Owning your own home

Something like that.

bored, bored, bored...

Buying a house / Selling a house, offer accepted in mid Oct on buying house, sold ours start of Nov. Cash buyers for our house, people that we are buying from are moving into rental. Mortgage agreed, Dec.

All paperwork completed on our sale on 23rd Dec (contract signed not dated in prep)

Our purchase is a pain....why do solicitors do things iteratively ?

Every time I think we are close to exchange they come back with another question. Why can they not work this out all up front ? Its all known,

eg, Japanese Knotweed...

We knew it had knotweed and the sellers had paid £11k to resolve the issue and had a 20yr guarantee to support the work from an accredited company.

Solicitors

Property had knotweed - writes letter (sellers solicitor)
(Our solicitor) Letter written back to ask for guarantee - They had this upfront as it was in the info pack
(sellers solicitor) - supplies guarantee again
(Our solicitor) Letter written back to ask for guarantee to be transferred
(sellers solicitor) - advises that it'll be transferred upon completion

Why does this take 2 weeks....I had a conversation in an evening and then looked online to check the accreditation etc.

TBH its only been 13 weeks including Christmas so maybe i am just impatient, I just can't wait to double my mortgage !

The free smart meter gives me the current internal temp - I'm with Brit Gas but they should all be rolling them out soon.

Have the BG smart meters but due to the meters being too far apart (and separated by two many internal walls) they won't link to each other, and the monitor thing can only link to the electricity meter and that only works if it's in the kitchen (which is generally warmer than the rest of the flat). Means I have to manually submit my Gas meter readings, but I've been doing that for ages anyway.

Don't think our CH circuit water is in a bad state, last time I bled the radiators the water that came out was quite clear.

Useful info on the rest though, ta very much.

The sludge is mostly at the bottom of the rad, but you're probably right if it's running clear when you're bleeding them it can't be that bad.

It's a good idea to have some inhibitor in the system after a few years of bleeding and refilling though.

About the pointlessness of hanging washing outside in these temperatures?

Latest Nest is £199, but you can get the old one for £144 in Screwfix. Which is a bit annoying for me as we're having two and I found out today that our builder has apparently somehow managed to buy two of the old ones for £240 each (sigh) but maybe a cheaper alternative to the Hive?

If it happens to be a Siemens remote control unit, give the receiver a gentle whack.
http://www.directheatingsupplies.co.uk/siemens-rdh10rf-thermostat

There's no thermostat anywhere which may be the problem. Guy we bought this place off didn't live here just refurbished it so wouldn't surprise me if he's done something stupid like get rid of the thermostat.

A while ago someone posted someone who can do woodwork type things - I think it was cabinet making. Does anyone recall the details or name? I searched back a bit, but 504 pages...

I has hive, according to my colleague nest is better.

I oddly searched back for this yesterday and found it. @fox gave three recommendations, a fella called Ola who's I think is keen not to be troubled and then these two:

http://karlrees.co.uk
http://www.nickmcauley.co.uk

@6pt - they're the ones, thank you!

That nick guy looks real skilled. Some nice work.

I have hive and was skeptical as to it's value at first. The old thermostat could be programmed into 6 time periods per 24 hours with pre-set temperatures so ,in theory, all that Hive adds to the equation is the ability to be controlled from a computer or phone and the fact that the unit could be moved.

I can't really see any advantage to the remote control aspect to be honest. I suppose ease of turning it down a bit while i'm away on hols maybe but that's maybe 3 weeks a year and I wouldn't want it that different anyway. If it were summer and I was away the heating wouldn't come on anyway so no biggie. If it were winter my normal setting of 20 all day and 18 at night requires the boiler to to fire up occasionally during the day (which i'd want to keep damp at bay anyway) and hardly at all at night.

The portable unit itself is great however. When the old thermostat was in the tiled hallway the heating seemed to be forever be blasting on and off with some rooms getting far too hot and others too cold. Being a seemingly more sensitive thermostat able to be placed in the bedroom or living room really seems to have evened the heating out and (i think) resulted in much more comfortable living environment. Big swings in temperature seemed to exacerbate our underlying damp issue and the more constant temperature seems to have dried things out a bit. I'm hopeful it will save cash in the long term too.

I have Nest. Is well good.

Also, Philips Hue led WiFi lightbulbs.
Well good.

And how much has everyone saved with Nest/Hive?

cheap with work related discount.

How much has it saved you over a year of heating?

Gets me every time.

I have a Netatmo which is like a cheap Hive/Nest. Being able to turn my heating off when I go away for a week or two and have forgotten is pretty useful (I'm away a fair bit with work), as is turning it off for the one or two nights a week when I'm out/staying at girlfriend's or whatever (there's no consistency in what night this is).

In theory I could have done this with my old thermostat but I pretty much always forgot as I was leaving the house.

Hue is entertaining mainly. Mine flash when I get a text or call, show weather and tube delays. Plus turning on automatically at dusk and being controlled through my tv remote is pretty useful.

Dunno. I didnt get it for that to be honest. I just like being able to control everything from my phone. Only had it since november anyway.

We have heat! Apparently there is a valve hidden away down the side of the boiler that needed to be turned. Bloody typical.

Nothing because they've bought wi-fi connected light bulbs to go with it!

Only ~£140 for a starter pack.
LOL