The Money Pit

How Sad Am I?

There's no doubting that your life changes when you buy a house. Whereas I used to spend most of my disposable income on clothes and booze it now goes more sensible things like new boilers and pictures frames. That's fair enough but what happened today still shocked me. My mum called to tell me about Pot Fest, which is in Bakewell on the weekend of 3,4,5, June this year. My initial excitement gave way to disappointment when I remembered I was going on a stag weekend to Vilnius, Lithuania.

Weekend away with the boys in the "new Prague" or a weekend with your mum looking at arts and crafts pottery in the Derbyshire Dales? I know which I should prefer, but find myself strangely torn between them. Oh well, I'm all paid up for the Vilnius trip. Pottery will have to wait.

Plumber Found

Well, well. Finding a plumber has proven a lot less stressful than I'd thought it would be. The first plumber we had over called by again on Tuesday with his quote of £1950, which we accepted on the spot. The only other quote we had was from British Gas and that was £3500!

Maybe we could have gotten it done for less. But then I don't really want to wait around for other plumbers to visit. At the moment all "projects" in this house hinge on the boiler being moved. At least with this plumber, Martin, we know he's going to get it done in on one Saturday (7th May) as he's got a real job during the week. Better than somebody trying to tell us it's going to take 4 days and "cost ya".

I asked how much of his quote was for parts. He said about £1200 and I tried to not look too much like I didn't believe him. Well, it looks like he was telling the truth. The Glow Worm 38HXi is indeed a pricey beast at over a grand. And then there's the flu extension we need to meet with regulations. Obviously it's cash in hand. Apparently it's going to pay for his holiday.

Fuck Ikea

From the book Modern Toss.

The Rubbish Nation

Today's front page of The Independent reports that we (well, the food industry) throw away £20bn a year in unwanted food, with the average household throwing away a fifth of the food it buys. This two days after it led with the news that Tesco has become a giant of retail and is the first supermarket to break the £2bn profit margin.

Today is Friday, which means it's Binday. Which means I am sat with one ear pricked, waiting for the dustbin lorry to reverse down our road (a cul-de-sac). The reason I'm listening out for it being that it only comes every two weeks (well every Friday actually, but alternates between the recycle bin and the normal bin) and I forgot to put the normal bin out last time. So we've got a month's worth of rubbish piled up on the drive waiting for them to come. The reason I am listening for them is that I need to go and oversee getting rid of it. They aren't allowed to take anything that's not actually in the bin! Instead, I will have to go down and put the overspill in the freshly emptied bin and plead with them to empty it again.

Since we moved house, getting rid of the rubbish has been a pain. In the old house in Sunderland you could put just about anything in the back lane and it would simply disappear the following day. In Nottingham they are a lot less accommodating.

Now, it's worth pointing out that I am an anal retentive when it comes to recycling and avoiding excessive waste. Seeing this rubbish piled up like this saddens me. In my perfect world I wouldn't be throwing anything away - I'd be living the "Good Life" and it would all find a use somewhere, somehow. Alas, this ain't a perfect world and, as a household, we produce our fair share of crap.

I'm the kind of person who opens junk mail (even of the previous owners), removes the envelope's window and recycles the rest. I hassle Karen to buy mushrooms in the paper bags provided rather than the easier option of simply picking up a plastic punnet wrapped in cellophane. Even then I wonder what good I am doing. The punnet we didn't buy is now a part of the unwanted food mountain. I might feel good about not throwing it away, but, somewhere along the line, it is going to be thrown away, whether by the next man or by the Tescos. Not only is it down to us to buy less of what we don't need it's down to the suppliers to rethink their packaging. It's the only way landfill targets can be met.

You could say I was a worrier, but then we should be worried. We're fucking the world up!

In a way it's good that getting rid of our waste is a hassle. It should make us sit back and think about ways in which we can reduce our output. Damnit, I hate this modern world sometimes. What has modernity ever done for me? Give me an island I can live on self-sufficiently and I'll worry a lot less.

Plumber Found, I Think

I might be jumping the gun here (not even seen his quote yet) but I think we found ourselves a decent plumber.

It turns out he's employed by a large respectable company of heating engineers but works on the side at weekends for some extra cash, which I have no problems with. In fact I think I prefer it that way. Most importantly I liked him. He seemed honest and friendly and didn't try to bamboozle me with science. He was also open to the idea of me doing some of the donkey work of getting rid of the old system.

Surprisingly he went along with my idea of putting the new boiler in the cellar - subject to some "regulations" he needs to check up on. All I need to do now is decide whether I want a combi or a condensing boiler. Condensing boilers are a few hundred quid more expensive but a lot more efficient apparently, as they re-use some of the heat normally lost in the flu gases.

More later...

In Search of a Plumber

Remember the stress I had finding a plasterer? Well, it's probably going to get a whole lot worse now we're hunting a decent plumber.

If any of the trades is likely to send a dodge-pot cowboy our way it's plumbing. Or that my being too cynical? With the task at hand (more on that later) I'm going to try and find somebody who's recommended, rather than picking one tale-in-donkey-style from the Yellow Pages. You just don't know who you might end up with.

Our cleaning lady recommended the guy I called tonight - Martin. She called with his mobile number and I gave him a bell at 7:15PM. He was in the pub and told me I'd be better off calling him Monday as he might forget anything we agreed there and then.

Now, I'm self employed (web designer) and like to think I know how to deal with my clients. Asking them to call back next week is not my usual approach. Not so long ago we computer programmers, as a trade, were turning away the work. So will these plumbers one day. They'll see. Wherever there's a skills shortage is soon fills.

Although, if I were forced to pick another line of work if ever it got that bad in IT I'd probably choose plumbing. Not because there's money there though. I just think I'd enjoy it.

Not long back we had a guy from British Gas here to give us a quote for the work. He asked about the, obviously new, central heating pump and I mentioned I'd fitted it myself. He said it was nice work and that he could get me a job as a trainee. He wasn't joking as far as I could tell.

Anyway, about the job (which British Gas quoted £3.5K for!). We need to move a boiler from the kitchen to somewhere and get rid of the hot water tank in the spare bedroom. We will probably get a combi, although I'm open to ideas. As I am with where to move the boiler to. I've been thinking about the cellar but I'm worried about the damp. Anyway more on that as I get quotes and suggestions.

The motivator for all this is that we need it done before we can start on the kitchen. And boy does Karen want the kitchen sorted. She's threatened that if I don't sort plumber/boiler out she will. Now there's motivation!

The only solice in all this is that this will hopefully be the last time we need the services of a tradesman...

Shaun's Castle

I got an email today with the subject Foundations of me [sic] castle. In it was this photo:

Me mate Shaun and his fiancé are selling their houses and buying one between them. This is how it stands so far. You can almost envisage the moat and draw-bridge can't you.

Buying a house that hasn't been built yet has it bonuses, I'm sure, but it's still not something I'd ever do. Period all the way for me.

Will these be the sought after period homes of the future though? Who knows!?

Shaun told me not to tell my dad he was buying a plot on this site, as it's an old quarry, and he knows my dad will give him a lecture about it. So, I told dad and he's waiting to see him now so he can wax lyrical.