http://www.planetbods.org/blog/build/images/me.jpg 2007-11-09T21:52:00Z House hunting, property puzzlers, home design and anything else that fits vaguely under the description. tag:www.planetbods.org,2008:/blog/House/2 Movable Type Copyright (c) 2007, Andrew Bowden 2007-11-09T21:52:00Z 2007-11-09T09:42:12Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.721

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!

Andrew Bowden 2007-11-04T08:55:42Z 2007-11-04T08:41:16Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.717

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.

Andrew Bowden 2007-11-02T19:47:49Z 2007-11-02T19:27:11Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.715

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

Andrew Bowden 2007-11-03T08:37:22Z 2007-10-30T16:33:50Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.714

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.

Andrew Bowden 2007-06-08T08:42:20Z 2007-06-08T08:21:33Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.693

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.

Andrew Bowden 2007-01-29T18:51:03Z 2007-01-29T18:48:38Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.657

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.

Andrew Bowden 2007-01-28T11:00:13Z 2007-01-28T10:58:43Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.656

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.

Andrew Bowden 2007-01-26T11:33:27Z 2007-01-26T11:06:54Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.655

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.

Andrew Bowden 2007-01-24T23:12:37Z 2007-01-24T22:58:39Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2007:/blog//2.654

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

Andrew Bowden 2006-12-07T21:26:43Z 2006-12-07T21:20:51Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//2.643

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

Andrew Bowden 2006-12-05T21:48:19Z 2006-12-05T21:37:23Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//2.642

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.

Andrew Bowden 2006-10-11T21:14:07Z 2006-10-11T20:19:42Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//2.629

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.

Andrew Bowden 2006-06-04T17:31:00Z 2006-06-04T17:07:28Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//2.603

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.

Andrew Bowden 2006-03-21T21:49:50Z 2006-03-21T21:09:48Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2006:/blog//2.583

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.

Andrew Bowden 2005-10-24T21:26:11Z 2005-10-02T13:31:03Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2005:/blog//2.498

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.

Andrew Bowden 2005-10-24T21:26:09Z 2005-07-09T17:06:28Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2005:/blog//2.451

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.

Andrew Bowden 2007-12-22T10:39:01Z 2005-06-19T22:04:37Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2005:/blog//2.434

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

Andrew Bowden 2006-04-02T14:07:57Z 2005-05-24T21:53:58Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2005:/blog//2.411

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.

Andrew Bowden 2005-10-24T21:26:07Z 2005-05-22T14:58:09Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2005:/blog//2.407

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.

Andrew Bowden 2005-10-24T21:26:04Z 2005-03-28T22:16:12Z tag:www.planetbods.org,2005:/blog//2.369

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.

Andrew Bowden