Preparing for Winter

mardatha

Confuzzled, Fife council are very good I think. Maybe find an estate agent who does farm cottage rentals - we get loads of them down here and they are supposed to be good. Also they will have be more likely to have coal fires.
Just check out the buses .... !

Confuzzled

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

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.

how much did the gear cost you and what did it entail?

i'm renting and due to very recent seperation from my husband and an international move i'm skint and currently on benefits so i can't afford much. however were i to find a place that was otherwise perfect and it wouldn't cost too much i might consider it if it weren't too expensive or possibly cause problems with the landlord

it is also of course useful to know that if i somehow do find myself in a damp place despite being on the look out for it then i'd possibly have a way around it, i do not want a repeat of the last place with damp, that was horrible beyond words!

Confuzzled

mardatha wrote: »

Confuzzled, Fife council are very good I think. Maybe find an estate agent who does farm cottage rentals - we get loads of them down here and they are supposed to be good. Also they will have be more likely to have coal fires.
Just check out the buses .... !

i quite agree, i've been very pleasantly surprised at how friendly, efficient and honest everyone at fife council has been, it's certainly been quite enlightening!

there are quite a few places in east neuk area that would probably be ok so as long as i can find one that isn't ridiculous to walk to with a trolley bag full of groceries and hopefully gets the mobile library i'd be willing to take something like that.

the idea of a cottage with a woodburning stove or a fireplace is so much more appealing to me than a flat or the type of place i'm in now. i realise that it's also more likely to be draughty and possibly mouldy too but i'm still going to look. i miss the cottages we live in in the highlands and my daughter says she wants a cozy private house so we'll see what we can do...

Savvy_sewing

There is a woodburning stove in my dining room. (If I can unearth it from the piles of **** in front of it first.). But I will have to rethink where the dining room table would go, as the chair etc are far too close to the fire.! I am going to make two red fleeces into curtains, to line the windows. I plan to put the curtain tape on the "wrong side" so that they can be hung onto the header tape of the main curtains.

mardatha

There used to always be cottages to rent in from St Monance to Anstruther - that sort of area. But things might be different now. Some estate agents specialize in farm cottages to let down here in the Borders, so might be the same there.

mardatha

http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14177328&source=hptextfeature

shaz_mum_of__2

Mooloo wrote: »

There is a woodburning stove in my dining room. (If I can unearth it from the piles of **** in front of it first.). But I will have to rethink where the dining room table would go, as the chair etc are far too close to the fire.! I am going to make two red fleeces into curtains, to line the windows. I plan to put the curtain tape on the "wrong side" so that they can be hung onto the header tape of the main curtains.

Could you swap the rooms around and make the dining room your living room and cosy up in front of the woodburner

Savvy_sewing

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Could you swap the rooms around and make the dining room your living room and cosy up in front of the woodburner

Hi,
I have been thinking about that, but I am not sure that I could get the sofa and chair through the door into the other room.
The door is not a normal size door,and there are two steps taking up part of the space too.
The front door is also in that room. So I will have to put a sign on the door and get everyone to come to the kitchen door instead. Or all my heat would just go out of the door!.
I shall have a word with DS when he next comes home and see if he can try to swap them.
(Actually the other thought is that if I am going to be launching my craft business, which is made in the dining room, that I would at least be cosy and encouraged to work in there!).

I was looking at a DIY make over book in some cheap shop yesterday, and one of the things that I noticed when flicking, was that they had made fleece blankets into curtains, by turning over the top, leaving enough space for the curtain pole to go through, and another 3 " or so below that for Big Bold Buttons, at intervals. Very simple indeed. That would warm up a room.

I also was using some sticky back velcro the other day, and I wondered if that could be put around draughty windows, and the partner on to fleece or any other warm fabrics, to cut out the cold? As there is no room for apole above some of my windows in the out house style downstairs bathroom, utilty space and kitchen. I will let you know what it works out like when I maange to do it.:D

downshifter

Is there any way of making an open fire more efficient? Mine really doesn't reflect much heat into the room, I'm sure it all goes up the chimney. I almost feel I want to put a mirror in the back of it to reflect the heat, I can stand in front of it without burning my legs, so it's so wasteful of fuel even though it looks nice.

Or alternatively, what's the cheapest stove type thing I could use instead. I couldn't afford a proper woodburner and anyway, it's a rented house so don't want to install a permanent fixture, though my landlord would love it!!

Thanks

DS

Savvy_sewing

downshifter wrote: »

Is there any way of making an open fire more efficient? Mine really doesn't reflect much heat into the room, I'm sure it all goes up the chimney. I almost feel I want to put a mirror in the back of it to reflect the heat, I can stand in front of it without burning my legs, so it's so wasteful of fuel even though it looks nice.

Or alternatively, what's the cheapest stove type thing I could use instead. I couldn't afford a proper woodburner and anyway, it's a rented house so don't want to install a permanent fixture, though my landlord would love it!!

Thanks

DS

Is there a way you could ask your landlord to install one? If you have been there for a while, and they know you are a good tenant they might be accommodating?

I am waiting to hear from Warm Front to see if I can get a grant to help sort out the heating efficiency in my cottage, and its rented. But I am on benefits at the moment. :T