Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

Doozergirl

lostinrates wrote: »

Doozer that does indeed change things.


I saw some brilliant kitchen lights in Bath the other week. Simple glass demijohns turned into pendant lights....but £175 each. Beautiful, but you'd need three, and £525 is a lot for three glass bottles.

There must be a way of DIYing a light like that. People do some crazy stuff on the Livingetc forums, really quite inspirational. I'd like old fashioned flexes with bare bulbs (not too bright) above an island. I did find some old fashioned flex/pendant in Habitat for a very reasonable price but haven't had the house to do it in yet. I may not have the Habitat to buy it from when I have the house!

I think you're totally right about work surface and windows, not sinks. I spend a lot more time prepping than I do at the sink, what with having a dishwasher now. I will really bear that in mind, I hadn't considered it before. We've had so many kitchens that I think I'm heading towards the right layout for me now. It's only taken a few! The one in the big house I can cook at the island and literally turn 180 to wash hands etc. and the dishwasher is right there next to it as well so I barely need to move around. My favourite thing in our home house is my big larder unit which holds a big bin and two shelves above which I have put Children's Ikea plastic storage boxes for recycling. Keeps it all hidden away. I'd to have a push close/open door though so you don't use dirty hands on the handle. The dishwasher in home house is in totally the wrong place and it drives me nuts as H still prefers to dump plates all over the kitchen or in the sink and then run the taps so I end up dripping foody water all over the floor. That's not good.

lostinrates

Doozergirl wrote: »

There must be a way of DIYing a light like that. People do some crazy stuff on the Livingetc forums, really quite inspirational. I'd like old fashioned flexes with bare bulbs (not too bright) above an island. I did find some old fashioned flex/pendant in Habitat for a very reasonable price but haven't had the house to do it in yet. I may not have the Habitat to buy it from when I have the house!

I think you're totally right about work surface and windows, not sinks. I spend a lot more time prepping than I do at the sink, what with having a dishwasher now. I will really bear that in mind, I hadn't considered it before. We've had so many kitchens that I think I'm heading towards the right layout for me now. It's only taken a few! The one in the big house I can cook at the island and literally turn 180 to wash hands etc. and the dishwasher is right there next to it as well so I barely need to move around. My favourite thing in our home house is my big larder unit which holds a big bin and two shelves above which I have put Children's Ikea plastic storage boxes for recycling. Keeps it all hidden away. I'd to have a push close/open door though so you don't use dirty hands on the handle. The dishwasher in home house is in totally the wrong place and it drives me nuts as H still prefers to dump plates all over the kitchen or in the sink and then run the taps so I end up dripping foody water all over the floor. That's not good.

hmm. I need to find a way to get the plans on this new computer before I commit to anything. Everyone's input!

What amazes me is how small the big room looks on the plans when the furniture has gone in. I don't think we'll be able to fit in a sofa.

Problem is, too much going on in there. only one '''blank wall''. the other three: first has a double door and a window, second has a single door and a fireplace and third has a double door and a single door.


Our larder is at the ''wrong'' end of the new kitchen. I half joke that I should get a supermarket trolley to take stuff backwards and forwards. A tea trolley might indeed be good for less mobile days.

vivatifosi

lir, with the larder could you have a trolley that has your most commonly used things on one of the shelves that slides in and forms the bottom of the larder? That way you pull it out and use it when you need it but it isn't cluttering up space when you don't. Also by keeping a clear surface (say on top) but with used storage under for commonly used things, you've always got easy access to stuff you need. Reading those sentences back I hope they make sense, I'm not 100% sure they do...

vivatifosi

Went to the docs today and asked to have a mole removed. It isn't a cancerous one, I know because it has been checked out before, but has become painful and grown a bit. Apparently there is no longer the money in the budget to remove moles except at the doctor's surgery unless they are cancerous. Unfortunately because this one is on my face, it is against the rules to remove it at a surgery in case they scar me. So if I want it done I have to go private:(. I don't want it removed because it is unsightly (it isn't particularly) I want it done because it hurts.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Went to the docs today and asked to have a mole removed. It isn't a cancerous one, I know because it has been checked out before, but has become painful and grown a bit. Apparently there is no longer the money in the budget to remove moles except at the doctor's surgery unless they are cancerous. Unfortunately because this one is on my face, it is against the rules to remove it at a surgery in case they scar me. So if I want it done I have to go private:(. I don't want it removed because it is unsightly (it isn't particularly) I want it done because it hurts.

One of those aesthetic doctors told me (some years ago) its cheaper for him to do those sorts of thing in beauty salons etc than the cost occured to NHS. It might not be too dear. But pain is a different thing, and with your history are they sure there is no ''need'' to remove it?

How much does a consultation ''cost'' a surgery when no action taken and no prescription given I wonder? What is the charge on it?

vivatifosi

Interesting... Not sure I'd trust a beauty salon with cutting bits out or lasering my face if a doc isn't allowed to do it in general practice but hopefully it won't cost too much. Unfortunately it rubs on the arm of my glasses, so its that or laser eye surgery. I can't do contacts as I'm long sighted and I only use my glasses for reading - in libraries we do a lot of that!

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Interesting... Not sure I'd trust a beauty salon with cutting bits out or lasering my face if a doc isn't allowed to do it in general practice but hopefully it won't cost too much. Unfortunately it rubs on the arm of my glasses, so its that or laser eye surgery. I can't do contacts as I'm long sighted and I only use my glasses for reading - in libraries we do a lot of that!

I have.

IF it is a doctor. I've been to two for two different things, one is a doctor run aesthetic practice (some stuff is done by ''beaty therapists'' but overseen other stuff is done strictly by the doctor). the other was a salon that had a visiting doctor once a month.

It might be of course, this have changed and they'd not do it on the face now either, my guess is though, that they would as really for that sort of doctor its their sole or main business!

vivatifosi

Good point. Thanks lir, will look into it.

LydiaJ

Doozergirl wrote: »

My head is spinning. Can I have a picture of the offending archway and the bath and the floorplan please? All budgetry constraints considered

I remember your house is a corner plot, isn't the conservatory on the highway side not really the front of the house? I'm sure they will be more sympathetic to the situation of your house. If the conservatory is already there then I suspect that will help a lot. I might be remembering wrong though.

Thanks loads. It's great to have comments from someone with your experience and expertise. I've PM'ed you a link to the floorplan. I'm not at home at the moment, but will take pics of the archway and bathroom and PM you links this evening.

Doozergirl wrote: »

The house we wanted, they've come back and accepted our last offer made when we had a buyer. We also have an offer on the house which is there or thereabouts. H is working that hard that we haven't even had time to talk about it

Sounds promising. I have to confess that my head is also spinning and I have lost track of which of the houses you mention is which. Could you possibly give a reprise of what you mean by your big house, home house and house-you-wanted, please?

lir, I'd love to be kept in the loop about your plans. I can make suggestions about room layouts but am not very clued up on kitchens, so will leave that to the others.

GDB, thanks for the picture of the hinge. That's really helpful.

viva, I hope you can find an affordable way to get free of the pain from that mole. Perhaps try again to see if your GP (or another one at your practice) could refer you on the NHS since it's pain related rather than vanity??

John_Pierpoint

lostinrates wrote: »

dorset blue vinney is easily found round here, even more so where I used to live.
That Somerset/Dorset area is excellent for cheese. There are a few good local cheese shows too.

Are we allowed to make unpasteurized cheese in England? Given the rising incidence of TB in cattle - like Dutch Elm disease was blamed on beetles but was really spread by timber traders - TB is being blamed on badgers.

It would have been back in the 1960's that my dad came home with some "under the counter" Blue Vinney. It was yummy and so nearly all was eaten that weekend.
We had an old fashioned china cheese base & cover thing (think white wedge of cheddar shaped sloping lid) Well it got put away in the larder with a chunk of cheddar and a rind end of Blue Vinney.
A week later most of the "rind" had climbed off the BV and onto the Cheddar, which was busy turning blue.

PasturesNew wrote: »

You can buy jugs for about £5 that fit into the door of the fridge, that cool water. Just replace a cheapo filter once a month or so.

A couple of weekends ago DW cam home with some "give away" priced bags of milk plus a jug that fitted in the fridge door.
The idea was that you clamped the bag with the lid of the jug and in doing so tabbed it with the spout.

Can't see it catching on myself, but now we have a £1 jug for cheap cold Essex water - roughly £1 per 1,0000 litres - I'm damned sure that is cheaper than milk !

Doozergirl wrote: »

My head is spinning. Can I have a picture of the offending archway and the bath and the floorplan please? All budgetry constraints considered

I remember your house is a corner plot, isn't the conservatory on the highway side not really the front of the house? I'm sure they will be more sympathetic to the situation of your house. If the conservatory is already there then I suspect that will help a lot. I might be remembering wrong though.

The house we wanted, they've come back and accepted our last offer made when we had a buyer. We also have an offer on the house which is there or thereabouts. H is working that hard that we haven't even had time to talk about it

While we are on the subject, can I have a free consultation with all you experts?

Think standard bungalow, rectangular shape box with off centre half brick wall. One end of the rectangle had a galley kitchen in the narrow half and the living room in the wider half.
35 years ago I knocked out the kitchen window and back door to create a 9 ft wide "arch into a new "breakfast room/kitchen extension with island unit between galley kitchen and breakfast room end.

Meanwhile the French Doors (on parliament hinges) in the living room became the entrance to the formal dining room. There is a hatch between the breakfast room and the dining room sideboard.

The dining room was fitted with patio doors sliding inside an 8 ft wide 4 x 2 teak sub frame (I remember the 4 lengths of teak came to 40 quid and the patio door was £105 - single slider but they delivered a double.:rotfl:) Mortice and tenon joints in the corners of the teak.

Well one of the sliders has misted.

I'm thinking of adding a conservatory outside the patio door and replacing the sliders with bifold doors, so there could be a large entertaining/banqueting space in the summer time.

These days I believe the door between dining room and conservatory must have a really high insulation value??!!??.

Any thoughts about cost, strength and practicality of a bifold door.

Would I need planning permission, as against building regs, for the conservatory?