Nice People 13: Nice Save

Doozergirl

If you're considering additional insulation on the walls, the you should do this before new windows, Nikkster. The wall thickness will affect cill depths. Not the most expensive thing to replace, but pointless if the plan was to replace windows anyway. Insulating plasterboard to the inside of the external walls would be the cheapest way and will retain character outside. If there is no damp before, there should be none after.

Have you insulated the loft? That is the most important thing.

Did you get your front door? Sealing pointless drafts will help, as will an efficient boiler and radiators.

Nikkster

Doozergirl wrote: »

If you're considering additional insulation on the walls, the you should do this before new windows, Nikkster. The wall thickness will affect cill depths. Not the most expensive thing to replace, but pointless if the plan was to replace windows anyway. Insulating plasterboard to the inside of the external walls would be the cheapest way and will retain character outside. If there is no damp before, there should be none after.

Have you insulated the loft? That is the most important thing.

Did you get your front door? Sealing pointless drafts will help, as will an efficient boiler and radiators.

Loft was already insulated when I moved in. Might get my dad to go up there and see if he thinks there should be more though. He likes lofts (was pretty much the first thing he wanted to see in the house!).

Door is on it's way. Bumped into door man before Christmas and he asked if they could do it in Jan as they were so busy trying to get stuff done before the hols (but they now have the door in their workshop). He's very sweet and I'd rather they didn't rush the job so I said that was fine. I'm sure it'll help the heat loss a lot though. The less said about my current door the better!

New boiler and rads are on the list after chimney and possibly windows.

Very interesting what you say about internal insulation doozergirl - I'd initially thought of internal insulation (as all the walls will be being decorated at some point), but I thought that it was more prone to causing damp problems on the walls? If not, that might be back on the list again

mystic_trev

Belated Seasons greetings to all NP.

The Central heating packed up Christmas night :mad: Luckily I've got the use of a House two doors down, so been able to keep warm! I'm now awaiting a British Gas engineer, who is (hopefully) going to fix it and then relieve me of large amounts of cash :eek:

It's a bright freezing morning here in West Kent. Great taking the Dog across the fields in the early morning sunshine.

zagubov

Greetings to all NPs! Yesterday I trekked northwards a considerable distance and my general travel advice for all going on car journeys is:
Set off good and early before the accident happens that holds everybody up.
or better still:
Stay where you are and invite people to travel to you.;)

Every so often there was a gap in the fog so we could see the (unmanned) roadworks. The midlands looks like the coldest place BTW. Fields covered with ice.

Generali

So off to the West Cundry today, Exmoor in fact to spend a couple of days with a friend. Got the Generalissimos and Mrs Generali with me.

Nikkster

Generali wrote: »

...

Hope you and the family have a fabulous time together

purch

My local reporters inform me that Traffic is very bad today, M4&M5 around Brizzle and past the Stones as usual.

purch

PasturesNew wrote: »

DFS seem to consistently come in at the right price. This one's in the running, at £299

Better hurry.

The DFS "sale" will only last another day or so, (before they start the 2015 sale :eek:)

LydiaJ

Doozergirl wrote: »

I think I have bronchitis.

Hope you are better soon. DS and I both have horrible coughs, but mercifully they are throaty rather than chesty - our family usually react to coughs that way.

vivatifosi wrote: »

I just asked DH this. He said combination of two things..

1) Virgin will have had engineers on standby and their own repair hangar ready at Gatwick as it is a home airport.

2) America doesn't take too kindly to airlines knowingly turning up in their airspace with a broken plane and causing an emergency.

Also, if you plan to stay in a holding pattern over Gatwick for 4 hours burning off fuel and then decide after only 2 hours that you need to change your mind and land it NOW then you are in a better position to do so than if you are half way across the Atlantic.

Nikkster wrote: »

Very interesting what you say about internal insulation doozergirl - I'd initially thought of internal insulation (as all the walls will be being decorated at some point), but I thought that it was more prone to causing damp problems on the walls? If not, that might be back on the list again

I had internal insulation added to some of my walls when I bought the house (and before I moved in). The original part of my house has cavity walls all the way round downstairs, while upstairs the cavities are only on the gable ends of the house - the sides are single blockwork with a tile cladding. The previous owners had had the cavities filled. So that left each bedroom with one wall that wasn't very well insulated. When I bought the place I had that insulating stuff (solid foam middle with shiny sides) put on the inside of those walls, followed by plasterboard which was then skimmed. It looks a little odd at the ceiling line because I didn't bother getting the coving redone in the new position, but it makes the house much warmer. If left unheated all day on a cold day, my bedroom only loses 3 degrees.

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

The midlands looks like the coldest place BTW. Fields covered with ice.

Indeed. We travelled to Derbyshire on Boxing Day. Arrived at LNE's parents' place without incident, but after we got there it started snowing heavily. DS and DD were happy and went out and played in it. I commented to LNE's dad that their excitement clearly indicated that they weren't the ones having to drive in it!

LNE's parents live in a 2-up-2-down cottage, so when we go to visit them, rather than having us to stay in their house they usually book for us to stay in a Premier Inn up the road. So at the appropriate time we duly set off to try to get there - them in their car and us in ours.

Part way there they turned off along the side road they usually take, and I got stuck trying to turn off the main road. I discussed it with them and agreed that I would try to make the journey on the main road, but that they should go back home - no point in trying to get to the hotel only to have to try to get back over the hill to their house. They said if it got any more difficult we should go back to their house and they would squeeze us in somehow.

I made it a bit further up the hill, only to meet somebody coming down who said that the top of the hill was blocked by stuck cars, so we went back to the in-laws. They kindly gave up their bedroom for us and squeezed into a small double in their spare room while DD and I shared their double bed and DS slept on a folding bed that they squashed into the same room.

I can't say I slept very well - DD is a fidget - but we were warm and safe, and the upside from DD's PoV was that she got grandma's bacon butties for breakfast!

The following day the roads had been gritted and we drove to my brother's in Lincolnshire. It was lovely and warm in their house in the evenings but considerably colder during the day - hence my question to the NP about heating policies. (Since I am identifiable on here I have a policy of not posting about being away from home until after I have come back!) However, the welcome was lovely, and it was great to see my bro, sil and nephews, and v nice to be joined by my dad the day after we got there.

My own heating, BTW, is on whenever I'm in the house and awake, but off when I go out. There are many sacrifices I am willing to make to save money but having my house cold isn't one of them. Still v pleased with the way the tado is working.

Nikkster wrote: »

Hope you and the family have a fabulous time together

What Nikkster said.