Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

neverdespairgirl

Like LIR's above, don't quote:

My parents' house is timber-framed and plaster, but was covered on the outside with bricks in the 1550s to make it look nice and modern:

lostinrates

So beautiful!.


I'd gladly swap. Gorgeous rooflines .....I have a thing about rooves.


Looks like a fab place for I to run about too.

Did you harvest lots over the weekend? Is your OH back yet?

vivatifosi

lostinrates wrote: »

We've been REALLY lucky with our historic building officer ( and planners and building control in the main, and definitely neighbours) and our architect liaised brilliantly, we also spent a year in pre planning. Its meant ultimately that in the main, the listing hasn't been TOO much of an issue. Often we're rectifying stuff that previous owners should never have done, and that's approved of. Previous owners being the most controllable of owners also gives us some leverage,

I wonder if part of the issue is that the rules change over time. My parents live in a house that is part of a Victorian terrace of fairly large houses. One end of the terrace was listed, but it stopped at their house. So in the 1980s they were allowed to do substantial renovations, not least of which was a lovely new roof. When next door renovated their house (also not listed), which had a new roof the same time as my parents, the rules had changed, so the new owners were made to change it back to the old tiles as part of the conditions of build.

The long and the short of what I'm saying is that the planning teams is far more precious about planning that it was 20-30 years ago and what happened then would never be got away with now, not least because building regs have changed too.

ETA: that's a lovely house NDG.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

I wonder if part of the issue is that the rules change over time. My parents live in a house that is part of a Victorian terrace of fairly large houses. One end of the terrace was listed, but it stopped at their house. So in the 1980s they were allowed to do substantial renovations, not least of which was a lovely new roof. When next door renovated their house (also not listed), which had a new roof the same time as my parents, the rules had changed, so the new owners were made to change it back to the old tiles as part of the conditions of build.

The long and the short of what I'm saying is that the planning teams is far more precious about planning that it was 20-30 years ago and what happened then would never be got away with now, not least because building regs have changed too.

ETA: that's a lovely house NDG.

Some of this work is really recent, e.g.we have just, to our financial horror, just had to have doozer boy's team, unplanned, redo structural work that was done (unknown and undeclared) within the time frame in which, supposedly it should have been declared to our solicitor at sale. Now, as it was unplanned rectification we took advice and were told just to get on with it by our adviser........

A lot that's been done is just 'lied' about here. E,g, the house has a 'traditional lime render' on the back, supposedly.....well, er no......it has a normal render. The previous owners probably did it on the cheap but paid top dollar IYSWIM and so are insisting we do it properly when it comes to redo, as it will need to be done eventually.
This is the same with issues like repointing......part of what has caused some of the problems probably.

misskool

fc123 wrote: »

How do you know when oestrogen levels drop?

I thought high oestrogen was a contributory cause of breast cancer?

I wasn't going to bother taking anything for menopause..am I wrong in that decision?

PS Thanks button doesn't seem to want to work so I may be thanks-free this evening

In full menopause, women have a big reduction in oestrogen. The steroidal hormone helps to preserve the more feminine-features and more importantly, play a role in preserving bone density and continuing to coat your neurons (they are important in the integrity of the myelin sheath). Your fat cells produce a residual amount of oestrogen and your body can convert it if you have excess testosterone. Ideally, you take HRT (with the guidance of your doctor and have regular mammograms) or you can do it naturally with phyto-oestrogens or various other contraptions.

SingleSue

Absolutely beautiful house......

My parents live in a 1930's 3 bed semi, nothing spectacular but still home.

Re menopause, mum went through hers in her early to mid 50's, same with my nan. Nan had her first child at 22 and her last pregnancy at 47, mum had her first child at only just 18 and her last at 34. I had my first at 23 and last at 27 (very almost 28).

James was 16 days late and was induced, middle was 14 days late and induced, youngest was supposed to be 3 days late, induced because of what had happened with middle and then they discovered the scans had been wrong (it was difficult with dates as my periods had not returned after middle and there had been a 'missed' pregnancy where it was just an empty sac but had produced pregnancy hormones immediately before falling for youngest). It turned out youngest was at least 3 weeks early and had been due around the time of my birthday.

misskool

LydiaJ wrote: »

I thought HRT increased risk of breast cancer - so could be about oestrogen levels. I know a friend of mine whose mum died of breast cancer said that her mum felt it was down to having taken HRT and now regretted it, but we all know how much weight should be given to anecdotal evidence, don't we?

2/3rds of women with breast cancer are diagnosed over the age of 65 so whether it's down to HRT or not, it is more to the nature of her biological clock.

If she was given tamoxifen or anastrazole as a treatment (once a day white tablets) then she would have an ER+ (hormone positive) cancer which the HRT would have helped to grow). Cancer initiation is a complex multivariate process so it's really surprising that people choose to believe that there is a single causative agent. Just my 2p though.

neverdespairgirl

Isaac and I have just returned from a weekend there, being used as slave labour - in return for bed and board, we picked / dug / collected beans, squash, tomatoes, main crop spuds, melons, apples, crab apples, blackberries, sloes, damsons, plums, corgettes, pumpkins, carrots and leeks. And brought lots of the fruits of our labour home with us.

We benefitted at the time, too, because my mother provided a rather nice Sunday lunch - roasted lamb (from the farm next door), spuds, leeks, carrots, califlower and beans, all from the garden - total food miles, 0.2. She also made, with Isaac's [STRIKE]hindrance[/STRIKE] help, damson ice-cream and mulberry sorbet.

While we were there, I helped my mother prepare and boil 21lb damsons for damson jelly, 2lb of damsons for the above ice-cream, 2lbs mulberries for the sorbet, and we also collected, washed, pricked and immersed in gin 12lbs of sloes, with about the same still to do. Isaac and I picked 8.5lb of crab apples, and 11.5lb of blackberries, which we left there. Only 3 of the apple trees have ripened, so we picked the apples from those, about 150 in total, and about 40 windfalls. About 100 apples were in perfect condition, so we wrapped them in straw and put them in the apple drawers in the shed (if they aren't absolutely perfect, they don't store well). We also picked and put into store about 50 carrots, and another 40 or so aren't quite perfect enough to store, so I brought half home and left half there. Dad and Isaac picked loads of tomatoes, 4 melons, a couple of leeks, two cauliflowers, and large quantities of runner and French beans, and also dug up main crop potatoes.

Without Isaac (because he'd hurt himself) I picked about 7lb of rosehips, too.

We brought about 10lb of damsons, 8lb of sloes, 3.5lb of rosehips, 30 apples, 20 carrots, 30 large and 10 small tomatoes, a melon, a large bag of spuds and 5lb of blackberries home, so I've got to get busy. 7lb of damsons were cooked last night for jam, so I just need to put them through the sieve today and then turn them into jam.

The house was never designed by anyone, so it's very random in layout - there are 3 staircases, and despite that, 1 of the 6 bedrooms on the first floor can only be reached by going through one of two other bedrooms. My parents' room is huge, but very minimalist - there's almost nowhere to put furniture, as the room has a window on most of one wall, a large fireplace on most of another, and 4 doors, the main door in, one to a passage way that runs over the main stairs, one to the bedroom above that can only be reached by other bedrooms, and one to a loo.

misskool

zagubov wrote: »

Re: Biological clocks, they say a woman starts becoming less fertile about (on average) 20 years before the menopause and reaches complete intertility about 10 years before the menopause. A lot of the public think it's closer to the menopause than that.

Speaking of which I gather as well that HRT needs to start before there's too dramatic a drop in estrogen levels, or else alzheimer's risk starts to climb.

That's me screwed then.

It's practically impossible for any female academic to have children before 35. There is no glass ceiling but try a biological clock ceiling.

Degree completes 21/22 (22 mostly). Spend a year dossing/part time work/masters (you're now 23 and thinking seriously about life)

23-27 (PhD). Takes about 3 years to do the work, another 6 months to write up.

first post doc takes you up to 30-32. If you hit jackpot, you get your full time job here. if not, Second postdoc brings you to 33-35.

Then you get a fellowship (3-5 years).

ALL this is on short fixed term contracts. If you wonder why you don't see many female professors, imagine living your life wondering whether you have another job.

This is the shortened version of an academic. Many people take longer jobs in between degrees as they try to look for funding.

CKhalvashi

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Isaac has a computer, it's in the living room. He doesn't have a phone at all, let alone a smartphone. And his mates' parents are as control-freaky as us, so he's safe for the moment.

My DD's both have phones, but not smartphones, as whilst I'm comfortable with them walking/public transporting to the office from school, I do need to know they can contact me if they need it for peace of mind.

They don't have their own computers, but I will let them use my Macbook if they need to do anything/for Skype with relatives (again, using my Skype). They both have their own Facebook, of which I will say I control a little.

CK