Working with an Architect

I have never done this before. I have always seen potential in houses I have bought. The plan is more important to me than glossy photos. I have bought 6 houses in my adult life. All but one had work done on them, two were completely re-done in work that took months - About a year.

My dream has always been to start from scratch and build my own house. Renovating and building an extension is the next best thing. It is so exciting to have an architect draw up proper plans of my ideas and improve on them. To have the input of someone creative and experienced in what is possible is a joy. It makes up for the quite major frustrations of organising basic things like the moving of gas and electricity meters to an outside wall.

I have several iterations of plans. The design of the extension has moved from a conventional brick and tile, pitched roof, bigger version, of what was already there, housing a larder, outside toilet and sun room, to an all singing all dancing 21st century extension. It will have a sedum and wild flower roof. The cladding will be a standing seam metal finish painted a lovely green. It is designed to let in as much light as possible and have the garden as its focus. It will be as eco and future proof as possible within cost limitations. 

Meetings with my architect raises my spirits. It is a deeply satisfying collaboration. I think we spur eachother on. The danger is that I am so carried away I don't keep costs in the forefront of my mind. I think we are both trying to create something exceptional.

This house will be my last home. It will outlast me. I hope other people will enjoy living there benefitting from the work I have done. Most of all I hope that I will have several years to enjoy living there myself.

This gives you an idea.

Being Human in a "Mass Extinction"

I've just calculated that I've lived for approximately 27,925 days (I'm 76.5 years old). Lets not quibble, call it 28,000 days. That's a lot of life experience.

Do humans learn from experience? Am I a better person now than I was as a child, a teenager, a young adult? I really hope so - I do believe I am. "We 'construct' our knowledge through experience – by doing. The human mind is better equipped to gather information about the world by operating within it than by reading about it, hearing lectures on it, or studying abstract models of it" - https://www.changelearning.ca/get-informed-understanding-human-learning-how-humans-learn-best.html

If you accept my premise, then as long as the learning is beneficial for the individual & for the society in which the individual lives, everyone benefits from "good" learning. "Humans have changed the world tremendously in the past centuries. They have invented technical devices, institutions that regulate cooperation and competition, and symbol systems, such as script and mathematics, that serve as reasoning tools"- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-016-0003-0  Learning results in long term change - for everyone. Humans are capable of becoming better people as they learn from experience & age. 

Unfortunately the opposite is also true, we live in a world of opposites. Why do humans become bad, cruel, evil? Is it because we dehumanise our victims? Or do we "see other people as blameworthy, as morally responsible, as themselves cruel, as not giving us what we deserve, as taking more than they deserve"? https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/12/14/16687388/cruelty-border-immigration-psychology-human-nature  History is full of the appalling things humans have done & continue to do to eachother.

Is it simply good & evil, God & the devil, right & wrong...?

I don't know. But I do know that in my lifetime, humans have created a completely different world, which I have had to adapt to & live in. In doing that I too have changed. It is a world which is infinitely more complex, more populated, more demanding of resources, simply more everything.

That model is not sustainable. Humans are living longer. Population is growing - "world population increased from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.7 billion today". "Life expectancy, which measures the age of death, has doubled in every region".

 

Humans are voraciously using up everything in the world larder of resources. In doing so they are destroying their own habitat. Ultimately humans will destroy themselves if they don't stop. It isn't that we don't know what is happening - We don't truly see. We don't internalise. We don't want to change. 

It's on a knife edge. Will humans draw back from the brink of extinction? Have they learned from experience? 

It probably won't happen in my lifetime. But unless there is radical change it will. "Evidence shows that a sixth mass extinction is occurring now. Unlike previous mass extinctions, the sixth extinction is due to human actions". https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_Biology/Book%3A_Introductory_Biology_(CK-12)/06%3A_Ecology/6.26%3A_Human_Actions_and_the_Sixth_Mass_Extinction

The Holocene extinction, otherwise referred to as the Sixth Mass Extinction or Anthropocene extinction, is ongoing as a result of human activity.

That's you & me. 

 

Continuing Semi Chaos

 I wash up by hand - yes I know...! I live alone, so I can wash up once a day rather than waiting for enough crockery etc to collect in the machine. I only use the dishwasher if I have friends or family for a meal. The first time was on Tuesday. Lovely day, lovely friends, reasonably good lunch. Loaded dishwasher - brand new dishwasher didn't work!

The landlord came round & checked that it wasn't me or the fuses. The electrician came this morning. There is power but no one at home in the dishwasher. It's not a cheap make. Don't manufacturers test? How could it be sold? I also thought that was what the Inventory person was supposed to do - make sure everything is OK?

Then there is the garden. I made it clear at the outset that I am not able to mow & weed, etc. There wasn't a mower or any tools anyway, (but the landlord did get one). I couldn't stand the state of the garden by yesterday, so I mowed. I had also done some weeding in short bursts. My main problem was the weight of the grass box & the difficulty lifting it. Getting the clippings into a bag is really awkward. The thing is it's a very small garden & there is nowhere for a compost heap to put clippings. So I suggested that the landlord gets a brown bin & I will do my best to keep the garden tidy as a goodwill gesture & so I don't have to look out on a wilderness. For some reason I don't understand you have to pay for a brown bin. He told me it was my responsibility - I don't agree. Yes, obviously, I should pay utilities & council tax. But a brown bin? Really?

Switching Utilities is meant to be easy. The government wants everyone to have a smart meter. I want smart meters in the rental - (Really don't want the PayGo electric meter!) I also need the gas & electric meters moved & changed from very old fashioned meters in a totally inaccessible cupboard under the stairs, in the house I have bought. The wires / pipes literally have to be moved from the inside of the side wall to the outside. "Simples." No! 

SGN & SSE are both involved. SGN have been amazing. I only set things in motion this week & the gas surveyor did the survey yesterday. He asked me if I am a pensioner & so I told him that I am also a "Welfare Case" & theoretically have priority. The quote arrived in the afternoon & SGN are not charging me for the work because I physically can't access the meters. They do all the work so that my energy supplier can install the smart meter & SGN provide the new external box. So totally efficient & really nice with it.

SSE on the other hand don't seem to be sending anyone to survey. They just want me to supply all relevant information by email - e.g. the type of meter, the serial number, a photo of the meter etc. (The SGN gas man had to lie on the floor, half in & half out of the understairs cupboard to see the gas meter! There is no way I could do that.) They asked me to do that after I had told them about my medical conditions.

SSE don't provide the box, I have to source that. On the day the work is done I have to arrange for my electrician to be there with my utility provider to all do the installation simultaneously. I know from the situation at my rental that there is a long wait time for fitters to install smart meters. There is a backlog & not enough trained fitters. So getting 3 people from different companies on site at the same time is going to be tricky. Nothing like the seamless & helpful way SGN operate.

Finally there is my money. I sold my house for more than I paid for my new one. The surplus, after the huge bills, is in a bank account paying virtually no interest. I tried - 7 times, to transfer money into an account paying a slightly bigger pittance of interest. You have to do it from the receiver bank website for some reason. It kept telling me the transaction was declined & to contact my source bank. I changed the amount several times because I know that banks have different amounts they will process. I phoned my source bank many times. That involved lots of menus, lots of different people working from home, lots of security, lots of dreadful music & huge amounts of time & frustration. My source bank assured me that they had sorted the problem - many times. They hadn't. To cut the story short, I've ended up having to do 4 small transactions from the source bank, one every 24 hours, to get my money from one bank to another. Apparently it's because it's an unusually large transaction. It's ridiculous. I proved it was me & where the money came from. They must know I'm not a money launderer.

I keep telling myself life is complex - Change is hard to manage - It will all be OK eventually - I am actually a very fortunate person. I keep the vision of what I am trying to achieve at the forefront of my mind. 

But I haven't even started renovating my house & garden & building an extension yet. 

I really need to maintain a Zen like calm & remember my Buddhist teachings. Or I might just go completely potty!

 

Disorganised Chaos.

Never again! Apart from eventually moving into my renovated house at the end of the year, I am never, ever, going to voluntarily put myself through this again. It has been, exhausting, time consuming, frustrating, irritating & utterly beyond my control. I will go out in a box to the great beyond.

All my "control freak" best efforts at having a plan & a system failed miserably. I packed everything apart from fragiles. I had sorted the fragiles into storage or rental groups. I had clearly marked boxes with a S or R. I had put a green sticker on furniture etc to go to the rental & a red sticker on stuff to go to storage. It didn't work. Stuff has disappeared into the Big Yellow storage room & will never be seen again until my house is ready for habitation. Even food! Nothing fresh though I hope.

The rental is very nice, as is the landlord. The area is in a quiet rabbit warren & the neighbours I have met are lovely. There is a garden, with birds! Headington is a bustling & lively area of Oxford.

There are just so many ongoing issues, mostly related to switching.

I am used to a landline. Yes, I know the world has moved on & I do have a 4g mobile. But I am used to broadband & access to the internet on my desktop. Yes, I know I can get all that on my mobile. (Except when the transmitter goes down with an unplanned outage - Must change my provider. Their customer service is dreadful.) 

The switch to Plusnet didn't happen as it should have done the day before I moved in. The rental had Virgin who appear to have disconnected the BT line to the house. Presumably they don't want people to switch! So I had to wait for Plusnet, Openreach & a private contractor Dig Team to communicate effectively to put a line to the house & a phone master socket in the house. The delay was mostly the Dig Team, who are obviously very busy. I'm finally on line, & have a landline phone for my care alarm today - 17 days after I expected. 

I am, delightfully, a "Welfare Case" because of my medical conditions, my age, my Careline & the Monitor which connects my pacemaker directly to the hospital when I'm in bed. Plus the fact that I live alone. That supposedly makes me a priority, urgent case. It didn't seem urgent to me as I waited day after day. Had I fallen or had a stroke, no one would have known.

Similarly, with my energy provider. I switched to Octopus 8 days after moving in. I hadn't realised how much notice you have to give to switch - So my fault. I also didn't realise that the rental has a PayGo meter for electricity. There is a plastic stick you insert in the meter. Topping up is a pain. There aren't many places you can do it. Now I have to wait until the 2nd July for smart meters. Obviously they are very busy too.

Moving into a new home means dealing with little problems like not being able to get the heating or the cooker to work. I didn't have very much information to help. There is an Inventory, but I couldn't read it on my mobile - That's a job for this weekend. 

I discovered that the back door wouldn't lock. It was open when I collected the keys. It took a locksmith an hour & a half to sort out this week. He wasn't impressed with the door. 

The cold water pressure downstairs suddenly soaked me, then the water turned brown, then the pressure disappeared. Then, when my son in law moved the cleaning materials around under the sink looking for a tap, (there isn't one), suddenly the pressure reverted to normal. None of us understand why. I'm just glad it's working.

My point is that all of this was very time consuming & quite stressful. I seem to be "fire fighting" all the time. I spent hours on my mobile going through phone menus & security questions, holding to dreadful music, being transferred from one department to another. But speaking to, generally, very nice helpful people - eventually. Some companies are actually unreachable if you don't have internet - iD Mobile & Openreach for example. On the other hand some companies have stopped online chat & don't have an email address. The reason is Covid. But surely by now they should have adapted? It has been with us for 16 months.

The customer journey is not what it should be. For example I have 5 separate ID numbers for my internet / landline problem with Plusnet & have spoken to several different departments & numerous call people working from home. The amount  of information on the system each person has to assimilate about my issue is massive. I'm amazed they do so well & stay so calm & helpful.

It will all be solved, eventually. I know that. I can deal with it all. It has just been quite difficult.

It's a good job I've done it now when I'm 76 & reasonably "compos mentis". I do get quite tired though & there is definitely a limit to the amount of energy, mental & physical, that I have. I'm like the Duracell bunny advert - the one with naff batteries!

Organised Chaos!

I have no idea why I decided to vacuum before the removal men came. Complete waste of time!

I thought I had a good system. Green stickers for rental. Red stickers for storage. All cupboards & shelves marked with stickers. Boxes we packed labelled with R or S + room / contents. Similar things grouped together for easy packing. Some boxes taken to the "new" house. Plants & some garden furniture to go there too. Stuff for charity or Freegle gone. Rubbish gone. A plan of position of furniture for rental.

A lot of time & effort planning, sorting & packing.

Removal men very hardworking - a very physically demanding job. Quite stressful too. 9.30 - 2.30 constant work.

Once they started it was utterly exhausting. 2 men packing for a day - lots of queries. Me up & down stairs constantly. Because there were 2, I was on the go all day. At the end the house was literally stuffed with boxes. Movement was limited. 

When I came to cook supper I discovered that they had emptied my kitchen cupboards of everything apart from a drawer of cutlery, a shelf of crockery & a cupboard of cereals. Even my bread bin had gone! No sharp knives, cooking utensils, trays or oven gloves. No food, other than what was in the fridge freezer. I thought that the rental stuff would wait till the day of the actual move so I could use it in the 2 intervening days (3 suppers, lunches & breakfasts). 

When I went to bed I realised that my bedroom curtains had gone. Fortunately I have an eye mask.

Today was moving stuff to storage - A hugely time consuming process. Big yellow is extremely well organised & the 3 men I spoke to were really helpful & lovely with it. But lots of information to go through & paperwork, even though I had done a lot in advance online. Then the keypad code didn't work so a lot of hanging around again. But everything went into the unit. It was very tight though. No chance of being able to get at anything now although technically I do have access. Given how tightly the removers must have packed it I do wonder what state things will come out again. I didn't see it go into the lorry or going into the store. I don't know how protected things like leather settees are protected. The facility is amazing - a little village of different sized storage units with streets!

Now peace reigns. I am about to tidy up & vacuum all the dust up so that I feel tidy & organised. Nothing is happening tomorrow. I just have to go to the rental to let BT in.

Thursday is actually moving to the rental. 

I will be so glad when this is over.

 

 

Data Overload

I have a sheet of A4 with actions I need to take on moving house. Each organisation has their own way of dealing with change of contact details. If you are techie & lucky you can do it on line. Doing it on the phone is often safer because you are talking to a human being who actually understands what needs to be done. The ones I have spoken too - eventually - have been really helpful.

The worst organisations are the insurers. Hours wasted coping with menus & selecting from up to 6 options. Holding on. Dreadful music. Repeating information because the people who answer the phone & the underwriters don't have the same information on their system.The most helpful have been Thames Water & Octopus Energy. British Gas & SSE are uncontactable on the phone. Either too many phone calls or too few people, or both. 

Many organisations don't have the facility to notify a move in advance, banks for example. So you have to wait until you have actually moved & then change your details. As if you haven't got enough to do unpacking & settling in!

I am so fed up with it. In this technological age you would think that it would be possible to have some centralised website with a list of all the people anyone needs to notify. You then tick as appropriate, inpout your old details & the new ones, then everyone gets the information.

Well there is - sort of. But I've only just discovered it.

www.iammoving.com 

It takes a while to get the hang of it & in my case because I am selling, buying & renting it's a lot more complicated. It isn't possible to do it for some organisations. I only ended up with 9. But it shows it can be done. There just need to be more options.

Moving is getting closer & I've hardly started the packing!

 

Ducks in a Row 2

Well things are progressing, but I have a very long list. Ducks everywhere, but some aligned. I either can't get to sleep, or I wake up in the middle of the night & my brain churns. Going to try meditating on a meaningless word. Your brain can't think of more than one thing at once - fact.

Finally exchanged  on Tuesday. Completion on the 21st. Rental ready on the 15th. So needed to do the important things first. Buildings & Contents insurance, Removals & Storage, Phone & Broadband transfer. A file of documents relating to this house for my buyer, who is coming on Wednesday. Still lots of other people to inform.....Stuff to go to charity shop.

Then there is the exhausting & time consuming packing to be done. With the added complication of half of my stuff going to store & half going to the rental. I have made a list of furniture & where it is going. I have a plan of the furniture in the rental. But I know, with absolute certainty, that there will be things I store that I should have taken with me. The good news is that I have access to my storage.

The whole process is very expensive - the temporary rental / contents insurance, stuff for the rental, insurance on the house I'm buying, storage...Then there are the costs of buying & doing up the new house - estate agent, solicitor, surveyor, removers, stamp duty... / architect, structural engineer, party wall surveyor, planning dept, builder, fixtures & fittings....

To be honest I'm trying not to think about the money. I'm focussing on my vision of what my house will be, hopefully by Christmas. It's a project - The closest I will get to building my own home. Future proof for the aged, senile, me. But also a house as sympathetic to eco needs as possible.

It's a challenge & there will be problems. I will get fed up with it all. But at the end of it I hope I will be pleased with what I have achieved, (with the help of a lot of people), & happy in my new home.

It's all a risk. The house might throw up problems I haven't envisaged. The house may not be worth what I have paid for it & then spent on it. But it isn't just property. I won't be taking it with me when I go.

It will be my home. My creation. The extension isn't going to be a pitched roof copy of the 1930's house. It's going to be a modern, 21st century annexe, made of 21st century materials. It's going to have a sedum & wildflower roof! I am so excited about that.