Preparing for Winter

rosieben

Well done :T lolly and well done for thinking of elderley neighbours too :T

its good to feel in control in an emergency!

lollyred1

Thank you rosieben, my partner has thought i was mad for past couple of weeks sorting things out and stocking up but since i had my little man 5 months ago i have become super organised (well for me it is). My neighbour is 97 and lives alone so i pop in couple times a week rest of them in our block are horrid:mad:
Cant wait to see my partners face tomorrow when he gets home from work to see me wrapping all xmas presents:D :T And its all thanks to threads like this one:j

cheerfulness4

lollyred1 wrote: »

then went down to my elderly neighbours and made sure she was ok and gave her cup of tea and torch so proud of myself for being so organised

And so you should be. What a thoughtful neighbour you are. Well done you! :T

babychick

Thanks so much for your replies - there's a lot of really useful suggestions there - getting my boiler serviced will be a first step I think as if it needs replaced I need it done asap and NOt in the middle of the bleak midwinter!!! Lots of suggestions to go on...

Just a quick question though - are the halogen heaters cheaper to run than the oil filled radiators and do they put out as much heat??

moanymoany

Because of the great advice on this thread we prepared our emegency box this weekend.

We have two torches, lots of tealight candles, matches, a camping stove that is very neat. It has a bottle of gas that plugs into the side. The stove is self lighting. We have a kettle and canned food. We have a gas fire in the living room, so it will be us and the lodger in there listening to the radio and doing the emergency jigsaw by candlelight. Batteries are on the shopping list.

metherer

Mini update on our preparations.

Have bought a little wind up torch - just waiting for it to arrive.
Aiming to change the bedroom curtains this week. Wanted to do it this weekend but we painted the kitchen instead.
Central Heating is powered by electric, we think, but we have a gas fire in the living room. I hate it, but when there is a power cut...
DH is digging the candle stash out of the shed this week. We've decided to keep them in the coffee table so that we know where everything is. Should also be an incentive not to pile stuff up on there...
We've made a list of the foods we want to stock up on (and which can be cooked without electric.)
We use rechargeable batteries so I''m going to get a load charged up so that we can use the radio in a powercut.
Other than that, I know where the cards and dominoes are, so we're all set!

DH and I 'adopted' one of our elderly neighbours. She's an absolute sweetheart, and knows she can call us if she has any problems. If the power does go I'll be inviting her round for tea and a chat as we have gas hobs. I'm not sure whether she has, but I wouldn't want her shuffling round her kitchen in the pitch black. Besides, its company for us all. We don't know most of our neighbours so make the most of company when we can.


Metherer

sammy_kaye18

Hi all,

well im back again. Got to redo the duvets on the beds as both bf and son thought it was too hot when they were on but with the lovely 10 degrees we have today im betting it will be cold tonight again like it has been the last few.

My caterpillar draught excluders are in the living room as this is our main room we use so its nice and snug,

Need to get a rug for the floor, its laminate and seeing as we have two big single chairs , if the rug goes down i might actually get a seat to myself.

Blinds are up and hung, curtains up to.

Store cupboard and extras are ready in a box to be used if needed.

Gas cooker - godsend!

Fleecy blankets to be washed today and put on chairs and beds

Bed cover coming into use very soon

attempting to make rice bags but cant figure out how to use sewing machine (lost the instructions and no matter how i try and thread it it just undoes itself!) If need be ill be tying knots in socks.

All our pyjamas are to be found out, washed and put within grabbing distance. Same with towels.

NEED TO BUY A COAT!

Powercut box half together, must get more candles, matches and dont have a torch, flat is tiny and its a basic bend to master to the bedroom and thats it.

hmm...................pretty good but might get soem of this done today cos its bloody cold here. Heating has been on in the mornign to warm the place up, then turned off until the evening (bens in school form 12.40 - 3.15 so no heating then just layers) and hes usually ok when he gets home as im cooking tea then

Fruball

Just wanted to say to Lolly and metherer how lovely it is of you to help out your elderley neighbours

That is very OS

moanymoany

Mmm samy_kaye - pyjamas within grabbing distance - what are we to think!!!!

Olliebeak

Last winter I bought one of those 'all-seasons' duvets (thin one plus a medium one that can be attached to make one really thick one). Only put the medium one on a couple of weeks ago - will attach the thinner one to it around late dec/early jan. These are brilliant and not too expensive either from ASDA. Because my OH is a 'duvet-hog ' I've gone for the King Size even though the bed is only a double - so there is plenty of 'turning over room'.

Also bought new curtains last winter (only cos we moved house) and they are all lined - make such a difference - though this time last year we had no curtains at the windows at all. I keep fleecey throws across the backs of the sofas AND on the foot of the beds with a couple of kiddie sized ones handy for when grandkids come and stay over.

This house (we have to live here as part of my job!) is a new-build and supposed to be eco-friendly - so we will find out in the next couple of weeks how eco it actually is! We have full double-glazing, really good insulation and combi-boiler central heating. It's just 12 months since we moved in so will be able to assess the bills when the December statement comes in. We had to sign with Powergen to start off with - so decided to give them a one year trial. Will be interesting to know if I'm in the market for a new supplier or not - hehehe!

I am a bit concerned about the possibilites of power cuts because of the central heating and the fact that our living room fires are electric - that could prove to be a problem - not only for me but for all the elderly tenants that I look after (62 properties in total). I've an awful feeling that the possibilities of powercuts weren't taken into consideration when the decision was taken to have electric fires instead of gas ones! Let's hope that the electricity supply is stable!!!