The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

michaels

Equivalent new one £250++ My pay, NMW £7.85ph, worth spending a few hours on fixing imho....

silvercar

PN, would a curtain hung on a net curtain wire do the trick?

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

....£7.85ph....

pfft... that's like saying that Meghan Markle's married a bloke without a job and is being forced to move into a room at his granny's just to live

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

Just opened the front door wide again, get a bit of a draught in Worried that "things that crawl/fly about in the dusk" will be attracted by the PC screen light though!

I can highly recommend something like this. We bought the materials in the US and made our own, but the principle is the same. Windows all still open, lovely and cool, zero creepies.

https://www.flyscreenqueen.co.uk/flyscreen-windows/simple-window-kits.html

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

I can highly recommend something like this. We bought the materials in the US and made our own, but the principle is the same. Windows all still open, lovely and cool, zero creepies.

https://www.flyscreenqueen.co.uk/flyscreen-windows/simple-window-kits.html

No. That'd be a definite purchase of doom. I do see those everywhere these days, for sale .... I would have absolutely no idea how to put it up and if I started to try it'd just all go wrong and it'd end up as yet another thing that I bought, that I couldn't put together.

I've a house full of stuff like that.

Chest of Drawers ... built them OK, except some of the screws that go through the side rail and into the drawer don't hold in place, so all the drawers slip out... built, can't use it or put anything in it. That's been like that for about 3 years.

Fabric Wardrobe ... opened the packaging, tried to fathom out the bits, first two pieces I tried to put together the plastic split ... so that's all in a pile on the floor of Bed2 since I walked away from it 3 years ago.

Command strips ...bought, but need that isopropyl whatsit stuff before I can even try them out.

Blinds last week ... can't get the existing ones out of the fitting.

Seat/chest... built most of that with a hand screwdriver, but I really needed my cordless one to do the final bit... but I've found that now.

Paint for a little picket fence that "made it look easy" .... all over my hands/arms for over a week ... and I've still the rest to finish!

You name it.... I've bought it and it's not gone right

I could walk round the house pointing to "things that didn't quite go to plan, so I put them in a pile on the floor and walked away".

PasturesNew

Just spent some time in Bed2 fiddle faddling around .... got a bag of stuff for the tip/charity shop ... and two empty boxes for the shed (mini oven and slow cooker boxes kept to be used when moving, I always keep the boxes for things).

A bit of "little and often" but I think I'm seeing the wood for the trees in that room now! You can almost see the carpet

It will need to be "dressed as a room", so I plan to use boxes with a blow up bed on top to see how that looks. The boxes can be my "packed boxes", maybe .... out of sight, out of mind .... and then I need a valance round it..... so that might not work out due to size differences... again, until you've got all the parts you don't know how well it'll turn out.

Once the room's clear enough I can blow up the airbed and toss that around for positioning and to see how big it is/where it can go.

Pyxis

A pretend bed is a good idea.

Instead of a valance perhaps you could use a large sheet just laid over it and over the sides, not tucked in, with a duvet on top?


With regard to other stuff......
I'm worrying, though, that you're spending money on all these bits and pieces that probably really don't matter to a prospective purchaser who will probably want to redecorate anyway, and may even, in the case of the kitchen, want to put in a completely new one.

The kitchen may look cluttered only because of things like the washing-up and drying plates, and other things like that, etc., rather than the microwave and mini-oven.

To be honest, I think I would rather see a space for a washing machine and dishwasher than a temporary unit, even if the microwave and mini-oven are on the (now clear and tidy) worktop.

Tidy and uncluttered is good, a pretend bed is good, but it might be a waste to buy 'trimmings' that won't necessarily enhance a viewer's opinion.
What you see, having lived there for yonks, and what a viewer might see are probably very different.

What might be helpful might be to get a friend who doesn't know your house well to come and look around with the eye of a prospective purchaser and see what they pick up on, and then concentrate on those things.
Or even better than a friend, maybe a NP 'stranger'?

vivatifosi

I agree with Pyxis re trimmings.

When we bought here we couldn't afford to make big changes, like the main carpet, so stamped a new identity by putting up curtains and changing knobs on the kitchen cabinets, that sort of thing.

As for the microwave and mini oven, most kitchens have a microwave on display. I would however put the mini oven away, if I saw one, then I'd wonder if it was because the oven doesn't work (big outlay as soon as I move in). But that could be because I am fickle.

Could you use the main oven for a bit or is it too scary?

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

... spending money ....

Not really spending money - it's just the splash of paint really that's added up. Everything else I'm trying to do for £1 - and some I will probably "find useful" when I move, e.g. the tension rods for the windows, they're really handy and I've still got some in assorted sizes that I bought in 2007 and keep because "you never know when that might come in handy".

I am mostly decluttering ..... not spending. Spending time going out and looking at what might be reasonable/possible, but usually coming home with nothing.

Pyxis wrote: »

... a friend who doesn't know your house well to come and look around with the eye of a prospective purchaser and see what they pick up on

I have somebody who will do that, but as nobody's crossed the threshold of the house in four years, while I've kept/accumulated/hoarded .... there was no point them coming at the start, I want them to come when I think "right, that's passable"

I've just sorted out the understairs cupboard, which is a double win as it finally gets sorted -and- I've re-used a set of shelves under there that were in Bed2 (black plastic "garage shelves", so not a good 'dressed room' look) ... thus exposing another 2' of carpet in Bed2 All in all .... Bed 2's looking distinctly less cluttered and full than it did.

A lot of it is just "re-organising what you've got into different boxes" because, over time, you just "put things in there and shut the door" then pick at things over time, moving them around.

It's mostly "good/usable stuff", just "put down and left".

I keep boxes when I buy new appliances, say.... and they take up space in that room. I'm now moving two boxes to the shed - a small effort, but that freed up a whole shelf on a shelving unit ... and slowly, slowly, the shelving unit became emptied ... and could then be used under the stairs. It's just a question of thinking/rethinking what you've got and picking away at it over time... but there's a visible difference already.

And now the shelves are under the stairs .... the cordless drill and screwdriver are on a shelf, beside each other, in plain view

And I've just spotted the empty vacuum cleaner box .... kept from when I bought it "in case" it needed to go back "with the original packaging" .... so that's another candidate for the shed, out of sight. I never put these things in the shed at the start as ... I had rats in my first year ... and was always fearful of spiders crawling into the boxes and/or damp potential... but now it's fine as it should be short-term (e.g. up to 1 year, not 5+)

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

.. too scary?

That covers it. I've always been scared of all of them... and I think I've realised that it won't be changing

I've always "had an excuse" not to use any particular one .... but the reality was the fear.... and the excuses were to dismiss/hide the fear.