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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Management have decided to close the pub on Mondays and Tuesday’s due to the cost-of-living crises.
We stayed in Boxford, Suffolk in August and their one remaining hostelry was closed Mondays and Tuesdays. It opened between 12.00 on Wednesdays and closed Sunday night.
The town was then devoid of any watering holes for two whole days, so it appears to be quite a common occurrence with some of these small country pubs.
 
And not changing clothes or bathing very often as well I suppose.
Keith Richards mentions how even in the 60s people always seemed to be ill and coughing and sneezing all the time due to inadequate heating. I sometimes wonder how I survived with no radiators and single pane windows- it's bad enough now with double glazing.
I was the same. In the winter you could often see your breath in my parents' house. They didn't believe in central heating "because it dried out the air". Gave up trying to convince them that that was the point.
 
I was the same. In the winter you could often see your breath in my parents' house. They didn't believe in central heating "because it dried out the air". Gave up trying to convince them that that was the point.
I moved out of a house like that only three years ago. No heating, except for one open fire in the living room (there was oil fired central heating, but a five bedroomed isolated house burned through a tank of oil with no noticeable rise in the internal temperature and I couldn't afford the oil anyway), and single glazing. The curtains used to freeze to the inside of the windows in winter. Now I've moved into a tiny cottage with electric heating - which I also now won't be able to afford. But two foot thick walls and double glazing, plus a logburner will help.
 
I moved out of a house like that only three years ago. No heating, except for one open fire in the living room (there was oil fired central heating, but a five bedroomed isolated house burned through a tank of oil with no noticeable rise in the internal temperature and I couldn't afford the oil anyway), and single glazing. The curtains used to freeze to the inside of the windows in winter. Now I've moved into a tiny cottage with electric heating - which I also now won't be able to afford. But two foot thick walls and double glazing, plus a logburner will help.
Yes, the thickness of the walls is the key. The house I live in now (1901) has two skins of 4''/100mm brick without a cavity. No cavity is ok when the walls are two feet thick, but being only 8'' and solid means damp and cold. Being very old brick doesn't help either.
 
Yes, the thickness of the walls is the key. The house I live in now (1901) has two skins of 4''/100mm brick without a cavity. No cavity is ok when the walls are two feet thick, but being only 8'' and solid means damp and cold. Being very old brick doesn't help either.
The first house I ever bought was a cold house. A Victorian terrace with high ceilings and an old and inefficient boiler, and even if the boiler hadn’t had been old it would have been pretty useless as the radiators and pipes were clogged up with God knows how many years of sludge.

The fireplaces in every room had all been boarded up, with the original mantelpieces missing – probably removed and dumped at some stage in the 1960’s or 70’s – they are worth a fortune these days.

I got through those winters by investing in electric blankets. Does anyone here know if leccy blankets are expensive to run..?
 
The first house I ever bought was a cold house. A Victorian terrace with high ceilings and an old and inefficient boiler, and even if the boiler hadn’t had been old it would have been pretty useless as the radiators and pipes were clogged up with God knows how many years of sludge.

The fireplaces in every room had all been boarded up, with the original mantelpieces missing – probably removed and dumped at some stage in the 1960’s or 70’s – they are worth a fortune these days.

I got through those winters by investing in electric blankets. Does anyone here know if leccy blankets are expensive to run..?
Electric blankets used to be hugely expensive to run, I don't know about now.

Edit: Apparently efficiency is better these days, it costs about 3p/hour to run an electric blanket as of October 2022 according to this website.
 
The first house I ever bought was a cold house. A Victorian terrace with high ceilings and an old and inefficient boiler, and even if the boiler hadn’t had been old it would have been pretty useless as the radiators and pipes were clogged up with God knows how many years of sludge.

The fireplaces in every room had all been boarded up, with the original mantelpieces missing – probably removed and dumped at some stage in the 1960’s or 70’s – they are worth a fortune these days.

I got through those winters by investing in electric blankets. Does anyone here know if leccy blankets are expensive to run..?
Yes, my other house had a lovely art deco era fireplace, but as you say from the 60s (until quite recently really) people went beserk and usually chucked them out along with the far better looking (and quality) doors etc.

I find a good old hot water bottle is the best option. Haven't seen an electric blanket for years.

My Grandparents had a small cottage with the bottom half of the wooden joists showing in the living room and painted black. They looked great. But apparently in the 1960s there was some diy guy (I think the first one?) on tv and my Grandad got the insane idea from this guy of boarding over them with hardboard. Luckily I never saw this monstrosity, but was told about it by my Mother.
I think some people did the same with the lovely old doors as well.
 
Electric blankets used to be hugely expensive to run, I don't know about now.

Edit: Apparently efficiency is better these days, it costs about 3p/hour to run an electric blanket as of October 2022 according to this website.
Just googled it. A single electric blanket costs for one hour’s usage (using an average of October 2022 UK prices) 5p an hour. So a double blanket 10p then.

That’s not too bad if it means keeping the central heating turned off, or on very very low. I can sit there in the evenings reading or watching the TV with it laid over my lap
 
Just googled it. A single electric blanket costs for one hour’s usage (using an average of October 2022 UK prices) 5p an hour. So a double blanket 10p then.

That’s not too bad if it means keeping the central heating turned off, or on very very low. I can sit there in the evenings reading or watching the TV with it laid over my lap
Or get a dog. They can be quite useful for this. Minus the drool of course.
 
Yes, my other house had a lovely art deco era fireplace, but as you say from the 60s (until quite recently really) people went beserk and usually chucked them out along with the far better looking (and quality) doors etc.

I find a good old hot water bottle is the best option. Haven't seen an electric blanket for years.

My Grandparents had a small cottage with the bottom half of the wooden joists showing in the living room and painted black. They looked great. But apparently in the 1960s there was some diy guy (I think the first one?) on tv and my Grandad got the insane idea from this guy of boarding over them with hardboard. Luckily I never saw this monstrosity, but was told about it by my Mother.
I think some people did the same with the lovely old doors as well.
My cottage has joists and beams in the living room. The other cottages in the row have either boarded them in or painted the whole thing white (understandable, as the rooms are small and dark otherwise). But the cottages are 200 years old! There's no point in trying to make them look like a new build (and why would you want to?). My house has 'character'. Unfortunately, the character it has is Dennis the Menace, but you can't have everything.
 
My cottage has joists and beams in the living room. The other cottages in the row have either boarded them in or painted the whole thing white (understandable, as the rooms are small and dark otherwise). But the cottages are 200 years old! There's no point in trying to make them look like a new build (and why would you want to?). My house has 'character'. Unfortunately, the character it has is Dennis the Menace, but you can't have everything.
Exactly.
Yes ours is dark too, but I prefer it that way as you can't see all the dust and cobwebs as easily.
 
I hope all of you have carbon monoxide detectors in your homes. Though draughty rooms can help with this risk.

In Canada, we have laws that we have to have fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors in our homes regardless of type of home. It has saved many lives especially as we go through the winter season.

Ooh and I love flannel sheets and wool blankets.
 
I moved out of a house like that only three years ago. No heating, except for one open fire in the living room (there was oil fired central heating, but a five bedroomed isolated house burned through a tank of oil with no noticeable rise in the internal temperature and I couldn't afford the oil anyway), and single glazing. The curtains used to freeze to the inside of the windows in winter. Now I've moved into a tiny cottage with electric heating - which I also now won't be able to afford. But two foot thick walls and double glazing, plus a logburner will help.
If you can afford it, get a proper paraffin heater (not the crappy ones for greenhouses).
Just use it to take the edge off the cold for a couple of hours a day.
Be careful when using it - keep a carbon monoxide detector nearby.
 
My cottage has joists and beams in the living room. The other cottages in the row have either boarded them in or painted the whole thing white (understandable, as the rooms are small and dark otherwise). But the cottages are 200 years old! There's no point in trying to make them look like a new build (and why would you want to?). My house has 'character'. Unfortunately, the character it has is Dennis the Menace, but you can't have everything.
Saw a house on a property listing last year which was an old cottage, room painted white and beams painted...silver. Made me wince!
 
I hope all of you have carbon monoxide detectors in your homes. Though draughty rooms can help with this risk.

In Canada, we have laws that we have to have fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors in our homes regardless of type of home. It has saved many lives especially as we go through the winter season.

Ooh and I love flannel sheets and wool blankets.
It is supposedly the law that rented houses must have CO detectors and fire alarms. I think that houses being sold, unless for renovation, must also have these. I know my cottage does.

However, whether the law is actually applied I don't know. I did thirty years in my last house with not so much as one fire alarm being fitted. But then the place was so damp I could have watched it smoulder for six weeks before I needed to call the fire brigade.
 
It is supposedly the law that rented houses must have CO detectors and fire alarms. I think that houses being sold, unless for renovation, must also have these. I know my cottage does.

However, whether the law is actually applied I don't know. I did thirty years in my last house with not so much as one fire alarm being fitted. But then the place was so damp I could have watched it smoulder for six weeks before I needed to call the fire brigade.
When I bought my house in early 2000s I had to have it rewired as it still had the old 'cloth' covered cables. The electrician wired the smoke alarms into the mains (instead of using battery powered ones). All very well, but when the alarms went off (as they did for some reason) at 2am, because they were wired into the lighting (the reason being to stop people turning them off) I had to go to the shed, find a step ladder and pull the lighting fuse. So now I have turned off the (very loud) alarms, but am in the dark.

If they'd gone off when I was on holiday it would have been very annoying for the neighbours (and vice versa).
I'd stick with battery ones every time.
 
Oh and while I'm here I just thought I'd mention that the noise I can hear of an evening, like all the notes on a mouth-organ being played at the same time, some distance away, is still there. It never went away. Some days I can hear it more clearly than others.


Okay so this has become noticed more widely, with a thread in my local 'nextdoor' website.

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Yeah I already suggested the Air Con units.
It has also occurred to me that the bigger of the green boxes in the street that Virgin Media put their equipment in often have vents with fans blowing through them. I'm guessing they make quite a racket but I've walked past plenty and they don't 'hum', just make a regular 'fan-being-blown' sort of 'whoosh' noise.
 
Yeah I already suggested the Air Con units.
It has also occurred to me that the bigger of the green boxes in the street that Virgin Media put their equipment in often have vents with fans blowing through them. I'm guessing they make quite a racket but I've walked past plenty and they don't 'hum', just make a regular 'fan-being-blown' sort of 'whoosh' noise.
It's an annoying one. I once had a horrible high-pitched squeeking type noise that no one else seemed to hear (until I pointed it out to them). To my mind it was like a rusty clothes rotary-line going around. I never found out as I moved house not long after.

Wind chimes?
 
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