Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

Wheezy_2

vivatifosi wrote: »

But what a great Grand Prix and an epic drive from JB! It's not bad when you can: 1) have a collision with your team mate, 2) have a collision with a Ferrari, 3) have a drive through penalty, 4) make wrong decisions on tyres meaning that you have visited the pits six times, 5) be at the back of the field at one point and in spite of all of this still go onto win. It's one of those rare drives that GP fans will be talking about for years and he truly deserved the win.

Yes, great race it was.
Lewis Hamilton thought he was riding dodgems at the fair again, what's wrong with him this season?

michaels

Builders!!!! Need I say more.

When they were laying out the foundations they seemed to be too close to the neighbouring property (planners say 1m gap from boundary for a 2 storey extension). It turns out that the architect had only measured at the front of the property and that actually because the road is slightly curved the boundary in effect 'comes in' on that side.

Got home at lunchtime to find they had built the wall to dpc level in the same wrong place as had been the case with the original foundations even though it had clearly been agreed that this would not be passed y building control / the planning department if (when) the neighbour complained.

Moving the whole wall in the required 200mm will lose us quite a lot of space overall so I am suggesting that only the rear projecting part of the extension is moved in as most of the boundary taper seems to happen beyond the back of the house (it looks as if the neighbour when doing the fence and their drive 'borrowed' a bit of our garden but this does not seem to be the moment to get in to that discussion). Architect says this should be no problem but the builder says 'structural issues'. Now I need to get back to the structural engineer for his thoughts but it seems to me it is worth paying a little more so we only lose 20 square feet rather than 60.

neverdespairgirl

LydiaJ wrote: »

I was the child who asked publicly "Mummy, why do we always have a tablecloth and milk jug when Granny comes?"

You must have been child of the day chez vous!

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

The whole place apart from the bathrooms is going to be painted jasmine white, with a china blue colour on the door frames, a steel beam, and the chimney breast upstairs.

......

It's all very exciting!

It is indeed exciting! Hurrah!

The paint decisions will make it feel bigger, more stylish too, seemless and unchanging. I really admire your restraint...I know I couldn't do it, however much more stylish the result will be! Good for you!

GDB2222

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

We are also going to have slightly bizarre framed exposed patches of the industrial bricks upstairs - left unpainted

Is that simply in tribute to the origins of the building?

GDB2222

michaels wrote: »

(it looks as if the neighbour when doing the fence and their drive 'borrowed' a bit of our garden but this does not seem to be the moment to get in to that discussion)

Hmm, would that make all the difference to whether you are too close to the boundary?

lemonjelly

http://www.theelectric.co.uk/programme.php?film=290

For Viva & other F1 affecionadoes (sp?) in case you were not aware...

michaels

It would help but probably not solve the problem - given how think the lines are on the land registry diagrams I can't see how it could ever be proved either way and I suspect it has been as it is for a long time and this neighbour is already unhappy about the extension so I can't see him coming to a quick and amicable agreement...

GDB2222 wrote: »

Hmm, would that make all the difference to whether you are too close to the boundary?

LydiaJ

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

We spent a lot of yesterday at our new place making decisions about colours / paints / floors.

Lots of work has already been done - all the ceilings re-plastered, the walls re-plastered where they need it, the bathrooms all ripped out, the walls re-built, bath and new shower tray installed, undercoating etc done, the windows all sanded down and re-painted (and they are HUGE windows, 7 feet high and very wide!)

Now we've made most of the important decisions - we're having grey slate in the hall downstairs and the kitchen upstairs, and pale sandy slate in the bathrooms. We're having engineered oak floors in the bedrooms.

The whole place apart from the bathrooms is going to be painted jasmine white, with a china blue colour on the door frames, a steel beam, and the chimney breast upstairs. Isaac's room is a pink-ish cream, after we rejected his first choices of bright orange and dark red. Because we do want him to actually sleep once in a while.

We are also going to have slightly bizarre framed exposed patches of the industrial bricks upstairs - left unpainted, and "framed" as if they were pictures.

It's all very exciting!

It will look fabulous. I hope you'll be putting some pics up (over on the other site maybe) when it's been done. I must say, that would be too much slate for me - not just because it's cold, but because in my family it would also be an issue that things break when they fall on it, and it's slippery when people spill things. But perhaps such occurrences aren't so common in your household.

lostinrates wrote: »

I feel the temperature, if I'm hot I'm ''baking'' if I'm cold I'm ''freezing''. Since my thyroid packed up anyway. And also, its mainly cold now. Underfloor heating on a hard floor wins ultimate award from me...warm, easy to clean etc. My thyroid packing up has made me use dressing gown and slippers for the first time in life.

I'm interested in the carpet colour thing. what would you prefer, matching the colours to the room decor? Or do you have another favourite colour that coordiantes well with other colours you might choose to decorate in?

It has to be really really boiling for me to feel too hot.

This whole "choosing colours" is new to me. I've never owned a house to do it with before. So far, I've chosen yellow for my walls (with deep blue curtains that we bought for a rented house long ago and then took with us when we left). If I could afford to recarpet I'd probably have some kind of blue carpet - either a flecked or mottled one, or one with a small and subtle pattern in different shades of blue. Most of my bedding is variations on blue and white, so it all goes quite nicely - even the beige carpet is a warmer beige in this room, so it goes all right with the yellow walls.

The kids chose their own wall colours, although I wouldn't let them have quite such a free hand with choosing carpet. Walls can just be repainted easily if they change their minds. The only other thing I've chosen is to do the utility pure brilliant white. I like the connotations of cleanliness for a room that's mainly used for laundry. It has blue and white ceramic tiles on the floor and used to be a dark slate grey, but had to be repainted anyway because we had the whole thing replastered to improve the insulation.

michaels wrote: »

Builders!!!! Need I say more.

Ugh. What a nuisance. If it's not one thing it's another. Hang in there and keep on keeping on, as they say. You'll get there in the end and it will be lovely. Any chance of some pics?

News here is that I have had an electrician round this afternoon who thinks it should be easy to move the fuse box and only cost about £250 + VAT all in. This is good news. At the moment it is at the very back of an enormous cupboard, which I can't fill with stuff because it would obstruct access. So once it's been done I can start dealing with the boxes of toys in the playroom. In the meantime, I'll ask the solar panel companies to quote for how much extra I'd need to pay for their electricians to move the fuse box when they're doing the rest of the electrical work for hooking up my panels, and see how that compares.

PasturesNew

I have no house to play with