Cheery's country living adventure

greenbee

When I bought this house, the surveyor noted that the vendors didn’t appear to have decorated for 30-odd years, and this is an indicator of how well the rest of the house is maintained. He was right - the rotting windows were fairly obvious, but a lot of the other things we found he had at least prepared me for!

@Cheery_Daff - your LPG is even more expensive than my oil! At that rate it might well be worth calculating what the payback period would be on switching to air source/ground source (you have the space)/solar thermal/solar PV in some kind of combination. Once you’ve recovered from this round of builders, obviously 🙄 

Cheery_Daff

This house was a mix of stuff being done fairly recently, and other stuff not being done for years. They got some stuff done then the husband died, more stuff done then the wife died. Hopefully we'll get the rest done without either of us dying! 😮

I'm not convinced the LPG is THAT expensive, although it's not cheap. £220 is what the LPG company put us up to when we were on monthly DD - I've since switched to just paying in full when we need a tank, but I put £220 aside just in case. I'll work out what we've actually spent at the start of November (it's not cheap though).

I did briefly look into heat pumps, but this house would need SO much in terms of energy efficiency first that I just don't think it's going to get done any time soon sadly.

themadvix

They’re not on the market yet (And expensive, but hopefully new govt grant will cover), but check out Caldera Warmstone - it’s a giant heat battery and designed for older houses running on oil - you don’t need great insulation or underfloor heating, it just switches in for your boiler and uses existing radiators etc. 

EssexHebridean

You also have a massive disadvantage on heating remember - over very probably the majority of others on here - simply for being in relatively old, large house in a windy location at the top of a hill! The tradeoff obviously is the amazing views, but the energy cost is never going to be even close to comparable with our ground floor flat, someone else's terrace in an urban area, or even someone's large but far more modern rural house.  It's fascinating what others spend but there are some categories where it's simply not really helpful to compare as it's nowhere close to "like for like" and I think energy use is definitely one of those. Having said that, we're all seeing costs rise at the moment aren't we - our monthly DD has doubled for the electric, and our teeny gas bill has just gone from £2 a month to £7.50 which feels ridiculously painful especially as the bulk of it is standing charge so nothing we can do about it! 

Cheery_Daff

Thanks for the suggestion Vix, will keep an eye out.

And you're right of course EH. We are indeed detached, exposed on all four sides, and the house is a kind of horseshoe shape, and only one room deep, and in some places only one storey high, so several of the rooms have 3 exposed walls, and of course they're all old stone so no cavity wall insulation. 

We're doing bits as we go along - although windows are double glazed now, and we'll have a couple of extra radiators, and the pipework has been changed so hopefully the radiators at the cold and old end of the house will actually get properly hot, rather than us having a warm end (70s extension) and a cold end (everywhere else).

Anyway, at least while the central heating is broken we aren't using any gas at all 😂😂 And we had a top up a few months ago and have barely used any since (just hot water in the bathroom, not even for washing up) so I'm hoping that'll get us past Christmas at least.

There's currently about £900 in the gas fund so I'm hoping when I look at the budget properly we'll be able to reallocate a bit of the surplus and add a bit less each month.

Electric bill will go through the roof for a while with three heaters plugged in, but it is what it is and it won't last.

Anyway, just arrived at work so should get on!

greenbee

Hopefully a reduction in holes in the ceiling will help too cheery   Plus with a nice kitchen, you may do more cooking, which will keep the house warmer too. Even something as simple as making soup in a slow cooker can help with a little background warmth during the day (I swear the warm smells help too!). 

I need to get on with work too... not that I had to go anywhere!

Tescodealqueen

I agree with green bee. And I feel warmer looking at a lighted tealight what’s that all about.

Chiglepig

@Cheery_Daff I forgot to say congrats on the new role - I hope it's one that is valuable for you, and not one of those thankless academic roles we're all told will aid progress, but just eat time instead

Cheery_Daff

Ha - I remember a few years ago when we were without central heating for 8 weeks in the coldest winter on record, we used to put a DVD of a blazing fire on and somehow that helped us feel a bit more cosy 😂😂 Plenty of candles and an electric heater and a lot of cardigans and a hot water bottle, and we were fine (until we had to use the bathroom!) 😮😂😂

Had a text from the builder - plumber is coming tomorrow to stick on the radiators! Unexpected (I thought his van was bust and he was out of action) but very welcome - although I did say I'd paint behind where the radiators will be before they did that, so that's tonight's job 😂

Electrician has been here all day today and we have lights upstairs!! So cosy, and so exciting!! 

Of course plumber can't check radiators as the boiler doesn't work 😂 but he knows that, so I'm hoping he can help us bypass the thermostat. Also hoping I can talk him into replacing the electric water heater in the other loft that's been leaking - he knows it's broken, but it wasn't leaking through the ceiling last time he was here...


Thanks Chigle, it may well be one of those... 🙄😂 but at least (a) I'm job sharing it, and (b) there are work planned hours attached, so they'll have to take something else off me (although goodness knows what at this point...)

Just back from running club, best get on with some painting!

greenbee

I suggest you get the council to block the road after the plumber arrives, and stay there until you've finished with him...