Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

Doozergirl

Sorry for the delay LydiaJ, it's been a rather tumultuous couple of days in this house! Apologies for the length of it as well! Hope this is okay on here, it was easier to reply to the posts on here. No identifying features, of course.

LydiaJ wrote: »

At the moment there is no door frame between the hall and kitchen. Putting doors of any kind there - sliding, bi-fold, whatever - would involve squaring the top of the arch - the top of the doorframe would need to be lower than the top of the arch but higher than the point where it starts curving in, so it would involve some carving out as well as some filling in.

I'm almost certain that it's a stud wall. It would be a day's work for a carpenter to make the wall the right size for doors, put in architrave and new door/s. I'm not sure that's the right long term solution for the house though with the devaluing caused by the front door where it is. There are different levels of quality, a nice sliding door could be found. I don't think the space is right for an internal bi-fold door. They also have a habit of trapping tiny fingers

LydiaJ wrote: »

I'm also aware that my surveyor thought that the unconventional entrance brought the value of the house down - which was great for me buying it. So it would be a good idea to sort it out to add value to the house for when I eventually sell it. But if I'm going to do that then I'd rather do it as soon as I can afford it, so as to get the benefit of it for myself.

I might make a crap picture for you and PM it later but I think the front door, hall and stairs need to meet each other, as long with as many room doors as possible to improve the value. I have that idea. At the moment, all three are in different places (I cannot fathom what the original layout was!)

LydiaJ wrote: »

how to put a shower screen on the bath in my en-suite so I can have a shower over it.
The ceiling slopes... But the shower screen will have to have a corner taken off it because of the ceiling. (Does that mean getting a bespoke one? That might be expensive.)
I think a usual shower screen might just fit. You don't really need them to go all the way to the ceiling. I need to check but I'm sure we had a screen in the barn conversion we did made by the local 'mirror and glass' people and they even told us where to find the clips to attach it to the wall. It was rigid though (not folding) and clear siliconed against the floor - so you'd silicon it to seal it where it met the bath. That sort of person would definitely be cheaper than seeking specific bespoke shower screens. You'd need to get your measurements and angles right - you're qualified to do that!
It'll also have to be a folding one, I think.
If you really want it tall, we're getting expensive! In theory, you should have the bathroom door shut when you move the screen to turn taps etc.
We'll need to remove the handhold thing from the edge of the bath and find some way to seal up the hole that it will leave.
That's easy. Whoever fits it needs to take the bath panel off and unscrew it from underneath. You can then use a little round panel to cover the hole (like they have to cover tap holes that don't get used)
Finally, there's the question of the ceiling materials.
Ours at home is even more sloping than that and a plastered ceiling with bathroom paint on is fine to cope with the occasional splash. It won't get constantly soaked.

LydiaJ wrote: »

Could you possibly give a reprise of what you mean by your big house, home house and house-you-wanted, please?

It's such a long story. The abridged version is that The big house is a project we did. Home house has been our home for the last three years. Both sold, big house has fallen through. We have another offer this week.

The 'house we want' is a different house. The 30s house that we offered on when both were under offer. The vendors have now come back (because we went quiet) and accepted the last offer we made about four weeks ago!

I need a lie down. I woke up at 3am this morning.

Doozergirl

John_Pierpoint, I think Lydia's done the job. Heavier doors keep it from needing building regulations. If you want it open, you'll need extra investment in the glass and might be able to do a trade off with building control on more energy saving measures inside.
The Welington range makes a nice kind of compromise on the folding sliding door thing. If you have the outward facing, you can plan your conservatory to be a bit longer to accommodate the depth of the doors?

FC, I do know what you mean, I'm much happier faced with a problem to solve than a brand new challenge

Miss K, sorry to hear that. I hope you're feeling better or at least that it's something perfectly fixable.

Congratulations on your handbag Sue It's all about price per wear!

Sorry if I've missed anyone else.

Here's a Daisy facebook update too. I'm aware we haven't seen the Inspector for some time

Daisy off to the operating theatre for 4th time in 2 months today. Probably late morning/early afternoon
Yesterday at 9:51am

Daisy just got back on the ward from theatre. Sleepy, sore and groggy. A nice sleep will do her good.
Yesterday at 1:44pm

Just a reminder that wristbands (large and small), trolley tokens and pin badges will all be on sale at Great Berry parents evening tonight. Mrs Liddicott will also be taking orders for Jute Bags, as we are very low on stock and are expecting a delivery any day now.
6 hours ago
(It's not just through the school, anyone can order stuff directly from them btw)

Great! Daisy's ward is now closed to all visitors and any new patients, due to an outbreak of an extremely nasty bug!! Lovely! Really hoping Daisy doesn't get it :-/ (DP)
44 minutes ago

ANd there's lots of news about their fundraising efforts as well.

GDB2222

Is Daisy having her PEG moved YET AGAIN?

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've never been abroad. I'd not do well in a foreign country.

I don't know whether to point out that that is self-fulfilling defeatism? The trouble is that you know yourself better than anyone. OTOH you may be missing out badly.

Doozergirl

GDB2222 wrote: »

Is Daisy having her PEG moved YET AGAIN?

Ah, I thought it didn't say but it does:

Daisy now won't be coming home on thursday after all. She had to see a kidney specialist today who says her kidneys are in a bad way. She's going to need a small op on either Friday or Monday before she can go anywhere. Back to drawing board, as another door slams in her face. This kid really needs a break :-/

July 6

neverdespairgirl

Poor girl. Thinking of her, it's so grim being in pain and in hospital, especially when you're a child.

LydiaJ

Doozergirl wrote: »

Sorry for the delay LydiaJ, it's been a rather tumultuous couple of days in this house! Apologies for the length of it as well! Hope this is okay on here, it was easier to reply to the posts on here. No identifying features, of course.

No apologies needed. Discussion on here is great - it's just the links to the floorplans I don't want to publish to the entire world.

Doozergirl wrote: »

I'm almost certain that it's a stud wall. It would be a day's work for a carpenter to make the wall the right size for doors, put in architrave and new door/s. I'm not sure that's the right long term solution for the house though with the devaluing caused by the front door where it is. There are different levels of quality, a nice sliding door could be found. I don't think the space is right for an internal bi-fold door. They also have a habit of trapping tiny fingers

I don't think they need to be bifold. I'm now inclining towards normal (ie not folding) double doors, with parliament hinges so they open right back against the walls. High quality sliding doors could also be a possibility.

Doozergirl wrote: »

I might make a crap picture for you and PM it later but I think the front door, hall and stairs need to meet each other, as long with as many room doors as possible to improve the value. I have that idea. At the moment, all three are in different places (I cannot fathom what the original layout was!)

That would be interesting. Thank you. In the meantime, I have more versions of the floorplan to explain the history of the house. The link to the floorplan that I sent you included the name of the picture - Floorplan2. If you replace that with Floorplan-original, Floorplan-extension, Floorplan-current and Floorplan-possible then you will be able to see more plans - repectively the original house, the 1990s extension, the addition of the conservatory as the new entrance, and what I'd like to do knocking the hall through to the front door.

ETA If you use the same URL but with Satellite instead of Floorplan2, you can see how the house relates to the road going round the corner.

It's encouraging that you think the shower can be done without a bespoke screen. I'm not really that fussed about how the shower screen is done, as long as it can be moved to give access to the taps and for cleaning. I'll take advice from my builder as to the cheapest and easiest way to get it to work. He's a good bloke and I trust him to give good advice about that sort of thing.

Doozergirl wrote: »

It's such a long story. The abridged version is that The big house is a project we did. Home house has been our home for the last three years. Both sold, big house has fallen through. We have another offer this week.

The 'house we want' is a different house. The 30s house that we offered on when both were under offer. The vendors have now come back (because we went quiet) and accepted the last offer we made about four weeks ago!

How exciting! Thanks for catching me up. I hope it goes through OK this time. What's it like, and what makes it a better place for you to live than your current home house?

Doozergirl wrote: »

I need a lie down. I woke up at 3am this morning.

Hope you got a lie down without anyone interrupting you. Sleep is good. I ought to get more of it but I'm useless at going to bed on time.

Thoughts and prayers to Daisy and all the Monkfishes.

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

Failure is easy to cope with; we expect it, we've had it.
Success is scarey - because then you have to meet the expectations of others


You've reached that age, when you really want a cardigan ... and why oh why didn't the P opportunity come along 20 years ago

It's natural to be scared of everything. That's why people invented the internet, so we can all be scared together and hide from the real world

I couldn't quote all the posts (as limit is 2 or 3 i think) but reading about Daisy puts things into perspective ......we have been so lucky not to have had any health issues with our kids (nor all the nieces and nephews either) and haven't had the parents problems yet either (like PN's situation) but one is on the horizon but I think we have another few years yet.

If the P had come 20 years ago I would be having an absolute ball but maybe not have been able to cope back then either as would have been juggling with a 3 yr old to look after. Can't win it seems

The scaredy cat thing is odd too as, if I were to relate all the really scary things we have done over the years (some succeeded, some didn't) this is one of the least risky and scary of all of them......all things considered.

One big issue is how it's now 100% all consuming (and it kind of has to be in an almost OCD way sometimes) for me.

Lots of corp stuff has occurred over the past 3 months and this is out of our experience as we were always totally independent in the way we chose to trade/reach a customer. That freedom is no longer there.

What is nice is that I get to chat to our independent stockists (mostly overseas) and there is still a thriving independent sector in parts of Europe. Chatted to one this morning who called in to the studio....great lady who has had stores since 1970.....and still loves it and is profitable.

She agreed that her set up is no longer viable in good locations in the UK (and I found that out myself 2 years back when our place closed) and makes me a bit sad.

lostinrates wrote: »

so FC needs to be made feel grim to work well?

hmm, the question is do we help with that?

Yup You can't beat a bit of pain and angst to kick off the creative machine but this weeks block also came from some really nasty copies that are about.

Has anyone seen those victorian taxidermy animals that had a pair of wings put onto a fox or a squirrel head fused onto a fish?

That's what they were like in spirit. Bits if my orginal work clunkily fused with something else and all cobbled together in a hideous 'parody' of our label.........to the point that we received e-mails asking if they were ours or not as they confuse but they also look like I am losing the plot as they are so clumsy.

Worse is I know who did them and there is absolutely nothing we can do but just close off the feed so to speak. Got to be a bit cryptic sadly as I would love the world to know just how some places work.


We have a solution in hand but it still feels like being burgled.

MichealS...we do have a week away booked for end August but production kicks off at the same time so will probably be liasing with factories from the poolside.

I will have cheery news from recent events (you know the one :cool:) to relay later though...and it was like a massive gift from above as the timing couldn't have been more fortunate.

Right now I just want to knock half our house down and join the 'extension tales'.

michaels

One thing I can assure you of - you do not want to be extending even if you are only 'normally' busy with other things, I am working 2 days a week and yet still only just seem to have time to keep on top of the builders and I know I am behind on speccing and ordering the heating system, rads, bathrooms etc.

oh and did I mention the last two days they spent power chiselling off the render which felt like being drilled at the dentist only louder...

fc123 wrote: »

Right now I just want to knock half our house down and join the 'extension tales'.

GDB2222

Aren't you project managing the whole thing, though, Michaels? Most people don't do that. They just pay the builder through the nose.