A financial dilemma

Remembering that a Victorian house in Britain barely counts as “old” it is no surprise that a lot of houses are not eco friendly.  Cavity walls, if they exist, are often unfilled, attics have no insulation, windows and doors are draughty and single-glazed … the story goes on.  But our wise government thinks that it’s about time we all shaped up and filled our walls, insulated our roofs and invited round some clueless 20 year old in a sharp suit to sell us double glazing and there are grants for many improvements.  Not to mention, of course, the incentive of a warmer house for less money.

And just in case you have no cavity walls or attic and have not yet decided which windows are going to be pulled out and which just need a facelift (how-about-some-luvverly-leaded-windows-in-plastic-surrounds-madam double glazing) our government has been making some very generous offers to households willing to go a little greener.  The feed-in tariff offered on solar panels has been very generous indeed.  Almost too good to be true, one might think.

And one would be right… and the government also thinks it’s too good to be true.  In fact, the government realised that it would be mad even to let the offer run to the end of April as it was supposed to do because so many households were rushing to get solar panels installed by the cut-off date.  So it brought the date right forward, to mid December.  If your panels aren’t installed and hooked up to the grid with all the paperwork signed by 12^th December then you can’t get the great deal.  You can get a good deal, but not a great one.

At first we thought we’d missed the boat and cursed ourselves, though only gently as the timing was never good for us.  But then friends signed up and got started all in a couple of weeks and we realised we might be able to do it after all.  Their guy came round, looked, didn’t think the glass roof was the insurmountable problem British Gas previously claimed it to be, and is sending us a quotation.

So here’s the dilemma.  Our fuel bills are high.  Our water runs off electricity.  Our house was set up when Economy 7 was all the rage so we are on a dual rate system but don’t really benefit from it.  If we fit solar panels before December it will be financially quite nerve-racking till we’ve paid back the loan, but the long-term benefits will be huge… we’ll have a healthy monthly income and our electricity bills shouldn’t be nearly so scary.  And it will add to the value of the house because future owners would also benefit from the excellent feed-in tariff.

Of course, it’s all still a big What If.  Will the quotation be ok?  Will they be able to do the work in time?  Would we even get a loan to pay for the work?

But if the quotation is ok, and if they can do the work in time, and if we can get a loan, do we really want to do it?  The long-term benefits are great, but the short-term burden is big and times are tight.  And think of all the other things we could be doing with the same money!  Decisions, decisions.

Professional at work

John the gardener came the other day.  What a transformation.  I decided that I’d like him to concentrate, at least initially, on getting the big flowerbed sorted out and boy has he started sorting it out.  Ian, naturally, is appalled.  He doesn’t really care what is growing, or how it looks, so long as something is growing… and right now not much is. 

For my own part I’m not sure whether to be blown away by how much John got through, depressed that he covered in half a day what took me about a third of the summer, or relieved knowing I wasn’t the one having to do it.  Of course, I can console myself that everything he’s dug so far has already been dug by me so it’s relatively easy, but I know that’s probably not the real reason… really he just knows what he’s doing and what should die and what could stay.

Whatever the reason, I’m impressed.

A thousand bluebell wood

OK, well it’s not quite Pooh’s Thousand Acre Wood, but I’m pretty excited all the same.

The first 500 bulbs seemed so relatively effortless that I foolishly ordered a further 500.  They arrived before the weekend but we had guests here, and Monday and Tuesday were so wet and miserable that I had no desire to go planting.

Today I’d run out of excuses.  I’d done the wedding planning I’d promised to do.  I wasn’t cold after walking Bonny.  So out to the woods we went with secateurs, a bulb planter, gloves, and a box of bulbs.  “We” being my trusty servant Bonny and I, though there were occasions where she seemed to mistake herself for my playmate rather than my servant.  She mainly likes to sit directly in front of me on whichever patch I’ve just cleared for planting, but has proved useful on occasion: she finds particularly stubborn roots a great game.

I continued with the technique perfected on the first batch of bulbs, clearing a patch of ivy, working methodically across it planting, then clearing the next patch.  It seemed even easier this time.  I’m not sure if that means I was lazier or that the ivy was just less troublesome, but the ground was certainly easy to dig (or did I never get to the ground, was I just digging into mulch?)

Hooray.  All done.  Can’t wait to see how many (if any!) come up. 

We have a plan

In fact, we have two plans: Plan A and Plan B. 

Our meeting with Bryan the architect was prompted by the need to get solar panels on the roof by 31^st March next year when the feed in tariffs were due to be reduced, but now the installation deadline’s been brought forward to December it all becomes rather unrealistic and irrelevant.  Ho hum.  So the urgency for architectural discussions is somewhat diminished and it’s not like we can afford to do any building work anyway, but it’s always good to dream about what you might do… architectural dreams can turn into building nightmares so we might as well enjoy the dream time.

One idea gets rid of the pool.  He couldn’t resist toying with that idea, but with a bit of adaptation we could keep a lot of the plan and keep the pool… at least until the girls have outgrown it.

The other I like better so far and it has an archway through the house with a bedroom above and the oil tank and a bike shed on the other side of the arch.  It allows under cover parking on rainy days and creates a lot of upstairs space but most of all I’ve always wanted a home with an archway.

Both plans would give us a huge kitchen and a lot of extra bedroom space and he rightly said that he thinks if we can only do one part of the house it should be that end because it’s the kitchen and the living and the least appealing and will add most value (as a home for us or resale) when it’s done.

Right now both designs have the staircases sticking out of the house in glass boxes.  They are very modern, rather surprising, and quite exciting.

Who knows when we could ever do it.  There’s no money in the pot these days but it’s nice to think about and we might win the lottery one day (at least we might if we were ever to play the lottery).

And then I had a cuppa with Katherine and she offered her annexe for us to hide in when it all gets too much… she’s close enough to the memory of living in a building site to remember that we’re quite mad.

But, oh, it’s so exciting.

A bluebell wood… maybe

I have this crazy idea that we should fill our wood with bluebells.  We have snowdrops and daffodils and crocuses galore, but no bluebells.  This is the year that I hope to rectify that oversight.

So just before half term 500 bulbs arrived and a bulb planter.  I set to work.  I didn’t have much time and barely made a dent in the 500, but I found a working method.  First I tore back a patch of ground ivy, then I planted.  It’s a useful technique… you know where you’ve been.  When we got back from Italy I was energised and ready to finish the job.

Peel back some ivy, plant.  Peel back some more, plant some more.  After a time the ball of ivy would be sufficiently large that I could bundle it up and add it to the mound that was building on the side of the path.  Occasionally I’d stop and strip a tree of its ivy – not as time sensitive, but a strain on different body parts and hopefully it’ll even out any resulting aches and pains.

 And in a short time I’d reduced the box to a final handful of bulbs.  It was tempting to leave them for another day but I slogged on and got them all done.  What was once a mat of ivy is now all planted and in a few years should be a sea of blue in May.  Should be.

I was so ecstatic I ordered another 500… what have I done!?

There's a post script to this.  On ordering my second batch of 500 I discovered that my garden fairy, aka Dad, had been to visit while we were away and done some planting for me.  What an angel.  How many of the 500 did I actually plant?