General Chat

Brenda, when we came out in 1982 we were told, by a banking expert, not to wait for a fall in the dollar as it was never going to happen

Back then a pound would by eighty cents, this week it would buy just over two dollars :-(

So much for 'expert' advice

Dear Allan

Hello

Hope you and your good lady wife are doing better now and getting things sorted.

Take gentle care
With best wishes to you both
Elizabeth, EOS
xx

Hello EOS,

We have an assessor coming on Monday to see whether we can claim on our Building Insurance policy, for the garage

When I read your post yesterday re your garage, it immediately reminded me on an incident that happened to us almost 20yrs ago.

OH was driving out of the drive but due to a sneezing fit, he lost clutch control.
Before he knew what was happening, the car had rolled backwards and hit the integral garage wall.
The car sustained a very small dent but the brickwork split all the way up the side of the house!
Our insurers paid for both repairs.

Yesterday morning one of our friends did EXACTLY the same thing when his car hand brake failed.
Their house is very similar to ours but damage is identical !

We live in a bungalow and had the gutters renewed with deep shaped aluminium ones as the old ones spilled water in heavy rain. They fitted plastic mesh across them to stop the leaves and moss clogging them. Our trouble is the birds though, specifically Magpies. They like to try and rip out the mesh, usually above the bedroom window at about 6.00am, waking us every time. They pulled all the lead flashing off the conservatory at the back. (now it is nailed on!) In between destroying the bungalow, they have a go at the cars, pecking at the tyres and ripping the wiper blade rubbers off.

I hope your repairs are covered Allan and it's a good thing not to go up ladders. My OH is the same with heights. Someone I worked with went on his bungalow roof one weekend and fell when he passed out. The fall killed him and he was only aged 41.

we're very aware of the fact that my uncle died after falling off a ladder ..........

........ he was re-pointing the bricks on the back of his terrace house.

Thing is ............. he'd worked all his life with his father, repairing houses and doing this kind of job so he was well used to climbing ladders

BUT he was 75 not 50!

He actually "only" broke his leg, was kept in hospital for 2 or 3 weeks (1991) and was about to be released as healed when he developed pneumonia and died shortly after.

That was sad, Sylvia, your Uncle was very unlucky to be so close to going home and then develop pneumonia, poor man.

Older people who have been active with work forget they are no longer so agile or strong and like to try to continue to do things they have always done. My elderly exbuilder neighbour, sadly no longer with us, was happy to help my builder out when my extension was being built, even tho he was in his seventies at the time. He didn't need the money, he was just glad to be doing something useful again.

Lizx

Well a representative of a building company sent to see our garage door by our Insurer turned up yesterday (Monday).

It seems that he will report the damage as being covered by our policy having been damaged, in his opinion, by recent high winds :-S

Don't ask me when that happened!

Meanwhile he will draw up a scope of works and when we sign that and pay a $200 excess the work will be done.

Meanwhile we are not to use the main entrance to the garage as it is in imminent danger of collapse.

If we hadn't been covered by Insurance we could have kissed goodbye to at least $5000.00

nice representative, Allan!


of course, you know when the high winds were :-D :-D :-D

Liz ................


thank you. Yes he was unlucky

Unfortunately, it happened so suddenly that his wife was rather distraught so I waited about 6 months before I wrote to ask her if she had anything of my grandfather's that she no longer wanted ................

she's the one who replied saying "I've burnt everything as no-one would have wanted it"

She'd never asked me, or my brother's children ............. the only other relatives!

photographs, documents, WW1 medals, etc ............ all gone :-(

Sylvia,

That is so tragic:-(

I've tried to show my children which of our possessions are tat, and which may have some historical (not financial) value, including a small Egyptian painting that I have , on sandstone, which the Manchester Museum dated as about 2000 years old.

As far as the garage goes, I've just remembered, although I should be reminded each day, that when the sixteen units opposite us were started last year, there was a hell of a lot of compaction taking place which caused severe vibrations in our house.

That could have had an effect on the garage

that definitely could have had an effect on your garage!


A old house was demolished and a new house built next door to us about 6 years ago. The lots here are quite small, 33' wide by 120' deep.

There has to be 3' on each side between the house and the lot line

BUT new houses are built with large high basements, so the ground is dug out from lot line to lot line and to within 10' of the front line and about 15' of the rear one

That means that there is digging, concrete pouring, compaction, etc etc going on 3' from the basement walls of houses on each side.


My daughter is an architect, and she advised us to get a survey done of our house and of the basement, inside and out, before constructions started, and then have the surveyor back when construction was finished. This would show whether there had been any damage to our almost 70 year old house.

We did not have any damage, but it was well worth the cost for the peace of mind!!