From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks greenbee - you are so kind.  I too grew up in a house that had the steel-framed, single glazed windows.  It was tied accommodation, so even if they had had the money, my parents wouldn't/couldn't have improved the windows.  We only had a open coal fire to heat the house as well - so paraffin heaters were used in the kitchen and bathroom - condensation??? absolute rivers of the stuff 🤣  Funnily enough, I was thinking of that yesterday, as whilst it is cold here, the condensation was still that - in my childhood home that would have been totally frosted over (lovely ferny patterns!) on the inside....... 😬

I washed and kept the curtains that were left in the house (here) with the exception of the kitchen curtains 🤮 for that very reason, as I was pretty sure they would need to be ditched.  

I will just have to do what is necessary every day and we will have to do our best to get the money for improvements - even if we end up with a home improvement loan,  

Greying X

BookWorm

Hi Greying. Hope you don't mind me popping in. Purely by chance after reading your diary, I came across the mention of dehumidifier bags. I wondered if you were aware of such things? I thought they could be a good option for LG's bedroom.

BW

greenbee

Oh yes, the lovely ice on the inside of the windows I used to have an oil-filled radiator in my bedroom which I hung my clothes on when I went to bed, so I could lean out of bed when I woke up to turn it on and pull my clothes into bed and get dressed under the covers in my warm clothes! I think I've got soft. Anyway, the roller blinds are yours if you want them, just let me know and I can send you the measurements and see whether they are any good. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey BookWorm - thanks for popping in.  Are those the bags that have the hydroscopic (or do I mean dessicating?) material sewn inside them?  I think DH had one at one time from somewhere for the car dashboard 🤔  In theory yes, that would be better than an open bowl of salt, but I have bred me a fiddle-faddler  who has to investigate everything........ 🙄  I have only myself to blame, as apples don't fall far from the tree.....🤔

Well, I have just pegged out the washing.  I don't have high hopes of it getting dry, as whilst i double spinned, and it is sunny - although the garden is still mostly in the shade - the breeze isn't as strong as forecast, so it doesn't seem to be moving alot 😕Still, it was supposed to get breezier as the day wears on, so fingers crossed.....   Interestingly I was looking at the back of the house as I was pegging out the washing, and although there is no frost on the windows as such, where the condensation has run down and pooled on the window ledges it has frozen and there are some small icicles, so no wonder the back of the house is colder inside 🙁  That is one (possibly the only) advantage of not rushing in to put in new glazing etc etc before we moved in.  At least living here - in winter - we are seeing the house and the components operating under 'worst case' scenarios.  With a degree in hindsight, we should have insisted on a much larger radiator being put in LG's room.  Simply putting a newer version of the one that was there before hasn't helped the transition from 'used for storage/spare bedroom' to 'bedroom for a little kid who wants to be able to sleep and play in their own room' 😕 I'm minded to at least investigate the possibility of getting triple glazing for the back of the house - LG's room and the bathroom if nothing else.  The costs may be prohibitively expensive (and this isn't a forever house), but I think I would kick myself if I didn't at least weigh up the possibilities.  

I have cooked up the black beans in the PC. They got up to pressure quickly today - thanks high pressure weather system!  I am currently letting them naturally depressure.  Actually I just heard the clonk of the top, so they are done.  

I have read the meters and submitted the readings.  The costings are online, and whilst i knew it would be more this month - we've had the heating on, simple as - we are still in credit, and I'm quite pleased that it's all sort of 'as we thought'.  I don't put the oven on to cook a single baked potato, but I have still used the oven several times in this bill period, so as long as we continue to live but not waste, we should be able to meet the costs.

Right, lets go and sort those beans out.

Greying X

teapot2

Good to consider all possibilities re glazing and radiators Greying.  I grew up with a coal fire in the living room and no other heating apart from paraffin heaters in the bedroom.  The first one we had didn't include the safety feature of being extinguished if knocked over so we were well warned to be VERY careful around it.  Also remember the morning feathery ice patterns on the inside of the single glazed windows 🥶❄🧊

greenbee

You'll probably find that DG is enough - for most houses in the UK triple glazing isn't worth it, as the thermal efficiency of the walls is then lower than that of the glazing. It's worth some research. In the meantime, hopefully LG can enjoy hot waterbottles, cosy bedding, warm clothes and snuggling up  

Greying_Pilgrim

Ooooh more visitors. 

My apologies greenbee - I think I missed your post before.  Ugh, there was never any incentive for me to get out of bed - it was so cold and damp 😕  I see your point about the glazing out-performing the walls.  I was reading something the other day - a journo had had their house surveyed for energy efficiency/to see where improvements could be made.  I don't know what the surveyors actual qualifications were, but they certainly seemed a 'technician' - they knew how buildings worked and the impact of things.  Because as an example, the house was 'young' enough to have cavity walls, and was insulated, but the insulation had..... shrunk? slipped down?  something of that order, so the surveyor said there were cold parts and offered a suggestion for making the energy efficiency of the walls better.  I've always encountered tradespeople who want to sell 'their' particular product.  So someone would sell you triple glazing, but not tell you the windows would out perform the walls, so the cold would 'fall in' from the walls instead, or someone would sell you double glazing on a sunny day, having no idea of the difference in temperature on that side of the house in the middle of winter.  Much the same as the plumber insisting that the radiator was right for the dimensions of the room - despite me saying how cold the room was as you walked in, and him actually commenting that I was right.......

Oh teapot2 - the draconian warnings we had about the paraffin heaters too!  And yet I remember my dad fibre glass mending the fuel tank on the kitchen one as it sprung a leak 😮and the wick not being trimmed on the bathroom one that it started smouldering, and I went up stairs and opened the bathroom door to thick, black smoke 😮.... Elfin safety?  Wot Elfin safety? 

Right, time for full and frank disclosure. 

I have taken some of the money that I had put into the 'pounds for panes' pot and I have spent it 🥹  I have invested in a de-humidifier.............  I can't take the cold, mould and damp any longer.  I ordered it yesterday and it arrived a couple of hours ago.  I have set it up in the kitchen, read the instructions and have set it going. 

It is quite noisy.  Like a cooker extraction hood, maybe not on full throttle, but on the second setting. 

I can't believe how much water has already collected and how it 'runs' into the machine 😮

Because DH and LG aren't here, I have left the doors open.  There is a bit of a draft, so I am not too sure how this will work out in the longer term.  But I have already noticed that it is already much more...... 'comfortable' to be in the kitchen.  It hasn't suddenly become tropically warm.  I am not skipping about in a bikini (thank heavens!), and it is still cold (don't have the heating on in the day), but probably because it isn't 'wet' cold, it doesn't feel as bad.  I have noticed that the thermostat in the living room has gone up 2 degrees since I have put the dehumidifier on, BUT the sun has also moved around to the front of the house, and it normally warms up the room anyway.  The differences are probably tiny, but  I am getting an appreciation of how wet can affect temperature.  

It's early days and I don't know if the dehumidifier will do everything that i would like it to do, and at present, I don't know if it will be too noisy to be running at night for example......  

Naturally I am hopeful it will work - but I can't help worry that I have removed money from the window pot, and I'm still anxious about LG's room.  I had the coldest room in my childhood home........  I am by far my own harshest critic, so if it doesn't work, I know I shall think that I've set us back.......  

Still, one step at a time.  The unit is doing something, and time will tell if it takes us to a comfortable place, and helps keep the house environment just more comfortable, and allows the heating to at least heat the space, without having to heat up a load of mist first! 😁

Thank you for your suggestions and the ongoing conversations.  I do listen and take things in, mull them over and try to see if they would work for us.  

In other MSE news..... I have packed up the cooked black beans into freezer boxes.  500g dried weight yielded 1038g of cooked beans - so doubled the quantity.  Well worth the 69p YS'd sticker price.

The breeze has got up and the washing is flapping merrily in the breeze.  The sun is at the front of the house now, so I won't leave it out much longer as it will get colder than it is drier, very quickly and any good work will be lost.

Greying X

redofromstart

Sounds like a very sensible investment to me. I have a bedroom with north facing stone wall that you can see the wet on - you can make a handprint in winter on the plaster. It makes all the difference in there.

I am sure you don't need telling this but make sure you haven't got the toilet seat up etc. fond memories of my Grandad saying how much wet he took out of the (seat up) bathroom daily!

badmemory

Many (like 50) years ago I was having my first central heating system fitted. The rep was going through the size of the radiators required to meet certain temperatures.  When we got to the bathroom he quoted a temp 10 degrees colder than the other rooms.  I asked why he thought it was a good idea to have a room that you weren't only naked in but also wet that much colder.  The trouble is that they get fed the "programme" & don't think it through.  Once you have lived in it you know where the cold spots are & to be blunt it is you that is paying.

badmemory

Incidently with this cold weather my humidity meters are reading under 40%.  The bathroom without using the dehumidifier on Wednesday went down to 19%, that was a shocker & must be because we stopped the leak that couldn't be seen.  No open windows, no vents.