Toasty – Just In Time

I haven’t been posting much recently, partly because I have been busy, but also partly because I have been living in my conservatory.

That may sound strange, so let me explain.

When I started transforming my lounge, I moved all of the furniture out. Some went upstairs, some into my garage, and some into my conservatory, where I made a mini-lounge with a sofa and a TV. At the time, it was quite comfortable. Although the conservatory is not on the central heating, it caught sun during the day, and heated well from the lounge. However, as it got colder, the difference became noticeable.

The bulk of the work is done, but I still have my carpets to buy and have laid, so I had tried not to move a lot of stuff in. So I stuck it out in the conservatory, and as it got progressively colder, I broke out the electic fire and the spare duvet. This explains the above comment – under such circumstances, either I was going out more, or if I was settling in for the night, I was staying in, and under that duvet, rather than popping upstairs on the computer for a while.

Anway, I stil haven’t bought my carpets, and I am now tempted to wait for the sales. popped in to see me on Saturday, and I got him to help me move my smaller sofa from the garage into the lounge. TV is now also installed there, and I am nice and cozy again – just in time for this snow and ice!

Am still going to keep it minimal, so there will be less to move out when the carpets finally arrive.

4Relating back to a previous post, I have put the sofa/TV in the former dining area, as a TV snug, as illustrated.

It works pretty well, and there is still a good walk-through left to the conservatory, as I expected. TV is not fixed to the wall yet, but is on a console table, which is narrow enough not to get in the way. It’s good to try new layouts out, before making permanent changes.

5 Comments

  1. chris
    November 30, 2010
    Reply

    Another thing I am realising now that the temperature has dropped. To make room for the TV in its new position, I had a radiator removed, which would have been underneath it (not a good idea, I think), and replaced with a vertical radiator, on the same wall, but in the corner.

    As I had hoped, that is shoving heat out beautifully straight across the door to the conservatory, which means that even when the door is opened, the warm air in the lounge no longer rushes out.

  2. November 30, 2010
    Reply

    Bear in mind that waiting for the sales but getting in before the January 4th increase in VAT to 20% might give you a fairly tight schedule.

    • November 30, 2010
      Reply

      A number of places have started the sales early to beat the VAT increase, I expect more will follow. But I suspect that one would gain more on the sales than the 2.5% loss on VAT anyway.

      • chris
        November 30, 2010
        Reply

        How I look at it, although the VAT increase will generally increase prices, with regards to the sales, it is the retailer’s problem. In that although the VAT increase should fall on the purchaser, if they want to have a sale, they need to show *reduced* prices, even after tax.

        This is a legal requirement, as well as a commercial one. If advertising “reduced prices”, the product needs to have been sold at a higher price (including tax) for at least 28 consecutive days in the previous six months at the same outlet. Also, the product should not have been offered at a different price between that 28-day period and the day of the offer.

        So the stores can either pass on the increased VAT, or play the “SALES – EVERYTHING MUST GO” game. I don’t think they can do both.

  3. chris
    December 16, 2010
    Reply

    Having talked to a couple of stores, savings due to sales will be somewhere between 20-30% – as much as 50% on some carpets.

    I now have no doubt that it has paid to wait.

    Have someone coming from AHF next week to measure up (AHF = Anglian Home Furnishing – Coop to you). Then I can pop in there over the holidays to decide on what carpet I want in the lounge and what I want in the kitchen.

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