Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Our back one is worst, OBL. It has been constructed from the cheapest concrete slabs imaginable..... the sort thst would look more at home in a 1970s shopping precinct. Mr DIY Numpty also broke the key rule of patio-laying & managed to get it above the house's damp-proof course. He was clearly unsure how to deal with the waste water pipe from the kitchen sink too, so just left a length of plastic pipe on top of the patio with half a spare loose slab as a drain cover. We could hire a pressure washer & give it a good clean up, but they are such horrible slabs, some of which are rocking quite badly, we both think biting the bullet on the expense of replacing the whole thing might be the way forward.
At the front we've got that supposedly decorative block pave - you know, the bricks laid in slightly different colours/patterns. Also not done very well & a massive weed magnet between the blocks. If we could afford to have that one done as well, I'd ask for a curved edge to enlarge my front flowerbed & make it more attractive.
Ah well, we'll see. Today's job list already needs changing as it's absolutely pouring with rain here yet again.
F x

Onebrokelady

Snap with the waste water pipe 🙀

Sayschezza

You used to be able to get a reduction on your water bill if your waste water didn't go into the main sewerage system. I don't know if that's still the case though.

foxgloves

Sayschezza - Our waste water does definitely go into the main sewerage system. I think there may originally have been a small outbuilding on our back courtyard.... most likely an outdoor loo & so the drain may be sited where it is as a hangover from that. There's no obvious reason why Mr DIY Numpty couldn't have routed the waste pipe under the patio slabs though..... except that the daft chuffer laid the slabs too high & didn't leave room for it.
So no possibility of reduced water bill for us, but thanks for the kind thought. 
F x

foxgloves

Hello Soggy Diary Readers, 
Woke up to big rain again this morning, of course we did. Are other types of weather available? It is starting to feel as though it will rain for ever.
Then an email plopped into my inbox from our energy provider. It informed me that our account is £313 below where it should be (which I knew) but that our monthly dd payment is 'about right' (because I got them to increase it) so the best way to get our account straight would be if I wanted to make a card payment of £313 (I didn't). However, I had foreseen this debt on our account for a good few months. Our dd was reduced to an amount I was pleased to see, but which I knew was too low to be sustainable. So I have paid the lump sum & got us back to a nil balance. Just because I felt peed off by this, I turned down all the upstairs heaters a notch. Grrrr.
Anyway, on a brighter note, there was a couple of hours this pm when it actually stopped raining. I went down to the greenhouse, swept my potting bench, watered a few bits then sowed some flower seeds: verbena bonaiensis, nocotiana, petunias, verbascum, alyssum, trailing verbena, French lavender & calendula. The calendula were saved seeds I collected myself & the others were packs of seeds I brought back from Mum's house last year. The greenhouse glass is very green from all the rain. Just waiting for a dry day (more chance of seeing a unicorn atm) & I will get out there & sparkle it up with some soapy water & elbow grease. 
Take care all, 
F x

moving_forward

Our waste water (grey water) pipes go into a proper drain. Before you get getting all jealous the proper drain is set in a cupboard in....yes you guessed it our conservatory!  Your diy numpty must have a cousin thats a conservatory builder that builds around drains rather than moving them!!  His other cousin was the boyfriend of the lady we brought the house off that has been responsible for some horrid and downright dangerous electrical work that we have had to pay out to put right.

foxgloves

OMG! IT'S NOT RAINING!!!
Must get my act together & get down the garden without further ado!
Chat later, 
F x

Humdinger1

Foxgloves,  
Before I go on to wax lyrical re your diary, attitude and writing style, I've heard that Wed is due to be blue-skied,  mild and sunny - and I think nation-wide- before the weather of the Apocalypse returns.   
May I say how much i love your diary,  for all the above reasons and more.   A total change of career in the last three years has intensified the view I took a long time reaching ie quality of life isn't governed by sheer money.  It's better to earn less, have no debt, and treat the world (inc yourself and loved ones) as a resource to be treasured rather than abused.  Every time I read your diary (and I have subscribed),  I'm grateful as feel that you and your knights of the round table (well, we do try to right wrongs, I think?) feel the same; and crucially, act on that theory.  Thanks Foxgloves 

Tescodealqueen

moving_forward said:

Our waste water (grey water) pipes go into a proper drain. Before you get getting all jealous the proper drain is set in a cupboard in....yes you guessed it our conservatory!  Your diy numpty must have a cousin thats a conservatory builder that builds around drains rather than moving them!!  His other cousin was the boyfriend of the lady we brought the house off that has been responsible for some horrid and downright dangerous electrical work that we have had to pay out to put right.

Think we are in the same boat. One of our kitchen sockets stopped working. Electrician said "surprised the house hasn't burned down."  No earth! No ring main and all the sockets were connected by lighting wire. Complete rewire of kitchen needed.
When we had Windows replaced discovered they were held in by a wing and a prayer and under the sill only thing between us and the elements was the wallpaper! Half inch side gaps in the brick and plaster.

foxgloves

Tescodealqueen - I reckon our previous owner, Mr DIT Numpty, had a whole UK-wide army of little friends all wreaking havoc on properties so they could enjoy saying they'd 'done it themselves'. We also had a dodgy kitchen window......a big, wide window installed at some point without putting in a supporting beam. Another thing put right by us. Our gas boiler blew up on our first day here - Mr F tried to switch it on & it disappeared in a burst of boiling hot steam! And we spent the first month here being showered by exploding kitchen lightbulbs! When we had the kitchen lights investigated, Mr DIY NUmpty had left the labels in place which said which colour wires went where.......& wired them up the opposite way! I could go on.......
None of this stuff really comes to light in the buyer's survey - we did have quite a detailed one, but no surveyor is going to removed fitments to look at wiring or do detailed testing of boilers, etc. 
F x