And now we go again...

redofromstart

Funny you should mention that @LadyWithAPlan but some of our issues stem back to modern render over limestone walls so the poor old girl just couldn't breathe.

we can smell pig muck for a week or so in the summer and I don't recommend it. 

I do like the odd high end new build on grand designs, but nothing modern has ever set off the major house envy like this place did when we viewed it. 

beanielou

I live in a very late '80's new build & have from new.
LOved it from when I first saw it & still do.
There are only 2 of us now that have been here since the beginning.
We moved in at the same time all these years ago & have been good friends ever since.
She sees my DS as being hers. 

savingholmes

Sounds sensible to delay the Lincolnshire trip - they've announced another storm too now I think - although it might not affect where you are. 

I get it on the secondary glazing but it can't be cheap long term having all your heat go straight back out.

foxgloves

Well, @EssexHebridean - I somehow got so behind on your diary, but have caught up over a bowl of porridge & an enormous coffee, while waiting for my marmalade oranges to cook.
Re temperatures, we had our thermostat set at 18° last year, though added a couple of hours of our stove in the evenings on v chilly nights. Now the hideous energy costs have settled a little, we have increased the thermostat to 18.5 & I have been so surprised what a difference just half a degree has made. Between 10pm & 6am, the thermostat is turned down to 12° & it does feel chilly downstairs when we first get up, but it soon improves & I'm usually busy moving around then anyway.
I was just wanting to say, having read that you are successfully drying laundry in front of a spare room radiator without any signs of mould......You probably already do this but do make sure you occasionally check behind furniture to make sure any condensation isn't gathering there. Pre- heated airer/decent dehumidifier days, we also dried our laundry in front of spare room radiator. No sign of any condensation issues at all.....until we moved a bookcase & found black mould all over the wall behind it. It can be surprisingly sneaky stuff!
Re cold extremities......fellow chilblain sufferer here but have not had any since that v cold winter of 2010. I think having a large collection of funky hand knitted socks helps, but I think not getting such freezy feet in the first place has also been helping. I don't have Raynaud's but I do find that extreme cold exacerbates the arthritis in my hands, so I defo second fingerless gloves or mittens for indoor wearing when needed in winter.
Anyway, I've caught up with your diary....time to start jamming this marmalade!
F x

EssexHebridean

Ooh Mrs F - yes, you've reminded me about needing oranges (and hoping that our induction hob will enable us to keep the boil we require for the making of preserves too, we haven't tried yet in the new house!) - must pencil in a farm shop visit for the weekend!  As for the sneakiness of black mould - yes, isn't it just! the spare bed and the z-bed both sit against the outside wall so I have a mental note to double check behind both periodically although the radiator is also on that wall so fingers crossed we may well be OK. This is - I almost feel nervous sayig it - the first place we have ever lived together that has had a "standard" enough construction to not have massive damp issues, so we certainly don't want to do anything that might cause them! (Our rented flat in London was part timber framed - built in Tudor Style (in fact was literally called Tudor Court!) and the damp followed the lines of the timbers. It also had "proper" leaded windows which used to run with condensation!  The old flat was of an experimental pre-cast concrete construction - a clever method of building but allowing for the problems that particularly those of us on the ground floor had, it's not surprising that it didn't catch on in the form it was used in for our building back in the early 1950's!) 

It's fascinating how different people react to different styles and types of buildings isn't it - Beanie my Mum lives in a 1970's build - and she had exactly that same feeling of loving it from the moment she walked in to view that you relate with your place. Redo - house envy is exactly right and although our homes are clearly very different in age and style, that is the closest thing I can pin down to what we felt when we saw the original listing for where we are now. Then when we walked in to view it was just as simple as "this is our house".  LaPlan The "Hall" we looked at had proper lime plaster - but that in itself meant that just about anything you did internally was going to be horribly expensive as it needed specialist trades. Gorgeous, but we already know that the eventual buyers almost immediately found out from their survey that there was £30k of work needing done, and having now seen what it actually sold for, the sellers weren't shifting much on the price! ROFL Greenbee no I should think a house that required crawling to access rooms would have been ruled out - for me, too! 

SH very true about the energy costs - but of course it's a lot easier in terms of cashflow to pay a few £100's  in extra heating each winter than to lay out many thousands in doing major work isn't it. I know they did get a cost for shutter type things some years ago and even that was eye-watering. Today's another good day warmth wise anyway - already up to 19C! 

It's warmer again but soggy here today - although I did manage to avoid more than just showers when walking from the car thank goodness. Whether I will strike lucky on that score again when I go back to retrieve the car and move it at lunchtime we will see! MrEH is WFH and looks to just be using the oil filled rad today rather than the underfloor so the office there must be warmer as well. 

MSE Stuff:
- Nipped to Mum's on the way back last night to strip up the carpet from her hallway - although it was a really good quality carpet and still in great condition it was proving impractical to keep it clean what with the dog coming in with wet feet etc - she tried a runner on it but the carpet pile is so deep that it just "walked" and was forming a massive trip hazard so she is having tiles laid instead. We retrieved a square of the carpet for MrEH to stick under his desk where his feet go so that should help with the warmth in there.
- Energy use significantly down this week and the forecast suggest that this week generally won't be getting chilly again where we are until the weekend, nice to have a break from the cold! 
- Banks checked and fine
- CC needs a little attention - mostly spending from the weekend, the train travel and MrEH's pizza money still needs to get cleared. Generally though it's looking decent. 
- Clocked that there is a 20p off milk offer on the C0-0p card this week so have added that on and will try to remember to use it on Friday morning. 
- Last night's tea of spicy ragu with added black beans over wholegrain rice was delicious and the beans worked really well to pad out a slightly smaller than normal portion of the ragu, as well. I need to make another batch of that ragu at some stage as it has turned into a firm favourite. We were grateful to have something really quick too as of course we were later back than normal having stopped in at Mum's.
- MrEH rescued another Christmas tree base - the thick disc of wood that a lot of them are wedged into - on his way back to the car last night, so free heat once it's been left to thoroughly dry for a while! We'll continue to keep eyes peeled for those. 
- Oyster was indeed fed last night, and I think there was a small Al's spend this morning - Crisps. 
- Interest landed on the long term savings pot and I renewed the bonus on that account too.
- Still no cheap train tickets for the route I need. 

So things tick along. Not planning any further spending today, and resisted the temptation to swerve in and check out dried chickpea prices in T's last night. I need a proper plan for the weekend now as our talked-about-for-ages tip run needs to happen as we've said we will take Mum's bags of stripped up carpet and other detritus from her replacement floor there for her - the bag with the underlay in it found its way into our residual waste bin last night so hopefully the bin men have taken that away today.  At the same time we should be able to take our own box of dead electrical oddments and a few other odds and ends we wanted shot of so that will need proper sorting out.  

enthusiasticsaver

I posted a question on the credit card board yesterday with mixed replies but from your comment above do you make manual payments to your credit card throughout the month?  We have a direct debit set up to repay in full each month and usually I just let it do its stuff but stupidly I decided to make a manual payment after the statement was issued this month as I don't like having a high balance.  Will the direct debit due to come out in February take account of the manual payment or will it take the full balance consequently putting the account actually into credit? 

redofromstart

I think it depends on the provider enthusiasticsaver, when I used to make big lump sum payments to MBN4 to clear our 0% cards they didnt take the min payment DD at all as a result so i think they do adjust if it is a few days ahead.

badmemory

I too have a nasty feeling that some take the statement amount, then complain if it overpays.  Could you change the Feb payment to the rest of the balance & then change it back for March to payment in full.  Have you tried looking on their website for the T & Cs.

milann

Hope the carpet square helps the warmth in the study.

PennysIntoPounds

Make sure the coop milk coupon takes it to members price then applies reduction, I've had them not do that twice recently and the staff have agreed that it should!