s it! And 100% no worries about overwatering (disaster), pests (disaster 2) and the burden when I’m away from home for a few days.

I think having artificial plant hanged up is a brilliant idea – given that you don’t need to get it off frequently and your guests would probably think it is a real one from a far look. This one from IKEA is probably one of the best choice:

Hope this blog can shed light on what green friends to have in your lovely home!

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Personally I don’t like carpets at all. I always wear slippers and I think carpets are the home for all the dusts and bacterias. The property I’m buying has carpets laid in the living room and bedroom. Actually it looks quite new – I guess it was laid 3-5 years ago, but I still want to replace it with hard flooring.

In the UK there are several choices for flooring suppliers. To name a few: IKEA, B&Q (diy.com), and carpetright. It took me quite a while to decide which type of flooring I’m going to laid: vinyl, laminate or wood flooring. Having calculated the budgets for three times I put up my mind to go with the wood flooring.

Ashridge Tawny Brushed Oak Solid Wood Flooring (carpetright.co.uk)

Obviously I have chosen the most expensive material, so I have to take full control on how I laid them out and what to use during this process.

First, I need to figure out the exact size of my rooms and leave an extra 5% to 8% when when calculating the number of packs I need. I found the tape measure from STANLEY quite useful. Remember – don’t try to save money on this one. Buy the 8m version, unless all of your rooms are less than 3m in length or width (or even height)!

(AD) STANLEY 8m/26ft Tape Measure on Amazon.co.uk

Next, when the floorings arrive, it is almost inevitable to cut them into pieces, as you would either follow the transposition (offset) fashion or laid them in the herringbone pattern. Thisangle ruler from WORKPRO is versatile and very easy to use – whenever you are measuring the angle or testing if the level is horizontal.

(AD) WORKPRO Combination Square Angle Ruler on Amazon.co.uk

To cut the wood flooring into pieces – never try to use a hand saw unless you have only one room. It will be a nightmare if you haven’t got proper tools. When it comes to circular saw there are an array of options, and I decided to try this one. It would have cost me at least 5 minutes with a hand saw (and to get a ‘jigsaw’-style edge), but with this HYCHIKA circular saw I only used 5 seconds to get a smooth and (almost) industrial level edge!

(AD) HYCHIKA Mini Circular Saw on Amazon.co.uk

Then, to put the flooring pieces into the right place I need to strike them and make the tongues and groves join. Obviously it is not advisable to use your fist so I tried different hammers in store and bought this one from amazon. It has the proper weight – not too heavy nor too light – and protect my wood pieces because it is made of rubber.

(AD) OX Black Rubber Mallet on Amazon.co.uk

Finally, although it is not required for recently-laid floors, it is advisable to polish your wood floor once several years. That is the charm of solid wood flooring – upon polish it will look brand-new no matter how many years it has already been used, while this option is unavailable for other floorings including laminate flooring with wood effect. I decided to buy this car polisher as I believe it is sufficient for me to use.

(AD) OX Black Rubber Mallet on Amazon.co.uk

Yay! This is the end of my notes on the useful tools when laying solid wood floor. Please let a comment and let me know what do you think!

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After a walkthrough (the initial ‘survey’) I found that there is another thing that might be a problem. Asbestos.

Asbestos can be found in all kinds of materials used in construction. To be honest, I didn’t notice that the property I’m buying might has an asbestos problem, until I saw someone from social media posted his experience of revealing asbestos in his home. That ceiling looks almost the same as mine, and before that I only thought it was a kind of pattern for decorative purposes.

The HSE’s website and other sources suggested that such type of asbestos textured coating usually contains 3-4% of white asbestos (chrysotile). Usually it is not considered as harmful as the loose ones in the floor cavity or around the pipes, but as a homeowner it is possible that I will try to drill on the ceiling one day. If it does contain asbestos, I prefer to get rid of it than to cover it, though the former will cost more.

Now I have to answer the questions: (1) where is the asbestos, and (2) what is the area affected. Since this flat has already been separated into different rooms, I assume that if one sample from a room turned out to be positive, then that room has asbestos throughout its ceiling.

My first reaction was to type checkatrade.com (of course!) and look for Asbestos Testing. On the following Thursday I got it tested and the results returned a week later.

Only the ceiling of the bathroom has asbestos.

That is so wired because I cannot tell the difference between the ceilings of different rooms. I checked with the seller immediately, who confirmed that he has never touched any ceiling in the past 15+ years. Then I decided to take Plan B – I ordered an Asbestos Sampling Kit from Amazon.co.uk the at once.

(AD) Asbestos Testing Kit on Amazon.co.uk

The kit was delivered the second day which is exactly what you would expect with (AD) Amazon Prime delivery, although the packaging is a bit of surprise – it was just bagged in a cheap dark plastic envelop and it has nothing to do with the yellow box shown in the product profile of Amazon. (I hope they can update it asap!)

I registered the kit on the lab’s website and returned the samples using the 1st Class prepaid envelop provided on Monday. It guaranteed 24-hour result since receipt but I would expect it to take longer as the Royal Mail is on another strike.

At the end of Tuesday I received the result, saying that only the bathroom has asbestos. Now I can negotiate the price with the seller.

(AD) Asbestos Testing Kit on Amazon.co.uk

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Finally finally after six rejections in nearly a month, I have an offer accepted. Several tasks will be running in parallel, including all the legal stuff and importantly, the survey.

As a first time buyer I was educated by almost everyone to take a survey. It should be an RICS Level 2 (HomeBuyer) survey in my case, since I’m purchasing a purpose-built flat. However, it is a leasehold property and theoretically it is supposed to be well maintained by the landlord (freeholder). After careful consideration I decided to carry out a detailed survey by myself and with the help of some tools.

The first thing I paid attention to is the electric. During my initial viewing (before I made my offer) I noticed that the distribution board (DB) was located in the cupboard in the bathroom, although there was plenty of room in the hallway. In my view there is no point to put the DB in a place full of condensation, and I suspect that there might be some unsatisfactory or even unsafe wiring given that the property was built in early 1990s.

The seller declared that the property has been rented out for several years so I asked for an EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report), which is a requirement for landlords in the private rented sector. The report gives an overall comment of ‘satisfactory’ and marked out 10+ items that can be improved. After reading it carefully I noticed that it said nothing about the power sockets, and I decided test them myself.

There are many types of wiring faults but to name a few, missing earth wire and reversed wires are quite common. I dare not to use a voltage tester (the ‘pen’) by inserting it into the socket, and fortunately I found a power tester that can do the work better (and safer) than me.

(AD) Reenwee Socket Tester on Amazon.co.uk

This power socket tester with colour display can tell you if socket you are testing is wired correctly, and if not, it can illustrate what exactly is the error (from seven possibilities). On the right side it shows the voltage between L and N (should be 220~240 V) as well as the leakage between N and E (should be nearly zero). When you put this gadget close to a wire, the NCV will indicate how strong the current is, which is extremely useful when the wire is hidden in the walls and you don’t know whether you are looking at the correct place to start your work or not.

I’m happy to say that all of the power sockets worked correctly. Although you can never substitute an experienced electrician with this £15 tool, I think it is totally worthy if you only need a few checks and a peace of mind.

(AD) Reenwee Socket Tester on Amazon.co.uk

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Several months after I landed in the UK, I’ve got a permanent job in one of the top-ranked universities in the South, and I’ve started renting. After having a very unpleasant (or more accurately, intense) conversation about bills with my landlord at midnight, I made up my mind the following morning to buy a property.

The pros of owning a house/flat is obvious. If you take a mortgage, your monthly repayment will be equal to (or even less than) the rent you pay to your landlord, while the biggest difference is – when you have paid back all the monies in c. 20 years, you will own the property outright, but if you pay rent for 20 years, it is the landlord who owns the property by then.

EDIT: Sept 2022 – Now please thick twice and do your math on interests carefully.

That said, with great power comes great responsibility. As a home owner you will have to take more care and pay its maintenance including council tax and service charge (unless you are the freeholder). However, I think it is worthy to buy a home, so I started in May 2022.

Time flies, and now I’m moving in! My property was sold with vacant possession and of course, unfurnished. Also I’m going to do some refurbishment work and make it a real ‘home’ of mine. Fortunately I found that Amazon.co.uk has most of the stuff I needed, though other choices are available from B&Q, IKEA and so on.

In the following posts I’m going to share what I have found useful. Please note that I’m an individual user and I’m not employed by Amazon, but as an Amazon Associate I was given chance to earn from qualifying purchases when you click on the link in my posts. Many thanks for reading and hope you find them helpful!