Nice People 12: Nice in Nice

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

This is the bit I'll always be scared about .... living alone and owning a house - storms!

Wind's definitely getting up now. Clouds racing across the sky and it's raining .... I HATE the wind.... ever since I was small I'd lay awake during windy storms, convinced half the house was about to blow away/off/collapse!!!

I need to now get "fully dressed", "in case".... and I will spend the rest of the day on high mental alert and pacing about, checking nothing's dropping off. Side fence/gate's already making ominous noises ....

How many times previously have bits of the place you live been blown down or off? You don't need to stress unduly. Just stay indoors in the warm, and if anything blows down you wait until the storm is over and its light outside and check for damage.

We get off very lightly in this country. Being under tornado alert in Florida or in the middle of a big Aussie storm in a house with a tin roof is much scarier.

People who die or are injured in storms in the UK are almost always outdoors.

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

How many times previously have bits of the place you live been blown down or off? You don't need to stress unduly. Just stay indoors in the warm, and if anything blows down you wait until the storm is over and its light outside and check for damage.

We get off very lightly in this country. Being under tornado alert in Florida or in the middle of a big Aussie storm in a house with a tin roof is much scarier.

People who die or are injured in storms in the UK are almost always outdoors.

Yeah

Side gate's banging. That really needs to be replaced by a coastal hedge. I can just tell that's going to give me big trouble.... oh well .... it does what it does I guess

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I need to (a) put curtain rails up everywhere downstairs and (b) sort out all the stupid little patches of filler where the previous occupants "made good" all the holes in the walls before leaving.

CBA to do either though. Will try to find some pictures to cover up the mess in due course.

If I were a general handyman then I'd target a market of "house movers" and sell my services for a special £60 for 3 hours on a house move day or the day after to do "all those little annoying things that you find when you move into a house". Just to turn up and do the little jobs I was pointed at. Good marketing plan as it's a fixed fee (could even be less) .... and once you're in they'll find more work for you to quote for.

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

I said/meant that the grille is prevented from being removed as the pipe is pretty much touching the grill, so no wriggle room/clearance to get it lifted/out. The grill itself is about 1/2" thick, so it has to come up that much, then tilt a little and moved aside.

Yes, I unscrewed the screws - you can see an empty screwhole in the photo.
There isn't enough clearance as the grill is down, below paving stone level, by 3/4" or so .. it'd need 1/2" clearance or so to get it wriggled out

Fair enough. That's probably a really good explanation for why that drain has never been emptied.

It seems strange it was installed like that. Unless the pipe has dropped half an inch over the years, maybe? Can you reach the bracket holding it, to see how tight that is? It would be a shame to take half an inch off the bottom of the pipe, only to find that it promptly drops another half inch.

PasturesNew

Just stuck my nose against the rear patio doors - HUGE flash of lightning! Didn't expect that ..... then a crash of thunder. So turning the PC off for a bit ...

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yeah

Side gate's banging. That really needs to be replaced by a coastal hedge. I can just tell that's going to give me big trouble.... oh well .... it does what it does I guess

Where I live is always windy as its on top of a hill. For that reason, most of the gates here have the thumb latch that most gates have about half way up, plus a little second latch at the top of the gate that you reach up and undo. They are an easy fit. Also, a lot of the fences here have blown down in the past so have secondary concrete half props (that's probably not the right thing to call them but describes ok). Both measures do a lot to strengthen piddly English fencing.

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

Just stuck my nose against the rear patio doors - HUGE flash of lightning! Didn't expect that ..... then a crash of thunder. So turning the PC off for a bit ...

Does turning the PC off reduce the thunder and lightning? I must try that.

I like your handyman for three hours on moving day idea.

PasturesNew

Well, it's quietened down here. Watching the BBC News they really put the wind up you! But when you inspect their maps, closely, you can see what's really going on where you live - and I could see that my bit's not too bad at all - and should be entirely clear of it in a few hours' time.

What I DO like about this house is that I have all round visibility. I used to find, in other houses, that I could run around inside, but not actually see anything outside. This house is pretty marvellous at giving me good all round visibility from the placement/type of the windows.

So, I've switched the telly over from BBC that was really just scaring me too much watching Fat Families instead, which gives me a "feel good" factor as I'm not as big as them .... politically incorrect, yes, but true

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

I like your handyman for three hours on moving day idea.

It's an easily targettable niche that gets your foot in the door .... so many people don't have a set of regular people for jobs - and, when you move in, it's little fiddly jobs and little quotes that you want.

Could be an idea for a Junior Doozer Co ..... Fiddly Farty Faffy Fixes to act as a funnel to feed into their bigger companies.

Typical - turned the PC on again ... and the soddin' thunder's started again. Might have to turn the PC off if it's close/overhead.

Oh... and here comes the rain again ... must have been in a lull for the last 10 minutes. Teeming down now!

PasturesNew

Need some big doormats, front and back .... add those to the list. Going in/out's fine when it's dry. Just realised that I need proper/robust doormats at some point .... not a "problem" when it's just me - as I can work round it, but can't explain to any random other person/visitor what to do if they happened to be here when it's wet outside. e.g. I just popped outside and, coming back in, had to take my foot out of my shoe, leaving it outside and stepping barefoot inside, then pick up my shoes and shake them, then rush through with my hands under them to the mat by the other door and put them on one specific mat (not the light coloured one). Can't expect others to do that - and wait outside in the rain while I'm doing it..... until there's space for them to follow the bizarre ritual.

Probably need to get one of those super-flat industrial looking mats that they show on the telly where you walk across them and get dry shoes by magic. Front door has low clearance over the floor, so a regular mat wouldn't work.