General Chat

Yes Mel I will be contacting the council to have the roof removed with it being asbestos. I rang them just after we moved here almost 8 years ago and it cost around £300 so I'm hoping it hasn't gone up to much since then. When I phoned the council all those years ago the woman said we could take it down ourselves, just to give it a soak, but I know how harmful asbestos can be, especially if it was to break, so I'd rather get the experts in to do it.

I can help OH to take the rest of it down as it's only concrete panels. I have however, asked OH to ask his friend to help him remove the top ones as they are a bit to high for me and also have glass windows in them. I wouldn't want to drop them on my head. The rest of them I think will be low enough for me to handle, so long as they're not to heavy. We're not sure how the concrete posts are put in, they maybe just sitting on the concrete base, so we'll have to take a look at that. Once the garage is down we will contact someone to jack hammer the concrete base, so we can use some of it for the summer house foundations and the rest can then we thrown away into a skip.

I did smile when you were saying about gathering rocks in laybys Ann. I don't blame you, hard core isn't cheap so why not find things that have just been disregarded. It sounds as though you are a lot like me, recycling anything and everything. I hate seeing people throwing away perfectly good stuff just because it looks a bit tatty. All it needs is some TLC and you've got yourself something quite good. I'm also one for collecting wood and have even made fences out of old pallets that we have got for free. Things cost so much nowadays it's worth thinking outside the box. After all pallets are wood, you just need to take them apart and you can make all sorts with them and not only that I enjoy making things, so win win I say :-D :-D ;-) ;-)

Off to bed now, I've had quite a few late nights and it's starting to catch up with me.

See you all tomorrow
Night Night

You're correct again Mel. Excuse me Gill and Annx

Morning all

Yet more rain here last night, so more puddles on the patio this morning, even the grass is starting to get water logged. Hope the rain stops soon so the garden can dry out a bit.

That's okay David. You actually gave me an idea when you mentioned selling my garage. I might have it converted into a summer house. I'll still have the asbestos roof removed as that can be dangerous, but with the garage being made up of panels, we could have some removed from the side which goes into our garden and replace it with double doors, then we can have the garage door removed from the front of the garage which faces down the drive and have a window put in there.

It's quite a large garage so would give us a good size room and would probably cost us less. It's also quite close to the bungalow so there shouldn't be a problem getting some light and proper electrics in there. I might look into it. Then when it's all done we could have it clad with something attractive. It would look like a little bungalow once it's finished and it would save us having to much mess as well. You never know it could end up being quicker doing it that way too.

The advantage of having panels is we could move the garage back a bit so we'd still have the space for an extension in the future should we want to extend the bungalow. All we'd need to do is put the first two lots of panels from the front to the back, thus moving it back about 6 foot. We still need to empty the garage so that's being started this weekend and next Monday as OH has three days off on the run and we don't know if he'll have that much time off together again for a while.

I'm not keen on starting a job and not being able to finish it straight away, so this way, hopefully the garage will be emptied in one go. I'm sure mum won't mind if we need to pop a few things into her garage for a short time until the roof can be changed as we haven't bought a new shed for the lawn mower and garden tools yet.

I cut the material for my sewing machine cover yesterday so I'm going to get that finished today. Mum is coming round in an hour for a cuppa and chat so it'll be after that. I've got some hoovering to do as well as there's cotton bits everywhere, but apart from that I've got a quiet day.

What is everyone else up to today?

Morning all,

Not up to much todayGill. Will just have a hoover and dust and then fiddle with my little dolls.

Suns about at the mo but on both our car rooves there are frozen solid hailstones. They look like frozen bubbles.

Gill, it sounds as if you have decided to stay put with all the ideas you are having? Or will you just see how things go and make your plans accordingly?
It rained like mad during the night, today is very sunny but windy! No frost on any roofs here or anywhere else come to that so I'm planning to clean a few windows as the sun shows up every mark and they are filthy!! Apart from that we are just pottering around!

Or, you could consider renting it if it has access from the road?

Asbestos has killed people who didn't know of its existence. I owned a house for 23 years a lot of asbestos. The garage ceiling was asbestos, all the trunking of the ducted air warn air heating system was asbestos, I serviced the gas fired warm air system every 6 months, still here to tell the tale. Perhaps I'm lucky?

Or perhaps you had the coated stuff which is safe David. Being an ex fireman oh knows a lot about things like that.

When I moved down here and mum owned the bungalow I was going to have the potting sheds at the top of the garden made into a dwelling for myself and hubby. The potting sheds are 95 foot long and they had asbestos tiles right the way along them. We had them taken down and a new roof put on and it cost thousands.

Morning everyone

Dull morning here with a bit of snow which won't really lay as the ground is so wet.

I was going to say Gill couldn't you use the concrete base of the garage for the summer house it would save breaking it all up ,and you know it's nice and solid to build on .
As you say it might be worth looking to see if you could use the panels from the garage to make a summer house ,you could then have it cladded and that would make it warmer too.

Oh i have just look up and it's really snowing now ,big flakes :-0

Oh i meant to say there's some thing coming in the post for you Mel ,it was posted this morning :-)

OOOoooooooo I wonder what it could be?????????? I am all excited now.

You have snow!!!!! why can't we have a bit? We've had a rainbow this morning.

Just before lunch I tried to dye some white pipe cleaners with tea.........I put them on kitchen paper on a poly bag on top of the double rad inthe kitchen hoping they woud dry by this afternoon. they did but they had turned dark grey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so that did'nt work. :-(

Well the snow didn't last long but we had some really huge flakes and it looked pretty for a while.
The wind has really got up now it's howling down the chimney,but the fire is lit and it's nice and cosy in here.

Pizza for us tonight with home made wedgesand salad.

It was good that hubby's appointment is for tomorrow as the A47 was closed right on the juntion we need to turn off on, some poor chap was found dead on the road early this morning ,they seem to think it was a hit and run.

Would a very weak coffee mixture work Mel?

Iv'e bound the pipe cleaners with wool now and that seems fine.

Just back from the surgery to get my annual review results from my GP. It's a bit like running a gauntlet! Luckily all is ok for another year! My BP is a bit high, but I'm to take it at home once a week, and any concerns to report back to my GP. So we've only got to sort OH'S PSA out, and hopefully we shall both live to fight another day!
Getting pretty cold here! We're taking Cas tomorrow to have her weighed at the vet, then onto Sainsbury's for fuel and a few odds and ends. Merlin has now had his shoes removed till next summer, I think he prefers being without them!! The hay came on Tuesday and its taken up most of the hay/straw barn. We have enough for two years, so that's another worry out of the way!!!!
Chicken in white sauce with rice and brussels for supper cooked by OH! brilliant!!!

Afternoon All

My word it is freezing and the wind biting.No snow here .It did look like it might for a while but nothing came.
I have been in and out like a Yoyo today.We went to see the sofas this morning and Chris agreed that they were comfy so we will definitely go go them.Then we came home with loads of those heavy material samples.We have chosen what we think will look good.It is difficult to describe so I can send a pic of the sample.
Did a bit of shopping ,came home and then took the sampled back to the shop.Came home and did a bit of cleaning and got Hannahs room ready for her for tomorrow
night.Done my nails and sorted out which handback to take to London plus making sure I have all the train tickets and the tickets for the Crime Museum and St Pauls Cathedral.So I have just sat down.

Meaballs and Spaghetti for us tonight.Simple.Then in the morning it will be a shower and hair wash before getting the 9 55 train to St Pancras where Hannah will meet me at the barriers.She has booked a table at a restaurant for 6pm and then the train home is at 8.30.I will be ready for my bed by the time we get home.Saturday lunchtime we all go for a belated Birthday meal for James.Jess will arrive tomorrow afternoon ,so Chris will have to pick her up from the station.

Gill that sounds a massive job for you and OH ..I have a horrible feeling that it costs an awful lot to have the asbestos roof taken down and disposed of.A friend of mine was quoted several thousand pounds to have hers done :-S :-S

Well I had better crack on.Hopefully I will be back later tonight ,but if not I may not be back until Saturday sometime.

So our Frank will be flying home on Saturday.I hope he has got some warm clothes with him as he is going to need them to travel back home in.He's going to get a real shock after the lovely weather he must be having now.

Gill, you may find that you can claim from your house insurance to have the asbestos removed. Certainly worth checking your policy.

Good luck tomorrow for Colin. I do hope they can find the problem.

I confess to being out of date with prices and who is paying what tax (or not) but if they quoted me thousands I'd did a big hole and bury it.
Plant a wee garden on top of it.

Oh yes Mandy,I do hope they find out the cause for all of OH's pain.That was a really swift appointment.Lucky man :-D

So Merlin is sorted then Liz :-D Plenty of Hay and free feet.I wonder if it feels like us when we take off our shoes after having them on all day lol
Glad your review went well today.Do you have very high BP,or is is just on the high side?.Mine was 140/90 when it was checked before Christmas.That was high for me.Well not really high but I am normally 110/120 over 70/80.Probably a bit of White Coat Syndrome LOL

Thomas has just gone out.Hopefully not for too long.His little tootsies were so cold when he came in a couple of hours ago
:-S

Thanks Mel and Jane ,hubby won't know much until they have looked at the xrays at the place in Wymondham where he went last monday ,the xray was quick coming through but it's not being done at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital it's at The Global Clinic so they must process appointments quicker .

Enjoy your day with Hannah tomorrow Jane , i like to see the sample for the new suite ,is it material your having this time ? your last one was leather wasn't it ?