“I'll start with the positives: the beds were incredible soft and comfortable, and the kitchen was really well-equipped and clean.”
The garden was gorgeous, although unfortunately the weather wasn't good enough for us to make much use of it – I'm sure we would've done if it wasn't such a wet week in March.
Unfortunately, when we arrived the boiler and heating were off and the house was freezing and smelled slightly damp in the front of the house. We rang the owner and they talked us through fixing the boiler, however water started spraying out of it and although the owner was apologetic and said he'd call out someone to look, we were told this wouldn't be for 2 days and until then to use water from the kettle to wash up and one plug-in space heater for the whole house. Very stressful, but thankfully we managed to fix it ourselves that night.
On top of this, the one bathroom shower is very weak, the internet is weak and can't be used in the kitchen, the living room lamp kept blowing the fuse if you tried to use it, the front door is very stiff which is a worry for less able people (you have to ram it open/shut!), there was a huge patch of condensation some days on the wall under the fuse box, and we couldn't get the gas fire going (but this may have been us, not a fault, but we had a good go at it)... plus some of the towels were stained and had a bit of an odd smell. On the whole, it feels like the whole place needs to be updated. There are mismatched patches of paint on the bedroom walls; and the house, as gorgeous as it could be, feels overall pretty neglected.
Pretty disappointed for the price we paid. As I say, it's got beautiful bones, it's just not very well maintained.
Hi,
I'm very sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy your stay and thank you for raising these points with me. Based on this feedback I just want to update you with the following:
- It turns out the boiler had an issue with its pump which was causing loss of pressure. This has now been rectified. I believe the slight damp smell would have been caused by the lack of heating in the run up to your stay. This shouldn't happen again.
Unfortunately, the remote thermostat didn't alert me to the issue of no heating and therefore compounded the issue. I've now managed to re-connect to it so I can monitor temp at all times.
- The tripping socket was identified to also have a fault and this has also been rectified
- The house has recently undergone a freshen up re painting, hopefully giving it a new lease of life
- I'm sorry you were unable to use the gas fire, I'd have happily walked you through the starting processes. I appreciate this can be troublesome and always encourage guests to to call me where issues arise
- The lack of pressure in the shower was due to a poorly connected hose to the shower head, I noticed a lot of water running from the bottom. I've now replaced the hose to ensured the connection is nice and tight
- We have had problems with the internet in the past so I invested in the BT extender disks last year. Possibly you only connected to the home hub which does have a weaker signal. My partner and I stayed last week and were both able to work from home in the kitchen. However I've added a 3rd extender to the middle of the house to hopefully further strengthen the signal.
Thank you for the positive comments on the beds, well equipped kitchen and gorgeous garden, It's a great shame you were unable to enjoy the outdoor space. I agree, the house does have lovely bones and hopefully with all of these updates I've moved it a little more toward model and further away from skeletor :)
Many thanks, The Owner
Property Owner
