General Chat

:-D :-D :-D Dermot I know the feeling

"Busses in my area seem to move much faster when I'm running to catch them than when I'm sitting inside the vehicle". :-D :-S

OK, so we had the new natural gas water heater installed last month.

Thursday ast week, the company phoned us to say a City Inspector had to check it, or we would get a $175 fine.

So, initial contact with late Thursday afternoon said between 1 pm and 4 pm Tuesday (today). OH did some phoning on Friday, saying he had to take me to an appointment at that time (liar!!!).

Yesterday was a holiday, so no contact, but a phone call about 8:30 am this morning to say "Andrew" would be here at 10 am

Door bell rang at 10:04 am :-)

Took 5 minutes, and we now have a card to say "Approved"

He had to check that the gas connection was OK, but also that the water heater had been strapped to a supporting wall ............. we live in a big earthquake zone.


We haven't had to have this done before .................... but it's a good idea!


and his time keeping was fantastic!!

He arrived about 90 minutes ago, and has just left


now we should have hot water in about an hour :-)


Our problem wasn't that we had no hot water .............. we had boiling hot water, and couldn't control the temperature.

Apparently that can lead to failure of the heater, and it is better to get a new hater than try to replace the thermostat controls

we have to have a new water heater.

We were told the man would be here between 10 am and 12 noon today

OH phoned at noon.

They would be here in the next hour or hour-and-a half, they were running late but ours was the next job

It's now almost 2 pm, and they are still not here.


I think we're not to be able to have our afternoon coffee :-(

just realised that the I Ron I bought still has the box in the cupboard from 3 years ago! the box the grandfather clock was wrapped in is still in the loft from 1984

Good ideas there Ann will have to remember them the next time we have a box. The tumble drier didn't actually come in a box.

We put ours in the garage for about 6 months then dump or re-use them.

I find a lot of boxes very handy and re-use them or bits of them! I cut big squares from tv or washing machine boxes. They are handy to lay on a path or patio when you paint fences so any drips, dropped brushes go on the cardboard. You just slide it further along as you go. So easy to store and take no space against the wall in a shed or garage, also to slip under the car if you need to get under it. The bigger boxes have thick cardboard too and I have cut one of those to the size of a 1000 piece jigsaw. They are so lightweight and you can just slide your partly done jigsaw under the settee. As I do paintings now I have a few pieces cut down to stand on my small easel to lay the paper I'm painting on against. In the past I've even covered pieces in foil for the back of radiators.

Bobtanian, you keep the boxes until OH has a clear-out of garage and shed. You need to watch, though, as they usually throw away some of the stuff that is yours and not theirs. :-0

I just had a delivery from Argos - excellent! Requested delivery slot 10am -1pm, got a text this morning to say would be between 10am and 11.12 am, it arrived at 10.13!!

I also had a silent call on my landline a little earlier than that! I googled the number to find it was something to do with BT text messages, or where someone has sent a text to a landline number in error.
Got another call just after delivery and let it go into answerphone - sure enough it was from Argos telling me my delivery would be within the next 30 mins :-D

*nods in agreement with det* We usually put small boxes into the loft and then proceed to forget theya re there until we have a clear out. Logically I suppose 3-6 months for small items. Things like washing machines etc you would not be expected to keep the packaging, just the receipt.

Depends how much it costs and how large it is. For anything over say £30, a couple of months.
We're slowly sorting out our loft. It's amazing the number of empty boxes we've found. Some of the original contents have come to the end of their natural lives. If others break down, they'd be well out of warranty.

talking of which......

after obtaining a new ,say a kitchen toy, how long do you keep the box/packing for?

(in case you need to return it?)

I've also used polystyrene bits in the bottom of pots for my house plants

Ann I have passed that idea to he who fills pots, thank you.

I break up any polystyrene like that Ann and fill the bottom 6-9inches of my garden pots before topping up with compost. They are so much lighter to move then and makes the compost. go further.

It is annoying when you wait and wait past your time slot, but having just been in gridlock getting across the city near here and seeing how traffic queues are solid down to the motorway morning and night I feel a bit sorry for the drivers. It's not as if they can park easily at some addresses to deliver things either.

I remember one experience when I had some dining furniture delivered and it arrived on pallets and was dropped in the driveway in the rain and I was banking on going out to do errands once it was delivered.. :-S Luckily for me, although he wasn't supposed to (H&S), the driver helped me clear some space at the front end of the garage so he could just squeeze the pallets into the garage with his forklift. Helping me no doubt delayed his deliveries elsewhere. :-S

Very true Mayfield.......or pop in the back garden!

Sue, only just seen your comment. It was free delivery. OH has sent a complaint to Curries, who will probably say it is a Knowhow problem, who will say it wasn't their fault as theyw ere overloaded with orders. still we are very pleased with it. Just have to get rid of a huge bin bag of polystyrene now, horrible stuff, that will be in landfill fr years.

All you need to do is pop into the loo, there will be a knock at the door in no time at all! ;-) ;-)

We bought a new dining table, chairs and sideboard and had been told it would be delivered on Thursday and we'd get a call saying when around 8.30am.

7.30am the phone went and I was told they would arrive in 5 minutes.

I was not looking my best.

ordered some meat pies from a london pie n mash shop.
delivery by courier window was 0800-1200 Friday,(today) here before 0830.....
gell pack was still frozz solid, too
cant fault that!!