Second valuation

Today's valuation by Pattinsons was much more encouraging. They'll also put it in writing. It's quite feasible that we could get around 300K for this - perhaps more if the market picks up (as it will - and in the time frame we're thinking of, this may indeed be the case!!). He was much more upbeat about the house than the guy from RMS - structurally in good nick. The only thing that could do with a bit of work being the kitchen, which we know anyway. We'll get something in the post from them (again, this is better than RMS who just did everything verbally).

Whilst we were talking, we got onto the subject of the marble fireplace (the fellow from RMS had noticed this, too). It's a really good feature of the house and this lead us onto a chat about security. Such fireplaces are still getting nicked and it takes only a few minutes to do so if you have a team of people and a lorry out the back. What's scary is that it requires the thieves know when a house is empty (at least of people) and they seem to have eyes and ears everywhere.

From a security point of view, the weak spot is the back kitchen door. There is nothing more than a bolt at floor level and a deadlock bolt at waist level - it's got a huge glass window on it, too. I was considering replacing this almost two years ago but didn't get round to it - there's the issue of cost. Do any of you have an opinion about this? If I had loads of money I'd get the whole of the back - kitchen, yard, garage, redone but I don't think this is feasible. But I'd like your opinion about the back kitchen door. Can you recommend a door type (PVC I assume).