Nice People 12: Nice in Nice

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

Blimey, did you remember that or is it on the driving licence (have to admit to not studying mine)?

I remember it, along with a lot of details of the day.

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

Is it the one currently for sale at Lidl? Saw those and wanted one, but I've not the counter-top space for one

My "perfect house" always had a mini oven in it..... in my dreams.

Nooo....having just spent 10 months cooking with a Lidl mini oven and an Argos 2 ring plug in hob, I can guarantee that nothing compares to a proper oven.
I bought a halogen oven too and it was interesting to use for grilly type cooking.
I am unsure whether our vendor is leaving their range cooker as she hadn't decided (and it is absolutely filthy and not a great one) so the mini oven ma leave the studio and be back in use when we move...for however long fitting a new kitchen takes. Could be a year

Spirit wrote: »

I once made a pair of eyelet curtains for DDs room in very heavy fabric that she chose.

The method looked simple the reality was bit trickier. It was alabour of love.

After about 10 months she went off them and bought a pair of ready mades from Next!

I thought that too....and I have 'free' fabric as I have stuff leftover....the whole stitching the tape was all straightforward but cutting out the holes and pushing in the rings was just ridiculous. I reckon the pairs I made cost 3 times what ready mades would have cost if I costed up my time.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Up norf there are a lot of places making cheap sofas.
e.g. two for £260 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Dylan-all-over-Jumbo-Fabric-3-and-2-seater-Sofa-Suite-in-Silver-/121164766059?pt=UK_Home_Garden_LivingRoom_Sofas_UK&hash=item1c35fb9b6b (+£65 delivery).

I was thinking "teal/blue" to go with the curtains... but the reality is that blue sofas are a bit too bold/blocky to look right.... which leaves me with cream (would easily mark) or 'silver'/light grey.

I like that silver one. I found a place in Wales that made sofas that was reasonable but can't find the link...I will try and find on OH's laptop tonight.




Blinds, I used www.tuiss.co.uk for made to measure and signed up for email promos and a week later got a code. Don't know if it is any cheaper but their range is large and they were quick to arrive and nice quality.


We bought really cheap white opaque blinds from B+ Q but you can't cut them very well as they tend to fray. I wouldn't buy them again unless I had no choice (in terms of budget)


I am with Doozer with Ikea blinds if you can get to one.

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

Nooo....having just spent 10 months cooking with a Lidl mini oven and an Argos 2 ring plug in hob, I can guarantee that nothing compares to a proper oven.

When you're single though, every day, all the time, nobody's coming round .... full sized ovens seem such a waste, and to take so long to warm up ... when all you're doing is heating up one tiny pie, or one small pizza, or one "meal for one". At least with the mini ovens they get hot fast, shove the food in, set the timer - and it magically "pings" when it's done too, so you don't have to worry about forgetting it.

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

I like that silver one. I found a place in Wales that made sofas that was reasonable but can't find the link...I will try and find on OH's laptop tonight.

I'll wait for that then.... I was thinking about the silver one earlier and thought "You know, for the price, it'd be daft not to just buy that".

fc123 wrote: »

Blinds, I used www.tuiss.co.uk for made to measure and signed up for email promos and a week later got a code. Don't know if it is any cheaper but their range is large and they were quick to arrive and nice quality.

Mine don't need to be made to measure. The windows used seem to be "stock sizes" (obviously for cheapness), so it's quite easy to find blinds the right width.

They do seem reasonably priced.... but I just checked out their cheapest/basic, white venetians, 25mm slats (for comparison) and they came in at about £20, whereas doing the same search on other blind sites they come in about £10.

Ignoring the patio doors (which will require a one-off solution), I have up to 7 blinds needed downstairs and up to 3 upstairs. So 10 in total. Of those 10, three are about 50cmx100cm, two are 175x135, three are 75x130, other two I forget ... might be 60x90. So, there's a lot required ... where extra £10s and £20s will add up to covering the cost of the little man to fit them.

They all have pecking orders of importance, so no need to get them all at the same time, although it'd make sense if I found a set of good prices from one source, or there were some other good reason to buy the lot all in one go.

neverdespairgirl

11th December 1995, I passed mine.

I know that sort of deeply useless information, along with other pointless stuff such as debit / credit / passport numbers, etc.

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

11th December 1995, I passed mine.

I know that sort of deeply useless information, along with other pointless stuff such as debit / credit / passport numbers, etc.

I remember my NI number off by heart - and my bank sortcode/account number. Both seem to "spook" people when I'm asked for them and simply pluck them out of midair.

PasturesNew

I've also got my eye on one of those JML Magic Doormats ... some describe it as lime, others green/yellow. Just priced them up in ebay (to get the base price), need to go and measure the hallway and mull over the size I want.

I need a "flat" hall mat and want it to be large enough to do the job it's supposed to .... so then it's a question of whether it's better to buy one large one, or two smaller ones to sit side by side..... all thoughts that'll bring me, eventually, to the decision point where I actually start looking for them at the price I am prepared to pay.

It's probably going to sit on the backlist until the weather turns nastier though .... it's nice to have, not critical.

neverdespairgirl

PasturesNew wrote: »

I remember my NI number off by heart - and my bank sortcode/account number. Both seem to "spook" people when I'm asked for them and simply pluck them out of midair.

Yup. I was filling in a direct debit thing last week and the bloke looked at me as if I had started casting spells when I just wrote the details in.

lostinrates

My windows are not standard sizes on purposes, far from it, but I managed to get some b and q basic white roller blinds to just about fit three of them in the cheese room. There a a wee bit mean. But they'll do.

I think I have found fabric I like again. Only its not what I was looking for at all. So have to adjust to that. Modern looking fabric in there was not on my radar in the least so I'm thinking about it for a a few weeks.

Also while to me pn's sofa budget is a posh alert, my fabric budget is posh alert, so I need to feel confident. I'm also not sure what I want to do about headers etc.

This one is a graduated fabric, so the small windows simply making blinds won't necessarily look so cohesive, but also, might not look as bitty, which is what I was fearing.

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

Telly always oversimplifies it .... when you watch carefully, single people without family/friends in the trade, without big budgets etc don't go knocking houses about. There's always tales of people who helped, family/friends in the trade, somebody spending hours and hours with them, helping, deciding .... and/or just being around for them at the end of the day.

It's all a con.

You'll get there..... it'll just seem like you're swimming in treacle for awhile.

Also, you're young and have future choices where you can choose differently, if you wish. Get to my age and you've not the spare time to reconsider..... and wait it out.

I couldn't do it if I was solo.


We couldn't do it if OH didn't have several 'useful skills' . And he 'knows' people who happen to have a trade too.
Even more useful is the new BF of DD is a plumber so he plumbed in the ensuite and laid pipes and stuff at the weekends for a bit of cash.


An example would be that as a carpenter he did all our new roof and joists (and other woody things that go into building a new roof and floors) with a friend (also a carpenter who he knew at school).




The mud was the thing for me...OMG how much mud.


Sarah Beeneys programme about extensions condenses several months of hell into a bite size 45 minutes excl ads.


We did wander about the house before the open day singing that twinky music you get at the end of those shows.


Nikks, you'll get it done in time.......you may meet a bloke at some point who has a trade :cool:

michaels wrote: »

We only have to do breakfast and dinner, they get their own lunch. We only offer them what we have for breakfast, toast, cereal, porridge sachets, juice ettc and they generally want chocolate milk and nutella on toast.

They get an exciting trip to the supermarket on the first or second day to say what they like. The most recent said she wasn't a vegetarian but would rather not have meat. We took her to Zizzi's the first night where she had a peperoni pizza and she then proceeded to eat meat at every meal even where we did things like spag bol and cooked a veggie alternative so I am not sure what the English meat she was worried about from her 2 previous homestays but it wasn't anything we cooked.

Oh dear, we haven't had Nutella in our house since about 1991 and I have never bought chocolate milk....doesn't it raise their blood sugar to high 1st thing in the morning? They probably would not be impressed with being offered almond milk.

lemonjelly wrote: »

Challenge for the NP. There was a conversation here recently about Not On The High Street.

I saw a lampshade I'd like for the living room:
http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/lornasyson/product/robin-lampshade-small

The price (£70 :eek: ) is my only concern. I've had a mini web search but can't find it cheaper. Can anyone else?

...if you love it it's worth it as you'll keep it for years probably and no-one else will have the same plus you are purchasing from an individual/small business rather than a faceless corporation. Just trying to justify the price






I confess, I confess. Watched CBB last night and I am now hooked to 3 weeks of junk telly every night at 10.30pm Will record and then watch halfway through so can skim the ads and waffle.