General Chat

Hi, Marie, your home sounds lovely just what I would like... wish we had thought a few things through , but you never think you will not be able to manage do you ....please send Sebastion all our best wishes for his exams, I am sure he will do very well... look forward to hearing the results...
We are still trying colours, but coffee and cream is favourite at the moment, I will send you a photo when it is finished...how are you eyes now, I have just been to the Glaucoma clinic and all o.k. for the next six months....take care .

love Jean xx

Hello All, I have read the last 3 pages, I am not going to comment on prefabricated Homes. My cottage is all one level with 2 Bedrooms My bedroom has a walk in robe and I have an alcove for my computer and Desk, I also have a bookcase with a filing cabnet attached to the bookcase I have a very nice bathroom with a shower that stands straight onto the tiled floor so later on if necessary a wheeled shower chair could be just rolled in and out. There are no steps except on a small verandah off the lounge room that takes you to the outside but it is rarley used.The kitchen dining room and lounge are one large room .The laundry is off the kitchen and on 3 sides of the house it is all paved and very even. I also have a glassed in patio off my bedroom which gets the morning Sun.
I am very lucky, we planned it this way so that i should be able to take care of myself for many years, God Willing.
Sebastian starts his HSC to-morrow with his first English exam he is doing the highest english so will have several exams on this subject.
I was pleased to see you are all well . Jean I think cream & coffee for your kitchen sounds nice.
Love to you all , Marie .

Huia, I do so sympathise with you and your itchy eyes. At my Son's they have two lovely cats, but since we have been without a cat I seem to be allergic to them and soon start with sneezing like mad and really itchy eyes.

Your house in an unpainted state would look much like our prefabs then, the same colour anyway.

Sallie, the fair sounds fun, I would love it, love anything like that.
Jean you have the photos, glad you liked them.

Mo hope the darts went well!

Huia, pleased to know that your eyes are getting better, hope that they will be right by the time you go Rotorua. Enjoy your day in town and choir practice later on. Speak to you before you go away.

Love, Sallie.xx

Actually, the reason my relative called this house a prefab is probably because it is clad in fibrolite - a type of asbestos made material, but I dont think it has the dangerous blue asbestos fibres in it. I certainly hope it doesnt. We have the flat fibrolite on the basement but a fancy type on the main part of the house. We have painted it a dark green although the basic colour was pale grey, almost white.

Off for my day in town later on today, with choir practice tonight. I must remember to take my eyedrops and eye ointment with me. My eyes are still a bit bloodshot a week after I started using the ointment, but at least they are not burning, just a little itchy in the corner when they are due for the next treatment. I hope it clears up before the long weekend. Next weekend is Labour Weekend and I am going down to Rotorua on the Friday for a Choral festival and will be returning on the Tuesday so dont worry if I am missing for 5 days. But I am still here for 3 more days.

Huia.

Hello Girls

Ann, we use to have the same trouble when we got back from visiting the family in Wales, the house use to take ages to get warm, especially after we had a new gas boiler. For some reason this one isn't as good as the old one we had, the old boiler was far more efficient. You sound as though you had a good weekend with your grandchildren. I read Daff's thread, your granddaughter looks as though she is taking after you, making cards and scrapping. Clever little girl!

Mo, I thought that you were very knowledgeable when you told us about where the word bungalow had come from. I knew that the word had come from India, but that was all. Hope you'll win at darts tonight, good luck, I'll be thinking about you.

Huia, it must have been very hard for you to see Phil as he was when you went to the hospital. Just try and look forward to things that you love and enjoy doing yourself, you now know that Phil is safe and well looked after.
At least you have peace of mind. No I wouldn't call your house a prefab Huia, as Ann said the prefabs put up were very quickly after the war, I think it was a cheap way to re-house and house people that needed houses.

Jean, how are you today? I expect you are busy getting organised for your holiday, and getting your kitchen done. Have you all agreed on what colour
paint you're going to have?


I popped up town today, had a few things to sort out, so had to go, because from tomorrow until Sunday all the roads will be closed to traffic through the centre of town. From Thursday to Saturday night, it's the Ilkeston Charter Fair, which has taken place for over seven hundred years. Obviously very different to what the Fair is like in this day and age.
I haven't been to it for a few years now, too many people. Jennie and Michael always go the three nights, so Michael is bringing me some hot chestnuts, so that I can taste them. Ever since Debbie and Mo mentioned them on this thread, I've wanted to try some.

Still, haven't heard anything from Liz, Grace and Sue, hope they are all okay.Thinking of Debbie, Marie and Marilyn.

Take care everyone, speak to you soon.

Best wishes,

Love, Sallie.xxx

Hi, Ann, nice to have you back , any photos for me, petal...


Love Jean xx.

Welcome home Ann,get that heating on and warm the place up. Put the kettle on and have a nice hot drink,you will soon feel like you have never been gone. Mo

Prefabs (I think) were mainly of a white material, actually it looked like asbestos but as some are still standing (although not many) I guess it couldn't have been. They were flat rooved and mostly single story, although I have see some two storey houses that looked like prefabs (pre-fabricated houses). They were nothing like your house sounds Huia and practically went up overnight. I had a friend who lived in one in the early 60s and in the late 60s/early 70s we had an estate of them over the back of our house in Essex. They were council housing and, as somebody has said, put up as a temporary measure to replace houses either bombed or not built because of the war. They were neat and cosy and not unlike the mobile home bungalows we have on sites these days here in UK.

Incidentally I am home again now. The house was freezing when we got home and is taking ages to warm up.

Thank you Jean and Sallie,for confirming my thoughts about the Prefabs.
Saucy Jean,I did know the origins of the word Bungalow,But I did check it out in my Dictionary,before I wrote it down. I didn't want our Jean taking the mickey out of me,she's such a meany to me sometimes.lol.
I am on early today,as I have got darts again tonight,and I like to have my say,ha ha .
Huia,is your house made from wood,or prefabricated material. Either way
it was a home made out of your love for it,and a lot of hard work.
Huia you have so many good memories,of your life with Phil,surround yourself with photo's of all the good times. The man you visit,is a shell that
Phil used to inhabit,and it must be so heartbreaking for you.
If he is managing without his teeth,I would tend to leave him as he is.
Having new teeth made,could cause so many problems with him not realising what is happening to him.
Take heart my love,be strong,for yourself and your children.
Well my friends,I will say cheerio for now. Take care one and all.Love Moxx

Sorry I did not reply earlier. I was so tired I lay down and slept for 2 hours, despite it being morning (woke too early this morning).

Yes, MO, I knew the word bungalow came from some part of the Indian continent, so you and I are both ejicatid.

I wouldnt call our house a prefab as it took us 12 years to build, although I suppose in some ways it was prefabricated as we would cut the studs and top and bottom plates to length for the walls and put them together while lying flat on the ground, then we would raise the wall into position and brace it there until other walls were in place. When I say 'we', Phil and I did all the work ourselves. That is why it took so long, time and money dictated the speed at which we worked as we did not want a mortgage. We moved into the house 36 years ago.

The early English settlers in Wellington built brick houses but there was a big earthquake which flattened them and it was only the wooden buildings which survived, hence our 'passion' for wooden houses.

I wasnt going to visit Phil while I still have a bit of a virus but I took a bundle of clothes and finished up in his 'ward'. He was in the dining room, fast asleep, no teeth (hasnt worn them for a couple of months as they were hurting him - I wonder if it is worth getting him new ones), mouth wide open. In fact he looked ghastly. I would rather not see him like that. When he dies I will have to surround myself with lots of photos of him when he was his old self so I can try to forget how he finished up.

Huia.

We have prefabs still in use in our area, there are quite a few for over Fifties,
they are also used to house officers and family who work at a prison,...they must have been built over 40 years ago. so they have stood the test of time....now Professor Mo, were did you gather all that borin.....em.... interesting knowledge from?

I am off before she gets me....love Jean xx

Yes Mo, you are right about Prefabs. I know there were a lot of them built in S. Wales after the war. The council even had some built in the town that I was born and brought up in. Some friends of my mother's moved into one, I was only about five or six at the time, and I wanted to know if we could live in one too. I think they were only to house people for a certain number of years, but they lasted a lot longer.
A lot of people loved living in them and didn't want to live anywhere else.
They had made them very comfortable and some were like little 'palaces'.
Anyway, I'll say goodnight to you all.

Love, Sallie.xxx

Hello again everyone.
I think I am right in saying this,and maybe Jean will be able to confirm it.
From what I was told Huia,when I was a child,that after the war years,they built Prefabs,as they were cheaper and quicker to build,to rehouse all the people that had been bombed out during the war years.
We still have a few of them left in this area,not many mind you,as the council have knocked them down,as the residents passed away. They would not evict them before,as they had lived there all their lives.
Also around here,we had many houses that were built out of breeze blocks. But then they were deemed to be to outdated,and knocked down
and a new housing estate was built.
I am going to be clever now,but did you know that the word Bungalow actually originated from Hindi,basically the word is Bungla in the style of
a Bengal House,which traditionally is a single storey house with a veranda
There you go,arn't I the clever one then.
Here endeth the first lesson taught by Mo. lol
Night Night all. Love to you all. Mo xxx

Sorry, the message got posted twice for some reason, so I deleted one of them. Huia, how are you today? I hope you are feeling better than you have been. Have you been to see Phil since he's moved hospitals?
I'm going for that shower now, so I'll speak to you later.

Love, Sallie.xxx

Hi again everyone,

Well I made the Welsh cakes, I'm pleased to say they turned out okay, seeing that I haven't made them for so long.

Mo,Glad you enjoyed your meal out last night. We have a Nandos in both Derby and Nottingham, although I've never been to either of them..It was just Alun and I for dinner today, so it was very quiet here.
Jennie and Michael have been decorating two bedrooms and the landing, stairs and hall over the last few days. Although, Michael has done the landing, stairs and hall himself. Michael's Dad is alright, thank
you Mo, he has to do a few ten minute walks each day, and I think it will increase to fifteen minute walks a day next week. He also has to see the doctor tomorrow and have some blood tests done this week. So we are all hoping that everything will be okay.

Ann, we go to the Har*****r that is near Richard when we go to visit him. We have always had a good meal there, the food is well cooked and plenty of it. I sometimes wish that we had bought a bungalow instead of making this house bigger, but I like living where I am, so at the time we thought that was the best option. Never mind, we might win the lottery--huh, chance would be a fine thing. How is your hubby's foot? Hope it is improving and not giving him too much pain.

Jean, when we were first married we lived in a house that Alun's parents use to live in, until they had to move to the house that was attached to the shop that Alun's grandmother owned. We paid his parent's rent of 10/-d. a week. It was quite a nice three bedroom terraced house, with a long front garden. The people that bought the house, still live there after thirty seven years. Although the house was on the High Street, it was known locally as Sun Row. As you say Jean, I think there will be a few of us crawling up the stairs, as we get older. Hope eveything is alright with your daughter and J.

Well everyone, I'm off for a shower before having a cup of tea and a Welsh cake. Speak to you all tomorrow. Take care!

Love to you all, Sallie.xxx

Huia, a bungalow is a one story home, you have all rooms on one level, very handy if you are perhaps older or infirmed....some of the town councils have them for over 50 years of age, both our parents lived in council bungalows near the end of their lives...... I read on the carers thread you managed to get to see Phil how was he?and how are you...you seem to be getting things sorted now...hope it all goes well for you...

love Jean xx

Can somebody please explain to me, what is the definition of a bungalow, and how does it differ from a house?

My English relative who visited last Feb. wrote in her diary that we live in a prefab. I wouldnt call it that, but my son tells me that all the English seem to think anything that isnt made of brick is a prefab. But brick houses are more liable to fall down in an earthquake, timber frame houses are much safer, and iron/aluminium roof rather than tiles.

Huia.

We would love a bungalow our home is a large terrace with quite steep stairs and narrow, its not condusive to someone with M.S. and old age, we cant have stair lift too narrow, we cant afford the size of bungalow we need as D works from home a couple of days a week, she has a home office here,we also have private parking for up to 4 cars which is good. still at least we are close to all the stores and soon in the countryside....so looks like I will be crawling up the stairs on my knees soon....lol... or maybe never come down have all meals brought up to me, yessssss.......our first home was a one up/ one down back to back cottage. it was lovely, 7/6 rent old money. keep thinking I will have a go at the lottery, dont know what to do though.....off to have my siesta....back soon....

love Jean xx

I grew up in a bungalow, and our first married home was a bungalow. I would love to get back into one, so convenient. But they are so much more expensive than houses for the comparable number of rooms that I doubt we will ever manage it. Unless we win the lottery!!!
Mo apparently they played very well yesterday and OH doesn't know why they lost.