Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

SingleSue

I remember when my parents had central heating installed, before that, it was an open fire.

I also remember at my paternal grandmothers, she never had central heating and had a huge front room with only an open fire at one end....it was a fight to get the seats closest to the fire.

Our first flat also had only gas fires, we would wake in the morning to ice on the inside of the windows, it would be so blooming cold but we coped with the addition of extra jumpers etc to go to bed in.

I think that is why I can cope better with the colder temps in my house now, to me, having a lovely heated house is a luxury and you can do things to warm you up a little if the house is a little colder than normal, sex was quite a good one! Not that I get that chance now.....

We've had snow overnight, only a light sprinkling at the moment as the major stuff is forecast to arrive tonight. We are due to go round to my brother's house tonight and I am keeping my fingers crossed we can get home before it arrives.

Bedroom temp is currently 15C (can only give bedroom temp as that is the only place with a thermometer!)

michaels

We are still waiting for the free cavity wall installation people to turn up but luckily there isn't much more of the original outside wall left and the new bits are all to the latest standards. I have to admit I have had a play with the boiler computer adjusting the 'curve' so basically it puts more heat in when the temperature gets really low but then I shifted the whole curve down so we will get less heating at +10 for example, also turned up the rads and now tbh it is sweltering so more playing needed methinks. According to the boiler it is now back above freezing outside, allegedly it was -8 this morning.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

Crikey, how long does that last? These things are so expensive. Good luck Pastures. You are doing an amazing job.

A year. I don't post much here about all the stuff I do as it's pretty much been a full-time panic and full-on task-fest for months now.... with hundreds of miles being driven, things sorted out, things sourced/purchased, visits made..... stuff. Everything.

At times there were 8 hours of actual work done - and 16 hours of panic/sweating/wondering what would go on/wrong next. Most days there was 4-5 hours a day... and it's only been the last two weeks that it's slowed down and is now just 1-2 hours/day for 4 days a week and 5-6 hours/day for 3 days a week.

Today's been about 2 hours.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

Article in today's Times for PN. The average singleton's living costs are 5,000 more than if they were part of a couple. Housing, food, transport and holidays being the main culprits.

Kind of a skewed report.... because we don't actually have those things as we don't have the income. So it doesn't cost us £5k more .... it WOULD cost us £5k more IF we had the extra £5k to be able to live to the same standard IYSWIM.

It's worse for girls, on the basis that women's full-time pay is less than men's full-time pay.

Housing: If the cheapest 1-bed grot-hole is £450/month, then a singleton will have that, whereas a couple can splash out £600-650 on a 3-bed house with nice garden.

Food: There are some savings to be made by the buying in bigger packs, but the biggest loss to a singleton is what you don't have in the first place because the packs are too big, or you avoid as it means eating the same thing 3-4x all the time. Can't take advantage of 2-for-1 deals in pub lunches, or similar vouchers.

Transport: Yep, huge cost.

Holidays: Yep - most tend to not bother.

I am surprised they didn't mention bills and furniture/things.

There is a "basic cost of living" to get a roof over your head, utilities turned on and used at a basic level. To add a 2nd person to that can cost as little as an extra £10/month for water and £5 for electricity. So, one person £1000/month, two people £1015.

There is very little in life where everybody pays the same price per person for something.

Very few people are actually single their entire life, so they don't see how it really works out when it's one person, one income, sort yourself out and deal with everything... alone.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

We had loft insulation installed 2 winters ago. It doesn't make the house heat up any quicker but it keeps the heat in longer. Considering the previous owners had old loft insulation and single glazing, we've made big improvements, though the solid walls mean no cavity wall insulation so it's not that warm a house.

In the early 70s my dad had a choice: To create heating, or to keep what he had. He put in loft insulation and some secondary glazing (plastic sheeting in the early years) on the basis it was better to keep what he had than to install a heating system.

Also, some rolls of fibreglass and some plastic sheet was a lot cheaper than central heating

My parents had central heating only when they retired and moved - and the house they bought happened to have it already. It's a dated system though (back boiler) ... but an improvement on nothing!

PasturesNew

I have heating included where I am, for some hours the LL decides. So it was warm earlier, now it's nippier and I have my sleeping bag over my legs..... I'm far too tight to plug in an electric fire when I don't actually need it - the heating'll be back on in 2 hours' time, so I just need to be patient.

I've never experienced so much, and good, heating as I get here.... it's amazing how much different life is when the room's lovely and warm and there are no draughts.... good heating is going to be high on my "essential luxuries" when I get a place of my own and I'll have special days of the week (maybe on Sundays) when I don't skimp on it, but luxuriate in its loveliness.

Edit: It's just 30 minutes on from the above and ... LL's cracked. Boiler's just fired up so they're not as hardy as me

sss555s

michaels wrote: »

We are still waiting for the free cavity wall installation people to turn up...

I feel cavity wall insulation was the best of the lot. I certainly noticed the heating coming on less often.

My house is ideal for cavity wall insulation, being in a village where the temp can be 2 degrees lower on a cold night than 4 miles away in town and being detached. If it was a semi or terrace in town I'd see less benefit I expect.

PasturesNew

I do love watching Fred Dibnah programmes. There's one on the Yesterday channel (12 on Freeview) right now. I love seeing little old men in overalls having a thoroughly enjoyable time pottering about with their hobbies.... without a hint of any 'celeb' type of approach of camera posturing. He's just getting on with stuff, with his mates.... oblivious to the camera.

lostinrates

I have eight bald chickens sitting in my barn. They are very sweet. One of them is exceptionally bold as well as bald. She is a quarter of the size of most of mione, but went right up to them, introduced herself and then ate right next to them. Ours were so amazed at her audacity thatthey didn't peck her. I expect a high mortality rate (we are getting more in april i think) so like our boys i think i am giving them a group name. The boys each year get called The Suppers. I think the rescues might get called the Salvation Army. Army said how a chicken would say it.

Anyway, the snow is laying here, pretty shocking weather to be a bald chicken in, but they have a bed of straw and a heat lamp. Even with these ones the different personalitys are very clear. The bold one sat faceing dh and chatted to him on the way home. Three are just trying to hide, poor souls.

lostinrates

Oh, and our loo has frozen. Not the water in the bowl, but somewhere along the pipe....worryingly as that is the closest to underground. It gave me a verynasty surpise when i flushed the loo. . No way of heating the outside loo!