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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 29, 2019 23:04:51 GMT
And fake fingers to go in the gloves?!
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Post by lagatta on Oct 30, 2019 2:26:22 GMT
A petty trauma for a lot of us - I can't log into my bank account. They have asked me a litany of registered and personal questions, which I all knew.
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Post by bjd on Oct 30, 2019 7:37:44 GMT
We are having the old fibreglass insulation taken out of the attic and having it replaced with a deeper layer of cellulose. The guys working took a 2 1/2 hour lunch break yesterday, left at 4 and just turned up now -- at 8:30. Lucky we are not paying by the hour. There is a huge pile of old fibreglass lying in the garden. It was supposed to be a day and a half job. We'll see.
The house is kind of cold and damp but we can't turn on the heat pump while they are working around the pipes in the attic.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 30, 2019 12:21:08 GMT
That's what's in my roof now.
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Post by bjd on Oct 30, 2019 12:45:53 GMT
We got lots of information from various sources and were told that cellulose insulated better than fibreglass.
I asked the workers what would happen to the piles of fibreglass that is lying in my garden at the moment (and also blowing around) and they said it was taken to a special dump for professional waste and recycled into new fibreglass.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 30, 2019 14:19:25 GMT
bjd, is there a reason for removing the fiberglass instead of just adding more insulation on top of it? It’s not a health hazard like vermiculite insulation which can be contaminated with asbestos.
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Post by bjd on Oct 30, 2019 19:24:57 GMT
No, it's just that the fibreglass was old and dirty and not thick enough for current energy norms. So we decided to have it taken out and replaced with the cellulose. The government has agencies that you can contact for information so besides various estimates and information by people who do the work, we also had a guy from a government agency come around and give advice on insulation, heating, etc.
There is not really a big difference between the two, and we certainly don't get the kinds of winters you get in Montana, but we figured that we should improve things. And we also get a tax rebate for doing so since the state is trying to get people to save energy.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 30, 2019 19:39:47 GMT
That’s all good. In our Florida home, we added another R-19 layer of fiberglass batts running crossways to the original layer, to reduce the need for AC in the summer months and for heat in the cooler winter months. Because the attic isn’t usable space, it was OK to have insulation much taller than the attic floor joists. We pay next to nothing for utilities now.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 30, 2019 20:00:44 GMT
I noticed immediately that two small refrigerator magnets had disappeared after the departure of my water heater installers left. These are absolutely worthless, but I don't want them to think that I am senile.
I certainly don't want to bring the matter up with the company, because you never know what sort of catastrophic consequences could be triggered by that, but I think I will send a pleasant little SMS to the guy who installed it tomorrow. I will make it clear that I don't feel it is necessary to reply, because that would just be more embarrassing. The total value of the larceny is less than 2 euros.
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Post by htmb on Oct 30, 2019 20:10:27 GMT
Could they have been knocked off the fridge and inadvertently kicked underneath?
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Post by Kimby on Oct 30, 2019 20:50:57 GMT
I’d be more concerned about what you haven’t yet discovered to be missing...
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Post by questa on Oct 31, 2019 3:02:29 GMT
Goat number three?
Who knows what this is about?
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 31, 2019 3:13:23 GMT
Htmb's suggestion seems very probable.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 31, 2019 4:19:06 GMT
Nope, nothing fell off.
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Post by questa on Oct 31, 2019 10:17:27 GMT
There is a story of a college or uni where a group of students thought they should liven things up a bit. They released a lively group of goats who cantered through the lecture rooms and labs and generally created bedlam. Each goat had a number painted on its back so when the order was given to round them up numbers 1,2 and 4 were soon detained. The search for Goat # 3 took on a life of its own with sightings made in various places. Finally the students concerned confessed...there were only 3 goats 1,2,and 4.
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Post by breeze on Oct 31, 2019 12:50:25 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 31, 2019 15:29:43 GMT
Well, if all of the people who reliably participate on anyport pitched it, it would only be @30,000 euros apiece for the sale plus incidentals. That seems reasonable. Of course there would have to be a rota of who was responsible for the various tasks necessary to keep the place up, but we'd have a built-in get together site and bragging rights on owning a manor in France.
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Post by breeze on Oct 31, 2019 15:42:19 GMT
I like your thinking, bixa. Imagine the garden that anyporters could create, the wonderful meals, the conversations at dinner.
I'm sure we've all got 30k euros under our sofa cushions. I'll go check now and get back to you all when I've found my share.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 31, 2019 16:21:54 GMT
My grandmother's perfectly acceptable house with big garden sold for 76,000 euros a few years ago, but that part of Lorraine is not considered desirable at the moment. Maybe people will come to their senses some day.
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Post by bjd on Oct 31, 2019 16:42:54 GMT
Well, that's about the price of a not especially big apartment in a nice area of Paris. So it tells you something about how desirable the area is. It looks nice but those stone walls in that damp climate... Good for gardening though.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 31, 2019 19:43:01 GMT
Prices for beautiful houses outside a few glitzy cities or tourist spots in Europe seem crazily cheap to someone used to the US West Coast world of $400,000 fixer-uppers.
That manoir looks about two mostly pleasant hours by car from central Paris. I'm in for 30.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 31, 2019 20:25:01 GMT
Fumobici, as you know there are certainly several places in western Europe with that type of hyper-inflation.
In Lachine, a southwestern borough of Mtl, an order of nuns gave or cheaply sold their convent buildings in a large grounds with mature trees as social housing, including different categories of people. Sadly, a monastery close to my place was unable to do that - because of suits by former boys diddled with by the brethren (yes, it was another order that worked with deaf children - think the same thing happened in Italy and Pennsylvania, if I recall. So it became luxury condos, though many neighbourhood associations wanted to be used for housing co-ops and social enterprises.
I think Lachine was originally a joke, about an early explorer who thought he had found China, which is no sillier than finding India.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 1, 2019 20:52:29 GMT
I have been sent a particularly good parcel of plants from Israel. The sender sent it track and trace so I know it arrived at the Heathrow parcel centre at 7.05 am Wednesday. And there it sits. When I checked further I find international parcels take 5 to 7 working days to deliver. So it might not get to me until the middle of next week. And Royal Mail want to compete with Amazon..
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2019 22:03:24 GMT
Nobody can compete with the customs authorities.
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Post by questa on Nov 1, 2019 23:44:50 GMT
Can you sue them if plants die? What steps are they taking to make sure plants arrive healthy? Mention the possibility of UK/Israeli "incident" caused by the loss of international gift, and the subsequent apologies that will have to be issued from 10 Downing Street. Other than that...suck it up , Princess!
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 2, 2019 8:15:35 GMT
They are succulents so they should be ok. It's just a bit annoying because I set aside this weekend to sort them out.
The sender says if they were going the other way I.e. to Israel, the delay would be much worse.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 2, 2019 12:07:15 GMT
It does seem odd to send succulents from the UK to Israel, but of course they could be from a valuable collection.
I'm feeling for your plants; relieved that they should survive a few days without watering.
As for me, another kind of plant problem. We've had very dramatic weather; a beautiful warm day (naturally, I had to do a rush translation - and alas came down with a probably migraine) then extremely high winds and very heavy rain. Hundreds of thousands without electricity; many accidents. A large branch of my mature Norway maple was wrenched off and is lying on my front porch (fortunately I had brought most of the plants in as there was a threat of frost - the first one this year, and yes, that is very late). At least it didn't break the window of the balcony door. I phoned 311, the "minor emergency" or f-up line, to be used when a human life is not in peril - or certain other criteria. I was pleased to be able to get through fairly soon, as they had announced a long wait due to the number of people in our borough - and elsewhere - facing similar problems. They will remove the branch soon, but couldn't guarantee that it will be today. I feel for trees, and am very glum.
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Post by Kimby on Nov 2, 2019 13:20:03 GMT
Woke up this morning raring to set back the clocks, only to realize they didn’t NEED setting. Till tomorrow. Now my internal clock is all out of whack...
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 2, 2019 14:23:12 GMT
Not good lagatta. Hope it calms down for you.
My parcel arrived d this morning! The track and trace system is rubbish! It said it was still at the Heathrow warehouse.
I will be sending a return parcel to Israel next week. We all work on a worldwide exchange system. They have plants I want, I have plants they want. All very civilized!
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Post by bjd on Nov 2, 2019 15:11:22 GMT
I saw the bad weather around Montreal on the CBC website, Lagatta. I wondered whether things were okay in your area.
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