Help calm me. House buying and selling stress

my ex army dd and her husband said that it is an early warning AWACS radar plane which is there to let the ukranians know what is happening. Not so much dd as she was army medic but her husband who was signals captain.

flightradar is interesting, I am watching over ukraine and can see raf planes zig zagging along poland and romania borders

Aren't they revolting karmalady, like the cowboy roofers cashing in on people's desperation.

If anyone wants to offer accommodation, this small charity are co-ordinating the offers

shelter4ua.com/ua

oh thanks for that shandy. I won`t get sucked in.

I know what you mean karmalady. My daughter rang today, and we discussed paying for an Airbnb in Ukraine, as well as buying from Ukrainian Etsy sellers. I decided to have a look at the Airbnb stuff on the web, and it said scammers were already cashing in on it. When I looked at Airbnb for Kherson, where an Instagrammer's parents live, only hotel rooms, so I looked at Kyiv. 300 entries but three stood out at £275 per night, no reviews, skimpy adverts, obviously scams.

shandy, that lorry is already full. She asked donators to take their items to other collection points. So much help and good will about, it is tangible

I personally cannot do any more now. I have donated items and cash and to DEC and to the ukraine army. I need to rein myself in

Morning all, sunny today but windows are dripping with condensation and because I've been lazy I've got mould. Washing it all off later with vinegar.

Franbern thanks for the DEC recommendation, I have donated to them and the Red Cross, as well as buying a few bits yesterday. I can't stop thinking about the 18 year old Ukrainian girl on Tiktok (a revolting platform as a free for all to upload videos, I was greeted by a huge saucepan of struggling prawns with a shouty man pouring boiling water on them) - yesterday she was telling everyone she has to make Molotov cocktails, not Pina Coladas. The suffering of the Ukrainians haunts me, I'm sorry I cannot do more. I hope someone can persuade Putin to stop.

Good for your DD karmalady, it's all very physical. I saw a man on the news driving his camper van and a trailer to Poland.

Glad your fire burn was good yesterday, thinking about mine gives the shivers, I was always so anxious it would stop working.

My daughter has just taken the first large tranche of donations to 3 lovely ladies with a horse lorry, who are soon going to Poland. Very welcome donations I might add. One of these ladies is 70. Dd will also be taking another large tranche next weekend. She has been a collection point. Her pre-teen daughter has done a sterling job of helping to pack it all into cube shapes which can easily be stacked in the lorry. How wonderful that so many are giving their time to directly help others. Don`t imagine that these are second hand goods fit for a jumble sale, they are not. New sleeping bags, toothbrushes, first aid items etc. They will be accessible for people to take off stalls as needed, rather than fill in a form and wait for a handout

My fire burn yesterday was very good, shorter and hotter. I have a thermometer on the flue and it stayed in the clean burn range. There is nothing much at all on the glass today. I have given the stove a good clean and will be trying just smokeless ovals later when the weather cools. I want to see if I can maintain the correct temperature again. I did read about acidic fumes degrading flue liners, mainly caused by a mix of wood and smokeless fuels, glad I read that as I would have been tempted to mix logs and these ovals. The ovals will light fine with my electric lighter and they need air from below, so the clean grate.

Shandy and any others wanting to do something tangible for Ukraine - it is far better to send money - not goods. No way of ensuring goods you purchase can reach people there or that is what they need. Best to send money to something like @disasters Emergency Committee, who are a blanket body for smaller charities and any money donated will be matched by our government.
And....not to forget that very sadly Ukraine is not the only country in the world being bombed and with refugees and shortages of food and water, etc. Look at what is and has been going on Yemen since 2014 and other places.

Nana3 glad my post was useful. I hope everything goes smoothly for you. Once you have exchanged on both properties then you can relax . Unfortunately until then it's very stressful. But it's all worth once to you get the keys to your new home.

I now live my life to the full . In my old house I existed. The sun is streaming through my French doors and my windows. It's 22°c in my living room. No heating on.

My brother and sister in law are hopefully moving into their bungalow mid to late March. They put their house on the market in August and sold and moved out in 14 weeks. But buying the bungalow even by modern auction has been and long slow business.

Hope you all have the sunshine today.

PS Whiff your post was on 30/09/21

Wow!!! Roofer we usually use turned up yesterday with cherry picker and about five workmen and carried out ALL the repairs to our roof and gutterings. Have been trying to contact him since the storms, but he turned off his 'phones as he could not keep up with all the calls he was getting.
Our man on the cttee managed, a couple of days ago just to leave him a message as to what was happening, and he came over almost immediately. He has now told us that as he lives very close by, not to try ringing him in future, just pop round to where he lives.

We are so fortunate, just waiting for his account to send to the insurance company, although we will pay it as soon as we get it and just claim back the money (less the excess). We have photos of the damage - which is what the insurance company told us to do. I think one of the reasons local people are more than happy to carry out work for our flats is the speed with which we always pay all accounts - usually with 48 hours of them arriving. Far too many professionally managed blocks of flats seem to not pay for anything up to three months almost on some sort of principle - but this can be difficult for smaller companies.

Removals all went well yesterday. Now waiting for the third flat to get to exchange and completion.

Yesterday I received the small, single electric hob which I will use whilst my kitchen is being done. Along with my toaster, and combi/microwave and kettle, all of these will all go on my (protected) extended dining table in my Living room, during that period.

Received my renewal notice for my contents insurance, and phoned them, got the excess reduced a lot and then also got them to reduce the premium. Used one of the comparison sites on my laptop to do this. They fully met the lowest similar quote on there. I am more than happy with this result. Well worth that phone conversation.

Thank you Whiff I've just read your post and found it very useful.
I have accepted an offer on my house and have had my offer accepted on a bungalow so I am ' in the thick of it'.

yogi, hire a mini excavator. It costs only £80 a day and will go through small gateways and passages. Your sone will like to `play` with it

Yogin I'm sorry to hear about your son. My daughter ha Stephen Johnson syndrome after the Swine flu jab and was intensive care. Scary.
Sorry to go off topic. I still follow this thread but don't really comment. I really think you have gone through the mill Shandy and have nothing but admiration for how you have coped.

Good luck with your repacking Shandy I bet you think it will never end, but it will, you've done so well so far.

Would love it if our shed was up this w/e, but haven't heard from the guys re digging the shed base, so my son and I may have to do it ourselves! Don't want to wear my son out, he said he will be fine putting up the shed as he helped to put up his friends big log cabin last year. But digging is real hard work, think we need to dig down 8inches & then we can lay the ballast & cement then the concrete slaps on top.

My son has a compromised immune system due to a severe adverse reaction to the Swine flu jab he had about 10yrs ago, he almost died from it, he still hasn't fully recovered, so if he does anything very physical he's wiped out the next day!

Morning all, another dismal drizzly day, we had quite a pea souper when I walked the dog last night. It felt like autumn.

Hope new people moved in OK yesterday Franbern.

I've just heard back from my surveyor about getting a quote for concrete flooring - I'm going to have a long wait, and will be patient. I've nearly finished packing and will now repack some of it so I know where everything is.

The war puts everything into perspective, I am lucky to have a roof over my head - a new roof even! Lots of people are still waiting to have their roofs fixed including a young family at the top of the road. I'm off to the shops to buy some new goods for the village Ukraine collection point, someone is driving it all to Poland.

Good luck to everyone waiting for news, have a good day

yogi we are going into spring and summer, fortunately not going into autumn. March will bring drier weather, which will certainly help

good that most flat owners attended the agm Franbern. There always used to be some that did not attend ours, they were always `worried` about being asked to do jobs and perhaps sit on the comittee. There are always those that `do` and those that sit back and wait for someone else to `do`

We are fortunate here, that our garages all seem to be very dry. Many of the 23 garages here are used for storage, some quite packed out with furniture (often that of AC's) Think only a minority are used for cars!!!! Fabric items, papers all seem to survive perfectly well in them. I purchased some of those 'slot together' garage shelves and my daughter did manage to get them put together for me and they do the job I want - BUT - would not recommend them. I thought they would be an easier option that the ones I have had in the past which bolt together - think I was wrong. They are quite fiddly and difficult to 'slot together '.

Yesterday we held a proper face-to-face AGM in the flats, first one since March 2019, and first since new Committee took over. I was a little apprehensive, but it all went brilliantly and a lovely atmosphere and a good number of flat owners in attendance.

Today, two of the flats are at Completion, and two new couples moving in. Fortunately, one moved out on Monday and the other one did so yesterday, so, although it will be busy, should not be too chaotic. One of these couples actually attended out AGM yesterday which was really nice.

Be glad when the weather cheers itself up a little. Has been grey and dismal all week.

Thanks Karmalady

Just can't get to things, as there is a wardrobe in the way! Tried to sell it before we moved, but thought it would fit in the shed at the back and be useful, so wasn't concerned I hadn't sold it. But inside the studio/shed are shelving and built in desks etc. which I hadn't noticed when I viewed. It was the removal men that packed everything in there.

yogi, I once had a new shed, on bearers and on concrete. Just a normal shed and anything in there that was metal, did get rusty. Plant pots and the like were ok but I would never in a million years keep anything precious in a shed like this. Paper and cardboard get damp and holds moisture so will be ruined. There isn`t any point in a vent in a single skinned wooden shed, wood will absorb moisture in wet weather and will release it. I did shut the vents for winter, in the big insulated wooden outbuilding, one vent at opposite ends. No point in letting humid air in then.

Karmalady No I'd bring the photos in the house & any other precious things. Should I put a vent in the new shed then? I have opened the studio/shed small window a little, still very damp in there. My dinning table is on the garden patio, covered with plastic and then a big blanket from the removal firm, but cover only drops halfway down the legs.

My son is big into family trees Shandy we watch that 'who do you think you are' very interesting. He's done he's DNA test and got his sister to do the same, wants me too as well.

Forgot to do the pinch punch yesterday & the pancakes Shandy Bus trip back was ok, bus went almost to top of my rd via town centre bus station. Wondering about my table legs being wet/damp when wrapping, if that's ok to do' would have to wind big bin bags round to cover, left it so long now, should have done that when we first moved in, but didn't think of it. Saw on the news, where the floods are, a guy had wrapped his piano legs up & thought 'that's what I should have done'

Car had to stay in, lucky it was my day off and didn't need it, costing over £400, didn't hear after the 400, so hope it's the lower end. Most I've had to spend, so can't complain, they are an excellent garage. Shed is due now! was said to arrive between 7.40-8.40am. My son & I had a go at getting the ground ready, hard work, only skimmed the surface really. s.i.l said he knows some guys that love digging, so will use them, but this rain needs to stop!