Moving forward and upwards

MovingForwards

Spent ages on the phone yesterday trying to get the electric and gas sorted out. Ended up putting my 'old career hat' on and low and behold there's now movement.

Let me try and explain, make sure you are sitting comfortably!

The council and meter point people have the flats registered the old Scottish way which is a floor level and position eg 1FL, 2FR etc. 
Everyone else, including R.Ma1L have it as number then a, b etc eg 1a, 1b etc.
Our front doors have both ways on it, as a catch all eg 1a and 1FR.
(Yes, it gave me a headache when I first moved here)
The flats sharing the same building number have the meters registered to the wrong flat 🙈
Somehow, my gas meter is not registered anywhere, even though I clearly have a meter in my flat, in my kitchen with sticky labels and even one saying when the battery was changed. Both my meters are the old type.

Have a sip of coffee and just stare at your screen.

By sheer luck, when I called yesterday I ended up speaking with someone from Scotland who understood the old door numbering system. Half my battle was won at that point. Next, she lodged a complaint on my behalf due to how long I (OH) had been trying to get an account set up and the incorrect information / service each time OH had contacted them. I got transferred to a complaints handler who is now personally unraveling everything with these flats so I can actually pay for my supply, ²/3 of the battle is now won.

I can sit back, relax, knowing some poor person is untangling the mess. He asked if I wanted them to be my supplier and I explained it would be the least I could do because of them potentially sorting this out and I was lead to believe they were anyway. 
I'm not comfortable moving away from the big names, it may cost me more but these companies are established. I'm used to bills around £20pm for gas and £40pm for electric with the big guys, which I don't think is too bad for up here and how cold / dark it gets in winter. Admittedly, this is the oldest flat I have lived in, but it's hard breaking habits of wrapping up and limit having the gas on.

Hopefully, at some point this month or next, I will be paying a supplier!

Moving on to the deposit for the old flat. The tenancy deposit company have ruled we get some of the deposit back, not the £400 I was hoping for but it's still sufficient. We have agreed to the ruling, just have to wait to see if the old LA do; they have 10 working days to accept or reject based on law or facts. The money is then released within 5 working days.
As I suspected, OH did want to use the money on the garden and has earmarked ²/3 of it, the rest will come to me and he wants me to put it to the utilities used but not paid.
Potentially a bittersweet victory as I had hoped the ¹/3 would go back into savings as that's where the deposit came from originally.

The lesson I have learned from both of these, is not to let OH deal with things like this, these are my strengths.

MovingForwards

Been pottering around the garden, pulling weeds out, checking progression and generally standing around, looking at our garden, thinking how much I really like it 😁

Plans for this weekend:
- I'm going to rearrange the second bedroom a bit, to give me clear access to the window. 
- I've got my camera batteries ready to charge them for the weekend and am going to check all my gear out to make sure it's all ok. Will use the view out the back window as my 'focus' to test my various lens and accessories.
- Weed the communal section and communal path (use a spade and scrape them up!)
- sweep the communal area on my floor.
- clean the 4 communal windows on my floor.

There's a few things I need to buy payday / next month:
- dust sheets and little dr3m3l type sander to do the other two units,
- weed membrane and stones for the communal path,
- stones for the communal part at the back of the flat,
- stones for the shared path to fill in-between the crazy paving OH did,
- compost / manure to get the growing section finished and ready for next year.

That would be the outside done, leaving us to focus on our garden and me to focus on finishing the temporary makeover of the flat 🤗

savingholmes

A lot to do but it will be worth it

MovingForwards

Another sleepless night for you SH, yes it will be worth it 😊

Skint_yet_Again

Busy plans for the weekend I hope you have cooler weather than us. It’s boiling here already & due to be in the 30’s 🥵 

savingholmes

Yes MF struggling to sleep until gone 2 on average

MovingForwards

I don't know what to suggest SH, hopefully when your plans are being ticked off you will start to sleep better.

It's decidedly Scottish, with the Mediterranean thrown in for good measure Skinty. Been hot all day while I've been working, I watered the garden and now it's raining 😬

MovingForwards

I rearranged the spare room lunchtime.
Sorted out my equipment, gave it all a clean and I now have one of the bags as a grab and go so I can do my photography on a whim, the other bag holds the rest of my equipment, need to buy new batteries as mine are too old and all failed 🙈

Just leaves the weeding, sweeping and four windows to do the weekend.

Watered everything and looked at the communal area and path, should be able to scrape all the weeds up. Decided on stones for the communal areas, will work out cheaper and compliment the old stone walls; hopefully one builders sack will be enough.

Had spicy noodles for tea and been listening to the seagulls.

Skint_yet_Again

Sounds like you had a busy day. Will be great for you to be able to grab your camera and go. Only thing with stones is to get large ones otherwise the local cats think it’s kitty litter 

MovingForwards

Skinty, they use my garden as a giant litter tray, due to having freshly dug areas.

Just popped outside and added some more mustard seeds to the new hugel mound, only takes a few days for them to pop up and resemble plants. OH has the pleasure of digging it all in at some point; it's really good for the garden and is a natural manure.

Going back out again later to trim some more tomato leaf stems off, bit of weeding etc. Just too warm at the moment.