Help calm me. House buying and selling stress

I have a mobile phone charger plugged in next to my bed, so my phone can be charged up on the bedside table at night, if required. A second one is plugged in next to my Living Room Chair. I do have one of those portable power chargers, but use that when I am going on a long journey. My recliner sofa has a socket for chargers on each side, as does the matching chair. If anyone is having any electrical work being carried out with new sockets, they should consider having sockets which will also have a charger unit. So many items now use these, as well as phones, there is my Kindle, and my Alexa headphones. and even my water flosser. Just wish they would standardise these.

For me, I tend to prefer to do bank things on my laptop, then when verification codes are sent, I have them on my phone so can then just copy them easily.

One of the ladies in my knitting circle had a large bag of embroidery cottons and was asking if anyone could use them. No-one could, I told her my g.daughter does a lot of embroidery and she gave me the whole lot. Have sent these by post to that g.daughter at Uni. She does this as a way to relax, drawing her own pictures and produced some amazing work. Posting that off did remind me that I must remember at the end of March to look up about exchanging my large cache of different value RoyalMail stamps as they will not be able to used after February 2023.

I think we manage really well with IT, especially all the password, and as you say, verification malarky. I don't think our kids understand the stress of the admin we had to deal when our partner's died.

I'm still not sure how to 'scan' with my phone, I was waving it around in front of a shop Covid entry reader once - I think I photographed it by accident!

I am so glad I bought my Juice Powerbank, I've been caught out in the past with these verification codes because my phone was dead. Can now sit on the bed with it plugged into the powerbank next to me, rather than leaping off to the nearest plug point to read the text. I can't wait to get a sofa again!

Hope your weather improves - very frosty when I took the dog out around 8 pm.

I have just been ordering some osmo oil to put on my wooden benches, excellent oil btw. I paid with paypal and yet again I had to copy the six security numbers from a message on my phone. I know it is security and particularly essential these days but it is so very tricky for people who cannot remember well enough. I hope to goodness there is an easier system for when I am old. I have to do this almost every time I access my bank or building society lately

It is pouring down today, proper miserable

Thanks for that tip gagagran, I`ll be glad to use it when the new hg spray is finished. I finished the extra hard bits of tar this morning, took me a full 2 hours. I cannot believe I was so negligent but lesson learnt, the hard way

Yogi beware single skinned shed/any building, for storage of precious things like photos. They will get damp and mouldy and quite quickly. We built a substantial wooden storage shed by the last house, it had insulation put in between the two wooden layers, nothing ever got damp, we also put 2 big air vents in, with sliding covers and I set up a solar installation for a lighting system. The surveyor I had for the 1930s house said that the large garage was single skinned brick, another reason for me to reject the house as I have many tools and 3 nice bikes to store

Yogi are the legs wet from rising damp? Standing on bricks with plastic over may well help in that case

shandy, yes re the knees, at times I felt as though I was glued to the kneeler and counted to three before I got up. Frome sounds like your area re hills. I never looking in frome because every walk back from town would involve a steep hill. I am going to frome before the weekend. I like the drive there and so does my car. On the bright side shandy, it is nice to be able to get a bus home

What to do today? nothing, nowt, ziltch. Watch shakespeare and hathaway, knit a few rows of a jumper, read and sit back in my zero gravity chair, trying not to doze off, while my back and hips settle after all that kneeling, bending and crouching

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month! March at last, and I noticed it was still light at 5.30 pm last night. I've not enjoyed this winter at all and hope to be in a better place next winter.

Nope Yogi it was full Sorry you have the horrible bus trip when your car is in. My garage is at the top of a 1:16 gradient hill and I can walk down to the town, but can't manage the walk back up so have to sit in the disgusting rubbish filled bus station to get the bus back.

Can you put carrier bags on the dining table legs? Perhaps dry them with a hairdryer first to stop the water leaching further?

I'm doing my family tree and have finally found out my step mother's surname. Still waiting for my DNA test and excited to get a 'Gedmatch' number!

Have a good day

When we had our wood burner I used a tip from somewhere about cleaning the inner glass in the door.

Get some kitchen paper, scrunch it and dampen it. Dip it in the ashes (cold of course) in the stove and use that on the glass. It is very easy and works a treat. You can finish it off with fresh scrunched up kitchen paper and even with a spray of window cleaner if needed. Hope that helps!

Shandy trust that poo bag was an empty one Very sweet of you to say Happy birthday to my mum xx

Yes, too busy at the moment, lashing down here and will need to get bus back from garage and then walk, don't know what bus to get, did look on bus routes but not clear at all, so will have to wing it. Looking forward to the shed being up and running, sorting out the shed/studio into the new shed and finding all the things I really need at the moment; elec. drill, my works CD that I really need for my classes, getting the suitcase of my m&d's photos and finding them not water damaged, also putting my poor dinning table in the shed, it is water damaged now, the legs, and as it predicted to none stop rain for a week, I'm going to try to wrapped the legs up

Sorry it was such a tough job, bet your knees are hurting karmalady!

I will never again treat my stove like a warm radiator. I piled fuel on top of fuel day after day, after just a quick initial riddle. It kept most of the house warm andI enjoyed the low cost of running it. Today was stove payback, yes the glass was black but I never appreciated that it was layers upon layers of tar.

I used over half a spray bottle of the most useless stove glass cleaner, that ran down the glass like water. It was a caustic soda solution, so I wore a mask but still the fumes came through. I cleaned and cleaned, did about 15 or more cleans. Got most of the tar off but honestly it took hours.

I had some bits left that I could not remove so put some fuel in the clean stove, it lit fine and I kept both dampers fully open, this time I could see the fuel burn. I walked to the shop and bought the cleaner that I used to use called hg and I will use that tomorrow when the stove is cold. The glass has remained as it was, I am hoping that the remaining tar has redistributed itself, anyway I am confident that hg will work. It is a foam, not a runny liquid

Never again, I will just grit my teeth and clean the glass every day, then re-light and get to hot. No more shortcuts.

I didn't want you get to get in trouble now you have come back. Still read the thread everyday but don't have much to contribute. Involved with other threads. But like to see how everyone is doing. ?

thanks whiff. I had to do a password re-set, doh, I`ll have to do that on most sites after fiddling with cookies

Craftyone see you have decided to use your old name. We all knew who you where when you can back as Karmalady. Does GN know as you can't use two names . A friend of my got in trouble for that and got suspended .

Hello Spice, I've been thinking about you with the flash flooding, glad you are OK. Lovely garden design, I hope your concreter recovers soon and is able to start, do send us updates. My small back garden is a mess, I haven't done anything to it yet except trim the herbs back.

Glad you have your son to help you Yogi, I remember those busy busy days where you meet yourself coming back. I used to teach full time and had to race home at lunch time to walk my dog. One afternoon I was at the whiteboard and felt something crackly in my pocket and thought 'ooh, sweets' - then it was 'ooh no, dog poo bag'! Ha ha. Happy birthday to your late Mum, I can't visit my Mum's grave, she's down in London.

Good luck cleaning your fire craftyone, it's a mucky job. I remember the woodburner at the station misbehaving and burning red because it wasn't drawing because the chimney needed repointing, so stressful.

I had my handbrake fixed last week and now the car is making horrible noises at different points in the journey, I think the car has had its day - and I also think my mechanic might be closing down soon.

Off to the beach and then back to pack this bedroom, feels good I'm on the last leg.

Have a good day everyone

Crafty0ne I need to clean my computer as you've done, it's running slow.

Good luck with your landscaping Spice It's so expensive though, I'm doing my garden myself, with help from my son.

Good luck packing Fran & Shandy When we first moved in my glass cabinets were just filled up with boxes. I emptied one on Friday, ready to fill with my collections, then decided to empty the other one, didn't think it would take me so long! First one still empty, second half done, but of course all the boxes that came out need sorting & placing too. Perhaps I should have waited till our shed was put up, so to have some where to store boxes. It arrives Weds, so we are getting the ground work done in readiness.

Just too busy at the moment. Yesterday I prepared my work, did my work, then picked up the wood varnish from one place, the ballast & cement from another, dropped them home, straight out to do some shopping, dropped that off home and then straight out to walk my dog, with Sunday dinner to cook once I returned. Phew!

Today: invoices, yearly tax return, take flowers to my mum's resting place as it's her b/day, more shopping [to use my £10 off V] Maybe have a go at digging the ground ready for shed base, with help from my son, then evening working, Phew again. Tomorrow my car is going in for a service, really needs it, bus back & same to collect. Tried to get my bus pass sorted, but failed! Just every day so busy!

spice, I do like the new garden plan. Having landscapers is a good idea if it can be afforded as we age. My mum had her garden landscaped as she started to become disabled with RA and she enjoyed her garden for the rest of her life

One of my sisters in WA is up for sale, they cannot stand the constant searing high temperature and very close bushfires. They are going to be near another sister who is in a town by the sea, it is 10 c cooler where she lives

I had a right to-do with an online form for some click and collect garden stuff, it appears that the issue was with cookies in my cache. I found the relevant cookies and have deleted them and was able to pay.

There were hundreds of sites in my cache and I deleted lots of them, consequently my laptop is running much faster. I used to have cc cleaner and never had a cache problem, downloaded free cc cleaner just now and it found 1300 trackers on my laptop, even after deleting all those cookies. I hate the way we are all being tracked, every move we make on the computers

Not a nice day today but warm enough so my biggie today is to give my stove that thorough clean as I cannot see me using it again until autumn. I hope the sweep does not contact me as I have not used it enough to warrant paying for a sweep to come this year. The stove has been wonderful, I managed to keep it at a simmer so it was warm 24/7 but as a consequence the door is fully black. I could get rid of the black by having a hot burn to airwash the door but I am going to use effort instead. Due to painter etc I only used the stove maybe for three weeks

I will be pottering inside today, rain again but timely as I did the different fertilisers on many things in my garden yesterday. Pottering is as good as exercise

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-494514-image-1.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202202/medium-49563-img-3298.jpg

These photos show what we have and what the new will look like.

Hello Everyone, it's been a while since I updated as nothing of interest has been happening here but I've been following everyone's progress or lack of it Selling and buying is such a long protracted event with as you all know many hiccups along the way. In most cases though it all becomes obsolete as you settle into your new home.

Shandy, what a nightmare you are having. Fingers crossed it will be over soon and at least you will know things are done properly and should be fine when completed. While we have not experienced anything like you are we have had a few nasty finds/experiences which were not disclosed during the sale.

What terrible storms you have had. I have a very close friend who lived just south of Oxford. Speaking to her last night and she said they fared fairly well. She lives on acreage and has a lot of large trees on the property some quite close to the house. She did say it was very sacry though.

Six months ago we started having Landscape Gardeners come and quote on redoing our garden. Currently it is mostly flax and other spikey uninteresting plants and masses of rocks. We contacted 8 Landscapers to come and look and give us quotes. Of those 2 never turned up as arranged, 4 turned up and with much enthusiasm told us they would get back to us with quotes and were really looking forward to completing the job ........never to be heard from again in spite of several follow ups from me. 1 gave us an outrageously expensive quote on a very minimal design and 1 could only give us a partial quote but was happy to follow up and has kept in touch re progress as we needed to find someone to do some concreting.

Eventually we decided to engage a Landscape Designer and together we came up with a design we are happy with.
So, fast forward to today, we have the concreter here today to do what needs to be done before the landscaping. The Landscaper that we are happy with has been delayed yet again as he had an accident but will be here as soon as he is mobile again. So at long last things are moving in the right direction for a change. Hopefully before too long we will have a much more interesting and colourful garden that we are happy with. At least we are now into a better time of the year to plant with the worst of the hot weather past.

Now with our endless lockdowns and covid restrictions ended we do hope to be able to get on with other things we planned to do around the place. Still need to go and buy more furniture. No doubt even when we do that there will be a very long delivery time.

Back bedroom emptied up to the concrete floor! I managed to pack three boxes of books, the rest will be OK where they are. Just my huge tiled picture of the railway to drag through to the lounge, just in case they bang it. Glad I hadn't paid to have it put up yet.

I couldn't lift the OTTY mattress to put the cover on, the removal men will have to do it.

Lawnmowers have started up around me, feeling guilty but I'm sure my lawns can wait another week!

Hello Franbern, your kitchen will give you daily happiness, every morning you walk into it. I know it's a lot of money but unless you want to spend the money on something else ie travelling, why not!

I hope your son gets back in good time for his flight - I wonder what technical problems BA had? Someone on Mumsnet had to drive her husband to Edinburgh, not a drive I'd manage!

Thanks for the sympathy about the packing, I am being as methodical as I can, it's mountains of books today from the back bedroom. So fortunate I raced to get them out of the lounge before the ceiling came down. Thanks for telling me it took you six weeks, it's been three weeks for me and I've only just finished emptying the front bedroom ready for the things that will have to go into storage, can't use one wall because of the hole the surveyor cut in the floor. I am finding it exhausting. I have just put the vintage chandelier in my car, and a few other things I'll deliver to the charity shop tomorrow. Good luck packing the kitchen.

Have a good day

Having a quiet, catch-up weekend. Second flat also completes next Thursday, so busy day in these flats with two families leaving and two new ones arriving.

Such glorious, sunny weather at present. Enjoying the spring flowers in bloom on my balcony.

Having (as I knew I would), small panic attack as to how much money I spending on my new kitchen. I will be fine when it is all completed. And, TBH, I know that any delay is going to cost more as costs of such work is going to increase a great deal over the next year or so.

My son and his wife are due back from visiting her family in USA today. In the past they have flown direct from Manchester airport, but since Covid no direct flights, so they have had to do it with a change at Heathrow. Had a worry yesterday when Heathrow announced cancellations of all internal flights, but got my day wrong by 24 hours. However, now see (on line) that their main flight from USA is delayed by two hours - so hope they will still have enough time to catch their flight back up to Manchester.

Sympathise about the packing, Shandy. When I had the flooring put down in my hallway and living /dining room, I had to re-pack from all the cupboards in those places. Had only unpacked into them a year previous. Took me six weeks to do all of that, and then to find places to put all those boxes. Did find my guest bathroom was excellent, put a blanket down in new bath, and stored lots of boxes in there. Will do the same with kitchen things. As I have a visitor staying with me just seven days before the work on the kitchen starts, I will have to do all that packing from kitchen cupboards during that final week. I am trying, now, to go through those cupboards and getting rid of 'stuff' that I will not be keeping.

I suppose we are all so fortunate that we have worries and concerns like this, and not about bombs falling on us.

Morning all. Sunny again! I keep reading the 'snow' warnings and dashing out for supplies, including lots of chocolate - still hasn't snowed here.

Marvellous you are dealing with these sales Franbern, whoever would have thought it! I hope the couple have good weather for the move. Fantastic you have experienced builders to make sure the work is a reasonable price and of a good standard.

I'm so bored with this packing lark, but no-one else is going to do it, I have to keep going. I have just read on Mumsnet that someone's storage unit has burnt to the ground, they've lost everything.

Have a good afternoon everyone, off to the beach with all the half term visitors. Wish parents would learn the basics of kite flying safety, couple were flying a kite yesterday and nearly hit one of their children, just missed him.

Finally received email from Solicitors for one of the two flats which are approaching completion, to say that Contracts have, at last, been exchanged. Completion next Thursday. Yesterday morning had a phone call from the sellers of this flat, almost in tears, over the continual delays in this exchange. Brought back such bad memories of that happening to me. Then, at 3 pm, they phoned again, so happy, - to say it had actually happened.

One down, one to go.....and one just at the beginning of this process. The purchasers of that flat had already asked permission to attend (as guests) our AGM on Wednesday. Happily granted. Delighted they are showing so much interest.

Such gorgeous weather now, unbelievable that it was just a week ago that the weather seemed so intent on killing us and destroying our homes.

Shandy I am sure that there are plenty of 'cowboys; trying to make money out of peoples miseries over that storm. Fortunately, the gentleman on our cttee who deals with that sort of thing is, himself, a retired builder - and checks, re-checks and re-checks again any company that is used. There is also another fairly new resident here, who is retiring in the Summer - also a builder - and he has indicated that he is more than happy to join in with assisting our Committee with such matters. As long as we can continue to get good volunteers then our self-maintenance company arrangements will continue to work to all our benefit.

I knew the person that collected the chest. Luckily I had a pleasant acquaintance with her in the past!