House

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9 November 2007: Ah, heat at last!

I won’t truly believe it until this evening when it will have been running for 24 hours, but this morning I woke up and the house wasn’t ice cold. Could this mean that the heating saga (and posts) are now over? Here’s hoping!

4 November 2007: Still no warmth

So I’m looking at my stats in Google Analytics, and blow me, if it isn’t the case that the most popular pages on this here blog, are ones of me moaning about central heating.

2 November 2007: To heat or not to heat? That is the question!

I feel like I must have done something horribly bad to my central heating, because it clearly doesn’t like me this year.

30 October 2007: Roadworks and Boilers

It’s bad enough that thanks to Thames Water’s “infrastructure renewal” programme, that our driveway has been blocked off for nearly two hours - the only driveway on the street to be blocked off incidentally - but thanks to roadworks I’ve been sat working from home all day waiting for a British Gas engineer to come and fix the heating (again!), only for no one to turn up.

8 June 2007: Venting Air

About a year ago we had our gas heating serviced. As we had the year before. And as we have since. It’s a twenty odd year old system and I was keen when we moved in to make absolutely sure that it was always in good working order, and that we weren’t suddenly about to die of carbon monoxide poisoning or anything.

29 January 2007: Yet Another Blog Post About Heating

So on Saturday night the pilot light started going out again. Sunday morning I re-lit it in order to warm up the house. But before that, I blew away some dust from the front of the heating unit. Since then, the heating pilot light has remained on and we’ve had a warm house. Go figure.

28 January 2007: Wishful Dreams

I know reading about problems with my central heating isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. Indeed it’s nowhere near exciting. So I’ll allow you to ignore this post if you like. I’m posting it mainly because it’s good therapy to get it off my chest.

26 January 2007: Heating, Water and Cylinders

It’s funny - when I was talking to people at work about the fact that I’d be working from home today waiting for the engineer to come and look at the hot water (he’s been now and hopefully all will be fine) everyone seemed very surprised that our heating system was merrily away chugging along after 23 years of service.

24 January 2007: The Amazing Hint Dropping Boiler

Ever get that feeling that a hint is being dropped? Now do you ever get it from an inanimate object?

7 December 2006: Let there be light!

I know you’ve all been on tenterhooks since Wednesday, so here goes. Yes, the lights now work. I popped in…

5 December 2006: No lights for me

I’m sat here typing this in relative gloom. There’s a reason for this. This evening I came home, turned on the kitchen lights and ZAP! Darkness descended.

11 October 2006: Water Bills

Got through a water bill the other day. This is not a particularly earth shattering event given people get bills all the time, but I was interested to see what difference our water saving measures had made to our bill. As we have a water meter, it was easy to find out.

4 June 2006: Hanging Baskets and Saving Water

We’re in a drought situation. The reservoirs are not exactly in a good state and Thames Water have already instigated a hosepipe ban. So I confess to being in a bit of a quandry about whether we should have hanging baskets this year. After all they take up a lot of water.

21 March 2006: Estate Agents

A BBC News website about dirty tricks and scamster estate agents makes depressing reading. Anyone who has bought or sold property knows that it’s an extremely stressful experience. It also reminded me that I’d never blogged about the estate agent hell we had when we were trying to complete the purchase of our lovely little house.

2 October 2005: Decorated Result

It was about six months ago that an epic journey was started. A journey that would see a complete redefinition of the way I lived my life. A journey that would shake the foundations of the world I lived in. It’s impact is larger than can be imagined. Yes. I started decorating.

9 July 2005: Less Stones, More Plants

Recently I began to think about doing something with the small flower bed that sits at the end of the drive. When we moved in, there was a narrow strip for plants and behind that was mostly piles of pebbles and stones - lots of them. It was time for a change. And fewer stones.

19 June 2005: Growing

There’s something quite pleasing about eating something you’ve grown and you simply can’t beat the taste of freshly picked herbs in your food

24 May 2005: Picture Frame Hook Thingy Needed

To cut a long story short, I bought some frames today to put some photographs in. nd on one, I broke the little hook thing which is fixed to the frame, and is what you use to hang it onto a picture hook. I’ve borrowed one from another frame, but want a replacement.

22 May 2005: Man, Does It Suck!

The vacuum conked out the other day. It was an old one - indeed, my parents old one that had been shoved in a loft until we moved house last year when it was brought out of retirement for us to use. Not entirely sure what was wrong with it, but the cable was looking a little worn… Something to do with the centimetre of exposed copper wire gave that one away.

28 March 2005: Ikea Madness

For the nine months of so we have lived in our house, it’s been a bit ramshackle. The living room for example, was an awful mix of random tables, styles, colours and cables.

20 February 2005: Glass Breaking

Can there be anything more frustrating than struggling home from Ikea with a new, large picture frame, then breaking it almost as soon as you step into your own front door?

4 January 2005: Sea Of Cables

In the back bedroom where I am sat, there are 12 items which require a plug socket. Eight of them are PCs or PC equipment.

7 September 2004: House Owning: The Good And The Bad #1

Some thoughts on owning your own home…

15 August 2004: DIY

Is there something about owning a house? Something that makes you do things like spend ages in Homebase comparing the different types of tub that you could put it on the balcony.

3 August 2004: Buying a House 2 - Estate Agents

It’s a rare person who has ever gone near an estate agent who has something good to say about them. Which didn’t exactly make me feel good when, just after christmas, we decided to get on the house hunting trail.

22 June 2004: What I Did Last Night

Following on from some conversations at work and just in case you’re wondering, no I did not watch England vs Croatia last night with the rest of the country (well a third of the country if we believe the ratings). Instead I did someone that was actually useful.

17 June 2004: Buying a House 1 - Scouting for areas

For some time I’ve been meaning to write something about the house buying process and now I’ve finally got round to hitting the keys. So here we go with part one - the first steps.

13 June 2004: Wires, boxes and other DIY news

Earlier today was a trip to B &Q to buy some bits and bats, including a new bin and a towel rail. Exciting eh?

12 June 2004: Flat Junk

When you’ve moved in somewhere, the last thing you want to do is go back to your old rented pad and clean it all. Which is what we did today.

11 June 2004: Double Glazing

It’s roasting hot outside. Why am I talking about double glazing?

8 June 2004: Moving Fun

The tide of boxes got moved last Friday and this entry is coming from the computer in our spare bedroom, which is surrounded by boxes, boxes and more boxes. From scruffy rented one bedroom flat to own smart split level maisonette. Well almost smart - it does need a few bits of paint touching up, but it’s certainly nice to be rid of all that dodgy rented furniture if nothing else.

2 June 2004: World of Boxes

Friday is moving day and slowly but surely the flat is being filled into boxes. Big boxes, little boxes, medium sized boxes. Green boxes. White boxes. Etc etc.

30 May 2004: Homeward Bound!

Some of the walls need a bit of a paint, the bathroom really needs a new bath, and the fridge freezer arrived with a big dent in it.

25 May 2004: Leaving Ealing

Just a few days before we get hold of the keys… We’re not moving in straight away - but waiting until the following weekend but it’s getting… well exciting that finally we’ll have it, but sad as well.

10 May 2004: Beds, beds and… err… beds.

One of the things about buying a house for the first time is that suddenly you have to go out and buy loads of things, which is why this evening, we ended up buying a bed.

4 May 2004: Ikea Bore

There’s nothing like a trip round Ikea to make you think about the state of your flat.

28 April 2004: Exchanged!

Nuff said.

27 April 2004: House Front

So for those interested, here’s what’s going on in the house buying world.

23 April 2004: Big Cheque

Incidentally, try writing a cheque for over £28,000. It’s very scary.

23 April 2004: Cowboys

Have I mentioned that the estate agents are a bunch of cowboys who I will never use again if I can help it?

19 April 2004: Tell me why, I don’t like Mondays…

Property crisis and a cold don’t mix.

18 March 2004: House Buying Updating Thing

Update into what’s going on in the house buying world.

17 March 2004: I Want My Peppercorn

There’s some phrases in the English language that just make you wonder. Today I will be mostly wondering about ‘peppercorn rent’.

2 March 2004: House Bungling Halifax

After giving a heart-stopping moment on the phone the other day where they applied the wrong credit score and told us we could only borrow £20,000 less than they originally told us, the Halifax screwed up again.

26 February 2004: Let the paperwork commence!

I am looking forward to this weekend. For the first time in several weeks, I can rest and relax without feeling like I should be trapsing around estate agents, and wandering around street after street. On the other hand, I’ve now got a swamp full of paperwork and phonecalls to deal with.

24 February 2004: Wahoo!!!

The thing about being highly pesamistic is, when something actually goes your way, IT FEELS BLOOMIN’ BRILLIANT!

23 February 2004: House Pessimism

At least if you’re pessimistic, you won’t be disappointed if you don’t get what you seek.

22 February 2004: House Found?

It’s been a slog but, well…. we think we’ve found the right place to buy.

18 February 2004: Estate Agent Games

The games estate agents play on the phone.

17 February 2004: Housing Market Quiet

Looking for somewhere to buy is hard work in London. You need a lot of cash for starters. And then you need to find somewhere you like. But at the minute, you’re lucky if you can find anything at all.

25 January 2004: Perfect home: oh where art though?

Next to the computer is the ‘no pile’ - a pile of paper giving details of a pile of properties. Each has the estate agents description of the place, photograph and dimensions. Stapled to that are some scrawled notes listing my views and opinions of the place. But have we been looking in the wrong place for a place to buy? Or have we been looking in the right place and we’re about to get distracted looking in the wrong one? And does this make any sense?

17 January 2004: The Great Housing Search

I’ve kind of resisted writing about buying a house, partially because it’s depressing, and partially because the cost of housing is all anyone talks about in London. If talking about the weather is the national obsession, talking about property prices is the London one.

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