Sort of debt-free but hope to be a super-scrimper in 2019

[Deleted User]

Thanks everyone for your good wishes re the surveyor's visit. In a rush so will respond better and individually later but just wanted to say he's been and gone:j. Lovely man, very thorough and explained lots of things and patiently answered all our questions. He phoned us very early this morning and at first I thought he was doing it to cancel. Instead he said his earlier appointment had cancelled at the last minute and he was free to come to us during the morning instead of after lunch if it was convenient. I was delighted, I wanted it over and done with.


Because he'd had to reschedule he had a lot of extra time and we learned a lot by not having him rush off for another appointment. He was here so long I even gave him some sandwiches at lunchtime and he was really pleased. Best to get on the right side of him, his report to the insurers is crucial;)


His preliminary conclusion is that it is definitely subsidence which the insurers should cover but it looks ,like major structural work is needed and will take a lot of time and upheaval:eek:. He also said to fully assess the extent of the damage he will arrange for a specialist team of men to come as soon as possible to do some pile-driving in the garden round the house. he also suggested that we would need to uproot a lot of mature trees and shrubs from anywhere near the property. It's not that they're all that near actually and are probably not the cause of the damage but won't have helped. That is the heartbreaking part, they've been part of our lives for so long. Our lovely rowans which form our front hedge are an absolute delight to behold , a joy to the birds and a talking point to anyone who passes by. Luckily they grow really quickly. Many of ours self-seeded anyway. I just wonder at my and OH's advanced ages:eek: whether we'll live to enjoy such a mature garden again.


Back later or, if not, tomorrow.

Lifeisforliving19

Glad you at least know where you stand with it all now. Hopefully you can get it sorted out quite quickly, I suppose depending on the insurance company. At least you should have the nice weather coming up to get it done.

HairyHandofDartmoor

Well that sounds fairly positive about the insurance probably covering it Carboot :T. I completely agree about getting on the right side of people who are doing things for you.

I understand your sadness about your mature trees I always feel sad when I see a mature tree felled by a storm (or by the council :mad:). But if it helps to avoid any more subsidence then it has to be done I guess. Large trees do suck a lot of moisture from the soil don't they.

Are you allowed to put all your furniture and carpets back now? It might be a good opportunity to do some decluttering rather than put it all back and then have to move it all again in the near future :eek:.

I hope that you're feeling less anxious now. I know you need to be certain that the insurance will cover it, but it's encouraging that the surveyor thought that it would be .

I hope that you and OH can have a rest this evening after all your hard work.

daisy_1571

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Swings and roundabouts, if you see what I mean (probably the only unnecessary things I never bought:rotfl:).

:rotfl::rotfl::T:rotfl::T

Brilliant ! Funniest thing I have read all day!!

Working my way through - cant believe theres 30 pages in 2 months!! Knew i should have got organised and over here sooner :rotfl:

Daisy xx

MrsLottie

Good news about the default ! I know what you mean about feeling frustrated when you can’t be as physically active and strong as you were. I have always enjoyed planning my next project and then setting too with speed before planning the next one. I’m in my seventies too and now find I have to plan to take on things in smaller bites and I don’t like it ! I can see how it would have been impossible for you to work at a slower pace as the job had to be done but if I were you I would now take a couple of days to rest before you tackle putting everything back in place. My o half has COPD and I have to deliberately slow down because he wants to help but gets tired very easily .These days I often suggest getting someone in to do jobs we could easily have tacked 5 years ago . I just am glad we are still able to enjoy life together even if we have to slow down and take a few little naps !
Good luck with getting as straight as you can ,remember to rest and don’t rush.

[Deleted User]

Thanks so much for the continued encouragement, everyone:A. I always feel better after reading what you lovely people post on my diary. I just wish I'd started one sooner as during all my debt-filled years I never felt able to confide my worries and despair to anyone in RL. Looking back I'm amazed I got through it all unscathed:eek:. Or maybe I didn't:think:


OH and I had a night off once the surveyor/structural engineer had gone and after dinner settled down to some relaxation. OH was doing a really complicated jigsaw and I was reading when all the power went off:mad:. I thought 'oh no, not again' and groped round for the torch to inspect the 'fuse box'. Of course, with everything that had been moved prior to the survey visit it took a while to find the torch. I usually keep it right by the 'fuse box' but we'd needed it to inspect something earlier and neither of us could remember where OH had put it down:(.Cue much muttering from me and worse from OH:rotfl:. We don't have any near neighbours to spot if they have lights on or not so it was a case of assuming it was our dodgy electrics again. When I finally got to see the 'fuse box' I was relieved that none of the switches had 'tripped' so it definitely wasn't just us and must have been a local power cut.


OH meanwhile lit some candles and we have a really powerful big rechargeable lantern which we keep fully charged at all times just in case. Of course, it had been moved from its usual location so had to be searched for. I left that job to OH, he was the one that moved it in the first place and his storage systems are a law unto themselves. With all the eventual extra light it was still too dark for OH to do his jigsaw and definitely so for me to read without straining so that was our relaxing evening over:mad:. I couldn't even make a cup of tea as we have no heating/cooking source other than electricity here. After almost 40 minutes the power came back on but by then it was 9 o'clock and we were pretty tired from the physical work of the past few days so after a cuppa and a bit of a catch-up on MSE I went to bed. We both slept really well and although I'm up and about already I always am at 6 o'clock anyway. OH is just surfacing so the kettle beckons. Back later.


Wishing you all a lovely day:beer:. Pretty chilly here and a slight drizzle as far as I can tell without going out of the door:(

Suffolk_lass

So glad you both had a good night's sleep. I love the humour in your post about last night. We had a large lump of cast iron to get out of my car last weekend so I quietly sent our Son a text asking him for a lift to move something heavy. When he rang, it took nearly five minutes to realise we were speaking at cross purposes. He meant ride, I meant carry. Anyway, it was good to have a young person's strength to get it in the garage

Karmacat

Carboot, the surveyor's visit went so well yesterday! Very good news - relieved to hear you *tried* to have a relaxing evening, absolutely, but what a shame about the power cut! Maybe it would be worth investing in a little camping gaz stove? Just a little single burner thing that costs £12 - £15 at Millets or Blacks or Halfords, along with a couple of cartridges? Sometimes a hot drink means a lot.


Hope you can pace yourself today again.

[Deleted User]

That's funny, Suffolk Lass:rotfl:

We could have done with someone young and strong like your son to help us this past few manic days. There were a lot of Chuckle Brothers ''to me, to you'' instructions going on:rotfl:. Funny how I always seemed to be the one walking backwards when moving furniture to the garage:eek:

[Deleted User]

Karmacat wrote: »

Carboot, the surveyor's visit went so well yesterday! Very good news - relieved to hear you *tried* to have a relaxing evening, absolutely, but what a shame about the power cut! Maybe it would be worth investing in a little camping gaz stove? Just a little single burner thing that costs £12 - £15 at Millets or Blacks or Halfords, along with a couple of cartridges? Sometimes a hot drink means a lot.


Hope you can pace yourself today again.

Thank you. Karmacat:T

I recall you and others mentioning a small camping gas stove on your diary. Just another thing I meant to look into but never got round to:o. I've even got a £10 Halford voucher that I could use towards one. It was won in a local raffle ages ago and I can never think of what to buy there. OH occasionally buys car shampoo and so on there but always forgets to take the voucher. I agree about the value of a hot drink especially to me. OH isn't all that worried if he doesn't get one but I'm a tea addict and get withdrawal symptoms without my regular fix.