Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

lostinrates

Pn, pn, pn!!

I have discovered your soulmate!


Its about to be on radio four, someone has gone to the olympics on a swan pedalo!

chewmylegoff

misskool wrote: »

is it actual paperwork? can you not get your secretary to scan it in so that you get electronic copies of things? Surely you have proper remote access set up?

Yes, we've got proper systems, and all of our documents are in electronic form. The trouble is that we have 4,000 staff, all of whom will be trying to access the electronic records remotely - it doesn't work properly on a normal Friday when only 5-10% of people are WFH, the trials have shown that when 25% of people WFH you might as well be connecting through a 28.8kb modem. WFH = nothing done = having to cram all of that work into the time you are in the office.

misskool

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Yes, we've got proper systems, and all of our documents are in electronic form. The trouble is that we have 4,000 staff, all of whom will be trying to access the electronic records remotely - it doesn't work properly on a normal Friday when only 5-10% of people are WFH, the trials have shown that when 25% of people WFH you might as well be connecting through a 28.8kb modem. WFH = nothing done = having to cram all of that work into the time you are in the office.

go to thailand for a 3-week holiday?

lostinrates

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Yes, we've got proper systems, and all of our documents are in electronic form. The trouble is that we have 4,000 staff, all of whom will be trying to access the electronic records remotely - it doesn't work properly on a normal Friday when only 5-10% of people are WFH, the trials have shown that when 25% of people WFH you might as well be connecting through a 28.8kb modem. WFH = nothing done = having to cram all of that work into the time you are in the office.

I shall have to find out how many use it where dh is, but pretty sure its comparable numbers or more in europe using the remote system on frodays.

At his proper work they also use remote access, but i don't think so many peoe are using it at the same time.

LydiaJ

michaels wrote: »

Drop us a PM and I will have a thought, 6m frontage sounds fairly narrow for a pair of semis but will need to see how wide it is at the distance the hoses are set back from the street.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Lydia, re the plot. I agree with getting outline PP if possible. My relative's garden was worth 100k and was only large enough for a single house (in Herts).

In terms of the plot, I'd 1) approach the planning office and find out about planning for the area. There's no point on spending money on something that you aren't going to get, so check first that plans won't fall at first hurdle. Unlikely, but better to be safe than sorry. They'll also tell you what's permissible so your friend has a better idea of scope.

2) Get someone to look over the plot. A good architect/architectural technician should be able to draft something appropriate. They will know how to max out the site without falling foul of planning and local conditions. It's clearly a difficult size to develop so it's much better to get advice.

Thanks both of you. The very front bit will need to be garden because all the houses along there have front gardens. I was wondering it might be possible to put a couple of garages sizeways on in the next bit where it's still quite narrow, and then the actual houses a bit further back. But I'll PM you both the grid reference. I recommend looking at it on street view as well as on satellite, so that you can see how the slopes work. The house and garden are on reasonably flat land, but the drive slopes quite steeply down towards the house because the road has been raised when the bridge was built (after the house).

michaels wrote: »

I will just share the latest story of my floor where the builder started laying it the wrong direction, relaid it the right way and ran out of planks having wasted so many, so I phoned the supplier this AM...and they have no more left :eek:

Good news is apparently they will be able to restock or be it not for 2 weeks.

Oh no! Hope they manage to get some more soon. Do let us know.

LydiaJ wrote: »

In house news... some time ago my builder put up a curtain pole for me to go across the archway from the hall into the kitchen, so it can be out of the way most of the time but closed if there are cooking smells I want to contain. Today I am going to make a small step towards getting my act in gear, and go up in the loft to see if any of the large collection of second-hand curtains up there would do for the kitchen archway. By the looks of things it'll be a while before I can afford to buy any new curtains, so I might as well see if a free stop gap is available. Will report back shortly.

Well, I have one that fits, but it would be quite a hassle to remove the 6" or so at the edge that are falling apart after years of much more exposure to the sun than the rest of the curtain. I am still thinking.

DD is very sad today. She has been raising a tadpole and had got quite attached to it. Yesterday the resulting froglet got out of the water for the first time and was seen sitting on the stone we had given it, so I explained that we would need to return it to the wild today because we really haven't got the facilities for a pet frog. Overnight, it died.

Meanwhile I am off out to try to obtain a blonde bob wig for DS to wear to impersonate one of the female teaching assistants in tomorrow's Y6 leavers' assembly. :eek:

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

It probably will be too.....

I know I must go check out the missiles this week. I'll take a pic and post up.

PasturesNew wrote: »

That sounds interesting/exciting, but also a little confusing as I thought you had other stuff booked for the Saturday.

That's daytime middle of day.


The house/building tales are putting us off getting started.....the upheaval etc. plus we can't afford to do it all in one hit...so do we wait and save up another year and make do? This is our inclination at the mo.


LJ if you need an architect for plans for mates house, we used a good one. Had good ideas and was reasonably efficient when outting in planning etc.


Any pics of the swan pedalo? Is it going up the Thames...maybe I'll see it go past if he comes from Dartford. I'll look out for it

LydiaJ

fc123 wrote: »

The house/building tales are putting us off getting started.....the upheaval etc. plus we can't afford to do it all in one hit...so do we wait and save up another year and make do? This is our inclination at the mo.

LJ if you need an architect for plans for mates house, we used a good one. Had good ideas and was reasonably efficient when outting in planning etc.

It quite suits me not to be able to afford to do it all in one go because I haven't got the time and energy for one big upheaval. Lots of little bits is about what I can manage. It depends how you feel about it. The big structural stuff won't be happening for a few years yet, anyway. I won't be able to afford it until I get my compensation from LNE's accident, and since nobody wants to settle out of court, that won't be for years, I suspect.

Thanks for mentioning your architect. Do you know roughly how much it would cost to get an architect to put together something for applying for outline PP?

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

Pn, pn, pn!!

I have discovered your soulmate!


Its about to be on radio four, someone has gone to the olympics on a swan pedalo!

Brilliant

But ... what a loony.

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

That's daytime middle of day.

Ah, this is where I'm fail.... you see I have a start time, but without an end time I've no idea if the end is likely to be 1pm, 6pm or 11pm.



So, guessing..... I'd have become the unwelcome guest who won't s0d off...

Davesnave

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thanks for mentioning your architect. Do you know roughly how much it would cost to get an architect to put together something for applying for outline PP?

Initial survey of whole house & surrounds £400.
Design & Submit outline plan £578 (inc £150 council fee.)
Extra mapping required £38

Those are Devon rates though!

Our PP came through today with no special conditions or amendments.:)

Won't :j yet though. We have to weigh up whether we can afford what we've planned! :o:o