Travelling On

Karmacat

Amazing discussion on curtains, thank you all very much!  I'm going to work hard on these issues before next winter, and do what I can for *this* winter as much as possible.

Keyhole covers I want those metal ones that swing from a central point - we did find some plastic that slide up and down on plastic rails, but too much plastic.  I want the swing cover *without* having the keyhole gubbins.  

Venetian blinds are going They're dust traps and I don't like them, never have.  I'll replace 1 set with voile I already have, and another set with a "patchwork" of very thin cheesecloth, which I love.  But that still means there's fewer layers on the windows.  For the living room, the lightweight Dunelm curtains/pole combo couldn't take the weight of my blackout material, I don't think, though I'll try to fix the pole on more securely (see next post for my bookcase success 🤣🤣🤣 ) and if that doesn't work, then at least I'll get some lightweight fleeces and line them with that, even if I just have to tack them in.

Front and back doors, associated windows What Amazon calls "a tension rod" is within my capacity, and that will be fine for the living room and my bedroom.  But I keep thinking of what my mum did with her back door in the house we sold a few years ago - she used drawing pins to hang a teatowel over the window in the kitchen door, and rolled it up each morning 🤣  I'm not kidding.  I wouldn't use drawing pins, just like I don't think I can do rawlplugs and screws - I'd be doing it into upvc.  But I could use the modern version of drawing pins, i.e. velcro 😎 and roll it up each morning, just like she did.  I could even take it down over the summer Don't shoot me 🤣

Draughts There are definitely draughts in this house!  I need sealant between the tops of skirting boards and the wall.  In fact, I cut open a tube today, for a little bit behind where the bookcase now is.  It doesn't work for me, I can't push the spring hard enough   What I *can* do, is list and ready the places where I want that sealant, cut the tube open, and do it by hand.  Not nearly as quick as if I was able to use the tube, but at least it'd be done.

Letterbox I'd love a postbox instead!  But yes, I can imagine serial problems with it in terms of people not seeing that it's there.

Love this stuff!  Thank you all!  Bookcase coming up.

Karmacat

The bookcase has been a terrific success **happy jumpy smiley** Three reinforcement plates installed by me, marking where the screws are to go, drilling holes and then screwing screws in.  Sister was painting the bare plaster from the 2019 installation of the kitchen 🙄 my fault that!  I furniture polished the bookcase to death after sweeping the floor, she used her super duper vac cleaner on the floor after that, and we wiggled the bookcase into place.  Down by the skirting board, there's 2mm clearance each side, I'm thrilled! 

Readying the books to go back on - I've decluttered quite a lot, and I can also use the top of the bookcase itself now - that was overbearing in the room before now, but with it being in the alcove, its fine.

So happy with it!  And I only kept going with it because of you lot, so thank you!

greenbee

Keyhole covers are easy to get separately (I never use the ones that come with the locks as they're always horrible). I've got them either from Ironmongery Direct or Amazon. 

Windows - I have roller blinds (thermal, light filtering or blackout, depending on where they are) and then wooden poles fixed to battens (my walls are rubbish so this works better than fixing the pole in the wall - and it means you're drilling holes a sensible distance away from each other rather than close together). You don't have to drill into the batten - I use a bradawl to make a pilot hole, and my secret weapon for working with wood - cutter screws! I then use curtain wire wrapped round the poles to hang muslin curtains in the bedrooms, and make sure that the poles are rated for the heavy thermal-lined full-length curtains. 
Or I use thermal lined roman blinds. (Blinds2U have provided some good roller and roman blinds, and they've been easy to put up - just measure carefully!). 

Sealant/caulk - you need to squash it in with your finger anyway, so don't expect to make a straight line with the tube! If you're going to need to paint it use decorator's caulk. If you want it waterproof, use silicone. And if you want straight edges, use masking tape and remove it once you've squished the sealant into the gap and before it starts drying. YouTube is your friend.

If the postbox is close to your door, people will see it. Mine is on the side of the house so people don't have to walk past the office and loo windows. Most people have worked it out, but I do need to sort out a parcel box too. Once the landscapers have gone. 

Karmacat

greenbee said:

Keyhole covers are easy to get separately (I never use the ones that come with the locks as they're always horrible). I've got them either from Ironmongery Direct or Amazon. 
Ooh, I'd like to use Ironmongery Direct, I'll have a look at those, ta muchly.

Windows - I have roller blinds (thermal, light filtering or blackout, depending on where they are) and then wooden poles fixed to battens (my walls are rubbish so this works better than fixing the pole in the wall - and it means you're drilling holes a sensible distance away from each other rather than close together). You don't have to drill into the batten - I use a bradawl to make a pilot hole, and my secret weapon for working with wood - cutter screws! I then use curtain wire wrapped round the poles to hang muslin curtains in the bedrooms, and make sure that the poles are rated for the heavy thermal-lined full-length curtains. 
Or I use thermal lined roman blinds. (Blinds2U have provided some good roller and roman blinds, and they've been easy to put up - just measure carefully!). 
I don't fancy roller blinds though I like roman blinds a lot, and the curtains that I *do* have up are on battens, as you say.  I've not heard of cutter screws, so I'll investigate them, and nor did I know about ratings of poles.  Dear me!  

Sealant/caulk - you need to squash it in with your finger anyway, so don't expect to make a straight line with the tube! If you're going to need to paint it use decorator's caulk. If you want it waterproof, use silicone. And if you want straight edges, use masking tape and remove it once you've squished the sealant into the gap and before it starts drying. YouTube is your friend.
Still won't work, I'm afraid - I literally don't have the strength to press the gun to make the sealant come out, even though I know the way to work it once it's out of the gun.  Somebody's just told me about this though 18V XR 600ml Caulk Gun - Bare unit - DCE580N-XJ | DEWALT United Kingdom which is wonderful news for me.

If the postbox is close to your door, people will see it. Mine is on the side of the house so people don't have to walk past the office and loo windows. Most people have worked it out, but I do need to sort out a parcel box too. Once the landscapers have gone. 

It's an idea - it does keep things nicely isolated, and I'd be able to have it right by the front door.  I could paint a sign too 😁

Baileys_Babe

Karmacat said:

Letterbox I'd love a postbox instead!  But yes, I can imagine serial problems with it in terms of people not seeing that it's there.

Our postbox is next to our door we have never had a problem with it not being seen.

All of our windows have thermal roller blinds near the window, then we have curtains in all rooms except the kitchen and bathrooms, the curtains are all lined and then most of them have an additional fleece blanket lining (occasionally hemmed, some I've only used safety pins to get the right length). Our windowsills are 30+ cm deep, the curtains hang from poles that are attached to wooden battens on the wall above the windows, so the curtains end up quiet away from the window. The curtains hang down at least 30 cm below the window sills.

Karmacat

Thanks Baileys Babe, maybe I *will* go that route when the list of jobs gets a bit thinner.

I love your description of the layers you have over your windows - really sounds good.  As I was wittering on further up the page, I have a personal Thing about roller blinds, for no good reason at all, but in my scenario it would just be Roman blinds instead.

greenbee

I don’t particularly like roller blinds, but right against the window frame, behind either Roman blinds or curtains they’re actually ok. You don’t tend to notice them. And they form a barrier close to the window which reduces draughts and condensation without reducing the amount of light coming in when they’re up - Roman blinds overlap the top of the window, and are bulkier, so work better as the final layer. 

Karmacat

Good morning!  Today's jobs are very simple - get the books back in the bookcase, in some sort of order, and get the French tax figures over to France.  That's it, c'est tout, voila         and I've been up for so long already I'm hungry again, I'm afraid to say!

Suffolk_lass

I believe you can get magnetic escutcheons (key hole covers) that keeps them in place without clamping them shut for ever but are ideal to keep them closed with no possibility of a rattle. 

I know those screws as self-tapping and cutting as a brand name.

That caulking gun link is showing as discontinued btw.

The big houses we stay in in Scotland often have shutters in the window recess and then heavy curtains that are generous and oversized, which work well to reduce draughts (and light, of course)

Karmacat

Suffolk_lass said:

I believe you can get magnetic escutcheons (key hole covers) that keeps them in place without clamping them shut for ever but are ideal to keep them closed with no possibility of a rattle. 
Excellent news!  That would be top of my list, thank you.

I know those screws as self-tapping and cutting as a brand name.
It'll be a good long while before I go there - but I'll remember what page on my diary its on  

That caulking gun link is showing as discontinued btw.
Bleep.  At Screwfix, electric caulking guns are literally hundreds of pounds, not going there.  My other-forum-friend has it as part of a set of tools he's built up, but on looking at systems on screwfix, they're also hundreds of pounds.  So it will be either (a) oiling the spring of my manual caulking gun like crazy to get it to ease up or (b) do what my destructive little brain thought up   get everything ready to go, and slit the tube of caulk open with a stanley knife, then have a play with *all* the skirting boards I need to fix.  And there are many! 

The big houses we stay in in Scotland often have shutters in the window recess and then heavy curtains that are generous and oversized, which work well to reduce draughts (and light, of course)

I love wooden shutters - big old Georgian houses in West London usually have them, sometimes divided in half.  And when I au-paired in France, their "French windows" had big wooden shutters on the outside, like a bleeping barn door they shut them even during the day when the mistral was blowing, to protect the glass.