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

lostinrates

Doozergirl wrote: »

Oh, why? I wanted a woodburning one.

I noted how nice this stove looked i the kitchens you sent me:

http://www.plainenglishdesign.co.uk/spitalfields-2

what is it with those nice brassy handles? (sigh...I dream of huge fancy french cookers )


Also: we have very relectantly deided not to hve my piano from my parents. It beautiful and has a lovely tone, BUT its all original strings are getting ropey and would probably lose some if we were to try and make it in tune rather than in tune with only itself. SO....when the extention is built we'll have room for a baby grand. there are lots of ugly bby grands ''for cheap'' with a decent if not glorious sound. I'm wondering how I'd paint one in a non tacky way. I don't want liberace's piano, weirdly, as I'd be quite happy to have a Liberace style room to put it in:rotfl:

Doozergirl

lostinrates wrote: »

do you know there are people who coe to your house jut to clean your oven...its not cheap but if you are struggling otherwise....

I phoned one of them near us. They wanted £85 + VAT to clean the oven! The oven itself cost £240.

I bought Oven Pride, which is indeed amazing. It doesn't solve the grill problem though - I never ever use the grill. I think I may have tried after the Oven Pride but the element had it on and it smoked out the kitchen. It is finicky up in that part. I guess there's a way of taking the element off and then you can clean the top?

We've got a free built in microwave as Ikea were doing 3 appliances for 2 and we'd bought 5 so I had to decide what to have. I don't know if it does more than just nuking - it would have been £250 so I presume it does, because I don't really like microwaves and I'd certainly never pay £250 for one that just reheats beans.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

...when the extention is built we'll have room for a baby grand.

posh alert!!!

Doozergirl

Our old house is up for sale. That's the last house we bought that was bought and chosen specifically to be our 'home'. We sold it 6 years ago. It's not a terrace, it's a semi; they've got that wrong. And it wasn't a cobbler's cottage either. It has two door numbers. The very front was a cobblers shop, deserted before the war. It was derelict and we had to get Listed Building consent to knock though to make the kitchen area and the walkway into the dressing bit at the front. One of the windows at the front is in a cupboard! We extended the back as well to make the snug and bathroom.

DD was born where the rug is in the living room Nothing has changed that I can see. They even have the same sofas that we had! I even planted the clematis on the front from a tiny little pot.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21028083.html?utm_content=ealertspropertylink&utm_medium=email&utm_source=emailupdates&utm_campaign=emailupdatesjun11&utm_term=buying&sc_id=2691288

Happy house.

vivatifosi

What a lovely house Doozer! Fancy buying it back?

I think even from the pictures it has a nice vibe and the price just shows the Hertfordshire NPs what vfm could be had if we didn't stick in this neck of the wood.

Eta: I thought the place name was really funny. I'm not sure whether this is because a) I've never grown up or b) because I used to love Father Ted. A bit of both probably.

PasturesNew

If you look at the small ads in the free advertiser papers that come round irregularly, you might find a local bloke that does it cheaper, I think the price round this way's about £30 or so.

Here's an online price list of a random company googled, who have their price list online:
http://www.tiptopovencleaning.co.uk/prices2.php
Just from that first/random google, a normal oven's £40, so you can see how a local bloke, without a website, dressed in overalls and driving a Ford Transit could easily be cheaper.

Doozergirl

vivatifosi wrote: »

What a lovely house Doozer! Fancy buying it back?

I did love the house. It's too small now for us and it was rather isolated out there at the time; most commuted out of the village in the day as well so it was deserted half the time apart from pensioners coming for a drive out. They have a lovely village shop now with organic bits and bobs from local farms etc.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Eta: I thought the place name was really funny. I'm not sure whether this is because a) I've never grown up or b) because I used to love Father Ted. A bit of both probably.

You should hear how the FIL (not born British) pronounces it! :eek:

misskool

Doozergirl wrote: »

I phoned one of them near us. They wanted £85 + VAT to clean the oven! The oven itself cost £240.

I bought Oven Pride, which is indeed amazing. It doesn't solve the grill problem though - I never ever use the grill. I think I may have tried after the Oven Pride but the element had it on and it smoked out the kitchen. It is finicky up in that part. I guess there's a way of taking the element off and then you can clean the top?

We've got a free built in microwave as Ikea were doing 3 appliances for 2 and we'd bought 5 so I had to decide what to have. I don't know if it does more than just nuking - it would have been £250 so I presume it does, because I don't really like microwaves and I'd certainly never pay £250 for one that just reheats beans.

Lakeland have an oven cleaning kit, which you have to use with the windows open and with supplied gloves

But it works really really well :rotfl:

misskool

I think some of the NP might know this

I have just bought a Gaggia Classic as a birthday present and we live in a hard water area. Is it worth descaling or shall I get something to purify the water?

Davesnave

Doozergirl wrote: »

Oh, why? I wanted a woodburning one.

I didn't go into detail with him. He just said his company would no longer sell them, as they'd "had a lot of trouble" with the more recent ones.

I don't think it's down to having a better deal from other manufacturers, as this isn't a go-getting company, highly aware of profit margins. It's very traditional and more the sort of place that gets work on the basis of recommendation.