Help calm me. House buying and selling stress

Morning all

Lovely sunny day

New patio doors fitted yesterday and they are sooo nice, really pleased with them, makes that room look so much bigger and brighter, I'm very happy!

I topped up my nat. insurance too Karmalady didn't see a deference this month but next month I should get about £120 more per month!

Mine was state pension topup yogi, not nat insurance. It was offered to all several years ago. Like a mini annuity. I am glad I got it, all annuities are expensive and die with the recipient.

I think I will start by circling necessary info with a red pen, that will make me evaluate it twice and I can do it in small steps

oh my goodness, worth checking

www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/married-women-missing-state-pension-boost/#auto

re underpaid state pensions, I think I may be one of those. It looks as though they are sifting through records now, putting over 80s and widowed women at the top of the list. I won`t need to do anything but wait. I would be in part 2 of the automatic topups list. Fingers very much crossed

I received my new saga home insurance renewal quote today, I am very happy, they have added some good things including escape of water and increased cover for each bicycle. etc I have a lot of expensive stuff, hobby, maintenance stuff etc and contents is a standard 75k with standard buildings up to 1 million. . Frozen food is insured up to contents cover etc its a really comprehensive policy so I am happy to renew £40 less from last year, price held for 3 years.

Having heard about a person being underinsured and a fire from her next door, I am always cautious about being properly covered. Two years before dh died, we went around and photographed everything, including in drawers. I still have the pictures but should really do it again. We assessed everything, item by item and believe me we were underinsured after we totalled it up. we had to double contents cover. Insurance on that eco house had to be specialist and was over £600, so £239 is pleasing

I worry about the cost of replacing items, and have foolishly lost the receipt for my new smart tv.

Can I ask if anyone here has ever had their floors replaced with concrete? My bungalow is 96 sq m, I'm having to have about 75 sq m replaced.

Google it thoroughly Shandy I think it has to be insulated and waterproofed? And get a reputable company in with a guarantee.
we have concrete floors already in our bungalow, it’s about 70 years old and the concrete has started to go like sand. A weak mix MrOops says. (Although it is 70 yrs old,)
However, it’s going to be covered either with a new carpet and underlay or oak flooring, as it’s far to expensive to dig up and replace.
Another job to be done.

SHandy, if you paid for your tv with any sort of plastic or even a cheque, you could probably find details as to how you paid, and when and from whom on one of those statements.

Whenever I purchase ANY new item for the home I staple the receipt inside the front cover of the instruction booklet for that item. This also helps should I later wish to re-sell that item (as I will be doing with my larder fridge, under-the-counter freezer and worktop water boiler (after my kitchen is done). So, when I sell these I will be able to show the purchasers exactly how old they are, how much was paid originally, as well as giving them the instruction booklet.

Have had a quiet day - tomorrow have a trip (afternoon and evening) to Central London to attend a 20th anniversary get-together with my youngest son's old workmates for the anniversary of his death,. Wonderful, that they remember him so well, the suggestion for this came from them. My other AC were all attending, but one of them has had to cancel as she is still testing P+ for Covid. All the others will be there. Going to be a slightly sad, very nostalgic afternoon. Train to London early afternoon, and will arrive back here very late (for me) Saturday night.

I have just has my invite from local surgery to get my next booster and have booked for next Saturday morning.

Thanks Oopsadaisy1. My friend also has concrete floors and thinks they are marvellous, but I could be looking at triple the cost of floorboards apparently so £30K.

Great idea Franbern, I used to that in my early days of marriage, got out of the habit. I hope tomorrow goes well, it's so nice your late son's friends want to celebrate his life in this way. Have a safe journey and I hope you have a quiet Mother's Day on Sunday x

our last house, eco, had a heat sink floor, concrete with stone tiles on top. We had big windows and it was south facing and absorbed heat when the sun was lower in the sky. In summer it did not have solar energy on it because it was shaded by a verandah when the sun was high

It`s fairly complicated wrt to position. If the sun is going to blaze on the floor during summer, then maybe think twice, it might make the room too hot. If there is not too much sun then it might well make a perfect heat sink

www.smarterhomes.org.nz/smart-guides/design/thermal-mass-for-heating-and-cooling/

I honestly think that you would do well to get a structural engineer around for advice and a report. They may advise some waterproofing membrane of some sort and perhaps timber would be ok on top of that. Either way they would advise on below floor ventilation before you do anything. That would need to be sorted first. I would not go by forum advice, you need that professional report before you consider flooring. Then you can be specific with a builder. It is a very big expense, don`t cut corners at this stage

karmalady

Mine was state pension topup yogi, not nat insurance. It was offered to all several years ago. Like a mini annuity. I am glad I got it, all annuities are expensive and die with the recipient.

I think I will start by circling necessary info with a red pen, that will make me evaluate it twice and I can do it in small steps

National Insurance is state pension Karmalady I was missing 3 whole years and 3 partial, how that can happen I don't know, can only think it was when I swapped from paper tax return to online. But the partial when I pay yearly is strange!

I know this is OFF TOPIC, but I must report what a wonderful afternoon I had yesterday. Train to Paddington was uneventful, then got down to the tube to discover that TWO lines had just been closed (no idea why). Glad I had a daughter with me, so she found another route with two tubes - very packed. then short taxi ride. Could not believe how many people came to the twenty year memorial for my lovely son. A sprinkling of MP's etc. One of my daughters quoted Terry Pratchett as how some people make such an indelible mark during their lifetime, and that whilst people are talking out someone with love, they remain alive.

My son had 25 far too short years, he packed so much into it and so twenty years later there was this large number of people who remembered him so very well,and put themselves out - on a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon to come along to celebrate his life. I had a few tears, but on the whole it was a joyous occasion.;

After he died I took all the hundreds of cards and letters, etc and put them in the largest photo album I could find at the time. (Amongst them a letter from Tony Blair - at that time the PM). I even took all the little cards off the fifty plus floral tributes and kept those. I took this album with me, and it was left on a table, and so many people were delighted to be able to go through it.

Arrived home, very tired, at 11.00 pm last night with some wonderful memories.

Franbern it sounds a bittersweet day for you, so pleased that so many came out to honour your son.??

Very glad to hear it was such a positive experience Franbern. Happy Mother's Day x

How lovely Fran to have all your son's friends & family remembering him in such a pleasant way with you and your DDs . 20yrs on and still dearly remembered by so many says a lot about your son.

A lasting legacy from your son. I am glad you had a good day Franbern

I was just now thinking how nice it is to have a home that is easy to manage and to keep clean. Bonus as I don`t like housework. I made 7 vegan bolognese packs for the freezer this morning. I am not vegan but do like meatless meals. That will fill up the empty space in my ready meal drawer

I have bike repairs this week, complicated but I need to replace a tyre and that involved dismantling the hub gear. Tyre ordered, very tough to get that type on, then replace wheel onto bike, fix chain and hub gearing and then fine tune my v brakes. I`ll just say that I did a very long and extremely hilly ride yesterday on my e bike, without tools, it ended up taking me 4 hours because of an unforseen problem, I was exhausted and ended up walking 3.5 miles home. Lesson learnt. The replacement tyre is to make sure I avoid a blowout ie a big bang and an uncontrollable bike. Hills are very steep here, in certain areas.

Having an easy to manage home was not on my list when looking to buy but is actually very important as we age. I would rather spend my precious time on my hobbies than on housework

Sorry to hear about your bike problem karmalady.

I agree that having an easy to maintain home and garden is of great benefit when retired. Saying that I've just realised it's mow the lawns day, hell! I so hate doing it.

In my old house, I only had enough energy to hoover upstairs/downstairs on alternate days, it was just too large. Now it takes about ten minutes to do all of the rooms!

I was talking to my neighbour about 'bungalow' living and how I was still getting used to it. Apparently she fell downstairs at her previous house, carrying a ladder. Her foot turned backwards under her, snapping her ankle and the doctor warned her they might have to amputate. They saved it with many steel pins, luckily. I'm going to make more effort to enjoy single level!

I wonder if anyone thought ahead to ease of cleaning, it did not cross my mind when I was buying

We are heading to cooler temperatures, hitting frost temperatures from thursday, The warmth has been a nice distraction

We've gone down to 5 degrees here and freezing fog! Such a change from yesterday!

Karmalady I wish that we had thought of the cleaning 23 years ago when we bought our bungalow, in our defensive though we didn’t think we would be here for long.
However, glass paned internal doors are an absolute nightmare, but they let in so much light, I grit my teeth and clean each pane on 6 doors, both sides! regularly and wonder why no one uses the door handles, why do they just push the glass?

I have two roombas, bought one 9 years ago and the second 8 years ago, the same week that my friend next door started with a cleaner. She has the cleaner 2 hours every week and used to pay £20 then. I have replaced one roomba battery via ebay and the roombas cost about £450 each. Working it out last night compared with the cost of a cleaner, they were `paid for` in 45 weeks and have been `free` ever since. I keep one upstairs and one downstairs and by golly they are efficient

I have one docking station in the hall and another on my landing, never bothered programming their cleaning times, I just put it in place and press a button. Yes I lift wires up out of the way and move a few things, to make it easier for roomba but the amount of `fluff` and dust that gets picked up is amazing. Emptying the dirt holder only takes minutes. I have the 800 series, no wi fi or advanced programmes like automatic emptying. So far so good, I can replace all the external moving parts as they wear and expect roomba to last me for many more years

Just saying, I still have to dust, clean the stairs, inside of windows and wash the floors but cleaning is minimal here. I also think my windows are externally self-cleaning, they always gleam after a shower of rain, I do need to clean the window frames from time to time and also the patio cills. Lucky me, another thing I never appreciated, the side and front cills are all lias stone and don`t gather dirt

My mum and mother in law would have loved this house for ease of cleaning.

oooh I just had that very important message. My painter is starting tomorrow, I am so happy, it will definitely be finished by monday evening if not earlier. Oh at long long last.

I have to admit that I almost feel guilty when reading these posts as to how little time I spend on any form of cleaning ikn my flat. (Not: ALMOST....).

Nothing that I do daily (except,obviously. make the bed), Nothing else requires daily doing. Only me living here, no pets, etc. It stays clean and tidy with minimal effort.

The only room with a carpet is my bedroom, vacuum there every few days, usually, at same time, will take that machine round rest of flat, over hard floor and one rug. That must take me at least ten minutes. Kitchen, bathroom and en-suite floor, mopped over once a week (taking me another ten minutes. Every so often (not more than two or three times a year), I will actually mop over the floor in the living room and hallway. Every so often I take a feather duster around the tops of pictures, etc.

Use daily shower cleaner spray on en-suite shower, Every few weeks will give that a really good clean over. Loo, - well obviously cleaned daily. Guest bathroom checked weekly, but rarely needs much done to it. I rarely use my dishwasher, so do a daily washing up, in the evening. kitchen worktops wiped down each time I use them. Weekly change bedding. The 'hardest' job I have regularly is the washing. No lawn to worry about, twice a year a sort out pots, on my balcony.

I have wonderful easy life with regards to housework.. I have never, ever been too much involved with this. When children were small, I used to go round tidying beds each day, two loads of washing (at least) each day, continual tidying up, and loads of cooking. three toilet areas to clean daily, brushing down stairs, daily and then there was also the garden!!!! I feel tired even thinking about what it was like then. Most of each morning was spent this way.

Now, I cannot even add up ho much I do weekly.. But my flat ALWAYS looks (and is), clean, neat and tidy all of the time. Absolutely love single level cleaning and have fitted out my flat to be enjoyed with total minimum of work.

I've never been good at housework and didn't have any routine. There is a US website called 'Fly Lady' who suggests how to clean your house, starting by simply 'shining your sink' every night before you go to bed. Baby steps!

Mmmm,. Do wonder how I am going to 'shine' the new kitchen sink I am having installed - as it will be black!!!
I cannot understand this mania with home cleaning. Yes, hygenically clean - maybe loos daily. But not much else. Remember the old adage about a 'Little Bit of Dirt.......'

Much more to do with life than chasing around after a little bit if dust etc.