Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

Aussies extend their houses, most often by putting a second floor on.

I presume the houses are built to make that easy to do. In London there are companies that build cellars under houses, sometimes with catastrophic results. There's loads of houses where I feel you should just send in a demolition team and start again. I like old houses. And new houses. When they're up to the job of adequately housing people. I just don't like Heath-Robinson upgrades IYSWIM.

Pyxis

zagubov wrote: »

I presume the houses are built to make that easy to do. In London there are companies that build cellars under houses, sometimes with catastrophic results. There's loads of houses wher I feel you should just send in a dmolition team and start again. I like old houses. And new houses. When they're up to the job of adequately housing people. I just don't like Heath-Robinson upgrades IYSWIM.

oldandhappy

Lidl have gentrified too, selling more "posh stuff", so what used to be a shop with good choice is increasingly a shop filled with quinoa, venison and salmon....thats true here with the Lidls PasturesNew but the Aldi is not like Aldi and not very popular.....Snails sold in our Lidls buttered already.....

oldandhappy

zagubov wrote: »

I've been driving to work along the Surrey /SW London border and there is a staggering amount of renovation/extension work going on in an amazing number of roads.

I sometimes wonder why nobody just builds houses the right size to start with. This surely doesn't happen anywhere else in Europe,

9 out of 10 Renovations around this region seems to be British people buying up almost derelict properties. Very old stone houses that look like they have been through the war but when they make the final touches to the rendering between the stonework outside they look really bootifull...costs would be high at the end I would imagine but they can at least pace themselves financial.
They get to choose exactly what style they want inside especially...the outside spaces get left with rubble for ages it seems and the old stones are usually saved to build the border walls with the compulsory tiles on top....chickens are also installed as part of the country lifesyle;)regards Dianne

p.s House nearby just heard up for sale around 40,000 euros..already has double glazing and rubble in the garden....

vivatifosi

I find Aldi the most similar to old style supermarkets. You have lots of "ingredients" like fresh veg, meat, dairy, etc. Bread products as good but basic selection, same with tinned goods. They don't have a big selection of ready meals. Though of course they are very different from a traditional supermarket in terms of their unusual non-food offering.

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd probably give it a miss. These days I find food too disappointing.

I agree for the most part.

My biggest bugbear is fruit.

It almost always seems to be lacking in flavour or tastes sourish.

I've given up buying plums completely. They taste like cardboard. Very rarely find a nice sweet pineapple either. Usually end up throwing most of it in the compost.

Even keeping up ripe fruit on the windowsill doesn't seem to work any more. It just goes dry or bad, not ripe.

Even British apples in supermarkets are insipid. Coxes lack the bite they used to have, and my favourites, Russets, which I used to be able to depend on, have gone the same way.

Another favourite, Worcesters, I haven't seen for a few years.


I don't live near any hedge veg places, otherwise I'd prefer to buy stuff grown in people's gardens, maggots and all!

At least with the odd maggot, you know it's not covered in chemicals!

ivyleaf

Pyxis wrote: »

There's a copy for sale here if you want a back-up!........

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Barbareens-Peacock-Books-Janet-Hitchman/dp/014047059X?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Ooh, thank you Have ordered it in hope that it's in better nick than the one I've got (which wouldn't be difficult!)

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

I presume the houses are built to make that easy to do. In London there are companies that build cellars under houses, sometimes with catastrophic results. There's loads of houses wher I feel you should just send in a dmolition team and start again. I like old houses. And new houses. When they're up to the job of adequately housing people. I just don't like Heath-Robinson upgrades IYSWIM.

Kinda. They are mostly wooden framed so you take off the roof, reinforce the frame and put a second layer on. It's expensive but usually cheaper than knocking down and rebuilding.

michaels

zagubov wrote: »

I've been driving to work along the Surrey /SW London border and there is a staggering amount of renovation/extension work going on in an amazing number of roads.

I sometimes wonder why nobody just builds houses the right size to start with. This surely doesn't happen anywhere else in Europe, does it?



If science made eating unnecessary somehow, I'd probably just still do it as a hobby.:D

In parts of America they take it too far to the other extreme, what were posh neighbourhoods become very run down as people upsize into brand new developments where the houses are bigger and better rather than improving or even just replacing aged kitchens and bathrooms which is what makes financial sense when land values are low.

ivyleaf

GDB2222 wrote: »

Building is a real PITA for the neighbours. I live in a road with just under 20 houses.

One house has the builders in. Fair enough. It's just a skip in the drive and a bit of coming and going.

Three others have major development work under way. One of those has been completely demolished and they've dug a 15 feet basement over a large part of the site. That involves loads of digging and 30 ton trucks driving over the pavement. I say over the pavement, but I really mean through the pavement, as they churn it up. Plus the cement lorries and cement pumps.

So, I can't even take the dog for a walk round the block.

The other two have demolished around one-third of the house, and it's slightly less obtrusive.

I haven't mentioned the noise, have I?

Oh dear, that doesn't sound much fun We had an unused warehouse across the road, which has now been demolished and some houses are going to be built there. They've started preparing the ground, but have accidentally undermined the pavement outside the set of gates they're meant to be using; so they are using the ones opposite our house, where there is no dropped kerb and a parking bay is in front of the gates. We will lose that parking bay eventually anyway, as one of the entrances to the new houses' parking area will be there, but I don't think they're really supposed to be using it at the moment...but if they don't, they can't start building because of being unable to use the other gates....