As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

TudorRose

Hi everybody.
Went away for a couple of days over the weekend & have only just caught up.
I know it must be hard but try not to give up Reverbe. There are so many people on here who will come up with ideas for you to try. Trouble is when the sh*t hits the fan we all tend to panic & feel scared about what is going to happen next and we need a few days to put things in to perspective and make new plans.

So glad things are starting to look up for you & your OH Ginnyknit.

Hope your window fitting goes well Mardatha. I'm waiting for British Gas to arrive to start fitting my new boiler. They have said they are coming at lunchtime so that could mean anything but at least the boiler and assorted bits were delivered yesterday.

Have a loaf in the bredamaker made from Lidl sunflower breadmix but it's looking a bit flat. Never mind. As long as it's edible it won't be wasted & if it's awful the birds will get it.

Softstuff

Hi Guys,
I'm back home in Australia now so am dropping in to say hi. Not sure I'll ever get through the 100 odd pages of this thread that I've missed so I apologise if I miss someones something important and just send love to anyone wanting it.

I arrived at the train station at home on 2nd June at 10am, was heading home to mums for a shower before seeing my friend in hospital (since after such a long journey I was a teensy bit whiffy). I walked in the door as the hospital phoned to say she was passing, turned right around and went to the hospital. I arrived at 11.02, her death was registered at 11. I think she'd just waited till I'd arrived so mum didn't have to deal with it all alone. She passed quietly and by then she'd wanted to go.

Arranging the funeral was a bit of a nightmare, but the less said about that the better. Just proof of what I believed is mostly true in any case, which is that people with money tend to be less considerate of people and quite nasty when trying to accumulate it. Also had to deal with the registrar and the coroners office, since there was a postmortem and an inquest is due to be held.

Following that first week I enjoyed the time I spent with mum and dad. Though dads health is getting worse, and he was saying he's upset not knowing how long he'll last and if he'll even be around next year .

I was thrilled to look around car boots and charity shops with mum whilst there and came back with a suitcase full! British Heart Foundation had some lovely factory second tops from Hawkshead, at just over 2 quid each new! Such nice clean shops with good quality merchandise. I just about doubled my wardrobe for less than 30 quid. And Asda.... oooh how I love Asda. Bit of a contrast to come home and go grocery shopping though, especially when I paid a quid each tomato today!

I also had an eye test and all is well, no glasses needed (thanks for that ).

Time to get back to some serious frugality here after some frivolous spending (even in charity shops and carboots spending is still spending!).

******************

So some practical questions I'll ask here rather than in other boards:

the toilet keeps flushing even after it should have stopped, is this likely to be a ballcock issue or something else?

has anyone replaced their own ceiling lightfittings and is it hard? (one has died)

is it possible to wash feather and down pillows to rid the covers of mould? I ask this rather than just go out and buy since they're so darned expensive here.

chirpychick

Good morning everyone
well - the carpet looks better than it did, its not perfect and still not dry!! But better so thats something we havent fixed the hole yet but definately will using your helpful tips
Dad has picked the cleaner up and ive just had my lemon curd on toast and about to go up and brush my teeth as i have the dentist today i *hate* the dentist!! Im so scared!
2 years ago i had my wisdom teeth out and when that was done they discovered the bottom right one was decayed and it came out in crumbles pieces! As a result my last bottom back tooth there was also damaged, they put a filling in (my first ever) and told me to expect to have a root canal however given my fear of dentists and lack of money ive kept it going for as long as possible and today i shall tell him i need to book in to have it removed. I dont want to have lots of scary horrible treatment just to have it pulled in a few years anyway and the cost is shocking!
I also think im going to be told i need another filling which im not too worried about i mean really its my first proper cavity thats not been caused by my wisdom teeth and seen as im nearly 27 i dont think thats bad going and it should all be price banded together.
Hubby has to take an hour off work to take me! Im that bad! i know he isnt going to do anything today and that today is just a checkup but i know my teeth arent doing as well now and im so scared about how much treatment im going to need!
i only got 4 hours sleep through worry!
so when i get back ill be going back to bed for 3 hours before working my night shift only 5 more to go! 1 wk 3 days in total.

maryb

Softstuff welcome back

It is possible to wash feather pillows but quite a faff. It depends how good the pillow is to start with. Assuming it's a good pillow ie if you place it over your outstretched arm it doesn't drape down either side, then it's worth the faff. Thing is, if you've got mould, you'll want to use bleach on the pillow case itself and that isn't too good for the feathers. So you would need to unpick it and empty the feathers into another case - actually two would be better as it gives the feathers more room. Do not be tempted to do this indoors or on a windy day!!. Then sew up the pillow cases you emptied the feathers into and wash the whole thing in warm water with a little bit of detergent. It will be wet and smelly. Squeeze as much water out as possible then peg them on a line to dry shaking often to spread the feathers out and get some air in. You need to keep shaking them and re-pegging for what seems like days before they dry properly so check the weather forecast before you start. The more room they have to be shaken up the better they dry - that's why it helps to empty them into two pillow cases.

Meanwhile wash and bleach the mouldy pillowcase. When everything is eventually dry you can restuff the original pillowcase. See why I say it's a faff?

When DDs were small and were sick on their pillows, I did put the whole thing in the washing machine. But it comes out with the feathers much flattened and it never regains its loft. Doing it by hand will help if it's a good pillow. If it's not a good pillow but you don't want to just chuck it out, I would stick it in the washing machine and use it as an underpillow after that

jackieglasgow

I do wash my pillow in the WM, and half dry them in the TD before putting them on the line for a day or two, the sun will help with the mould too softstuff. Then I put them back in the tumbler for a wee half hour to make sure they are ok and bounce them up a bit.

Ballcock by the sound of things, or the syphon if its more modern, relatively easy to sort yourself, you will find lots of help online.

Light fittings, if your household wiring is sound and up to date then you should be able to do this yourself. I have replaced a few of the light fittings in this house myself, and DH has done the rest (the ones that require new screwholes and fixing onto the ceiling)

I am so glad for you that you got back in time to sort things out for your friends, and I agree it sounds like she waited for you to be there to do that one last thing for her. I hope you are coping with your loss, and focussing on your happy memories with her. x

Softstuff

See, I knew if I posted the questions here I'd get some decent and very sensible advice.

Not sure whether I'll do the pillows or not, think I'll check the price first. Last time I looked they were astonishing in price here (about 40 quid a pillow), and they're an item I couldn't put in my case. But thanks Mary and Jackie for the advice.

Hubby has informed me that it's technically illegal for me to change our light fittings myself here in Australia. Fortunately it's not illegal (yet) to bake choccy cake for a friendly electrician who lives next door and hope he'll do it on the cheap.

I will attack the toilet myself though. I figured it'd be that so I should be able to do it.

Seakay

annie123 wrote: »

Last year a new Canadian neighbour moved in nearby and one thing lead to another and she couldn't believe we all didn't have window quilts. Especially me as I have single glazed north facing windows at the front.
I spent an afternoon [STRIKE]helping[/STRIKE] watching her make one.
Bit like watching someone driving a car then having a go yourself:rotfl:
Took her 2 hours, took me 3 days and mine looked like the equivalent of a small childs first lot of homemade cakes! DD's window is 7' wide and 4' tall so I made 2 quilts.

Probably more links than you can cope with, but includes homemade ones and pdf guides how to:


http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Homes/1983-11-01/How-to-Make-a-Thermal-Shade.aspx

http://www.warmcompany.com/warmwindow/Warm.pdf

http://energyboomer.typepad.com/energyboomer/2007/09/how-to-make-ene.html

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/Rayshade/ThemalShade.htm

http://www.windowquilt.com/products/WQ_brochure_web.pdf

http://www.manytracks.com/Homesteading/winquilt.htm

http://countrylife.lehmans.com/2007/10/10/making-old-time-window-quilts/

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art34745.asp

http://www.green-energy-efficient-homes.com/energy-saving-curtains.html

I made the first set without a vapour barrier.
1. I got a lot of condensation on the windows with and without window film.
2. Within a month, mould on the lining
If you have double glazing maybe you wouldn't need a vapour barrier?

So I removed the back and replaced with new old sheets and added an old shower curtain (cut to size obviously) on one and a £ store mylar sheet to the other.
Both worked really well and no more condensation or mould problems.

They were made with charity shop white sheets, charity shop cot blankets and I embroidered small flowers on the bottom to fit in with her room.
Hung them from a tension road at the top and used velcro to secure them to the frame at the bottom and sides.

They made a massive difference to her room temperature, more so than window film or the interlining I had put in the curtains.
I'd take a picture but they are in the loft at present.

For my sons tall windows I will make insulated roman blinds but for the other windows I will make quilts.
If your windows are the same size as pillow cases that would make it very easy to do.

I have seen them put up with magnetic tape, drawing pins, velcro, curtain wire etc and they can stay down all the time or hand rolled and caught in ties at the top during the day.

They are a step up from putting a fleece up at the window and I'm sure they will eventually become popular over here with the cold winters we seem to be having lately.

I also made a door curtain on the same principle for my sons flat to cover an opening between rooms but allowed extra floor drape and this worked well too.
Used an old single quilt, the other mylar sheet in the pack and a purple sari from charity shop for £1....(the amount of fabric you get in a sari is amazing) he has a hippy looking flat and it fitted in well with his wall hangings. He has asked me to insulate them too for him. I told him I'd lend him or his GF my sowing machine!

HTH

I'll copy this to the winter prep thread I think for others that don't read this thread.

Thank you for all of these references and for your description; just wanted to check, when you added shower curtain and mylar sheet, did they go on the outside of the quilt next to the glass or did they go inside the quilt behind the
cotton sheet backing?

Hope that your friend has followed some of the useful advice from all that has been proffered, Reverbe - I just love this thread, someone always has a good idea about what to do in any given situation!

Blue skies and sun today (yesterday warm but looked like rain all day) so finally going to finish wood treating the fence. Started it ages ago but then time available x me feeing up to it stopped computing because there were so many oher garden things to see to!

Congratulations Ginnyknit! So good to hear a DLA success story

greenbee

Pillows - I wash mine hot, then do the opposite to jackie! I bung them on the line till they're a bit dry to save the TD from working to hard, then fry them in the TD to kill dust mites. I put a couple of dryer balls or tennis balls in the TD with them to make sure they don't clump.

kidcat

Welcome back softstuff and hugs to reverbe too. Ginnyknit that is fabulous news. Its good to hear success stories - we have been told we should apply for DLA for DS7 but all the horror stories put me off.

Ok its time to send in the men in white coats to take me away I think I have probably lost all my marbles - as I have 13 16yr olds inhabiting the garden and ground floor. Its DD16 boyfriend birthday and his parents are once again not celebrating which he finds difficult as the rest of the group do something even if its only DVD night at home. So DD asked could she do something here - and I agreed, OH however said he didnt want anything to do with it so we have ended up having an afternoon BBQ for them in the garden. Its helped clear space in the freezers as I have pulled all those packets of burgers etc bought whoops out of the freezer to use up.

[Deleted User]

re pillows, it`s a good idea to tie string around in 3 places before washing, so that the filling stays put