October chit-chat

[agate]

What a shame you couldn't get the first floor! Would you want to move again and could you get on a waiting list somehow for the first floor somewhere?

I have about 425 square feet in all. The kitchen is an extension of the living-dining area, with just a "pass through" counter separating the kitchen. The bedroom is a separate room but there's room only for a bed and a dresser and endtable. Some people have a queensize bed in there but it takes up most of the room. The bathroom is large enough for my rollator.

I don't mind not having so much space any more but I don't think I'd do very well with any less space than I have now. I've seen plans for some "tiny homes" that have only about 200 square feet. I'd find that difficult.

One huge advantage to a small place is that it's less to take care of. Less cleaning, fewer problems in general.

[Prot]

My place is similar to yours, and about the same size. I think our places are smaller than agate and Virginia's. I think it's the relative unreliability of lifts that probably resulted in the housing associations decision to say I could only move to a ground floor flat.Prior to moving to the SW of England in 2017 I lived on the 11th floor of a 15 storey tower block. In terms of residents it wasn't the best place to live. The worst experience was a few months before my wife died.

Someone who was being evicted decided to set their flat alight. My wife had dementia and impaired mobility, and the lifts couldn't be used. It was a very scary 25-30 minutes but thankfully the fire brigade dealt well with the fire.

Like you I'm content with my flat but wouldn't want to move to somewhere less than half the size. The biggest downer, which would be true whatever size place I live in, is that mobility issues rather than personal choice means I can't just go outside by myself for a walk. I do go out with family sometimes, and that is good.

[agate]

Someone who was being evicted decided to set their flat alight. My wife had dementia and impaired mobility, and the lifts couldn't be used. It was a very scary 25-30 minutes but thankfully the fire brigade dealt well with the fire.

How terrible! Fires are so scary anyway, and knowing it was set deliberately... words fail me here. I've been in a couple of fires that were unsettling in the extreme.

I believe landlords are often reluctant to evict anyone because of the danger that the evictee will retaliate in some terrible way. I've heard of a couple of instances where building managers have been threatened with guns and even shot by angry tenants, usually protesting an eviction notice, I think.

It does make it hard for a landlord to get rid of bad apples.

[Virginia]

Fire would scare me to death. Tim, my place is not that large. I have 1202 sq feet on my first floor and another 500 or so upstairs. It is well laid out and I could easily do with just my first floor. In that 1700 sq ft I have 3 bedrooms and 3 full baths. I made one of the bedrooms downstairs into an office when I was diagnosed with MS. I wish I had two bedrooms, two baths and a garage all on one floor and with no outside steps. That would be good for me because I don't need the upstairs bedroom, bath, large walk-in closet. By having the upstairs I do get a floored walk-in attic which has come in handy through the years. I have a storage room at one end of my deck and that is where the hot water heater is. I use to store things that I used to work in the yard but I can't work in the yard anymore so I could do without that.

[agate]

An attic is nice to have, and I think it's a way to keep the whole place at a better temperature, or at least I've heard that.

And attics can be such interesting places if they have a lot of forgotten items stored in them.

[Virginia]

Agate, my attic is not very interesting right now. I had it cleaned out right before the new roof was installed. I remembered what a mess I had in that attic when the last roof was put on. I wanted to avoid that.

Hope everyone has had a good weekend. Tomorrow I have to be gone for quite awhile. Hope someone post something while I am gone.

[agate]

A messy attic might be an interesting attic to some.

As a little girl I had a friend who visited her grandparents every summer, and they lived two doors away, in a big old Victorian house with an attic. Sometimes she and I spent long stretches of time in that attic. It was packed with all kinds of old clothes and other stored items. We were especially interested in the old fans like ladies carried before there was electricity. They were very decorative and could be folded and unfolded.

This photo is coming out too big but I haven't been able to change the size. This is exactly the kind of fan.

[Prot]

Used when having a 'touch of the vapours' ?

[agate]

You've got the idea, I think! Or to create a breeze around the face on a hot day because those fans were popular back before there were electric fans. I understand that ladies commonly used them to hide coyly behind,

[jingle]

Flat cardboard fans with a thin wooden handle were in the song book rack on the back of every pew in every church I attended when I was a child. They were usually printed with name of the local funeral home which gave them to the church. The fans were very welcome in the summertime.

[agate]

Yes, those! They were always available. Those I recall weren't expandable and were made of a pale yellow or beige cardboard. A lot of people found them helpful. If it was extremely hot, those fans mainly circulated more hot air to your face but it was better than uncirculating hot air.

[Prot]

Coyly but flirtatiously.

[jingle]

Thinking about those fans ........... I have vague memories of not having electricity in that church!! We had oil (kerosene??) lamps that were lit with matches before a nighttime service. The women took turns cleaning the lamps after each service and then refilling them. And, of course, there was no indoor toilet or running water. We didn't have running water or indoor toilets at home until we moved to town when I was in the 7th grade. And telephones!! No dials and your number was something like 2 longs and a short.

[agate]

Indoor plumbing must have been a huge change. We were in town and were lucky enough to have it but many places in locations farther out did not.

I don't recall phones with two longs and a short but do recall having a number with only 4 digits. And being on a party line where sometimes another party might be talking for hours, just when you wanted to use the phone.,

And having to speak up really loudly if it was a long distance call.

[Virginia]

I remember those fans. My grandmother had some of both kind. She liked fans, because she had a big house with a rap-a-around front porch. As soon as supper was over she liked to go sit on the porch and rock in a rocking chair and fan. She had quite a few boarders and some would go out and join her. I liked to sit on that porch too.

I have another paragraph down lower. I didn't mean to put it down that low. If I was on my computer I could move that paragraph up, but I am so brain dead right now I can't figure out how to do it on this tablet tonight. Sorry!










If I disappear for good tonight y'all will know I died from fatigue. I went out yesterday and did my errands, but then I also stayed up too late. Then today I made a Greek spaghetti. It is an easy recipe and I can prepare the fresh vegetables ahead of time, and get that out of the way. I forgot how fast you have to get the spices out and what it takes to put it together. Then because of the things I had put in containers and put in the fridge it took a long time to clean up the kitchen. If I do this again I will not do it the day after staying out like I did yesterday.