The Frugal Hearth: Stories of Simple Living and Living Well

beanielou

Wow. That was some welcome to Scotland! Glad you are getting settled in. 🤗🌸

ThriftyPrincess40

wooooah that’s a lot of stress but you’re smashing it! 💪🏻❤️

Moorviews

It’s good to hear that you are in, despite all the stressful difficulties.
Happy New Home🎉 Your neighbours sound lovely!

Hopefully, as the house gets used to being heated through and damp is driven off, it won’t feel as chilly. I wouldn’t be without my ceiling airer. Most things dry overnight so it isn’t like there is laundry in my face all day. Making the most of the heat from your fire is good frugal practice 😊 I hope the sellers help with the costs of the shower. I had a similar experience when I got into the shower the day after moving in. It wouldn’t work - it turned out that it hadn’t been plumbed in at all and was just fitted to the wall!

Take care and enjoy your beautiful new surroundings xx

KajiKita

That’s a lot when you’ve just arrived in a brand new place and don’t know anyone. Thank goodness for the neighbours! I’m smiling at doglet objecting to closed doors - he’ll adapt 😉

I’m so pleased for you though. It sounds like you are in a beautiful area which will do wonders for your mental health long term 🤩😊

KK

Cheery_Daff

Goodness, what a lot of things! New neighbours sound helpful at least, and I'm very glad you have water and electric! Can you ship around for a different provider, or a different tariff, will either of those things make much of a difference? Hope so! Sounds like you're on the case with the coal though. Don't scrimp so much that your house gets damp (speaking as the owner of an old, damp house with metre thick walls 😬)

Enjoyexploring your new area 😊 so pleased you've made the move 😊

PollyWollyDoodle

Congratulations- not only have you moved, but it’s all yours! It sounds as if you have lovely neighbours.
I don’t think I have ever moved without discovering something unexpected once I was in - but never quite as bad as having no water. There are always unexpected expenses in the first months though. I hope it is all plain sailing for you now, it sounds lovely.

foxgloves

Wow, that was an exciting read, @Elisheba. What a welcome to Scotland! Sounds like the previous owners defo left you with some problems. You are quite right though that you don't need to tackle everything at once. The essentials, yes, but everything else can be done as a longer term project.

Heated airer plus dehumidier is a good clothes drying combo, I find & on very cold nights, I find that the heated airer just helps keep our conservatory temperature up a little bit.

The electric heating calculations reminded me of my in-laws moving to a new place in winter & finding they needed to pay £600 a month. We were convinced it must be an meter fault but it turned out to be that the underfloor heating thoughout the entire bungalow was very expensive to run but no gas laid on for an alternative. It must have been a similar shock to you doing the maths.

Lovely to hear you are settling in. Cottage sounds quirky & interesting & it will be wonderful turning it into your own home.

F x

greenbee

Congrats on the move - there are always issues on moving in, but it sounds as if you have good neighbours which is more important than anything else.

When my parents moved last, we went to set the dishwasher off at the end of a day of feeding people endless cups of tea/coffee and grabbing quick meals. Totally exhausted. And it didn't work. Looking at it, it clearly hadn't been used/worked for ages.

The following morning we discovered that one of the so-called 'power showers' didn't have a pump and so the water didn't even get to it, let alone come out!

Hopefully you can keep the house warm and dry enough for now, and look into options for improving it once you've had a bit of breathing space - warmer months are coming up!

teapot2

Thank goodness for helpful neighbours and frugal habits. Welcome to Scotland ………

fionaandphil

Congratulations on the house move and glad things are getting settled.

Heated airer and heated blanket may be of help as others have suggested and are cheap to run. We have had to move to smokeless fuel this year, not as warm as coal but it does burn for a long time once it gets going. We had Burnwell brand last year and are going to try another brand this year to see if it makes a difference. We are lucky in that we also have lots of free wood so have never needed to buy any and mainly use that to top up the oil heating. If things continue in the middle east it will cost about an extra £2K a year for oil - I am saving already!

Enjoy your new house and have a great weekend x