Utility Issues Part 3

The third post in the utilities series, on restrictions on installations by the property. 

First an update on the Npower issue...I got a letter before we went on holiday (to the wrong address) asking us to contact them for more information. I emailed them as it was too late to ring by the time I opened the letter and we were going on holiday the next day. So I sent an email to say I was going away, I had told them I was going away over the phone the week before, something along the lines of please god do not ring me while I am on holiday just correct the address and send me a goddamn bill. I got a letter when we got home (again to the wrong address) saying they had tried to ring me (while I was on holiday) and needed me to ring them, well I tried last week, twice, waited on hold for nearly an hour in total, then gave up. Then the other day I get another letter (addressed to me at the right address - progress!) in response to my email 3 weeks ago, saying sorry, my complaint has been recognised and they will contact me by email from now on. no bill. nothing since then via post or email. It's just getting beyond a joke now, I give up. 

If we ever get this bill do you think they'll wait 10 months for payment? 

Anyway....

Sometimes there are restrictions on what you can have but it is a reasonable request from the landlord. For example our flat is in a listed building, and because it is in a basement has had a damp proof coating applied to all the walls which shouldn’t be perforated. The landlord therefore said we could get internet or whatever installed as long as there were no holes drilled in the wall, or digging up of gardens, or any changes to the front of the house. This is fair enough I think and we can work around it. However it did cause us an issue with one company.

We moved into our current flat in December, but didn’t get internet until February (we even were without TV for a few days, and had to actually talk to each other). We were with Virgin Media at our last house for TV and internet, and when we told them we were moving they offered to transfer our internet. The rep or whatever he was, Lyndon, for our area rang us numerous times before we moved asking if we had decided to take our current service with us (actually a bit pushy), I had compared prices and they were pretty comparable and we had a good service from them in the past so I agreed a date for them to come a few days after we had moved in to get the internet set up. He would come by before so we could sign the new contract (not something I’ve ever had to do before, usually we just set it all up over the phone). I had said to him that we rent, and there was not a Virgin line into the house already. I did also say that the landlord had said we could install what we wanted as long as there was no digging up gardens or drilling in walls etc. He said as long as we have a phone line they could do it through that.

Lyndon turned up with the contract a few days after we moved in, and I just happened to ask if he needed to see the lines already installed to see if they were suitable, he responded by showing me where they would run the cable down the front garden (burying it, so digging up the garden) and where they would drill it into the flat. Obviously this internet was not a possibility for us then, I reminded him that we rent and drilling holes in the wall was not allowed, and that I had told him this before. He said how else did I think they would get internet into the flat? As I’m not an engineer I didn’t have an answer for this although I did remind him what he had said about the phone line and he just kind of laughed at this like I was suggesting they bring it in via fairy dust and unicorns. Our BT internet now comes through the phone line so it is perfectly possible by the way Lyndon in case you’re reading. He then asked me to ‘just sign the contract’, which I declined and asked him to cancel the installation, he asked me to just tell them on the day to not do it. How ridiculous is that? I was meant to wait in all day for the engineers to come then tell them to go away, what a waste of my time and theirs! He asked me to sign the contract again, and when I told him I was not signing up for a service I could not have he stropped off up the steps saying ‘fine I’ll cancel it, fine!’.

Well, I didn’t believe that he would cancel everything so rang the helpline a few days later only to find he had actually rescheduled the installation for a month later. I don’t know whether he was planning to contact us again and try to convince us but I asked them to cancel this and not to contact us again. It’s a shame as we had been with them for a few years and it ended on rather a bad note. I was actually at home on my own at the time and did find his behaviour completely inappropriate and even quite threatening. I’m no stranger to shutting the door in someone’s face or telling them where to get off and I don’t respond well to pushy sales (I’m more likely to just back off if I feel like I’m being pushed into something, even if I want it really!), but if I was a little more easily scared I might have ended up being bullied into signing up to a contract that we didn’t want. Tom was disgusted when I called him afterwards quite shaken up and told him what had happened, and encouraged me to complain – I did call them and inform them of their representative’s behaviour but never heard anything back.

We then had to start the process all over again and had to get our BT phone line reactivated before they could use it for the internet, so it took a while to get that all sorted and installed. In the end it all worked out but a few things I learnt from this were:

• Ask specifically what they will need to do to install, and lay out what your restrictions are. If they aren’t sure they should be able to send someone round to have a look and see if they can work with what you have. If you aren’t sure ask your landlord or agent if what they’re suggesting is ok. 
• Do not sign anything that commits you to a contract before you are sure the installation is going to be possible. If possible get things in writing, I had only spoken to this one person and had no emails or anything to back up what he had said. It was therefore his word against mine on what we had discussed about the installation and he didn’t seem to have listened at all. 
• If you find a sales rep or a member of staff is not clear on the details or are being pushy or acting inappropriately ask to speak to someone else and report their behaviour. 
• Speak to the main helpline where possible to confirm the sales reps identity, this random guy from Virgin just rang me up to change our service over (from a local number) – he could easily have been a con man but I did receive confirmation via our existing virgin media account of his appointment and the installation date so that backed him up, and we never got to the point of sorting out any payment plans. For example, I had someone call me when we first got the cats selling petplan, he did turn out to be legit but I wasn’t going to just hand over by bank details to some bloke who had just ring me up saying he was from pet plan. I took his name (so he would get the sale if he was legit) and the policy number (it was a really good deal) he had set up and rang the main helpline number, they confirmed it all and set up the policy and my payments from there. 
• If someone is coming round to your house then it might be good to have someone else there, or do not let them inside. 
• Do not let anyone you have not invited or are not expecting into your home, and do not give them any of your details, until you have confirmed who they are with their company. If you are expecting someone they should have an ID on them, check it before you let them in. My sister and I had a sales rep knock on our door once saying he was from a well known satellite TV company, it was pretty late and dark. Our door was around the side of the building and pretty secluded, and it was just us 2 home. We said we weren’t allowed to get satellite TV installed so thanks but no thanks, maybe he could just leave us with a card in case they changed their mind (i.e bye, don’t call us we’ll call you). He didn’t have a business card we could take or a phone number he could give us or even a card with his name on. He kept asking to come in as it was so cold/raining so we could ‘discuss their offers’. My alarm bells that he might not be legit were going off already and I was trying to end the conversation and shut the door, but every time I said ‘ok thanks bye then’ and started closing it he started asking us questions like ‘were we friends living together?’ ‘Did anyone else live there?’ I told him my boyfriend was upstairs (he wasn’t), gave up on politely ending the conversation and we just shut the door in his face and locked it.
• Do not hang around talking to people on the doorstep if they've just turned up and you weren't expecting them, especially if they don’t seem quite right or pressure you to let them inside, if you don’t want their product/service/to give to their charity/find Jesus or whatever than just say no thanks and shut the door.

That's the last in the series on utilities and renting. I don't have any more rental specific examples (although I could happily share my experiences about a few more companies on here and see how far I can get without one of them noticing...), but if you have any queries feel free to send me a message!

Not Buying a House?

Tom and I went out on Friday into Cheltenham for a few drinks to a few of our local bars, as we have been a lot recently we were talking weddings :)

One thing we did discuss was that if we're getting married soon (Thinking late next year or early 2015) it will mean not buying a house in the next few years. And we're fine with that.

I thought I'd be a bit more sad about this as although I wanted to get married one day I thought we would buy a house first. However, it doesn't really matter what order we do it in, we're still making progress getting married, and then will look at getting our own house after this.

I think the difference is that we're happy where we are. In our last places they were always temporary, somewhere we could leave without really having any second thoughts. Looking back now we weren't happy at all in some of them, and the others we never really loved. I love our little flat and the location, we are quite happy to carry on living the high life in Cheltenham for now because when we buy we will probably have to move back out to the suburbs (unless we win the lottery or get 2 to 3 big promotions between now and then) as we can't afford much more than a one bed flat in the town centre.

So tenant chic won't be turning into 'homeowner chic' for a while! The impact of planning/paying for a wedding might have some effect on the home projects I do, like we might not make many large purchases (although we don't often spend a lot anyway so there might be little change) and I might not have as much time for larger projects when the date for the wedding gets closer. Although there will likely be a lot of DIY wedding plans (thinking centrepieces, invites, decorations) so I will share those as we go, although I will try not to go on too much about weddings here as it's not the main focus of the blog.

We have plans though for when we buy, involving lots of built in storage, a climbing wall in the attic (for Tom) and a dog (for me). Got to get the priorities right...

Progress

We've been living in our flat 6 months now, so I thought it's a good time to look back and see what progress we've made (and what we still have left to do...which is plenty!)

Let's start with the kitchen, probably the room that's least changed

We've decluttered and added in some storage jars and storage solutions, also we've added in some finishing touches like the 'keep calm' sign. Still left to do in here are new mugs (thinking those DIY sharpie decorated ones that are all over Pinterest), new bread bin and mug tree, new canisters for tea coffee and sugar (thinking silver metallic) new recycling bin, maybe a rug or at least a doormat, new fruit bowl and possibly a window treatment. Also we still need to declutter some problem area like the top of the microwave.

You can see larger photos and more detail on the changes in the kitchen here, here and here.

Onto the living room

We got the new bookshelves and I changed the basket under the table for a larger one with a lid (It came with the ottomans from the bedroom), we also added in my DIY runner. Other than that the changes have been minor rearrangements of frames and CDs etc, I want to eventually get an ottoman or trunk to use as a coffee table, change the TV unit, add some art/photo frames on the fireplace (where we have been told we can put picture hooks, yay!), add more pillows to the sofa, maybe make a faux roman blind for the window (to go over the existing boring one) and generally add in a bit of colour as the room is a bit bland! Possibly thinking yellow to go with the Fender...

You can see more on the living room here and more on the DIY runner here.

The into the Office

We have some art on the tank and a mat under the cat litter tray, but the desk is now even more of a mess as we have 2 PC screens at the moment (anyone want to buy one?!). We are looking at the whole computer situation, as I have my new netbook (which came with one of those screens) so very rarely use the desktop, Tom uses it sometimes but if we had a laptop that did iTunes and Tom could play games on we could get rid the desktop, freeing up some space. This all costs money though so will be something we sort out gradually. We also want to get a new desk and new desk chair, and possibly a rug under the desk. The turtle tank will also need replacing at some point (see this post on the leak we had the other week!) but that's also something quite expensive that we will need to save up for.

You can see more on the office here and here

Then into the bathroom

This room, like the kitchen, hasn't really changed a great deal it has mostly just been decluttered and I'm trying to not buy more than one bottle of something at a time (you know when your shampoo is on offer so you buy 5 bottles...yeah I'm trying not to do that). I want to get some more art or something in here as it's a bit bland, I'm thinking on the back of the toilet as I like the lilies there in this post. Also I think we need a new bath mat as our has goe a bit off white, new towels probably soonish as well as I bought really cheap ones and they're starting to go a bit off colour (they also looked great in our last bathroom but I'd prefer black or white ones here).

You can read more on the bathroom here and here

The bedroom, it was gross before!

We've gotten rid of the 2 armchairs that were in there, reorganised my shoes, moved the trunk in from the hallway, got new wardrobes, got ottomans for storage on top of the wardrobes, rationalised the stuff under the bed and moved a lot of it out to the wardrobe in the hallway, brought the canvas in from the office, got new paperwork storage and generally tidied up! To be honest it still has a long way to go, I want to get a new bed, get bedside tables, rearrange the furniture so the chest of drawers isn't in front of the window (makes it hard to open the window), add some art or photos to the chimney breast (again this is where we've been told we can put picture hooks) get new bedding and a mirror, get some bedside lamps and bring a bit of a cohesive colour scheme in (so far we have about 10 different wood tones and 5 different textiles in here and it looks a bit crazy). It all seems to hinge on the new bed I so once we have that we can do the rest.

You can see more on the bedroom here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Then onto the entrance hall way, probably the most transformed room so far!

I reorganised in here a few times before getting our lovely big wardrobe to put all our junk in, it's a room that isn't really used by us except to walk through when we come in and out of the flat and for storage, so really I want to give this space a use other than drying clothes. As we don't spend any time in here more often than not it's full of clothes airers with washing drying on them, so you come in the door and it looks like this

Not exactly a warm welcome. So our aim in here is to maximise space so we could actually spend time in here, I'm thinking a reading nook as all the bookshelves are in here.

You can see more on the entrance hall and how we got to this point here, here and here

Onto the outside space, really we have just planted some things and are waiting to see how they do but it looks better already in the back garden

We're just waiting for seeds to grow and plants to fill in, then we might get a few more pots and some pretty garden things but we will build it up over time. There's not been any change in the front of the flat, not a lot we can change really!

You can see more on the garden here, and here.

There's the last 6 months of projects and changes, it's nice to look back and what you've achieved sometimes and see how much progress you've made even though there is plenty left to do!

Could we buy our flat?

Tom and I have rented for a long time, and like a lot of people would like to buy somewhere eventually. People ask us in every place we live if there's scope to buy it, I don't think this would be possible where we are as the landlords live in the house above and own the whole building, splitting the flat and the house could be a bit awkward and I think they like using it for the rental income. However, since we moved to Cheltenham I started to wonder if we could afford to buy in such a seemingly expensive area so I had a little browse on a few websites to see what we could afford, and I was actually pleasantly surprised!

We could afford to buy a flat similar to ours, there are even 1 bedroom flats (albeit with no garden) in areas we would want to live advertised for under our budget. We have a rough idea of how much we could afford to borrow but obviously that is only a rough guide as it all just depends on the market when we actually come to buy.

If we didn't mind somewhere that needed a bit of TLC we could even get somewhere larger (Or in nicer areas like Montpellier and Pittville) for quite cheap and do it up and end up with a nice place, and you know I would love a project!

So there we go, we could be living in a flat we own sooner than we hoped, obviously not any time that soon as we have a contract here and we still need that pesky deposit and there is always something that drains the funds but it's good to know that there are places within our price range around.

Runner - Phase 1

We need to get a runner for behind the sofa in the living room, as the carpet there is getting so much wear that it's starting to look a bit grubby and worn, and being tenants we don't want to lose money off our deposit. I have been looking out for one for a while but we want a 4m runner and for a nice one it's quite expensive, even second hand. I also struggled to find what I was looking for in this size, most runners seem to go up to 2 or 3 metres but longer ones you have less choice.

What I wanted was a rug to go with the rest of the colours in the living room, which are grey, black and white. I settled on grey as I though a white rug would get dirty quite easily and black is a bit dark for the room. A pattern was fine just not too busy as it's in a very narrow space and might look a bit much. It also had to be a low pile or a cloth type rug, as the cats would pee all over a deep pile (They pee on the bath mat if they can get to it and a deep pile door mat we once had) as I think they confuse it with dirt!

After seeing the tutorial from this Friday Inspiration post, I decided to have a go at making my own as I'd be able to decide the material and size, and it might be a bit cheaper.

So I ordered a load of fabric samples in my colour palette, this is them laid out in order of preference, from top left to bottom right.

The three on the top row were definite favourites, the two on the right are actually from one fabric I just wanted different areas as the pattern was quite big. I was quite keen on this one as I liked that it was grey but with the cheerful bit of green, but when Tom looked at them he said he doesn't like green in décor, it reminds him of his family's old 80's living room carpet apparently. So that one was out and the top left was favourite, the rest were discounted because they were too light, too busy or we just didn't like them as much in person as we did online. I do want to get some colour into the living room eventually but we don't know what this will be yet and I didn't want the rug to be a main feature in this room, as it's just going behind the sofa to save the carpet and I'll add in colour with artwork and maybe some cushions and a window treatment.

The fabric is called Autumn Leaves in Sable and it's from www.terrysfabrics.co.uk. I've got 4m of it on the way to me, and we're just figuring out something to attach it to as the rubber matting is actually proving difficult to find in the length we want! I have feelers out in a few places and also ideas for alternatives, and will do a how to post one I get all my materials.

In the meantime this will be the pattern for the new rug, and I'm looking forward to the fabric arriving to see it to scale!

Outside

I haven't shared pictures of the outside areas of our flat yet, mostly due to it being either dark, snowing or raining every time I remember this fact! Now it's getting lighter in the evenings and when I came home from work one day it was even sunny so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures, this is the front of our flat from the gate.

This is taken from the corner to the left of the window (The bedroom window), our front door is on the left under the light. The brown door is to an under stairs space that houses the meters for us and the house above. It's quite a large space that nobody seems to use (We've not been told it's ours to use but the landlord doesn't seem to keep anything in there either) so I might ask if it would be possible for us to keep our bikes in there as long as they don't block access to read the meters, as they're taking up loads of room in the back garden. 

From the top of the steps

The flowers in the planter are just starting to come up, I want to get some more plants by our front door, and maybe even a window box under the bedroom window, as the front does look a bit bare and sad sometimes so I'd like to brighten it up a bit.

This is our back garden which now it's starting to get a bit more spring like I'm looking forward to using, it opens out from the kitchen

Under the tarpaulins are our bikes in front and the barbecue at the back, see what I mean about them taking up a lot of space?

The steps lead up to the garden for the house, the boundary between the two gardens is the steps (pretty much where Jazzie is sat in the photo below) and the hedge also forms quite a natural screen/boundary. The stairs on the right lead up to the back door to the house above, our kitchen window is the other side of the frame for the stairs and looks out pretty much straight onto their patio so in summer that might be a bit awkward! In this picture Jazzie is staring down a cat that wandered into our garden while I was taking these photos, but we actually don't seem to get too many other cats around apart from this one (I think he lives next door) and so far she hasn't gotten into any fights, she looks pretty but she's a bruiser really so other cats don't tend to come back after one showdown!

We're quite enclosed by walls but we seem to be almost south facing so we get the sun most of the day

All of the plants in these pictures apart from the ivy under the table were left by the landlords, including meercats

The table and chairs also came with the flat

I'd love to not have so much stored out here but hopefully in the summer we can take the tapaulins off and it will look a bit better! All the things in carrier bags are our old terracotta pots which I had at our second house as the garden then was gravel.

It's not a massive space but I can see us eating out here in the summer and as we seem to get a reasonable amount of sun it should be a nice place to sit out and read a book. Neither of us are exactly avid gardeners so low maintenace is better for us, but once we get some flowers and shrubs in the pots and get those tarpaulins out of the way I think it will look good.

Any suggestions of what to plant and when are welcome, so far the only plants we have that weren't left by the landlord are the terracotta pot near the door which has mint and basil in it and the ivy under the table, both of which seem to be indestructible!

Bedroom Progress

After the new wardrobes arrived the bedroom looks so much better already

 We will get another ottoman for Toms wardrobe at some point I think

Although there is still a bit too much clutter on this side for my liking Under the bed looks better, we swapped the bedding out of the ottoman that's on top of my wardrobe for things like Christmas decorations, empty boxes and other stuff we aren't going to need very often. Because I can't reach into the ottomans it has to be things in there I can wait for Tom to get!

I also moved this canvas off the top of the tank in the hallway onto the trunk

This side of the room looks a bit bare and the other side looks a bit cluttered so I think I might move some things away from the window to balance it out a bit more at some point. The thing leant against the radiator is a guitar stand that apparently doesn't work very well so I'm going to see if Tom might want to get rid of it, the pile of frames underneath the radiator I'm hoping to find places for in here, and the thing on the radiator is Minty's cat bed

It's not exactly pretty but she loves it :)

Shoe Storage

Since we got our new wardrobes I had to find a new place for my shoes as my wardrobe won't fit anything hanging over the door, so the shoe rack had to go. My day to day shoes live by the front door, but there's not really enough room in there for all of them. Luckily as we had the new wardrobe in the hallway my lovely old trunk was empty and just waiting to be put to use.

 Ta-Dah!

The bedroom was still a mess when these were taken, as you can see in the top picture we still have 3 wardrobes in here, but it's looking a bit better now as my old wardrobe went to someone on freecycle and we've tidied it up a bit in there. I'll share the pictures soon!

The Dreaded Mould

While we were moving the old wardrobes out of the bedroom we found this

Anyone who knows the stress I had over the last few years about mould can picture my over dramatic wringing of hands and crying 'NOOOO!' at this point. Our last house had a damp mouldy bathroom which was eventually refitted and got an extractor fan after I spent well over a year scrubbing mould from the grout weekly, but the spare room had mould and damp which by the time we moved was spreading to the bedroom, living room and hallway, despite my best efforts to clean if off regularly and use a dehumidifier. So seeing this I could have cried.

I cleaned it off and thankfully it's all come out, the paintwork is not bubbled and the wall is not damp or overly cold which is a good sign that it's just some mould from moisture in the flat or from not enough ventilation and not actual damp. I also let the landlord know as they had a damp proof coating done so if we start getting damp they might need to get that looked into. They provided us with a dehumidifier to use as in winter it's hard to open windows all the time which is very nice of them, but I ran a dehumidifier for 2 years at our last house (Literally it was on 24/7) and I'd rather not start all that again so I'm trying to open the window in the bedroom more often as to be honest we probably weren't ventilating it enough. If I can't open the window a few times a week I'll run the dehumidifier in there though just to make sure. Also we are going to keep the furniture away from the wall slightly to allow air to circulate.

Have any of you ever had problems with mould or damp? What do you do to keep it under control?

New Wardrobes!

In previous posts you may have noticed that one wardrobe really did not survive the move very well

To be honest it wasn't in great condition before we moved and there had been numerous attempts to fix it up, reattach the doors or brace it somehow, but now it really was going to fall over any day, and while we had been talking about getting new bedroom furniture for a while we didn't have the money to get new wardrobes right away. We wanted to get two the same or similar to go either side of the bed. For the size wardrobe we were looking for it was going to be about £300 each minimum, and we didn't have £600 knocking about just after moving house and Christmas. 

This is why I love the internet. I put out a wanted ad on Freecycle, did anyone have a wardrobe going spare that we could have until we saved up to replace this one? I got an email from someone saying that while they weren't free he was doing a house clearance and had some going very cheap and if I would be ok to pay a small sum we could collect them this week. I emailed back that we were definitely interested and could he send me more details. He had 3 wardrobes going for £10 each.

He sent me pictures and they were lovely 1920'-1930's wardrobes solid wood, good condition, for £10 each! We got a van from Tom's work and enlisted his Dad's help and went to pick them up the following weekend. When we got there he had a house full of stuff to go due to a family bereavement. Tom's Dad bought a lovely writing desk/bureau from him for £15. We bought all 3 wardrobes, as we also had been talking about getting one for our hallway to tidy it up in there a bit. 

So here they are...

My one:

Tom put the hamper on top because we have high ceilings so the top of the wardrobe is prime storage space, but it looks so much better than having boxes and bags of stuff up there. In these pictures the bedding is in there but it didn't stay for long, as in the first picture the duvet it all poking out of the top because even standing on a chair I can't reach to put it in properly!

Tom's one (The wall is crooked not the wardrobe, this is an old house!):

They were a little dented as they're quite old and also got a little scuffed in transport, but I think most of it will buff out and because they're solid wood I could always try re varnishing them if not.

We also swapped our wardrobes around, as Toms wardrobe before was larger then mine so it had to go in the larger alcove opposite the door, but it was then on my side of the bed.

And we love the one in the hallway

I'll share full room shots of them once we have reorganised as we currently have 3 wardrobes in the bedroom, one dismantled in the garden and the office looks like this because the chair has been evicted from the bedroom.

There are also coat hangers everywhere, we have gained a wardrobe but the hangers seems to have multiplied as well and there are hundreds of them! 

It also prompted a bit of a change around in the bedroom again, as the new wardrobes actually have less hanging space than our last ones but actually we both have too many clothes so we had a bit of a sort out and there are piles of clothes to go to the charity shop all over the place, and I can't hang the shoe rack on the front of mine any more. Also with the large one in the hallway we finally have more storage space for larger items!

Friday Inspiration

A collection of inspiring things I've seen this week, more on my pinterest

I've been thinking about DIYing something like this for ages, and I'd love to make some freestanding large art that doesn't need to be hung on the wall

I wanted to do this at the start of this year and forgot! It's a lovely idea though

I'm debating hanging something above our bed, suspended between the 2 wardrobes, after seeing this

I've started thinking about our outside spaces recently, and window boxes and planters

I'd love a chair like this for the office

Contemporary Dining Room design by Montreal Interior Designer Lux Decor

Have great weekends everyone, I'm going out for a meal tonight with work and also tomorrow night with Toms family :)