Living on next to nought - is that the key?

Greying_Pilgrim

For Pippi, Bob and anyone else who likes a good idea for 'neeps' - see HERE after about 2 minutes or so. If you can't access Utoob, it is; oatmeal, honey and the herb sweet savoury mixed in with mashed turnip. HTH

Greying

greenbee

Greying - if what's worrying you is what needs to be done before selling a house, drop me a PM as I've been through that recently. If it's letting then you may want to post on the house buying/renting boards. Either way, there's a limit to what there is any point in spending either time, money or effort on...

cocalls

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

For Pippi, Bob and anyone else who likes a good idea for 'neeps' - see HERE after about 2 minutes or so. If you can't access Utoob, it is; oatmeal, honey and the herb sweet savoury mixed in with mashed turnip. HTH

Greying

Are neeps swede? I always gets a bit confused as I thought neeps were short for turnips?? But that looked yellow and swede like but oh so delish-never thought of doing hash with swede as I have the largest one I have ever seen sitting in my fridge.


My sis gave it to me as it was in her veg box and I think was overawed by it. I was thinking we'd be having sunshine (mashed swede and carrots) all week but might try some kind of hash (though don't have any smoked duck!)

moneyistooshorttomention

I know what you mean by "stymied into inactivity". Can relate to any tendency to succumbing to feelings of "unfairness" and had to pull myself together into heavy duty "It is what it is" mode to get together the house I've just sold earlier this year. Yep...there was "getting it ready for sale" to do and I had to sit down and work out clearly what I/my finances were going to be able to cope with in terms of work on that house, knowing very well that I would almost certainly have to do a lot of work on my next house when I got it.

I was correct on that one. I am indeed having to do a lot of work on Next House (now I've moved to it recently). To date: modernising central heating, modernising electrics, swopping all the fascia boards/downpipes/gutters, gutting everything living in the garden, swopping an exterior door, gutting the bathroom.....errrm....you get the picture....and I'm not halfway through everything I intend to do to the house and am more than halfway through available money to do the work. I will be living in a half-finished house/garden for "I dont know how long:(" whilst I wait for more money to get on with it. But, even half-finished, it will be a good bit more sorted-out than my last one was.

Think of it this way Greying...Since you're going to move, then its best to do it now before you get any older/wiser. I'm in my 60s now and would have distinct qualms about having to do all this work if I'd got as far as in my 70s. I'm having to gird loins visibly to make myself do this at this age, having expected to be doing all this in my 40s (but it wasn't to be...because finances didn't allow of moving to Final Home then). I'm guessing you aren't too far off my agegroup?? That being the case then yep....at some point health/energy declines in some people (hopefully won't in your case) and that's a factor to take into account. There's also the Life Takes Over Factor. Another reason why I had to take the opportunity to move personally was because I had just retired and the timing was good in that sense to be able to put in all the effort to do the necessary work on Next House before my Retirement Lifestyle took over my time and energy. I wouldn't have wanted to have, say, 5 years of Retirement and then start trying to get Next House together because, by then, I'd have filled my time with everything I have been planning/waiting to do in Retirement (bar the gardening....because Last House only had a back yard and was proving a struggle to do a "courtyard garden scenario" in) and wouldn't be able to find the time to "plough on at it" solidly gutting Next House.

Factors to bear in mind....

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

Oh my days........ What wonderful posts. Thank you :)

greenbee - you are so kind. You always pitch in with an offer of help, on MSE and on *t'other* place. Please know how touched I am by your thoughtfulness Initially we will have to rent out - but frankly, if the repairs went ok, and the house looked decent and someone offered a fair price for it, then we would [STRIKE]bite their hand off[/STRIKE] be ready to sell up

I am actually beginning to feel a lot better since coming up with a list, as I'm beginning to get a better idea of 'must', 'might' and 'maybe'. And 'room by room' also gives a better idea of timescale - 'house' just seemed daunting :eek: Oh, and I should add that our friend has agreed to help with advice and guidance. I trust their judgement and I have a good plumber and a good electrician at my disposal. As I gather more information, I am getting more confident that all this can happen Oh, and I've discovered that our fuse box is compliant enough for modern standards, so a re-wire is unlikely, just need to sort out one or two surface mounted cable issues in a couple of places Getting the damp treated is probably going to be the worst aspect..... but it's necessary and again, with planning, it may not be such an upheaval. The bathroom is the 'worst' room, but realistically, if we stayed here, it is something that needs attending to sooner rather than later, so we just need to get it done

cocalls - Pipster is the one to give you the low down on what is what, but I reckon that chap had use 'Swedish Turnips' ie 'swede' but he called them turnips, just like we all do. I always though turnips were white fleshed and generally smaller than 'Swedish turnips' But I'm prepared to be shot down in flames if I've got the wrong end of the stick, as turnips/swedes and 'neeps' cause strong passions on these boards However, in terms of the recipe, I thought it was quite innovative - after all the earthiness of the ST with the oatmeal and the sweet notes from the honey and what I assume we would call 'summer savoury' - added to rich smoked duck meat.

moneyistooshorttomention - wow! What a post. THANK YOU I 'hear' everything you say, and yes, I now just want us to get on with our lives Thank you again for posting.

So, can't claim a NSD today, but it's all necessary stuff

I'm just having a coffee and musing on what a wonderful place MSE is..... But I'll have to 'jump to it' just now and get some picnic fodder sorted. I think we'll go for cheese and beetroot baps, we've HM buns, some 'posh' crisps (from HB so they didn't break the bank ) and I may do a little flask of soup (probably not....) and a flask of hot choccy There is fuel in the car, I've my list of 'most wanted' spices and the NT cards are in my purse.

I need to quickly cook the soaked chickpeas in the PC for the dish for dinner tonight, just in case we are back late or anything. Which actually reminds me, I need an aubergine.... mmm.

Right, I'd better shift a tail feather.

Thank you so much for continuing to support me on this thread. It is appreciated very much by me.

*edit* - I should add I slept well last night - once I had 'waited' until the camera battery recharger had finished and I was able to switch it off. I'd forgotten to charge the battery earlier in the evening, and I suppose I didn't like to leave something like that on overnight... #overlybleedincautiousme

See y'all later.

Greying

beanielou

Have a good day

dreaming

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Dinner this evening..... Well I'm pretty sure we will of lost...dreaming? by this point with all this talk of *shrooms* - apologies
Greying

No - you will have to work a lot harder than that to get rid of me:)

I have a good plumber and a good electrician at my disposal. ]


If you have these you are more than half way there as round here they are like gold dust. When I was doing my last house up (a victorian terrace which needed everything doing to it) I decided it might be quicker to go and do the apprenticeship to become a plumber rather than wait to find one.

rtandon27

Hope you are having a lovely day!

greenbee

dreaming wrote: »

When I was doing my last house up (a victorian terrace which needed everything doing to it) I decided it might be quicker to go and do the apprenticeship to become a plumber rather than wait to find one.

I know the feeling... :cool:

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Afternoon :hello:

Thank you for all your good wishes - Beanie - lovely to see ya - where you been hiding? dreaming - don't want to get rid of ya And yes, I know what you mean about retraining being quicker I am lucky with these two - whilst they are not perfect, they are good enough. Fair. Practical. Tidy-ish and nice fellas to boot. Thanks for popping in rtandon And you too greenbee

Whoop :j I have been having me a brilliant time

The grocery store was wonderful. I stocked up on nearly everything on my list plus some big bags of beans, lentils and a bag of cornmeal and spent £24 Without fail, everything was a better price than I have been paying. And yes, I am grateful that the water rates are over 8 months so that I had spare DD money - I will have to 'buy' from my stores diligently though to ensure that it is not 'lost' as that money is actually needed for something else in 2014. i'm delighted to of got tins of chopped tomatoes for 25p each. They are KTC brand and I know that sometimes some of the big soopermarkets do the same 4 for £1 deal - but not where I am

I also got some ajwain seeds again - I know that I made something recently that had them in the recipe, I will have to look it up, but I know that they go well in potato dishes, so thinking of Pippi's celery seeds, I wonder if I could make 'interesting' tattie salad?

I also got chatting with a very nice gentleman. And in serendipittydoodah terms, it was interesting what he said to me and that there was then a connection with the same thing later on in the NT display..... Obviously quite a wise man.......

The NT property was grand - but busy. The highlight of the day was definitely a Robin, singing it's heart out on a wall. Wonderful. At one point, it looked like it was singing farewell to cars as they left the property.

The picnic was scoffed. Unfortunately in a bit of a dingey car park on the edge of a common. The wind was too keen at the NT place where the picnic tables were dry but out in the open. We found a nature reserve listed on the map nearby, but it was closed when we got there - not sure if it is seasonal or a victim of reducing local government funding Still, we were ready for our food - and the hot choc was so welcome as the temperature was dropping compared to earlier in the day.

Dinner this evening will have to be a substitution as I didn't manage to remember to get an aubergine - classic mistake of thinking 'i'll come back for that after I've looked in another bit of the shop....' :rotfl:

I'm going to wrap up with my 3 things for which I am grateful, as I'm going to make dinner, have a warm in front of the stove and then get an early night - I've got meself all over-excited for one day :rotfl:

3 things for which I am grateful today;

bird life - wonderful to watch and you wonder how something so small can make such a beautiful sound

enthusiasm - it made all the difference to our visit, even if it did skew the practicalities of 'crowd control' a little.....

for social interaction and diversity.

Thank you so much for dropping in, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it. It is so good to end the weekend on such a high

See y'all later.

Greying