Preparing for Winter V

Pooky

We lived in a large old victorian terrace house when I was growing up, all the fire places had been ripped out and filled in so aside from the electric fire in the living room and the occasional blast from the parafin heater on the 1st floor landing, that was it. My bedroom was on the 2nd floor with 4 huge sash windows, over 8ft across and the wind whistled in like you'd not believe, add to that the very thin carpet that used to billow up in the middle with the wind coming through the gaps in the floor boards.....waking up to the net curtains stuck in ice on the inside of the windows was a regular occurance....that was late 70's.

When I had my first baby, winter of 96, it snowed hard and getting home from hospital was a nightmare, I was in a similar style house but renting the top two floors and again, no heating. The midwife was horrified that I'd brought a baby home to a unheated home and asked how I thought I'd keep her warm......I asked her how she thought we'd survived as a species before central heating and she didn't make an issue about it again.

The mornings and evenings are getting really chilly now (which I love). We were getting chilly with the summer duvet and I did think about putting the autumn weight one on but instead went for the summer duvet with brushed cotton bedding....bliss! Need to get the small electric radiator and calor gas fire out of the garage and cleaned up ready to pop in the house and I've got tons of wood I need to chop. It's been a great year so far for berries, we've got more elderberries than I can use at the moment and my understairs cupboards smell all fruity and yeasty with wine blubbing away.

toozie_2

Pooky wrote: »

When I had my first baby, winter of 96, it snowed hard and getting home from hospital was a nightmare, I was in a similar style house but renting the top two floors and again, no heating. The midwife was horrified that I'd brought a baby home to a unheated home and asked how I thought I'd keep her warm......I asked her how she thought we'd survived as a species before central heating and she didn't make an issue about it again.

Sorry this made me LOL!
Great reply to midwife!

I live next door to my midwife. Had 2nd baby in January 1991-it was bitterly cold, and she gave me a gentle row when she saw me hanging out washing when baby was 2 or 3 days old-through her window!
A day after that I got mastitis and breast feeding was excruciating -maybe she was right to keep warm!

She is a great friend still!

Pennydropped

I'm paranoid about walking on the icy pavement or roadways. My father slipped on a icy bit of pavement and fractured his skull a few years back, was in a coma for over a month, and never fully recovered. He was literally just walking out in front of the house and slipped on an icy part.

I'm starting to stockpile some household and food items, by adding some each week to the regular shop. I always try to make sure there are at least some things that don't need a cooker, that can just be eaten, although I do have a small camping stove that I could use in the garden if I absolutely had to.

I've pulled out the winter coats, so I could check them. All seem to be in good condition, and after checking fit, I only needed to buy one for my ds, which I've already done. Scarves, gloves, and hats will be washed in the next few weeks and put out so they're available in October.

The dcs have wellies with thick socks and good hiking boots, so I think I'll go with that. We haven't had snow the last couple winters (sadly), but even if we have some light to moderate snow, that should get them through it easily.

pollys

I need to buy walking boots and wellies for DS. His feet have had a growth spurt! I'm starting to buy extra to make sure the cupboards are well stocked. DS is off to uni on Friday so I will give his room a good clean, the plan is to decorate it over half term. We are taking up the laminate and replacing it with carpet, it's a small room, my nephew works for a carpet firm and he's looking out for an off cut for us. The room has two outside walls and is cold.
We still have the summer duvet on but I have a feeling it won't be long before the next layer is on.

Polly

nicki_2

I managed to get another coat of paint on the front door yesterday at last. Just in time as well as its heavy rain today, but it still needs at least another 2 coats and a light sanding between each one. I suspect it'll be Tuesday if not Wednesday before it is fully dry enough for its next coat.

I've put the heating on here just to take the damp chill off the house. DD had a bath last night and turned the upstairs into a sauna (She's been told to knock that off :mad:) and then slept with her bedroom window locked open. We also dried her uniform on hangers upstairs over the weekend so that hasn't helped. I consider these short bursts as the equivalent of putting the fire on but in every room and it'll be switched back to frost setting at 8.30am

I'm really noticing how cold it's getting over night so I need to get the door curtains up this week. The ones I have are wrecked but DD is off on Friday so she's going to come with me to buy some. I always prefer a second opinion on colours, especially as my kitchen accent colour is supposed to be black but you can't get black door curtains. I may have to rethink my colour scheme and go for red instead as its easier (and cheaper) to get stuff

On the plus side yesterday I went to our local A1di and bought a new slowcooker for £12.99 and they had breadmakers on clearance for £14.99 so I grabbed one of those as well My last breadmaker was bought from a house clearance place for £6 so I had no instruction booklet and it broke earlier this year. I said I wasn't going to replace it but when I saw these this cheap I thought I'd take advantage since I can do cakes and stuff it'll save me putting the big oven on or hovering over the remoska

enchilada

nicki wrote: »

I'm really noticing how cold it's getting over night so I need to get the door curtains up this week. The ones I have are wrecked but DD is off on Friday so she's going to come with me to buy some. I always prefer a second opinion on colours, especially as my kitchen accent colour is supposed to be black but you can't get black door curtains. I may have to rethink my colour scheme and go for red instead as its easier (and cheaper) to get stuff

Nicki do you have a Range shop near to you? I went there recently to buy on of these and they had them in black:

http://www.therange.co.uk/embossed-thermal-panel-green//the-range/fcp-product/71117

Annoyingly they don't seem to have the black one online (and I wanted a green one which they didn't have in the shop!) but maybe you could get one in store, or I could buy it and post it to you?

toozie_2

Winter kit in car- done
Coats, scarves etc - ready
Boots, wellies, walking & snow boots -all okay from last year.
Fresh mince been from local butcher made into family potions of spag bol and frozen -done.
Butcher also sells large (48) pack of his homemade sausage-frozen individually & popped in large bag-done.
And chicken fillets-as above
I don't have a winter wardrobe as such, just jeans, boots, and cardigans-bought a couple of jumpers from CS-done.
Boiler services-done
Car serviced-done.
Christmas gift shopping-1/2 done (or more actually)
Extra tins of food-need to start buying more- inc cat food
Got plenty of cleaning stuff (Stardrops, washing powder etc)- done


Need to weather proof the garden-the furniture is still out I was living in hope of a hot September! This can fit into the shed, along with some other bits we have outside.

x

[Deleted User]

I just ordered another bench cover and need to access the car kit, which is somewhere in my garage. Still got to get water, cereal bars and chocolate. I keep forgetting to do these things so will write them on my to do list for today

A couple of days ago, I brought all the troughs. pots and buckets of plants that I want to take to the tip, into the back garden and they are on their sides as rain makes the much more difficult to handle for tipping. They will dry out now and make the job much easier

I am going to have a real good go on the allotment in a few days, pulling and chopping for the compost bin. Covering any empty beds and putting some good hm compost down on a couple. I think I will take the nets off my brassicas now as I`ll take my chances with cabbage whites. Everything edible up there needs to be easy to get to in horrible weather

Just a bit of maintenance in the house, I have just cleaned and conditioned any leather furniture, ready for the drying winter heating, it makes the leather last much longer

springdreams

nicki wrote: »

I managed to get another coat of paint on the front door yesterday at last. Just in time as well as its heavy rain today, but it still needs at least another 2 coats and a light sanding between each one. I suspect it'll be Tuesday if not Wednesday before it is fully dry enough for its next coat.

I've put the heating on here just to take the damp chill off the house. DD had a bath last night and turned the upstairs into a sauna (She's been told to knock that off :mad:) and then slept with her bedroom window locked open. We also dried her uniform on hangers upstairs over the weekend so that hasn't helped. I consider these short bursts as the equivalent of putting the fire on but in every room and it'll be switched back to frost setting at 8.30am

I'm really noticing how cold it's getting over night so I need to get the door curtains up this week. The ones I have are wrecked but DD is off on Friday so she's going to come with me to buy some. I always prefer a second opinion on colours, especially as my kitchen accent colour is supposed to be black but you can't get black door curtains. I may have to rethink my colour scheme and go for red instead as its easier (and cheaper) to get stuff

On the plus side yesterday I went to our local A1di and bought a new slowcooker for £12.99 and they had breadmakers on clearance for £14.99 so I grabbed one of those as well My last breadmaker was bought from a house clearance place for £6 so I had no instruction booklet and it broke earlier this year. I said I wasn't going to replace it but when I saw these this cheap I thought I'd take advantage since I can do cakes and stuff it'll save me putting the big oven on or hovering over the remoska

Yes you can

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supersoft-Thermal-BLACKOUT-CURTAIN-VICEROY/dp/B0087OSJCW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1442924085&sr=8-2&keywords=black+door+curtain

Rainy-Days

Just about done everything. I will put the garden furniture away in the next couple of weeks or so. The garden bench has it's own cover but I move it to a sheltered spot in the garden to give a bit more added protection.

I still have a few of the planters with summer bedding plants in them so I will get on and deal with those in the next couple of weeks.

I got the fleecy socks from Primarni last week. Threw out the old ones that had seen much better days and re-arranged the sock basket so that it is tidy (very Kon-Mari).

Car services are done. The boiler was dealt with last month. Just need to jet wash the conservatory roof and get that green off that has srated to form and that should be it.

Some newspapers are saying it is going to be a bad winter others not so! They were forecasting last week for a heatwave these next two weeks - well I have not seen much of it yet - Saturday was nice though!