Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

Wheezy_2

Davesnave wrote: »

For LJ, Wheezy and anyone else who's interested, I began putting together this little cold frame yesterday......



Should be able to squeeze a few more chillis in there next season.

Nice one!:T

That frame is about the size of our whole garden :rotfl:

please post some more pictures when it's finished

MFW_10YRS_4

lostinrates wrote: »

Not for domestic use! We'll have a separate one in an outbuilding. Simplest way in our set up to provide protection for some equipment, provide some heat for an office/room to shelter from cold without coming into the house...i.e. for business use mainly, and to keep pipes from freezing!


Its a complicated thing, here and on farms and I guess some other work from home or next to home situations: where systems link in or not, what you pay business rates on or not, what is business or not. Additionally, because we have more than one building needing heat and/or power at some point in the furture we're trying to zone....e.g. the room with the woodburner will be OUR use only, but the room above, getting just enough heat from below will be business use. All the horses here use the same facilities, some our our own hobby animals and not in anyway connected to or funded by business, but use the facilities. We wouldn't have some of those facilities availablke if they weren't for the hobby-horses! (at the moment I deal with that simply by paying by business account for their livery for facilities and also, simply lending stuff clearly outside set paramtres of business to the others, in the future this will be slightly different...but the future involves money I don't have available yet!

When you come to visit you'll get the door of delapidations:D. Please remember to bring your rose tinted spectacles and some spare imagination!

In the old days, they used to live above the horses and cattle in order to get free heat from the animals. The trouble was that the smells also rose upwards with the heat!

Are you sure you need to have an office that is external to the house, the Inland Revenue allows you to deduct the cost of the office space from your tax payments. Unless you are considering a separate metering system for the outbuildings, the tax rebate for the office should be the same.

lostinrates

MFW_10YRS wrote: »

In the old days, they used to live above the horses and cattle in order to get free heat from the animals. The trouble was that the smells also rose upwards with the heat!

Are you sure you need to have an office that is external to the house, the Inland Revenue allows you to deduct the cost of the office space from your tax payments. Unless you are considering a separate metering system for the outbuildings, the tax rebate for the office should be the same.

Hmm, well, yes and no. It falls within domestic curtilidge (no idea how to spell that word) atm. What we do about that depends how we feel about staying for life. Tax efficient v increased expense for business use for staying and going are different AIUI. e.g. capital gains tax if we sold up on stuff outside domestic use. ATM we're keeping situation as if we may move one day, for flexibility. When we reach a 50% owned situation and at each stage of bigger financial and design input we'll see how we feel. Its all a way off and we still bearish enough to want to keep options open right now:)

I'm not keen on having an office in the house, though its traditional presumably fo financial reasons as well as comfort and ease, because I don't want people covered in mud and poo in the house really. Or indeed, some of the people I deal with!

neverdespairgirl

MFW_10YRS wrote: »

In the old days, they used to live above the horses and cattle in order to get free heat from the animals. The trouble was that the smells also rose upwards with the heat!

In medieval times, it was more common to have a one-story house, with animals at one end, and people at the other. Still shared, warmth, of course.

One of my mother's particular bug-bears there (she's a scientist). "Heat doesn't rise! Warm air rises....."

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

In medieval times, it was more common to have a one-story house, with animals at one end, and people at the other. Still shared, warmth, of course.

One of my mother's particular bug-bears there (she's a scientist). "Heat doesn't rise! Warm air rises....."

I love the shape change of houses across country and time. In the westcountry there certainly still are lots of long houses, where this was the case, but also ones with rooves that slop from the two storey part to the ground part, and animals were kept in the back.

This is the best guess, IMO, of what our secret room bit was...a hayloft above the animal bit of the house, behind the room used for people. There is a remnant of an old staircase there too...just one tiny bit of it.

MFW_10YRS_4

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

In medieval times, it was more common to have a one-story house, with animals at one end, and people at the other. Still shared, warmth, of course.

One of my mother's particular bug-bears there (she's a scientist). "Heat doesn't rise! Warm air rises....."

Another interesting historical 'proximity to animals' anecdote is that the phrase 'as smooth as a milk-maid's skin' came about as a result of exposure to cowpox, which conved some immunity to smallpox. Milkmaids lacked the pockmarked complexion common to smallpox survivors.

I'm not sure I'd want to live with cattle though, even if they did convey immunity to some diseases!

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

Pastures I think you may be overtired. Any change of grabbing a couple of naps today around your other commitments?

LOL/naps.... not got time for those. Need to keep eyes/ears alert. Already the ill old's asked me about his meds, I said "in an hour" - and less then 2 minutes later there were choking sounds and I went through to find a pill being spat out on the floor as they were choking on it .... at that point I didn't even know if it was the right one. I need to get them under lock and key, but when I try to do that it could turn aggressive/vicious, so holding out as long as possible so I don't get into a fight.

It's not been a good day ... just taking 5-10 minutes online, leaving them alone .... but listening out for any squabbles.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

...I don't want people covered in mud and poo in the house really. Or indeed, some of the people I deal with!

Fit a barn door (top/bottom independent opening) to the back door; porch round the back door ... keep the poo outside and speak to the unwashed by opening the top of the door only

vivatifosi

Sorry to keep asking questions Pastures, but are they asking for meds all the time because they are in pain? If so, maybe the doc or nurse should be coming in regularly, or they should be in a hospice where pain can be better regulated. It is very hard to tell someone that it isn't time to take their tablets when they are in the greatest pain that they've ever experienced in their lives. If it is that sort of scenario you are up against, please, please discuss with the docs.

lostinrates

I wonder if becoming cantankerous is inevitable with age and infirmity. I found having my mother here after her op very tense, and nothing like poor PN is dealing with.