Latest Homes magazine

Malone discovers it’s a four-man job when it comes to buying a car

I am trying to buy a car. Apparently no one wants my money. I have been looking for a car for four months. The moment a new used car comes onto the website, I ring and they say it’s sold! How? Did they sell it before they blummin’ advertised it?

“Why oh why I went through with the test drive I don’t know. I found myself learning to drive an automatic car very quickly carrying two scared grown men”

The one time it wasn’t sold, I couldn’t work out how to get to see it as it was in Kent. The garden of England. Why do all dull places want us to pay a toll to get in? (Kent, Wales). I have no problem paying to get out. But in? It’s a cheek.

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Muddle East

During my seven years as a Landlady to foreign students, I have had lodgers from just about every country in the world – even some that I’d never previously heard of, like Mauritania. With them, the students bring their array of perplexing customs, traditions and most confusingly, their own idea of the English language.

“I spent my whole time in Spain telling everyone I was a ‘church’ rather than an English person“

As I’ve said many times before, most of them fall into the trap of hanging out with fellow language students and spend their entire visit living in a subset of England, which very definitely is nothing like England at all and more like Euro-Disco-On-Sea.Very often, the language in which they end up communicating is barely comprehensible to the average English person.

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Iconic design and architecture company Conran & Partners opens a Brighton office

Conran and Partners is the architecture and interiors company led by Sir Terence Conran. It has had offices in London for decades, but this year branched out and opened up here in Brighton. Headed by Director Paul Zara and Associate Director Lee Davies, they decided to open a Brighton office for several reasons.

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Andrew Kay is on the road, on the case and on a mission

How good did it make we residents east of the city feel when the new traffic system, ironically called the Peacehaven ‘bus corridor’, failed. From the outset most of us knew that as a concept it was doomed. Narrowing roads, removing bus pull-in lay-bys and inserting traffic signals where perfectly efficient roundabouts existed seemed, to most of us, folly.

“I asked if he lived in Brighton and he admitted that he did not. I was not surprised: if he did live here he would certainly not block yet another east-west passage across the city”

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With demand for rental property in the UK currently soaring, many agents are running out of properties to offer waiting tenants and are slashing their letting and management fees in a desperate bid to attract landlords.

Says Leaders’ managing director, Paul Weller: “Landlords should be aware when choosing a letting agent that you get what you pay for in terms of service and professionalism.

Cut-price fees could result in a cut-down service, and worse, in the agent not having the funds to deliver any service at all.” Leaders – who have been specialising in letting property for 25 years – point out that there is more to letting and managing a property than meets the eye.

Knowledgeable, well-trained staff are needed, prospective tenants should be vetted carefully, complex legislation must be complied with and much more. For more information about renting or letting in your area please contact your local Leaders branch.

01 Property Letting has been enjoying fantastic success since they launched at the beginning of July. To cope with the high residential letting demand and to increase their presence in the student letting market they have now recruited an addition to the team.

They welcome on board Lucy Parry, a lettings professional with four years’ experience, mostly specialising in student lets. Lucy says she is delighted to be working with such a new, forward thinking agency and excited to be appointed as the senior negotiator for 01 Property Letting in the vibrant student market.

The technology and personal communication ethos deployed at 01 Property Letting to both tenants and landlords is really going to work for the student market.

If you’re a landlord with a student property and would like to be included on their 2009/10 list, call Lucy on 01273 915101 or visit www.01propertyletting.co.uk

Emma and Nick, from the Velvet lifestyle and furniture stores, answer your design questions

I’m getting married next month and I’m looking for cheap but pretty ways to decorate the reception hall. What sort of look should I go for and how can I achieve this?
Lauren Bavistock, Brighton

Emma says: Firstly – congratulations, good luck with all the preparation. My sister has just got married and I know how much work is involved! There are lots of lovely little ways to decorate your hall on a budget.

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Latest Interiors looks at the brave new world that is high-definition and whole-home automation

Music and video that follows you from room to room, integrated IT and entertainment systems, and whole-home automation: all sound a little far-fetched? Well, this isn’t the future of home technology – it’s the here and now. Latest Interiors has done our homework, and this week we’re going to ease your home (gently, mind) into a glorious new age.

Pioneer KRL32V LCD Television This 32” HD Ready LCD (1920 x 1080p) features an upscale design and come with a high-contrast front filter, 3 HDMI ports and 100Hz processing to offer an unparalleled fastmoving picture performance. £1399 (37” also available £1599) only at Hills Sound and Vision 01273 418006. Hills Sound & Vision

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Building opinions with Robert Stuart Nemeth, the man with a keen eye on Brighton’s architecture

The Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich and its glorious surroundings, including the world-famous Observatory, are best viewed from the Thames as I discovered during another maritime-themed trip out and about with the godfather.

“The beginnings of a new palace for Charles II were constructed by the river but the project never came to fruition”

The view is one of pure history. But looking back from the Queen’s House, the centrepiece of the development, things couldn’t be more different.

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The Paul O’Grady Show’s Marc Abraham explains why it is so important to support animal charities in the current climate

This Sunday 7 September sees the 11th annual Sponsored Walk for the Animals, raising much needed funds for both excellent local charities; Cat Welfare Sussex and Sussex Pet Rescue; by far their biggest fundraising event of the year.

But for me, what makes this year’s sponsored walk even more special than the last ten is the effect of the current state of this country’s economy on our innocent pets. It may be credit crunch time for us humans, but never has there been such an increase in dumped, unwanted, and abandoned animals by thoughtless owners as a direct and incredibly tragic consequence.

Rescue centres across the country are trying their hardest to keep up with this latest influx as pets become too expensive to feed, treat and in the worst cases, even to put to sleep.

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