Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

LydiaJ

Woohoo. I have found which box the base of the cordless phone was in. Now I can be on the phone without having to be in the middle of the open plan bit of the house. :j

ETA X-posted with lir. Sorry to hear about the prima donna demands of your bats, lir. I didn't mean to say "woohoo" about that.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

wildlife is not in my best books tonight. :mad::mad::mad:


Rudy flamingoes would want their shrip off a silver platter if the wretched bats we've id'd tonight are any indication.

Now we've found them we've been told what they have isn't good enough and part of my kitchen budget has to go towards providing them with a second home sacrificing our bedroom five to them (they prefer a southern aspect), and then PROVIDING THEM WITH A HEATER AND A DEHIDIFIER. I DON@T even HAVE A HEATER!

oooooops.....shouting.

Oh dear... can we put our noddles together to find an MSE solution to this? Maybe there's some middle ground the 'experts' will agree to.

Doozergirl

Oh dear on the bat front:( can't you build them their own house?

It's been a glorious dAy and evening here, I am itchy from sun. We are now having the most enthralling thunderstorm! DS is counting the forks. I am In my room, lights off, pretending to like it but am scared. It's not even that close!

lostinrates

Doozer PN...yes please...ideas welcome.

We have lots of barns, only one (the one that was to be my tackroom and is a (patched with breezeblock) 18th centuary barn is apparently likely to be of any interest to them, and only if we fit it out like Brighton pavillion.


I like bats I WANT hundreds of them here. They eat bugs that otherwise chomp on us, so they are great. I' ore than happy to build them whatever they want ...if it means we have what we want too!

PasturesNew

Can you just build a bunch of bat boxes all over the place?
http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factsheets/batbox/index.php

Where are they currently living? Need to make the bat boxes more attractive to them

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Can you just build a bunch of bat boxes all over the place?
http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factsheets/batbox/index.php

Where are they currently living? Need to make the bat boxes more attractive to them

Mine apparently won't live in bat boxes. stupid creatures. Fussy things They need 2 metres of head room...seriously! And like to both hang and crevice dwell. They are long eared bats.

they currently live in my loft!

PasturesNew

Did you know they were there before you bought?

PasturesNew

http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/bats/britishbats/batpages/brownlongeared.htm

Says they like bat boxes.
They like warm houses too .... might be time to insulate between the rafters and loosen a few tiles on the windy side of the roof

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

I reserve my right to complain. I am a voter and am thouroughly piddled off that the electoral regster people didn't sort it out in time for us to vote. (we asked for the form in Jan, then in Feb, then in arch...when we got it, sent it back and ....they have no record of it:mad:)


No one wants to come and dig holes for me, builders think its too little a job, and odd job en think its too big a job.


DH is going to start the this weekend .

I would if I was nearer as could do with some rough heavy digging exercise to unravel my head.

lostinrates wrote: »

Hmm. Some digging here with a spade in the easier soil suggests more bad news. Not the foundations, they look smashing actually, but that our beloved limes, the trees we fell in love with the house for, see to have their roots going straight under the house. Now I guess we need some sort of expert to determine whether leaving them or taking them out will cause more damage. The architect certainly felt that they should stay, the structural engineer that they should go. The structural engineer also said the oak had to go. I just can't stand the loss of all these trees. They fit with the house, they make it what it is.

Do the roots still grow if you crop the trees regularly (so they stay sameish size all the time? If the house is happily settled around them and the roots stay the same size, then maybe you could leave them in?

lostinrates wrote: »

wildlife is not in my best books tonight. :mad::mad::mad:


Rudy flamingoes would want their shrip off a silver platter if the wretched bats we've id'd tonight are any indication.

Now we've found them we've been told what they have isn't good enough and part of my kitchen budget has to go towards providing them with a second home sacrificing our bedroom five to them (they prefer a southern aspect), and then PROVIDING THEM WITH A HEATER AND A DEHIDIFIER. I DON@T even HAVE A HEATER!

oooooops.....shouting.

Didn't Liz Jones have to build a bat house...cost her 30k or something crazy IIRC?
I don't get why the rules demand you provide heating when they are a wild animal so should be used to winter cold...very strange rule.


I have tried to catch up last few pages. Congrats on the sale DG.

We spent last weekend in Bari Italy (almost wondered if I would bump into LIR and her DH @ Stanstead....but didn't see a case held together with duct tape). It rained, we slept a lot and made some important decisions without any home/work distractions around us.

I just realised I now have my 1st full day at home tomo for 5 weeks :eek: as worked through the previous ones. Tomo, serious cleaning to be done and Sunday....something wandery....maybe the big booty in N Kent to pick up some plants and a leg of lamb.


I am so off the MSE wagon it's embarrasing but I was quite proud of our bargain Italy trip that then turned out to cost as much as a weeks family holiday in high season...if not more.

It started with one of my employees saying her brother had these 2 tickets, wasn't going and would we like them for £50 each. Back in early Feb seemed a very good idea so I went online and found a very nice old palazzo hotel just outside for 400 euros (4 nights ) with pool and so on.

Then he tried to change the tickets and it cost £220......and we nearly pulled it but thought ok.

We spent so much on taxis I can't begin to add it up.....as couldn't walk anywhere from hotel so 35 odd euro to get to city centre and back. Twice in one day seemed crazy if we wanted to change after trudging about and then go back out for
dinner
It rained, it was cold for 3 days out of 4, I only took nice lightweight clothing so was cold the whole time

To go out to dinner started @ 35 euro (for the taxi to + from) then the dinner.....and the 1 euro/£1 really makes everything so pricey. We ate in the hotel too (which was luxe) but it all added up and up.
Did some sightseeing and it was nice to see a part of the world I have never been to before. My rusty Italian got us by too.

Sunday afternoon I read and OH lay in bed watching Italian ''Deal or No Deal ' and found he didn't need to understand Italian to know what was going on. By late afternoon he remarked that this maybe what a 'Chav's ' life is like and wondered if he could do nothing at all day after day. Non PC remark I know but had me laughing out loud.

By Monday PM I felt like my brain had been Mr Muscled, all squeaky clean....but the rest of this week soon muddied it up again.

fc123

Late night question to 'Those that Know about These Things'.

We did a lot of talking and some planning for 2-3 years time and I was wondering about planning rules on outside 'workshops' or other buildings on Small holdings (non agri tie ones and small hobby type of 2 - 3 acres).

If you bought a house with 3 acres that had some stables or other out buildings/workshops could you get planning to turn them into a studio space (for my type of work)? There seem to be a lot of places that once had horses but don't seem to operate as a school/livery any longer and only small bit of land.


It doesn't need to be swishy but would need windows + elec for lighting. Water not reqd.


Technically, I can live/work anywhere and we have 2.5 years left on riverffront lease and wouldn't want to continue to rent after that time.

We will be discarding some corp stuff soon too as it's doing my head in......I need my freedom of mind back 100% not P/T.

Any tips would be great......and areas would be Dorset/Devon/Wilts I think and not too far inland....but deff inland as couldn't afford sea views and space.