Preparing for Winter

ANY_CHANCE

make sure the taps work, we moved into ours and there was only cold water to the bathrooms

cyclingyorkie

and the loo flushes - we moved in here on a friday.....and had to flush the loo with buckets of water till Monday!

and check there are no swarms of insects - we discovered a wasps nest in the first week - the bloke who fixed it said it had been there for 3 months!

Confuzzled

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

Perhaps a strange thing to say Confuzzled but when you're looking at houses, make sure they don't smell of damp too.

thanks for the well wishes they are very much appreciated!

as for damp, i will definitly look for signs of it as we moved into one home that had had the damp merely painted over. this cause so much trouble for us it was unbelievable. it appears i am VERY allergic to that type of mould to the point where i bloated up and gained 2 stone in 2 months, could hardly walk from being so stiff and became arthritic, sometimes my hands were so weak that i couldn't even hold a newspaper!

this went on with me becoming more and more ill and bloodtests didn't reveal anything and the doc was starting to think it was all in my head, then we decided to move the furniture around and found rising damp growing up the walls 5 feet high behind the book cases and the wardrobes!

there was damp in the bathroom but you see that often enough and it wasn't too bad in there oddly enough. we also found it inside our cupboards in the kitchen too. the living room also had damp but only a tiny patch in one corner so i became confined mostly to that room as things got worse and worse.

during this time my daughter developed severe congestion and drainage issues, had to take benedryl every night just so she could breathe well enough to sleep and developed glue ear so badly that eventually she had to have grommets put in so she could hear well enough to speak properly (other people couldn't understand her til she was 4 years old!)

we were stuck in that flat for 8 months and it was sheer hell. within 2 weeks of being in a mould free flat i'd lost a stone, could walk properly again and her breathing difficulties cleared up! all in my head eh? :mad:

i have to say it's actually made me quite leary of any ground floor flats (they tend to have the most cases of damp) and i probably wouldn't touch a flat that had storage heaters again for that very reason (though in this flat they somehow though a small storage heater in the hall was fine and they didn't need to put one in either bedroom! :eek:

but thanks for bringing this up, i shall compile a list of signs of damp or signs that damp may have been present in the past and i'll make a point to actually ask them about it if i have any slight inkling it might have been a problem. now that i've decided to widen my search for a place to live to outwith this town (her dad can live with a little more travel we're the ones that have to live here!) i should have a bit more choice and leverage

so thanks again for pointing that out, good reminder of something i def want to avoid!

Savvy_sewing

Good luck looking confuzzled!

Savvy_sewing

Back to the preparing for winter! I have unearthed a White fur bed throw, for the front room. Nice and snug to curl up in!.
While wading into DS's bedroom, I also came across two red fleeces that I used to use as throws in the first big house we rented when babies were first born. I am going to "fumigate" them, (you know what teenage boys rooms smell like?) and then put some curtain header tape on to them. That will make two curtains for the winter!.:money:
I am so glad I am part of MSE, as it has given me so many money saving tips and ideas. Its a wonderful community!!:T

Patchwork_Quilt

DH was looking up How to Make a Roman Blind today and apparently, it's very easy (!) It does occur to me though, that a fleecy blind right next to the window might keep the cold out.

mummysaver

confuzzled - having had horrible problems with damp in my last house I have every sympathy with you. Trouble is getting people to tell you the truth, but the signs of damp are easy to spot if you've ever lived with it, sigh! Another option is to hire out a damp meter from HSS or wherever and take it with you, it'll leave two tiny prong marks, but never had anyone refuse to let me stick it in their wall, esp if you do it just about the skirting board where it won't show. Actually did have one woman who didn't want me to use it as she'd just repainted a wall in a room - suspicious, me? hell yes, and sure enough damp was the reason she'd repainted!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

The thing with damp though is that you can get rid of it easily nowadays.
We did our own damp course (bought all the gear on Ebay).It was very easy and quick to do and saved us a lot of money compared to using a company,around a thousand pounds.
It must of worked as this is our third year here and we have no damp at all.
I bought this house knowing full well it had mega damp problems(they were very obvious and it is a very old house) but now we've sorted it out we have a lovely home.

cyclingyorkie

wow! i didn't know that was possible.....:T

cuddlymarm

Hi

Last winter we were living in a lovely little cottage (but it was very very draughty) I rolled a towel up and tied it with string and used that as a very quick draught excluder and then just undid it and washed it in the spring. Not particularly pretty but it did the job.

Cuddles:rotfl: