Buying my house took a couple of months between mortgages, paperwork for different things and then, of course, the lawyers getting involved. So I had plenty of time before I got the keys to think about what I wanted to do with the house or, more precisely, how I wanted to do things. I fired up Evernote and created a “wish list” which has been growing all the time. Some things were fairly obvious, like the USB sockets, but others were based on suggestions from friends and relatives, like installing some sockets outside and an outdoor tap.
Of course a “wish list” is a bit like a dream or an ideal. When you start actually doing things you run into issues that you weren’t expecting and you also discover new opportunities. I’m not sure if every cloud has a silver lining, but it’s certainly been interesting over the last few weeks to see how things have panned out.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Every time you take one you can easily end up triggering a whole new set of questions and potential problems (or opportunities).
As I mentioned earlier this week, I decided to cull my Sky subscription. I thought that was a relatively simple decision to make, but deciding to cut my Sky subscription triggered some interesting discussions over on Facebook.
It also opens up an entire discussion around my television. My current television works fine, but it’s about 5 years old, so it doesn’t have an integrated Saorview tuner nor a FreeSat one. Most televisions you get these days would either have both or at least one. And of course the specs and options available with televisions now are even more confusing than they were the last time I delved into the space.
I could hold on to the current television and buy an external tuner like the Amiko Alien for Saorview etc., like the one “Grandad” mentioned here, but if I do that means adding yet another box to the already ridiculous pile…
The other option I am seriously considering is picking up a new TV entirely. With the current post-Christmas discounts and sales I can get a fairly high-end 49″ LED TV like the LG 49UH850V at a reasonable enough price.
Upside? A new TV that supports pretty much all the latest technologies and doesn’t require me adding more boxes to my crazy pile.
Downside? Obviously the expenditure, but I’d also have a spare television, though I’m pretty sure I can find a home for it.
Verdict? I think I’ll get the new TV, as I’m having difficulty coming up with plausible reasons not to!
I’ll have to get a few extra peripherals as well as some form of satellite dish, though the prices on a lot of these things has dropped a lot in recent years.
Other choices are sort of imposed. Yesterday I found out that I’d have to get a lot of the piping for the heating replaced, as it had been patched badly and wouldn’t pass a basic pressure test. Annoying, but there is an upside. With most of the upstairs floor taken up it’s a good excuse to get some ethernet cabling in. I had been thinking about doing it, but with the floor already up it makes sense to take advantage of it.
All of the above came to light as the gas installer was working on upgrading the heating system.. I hadn’t been planning on upgrading the heating immediately, but it looks like the 2010 freeze caused a whole load of issues in the house which were only half fixed .. So my hand was forced.
As the house came furnished I’d originally thought I’d hold off on replacing the beds in the spare rooms for a few months, but the more I looked at them the more I realised that they simply had to go. To start with I’ve never liked divan style beds. In the end I decided that I’d replace the spare beds with a couple of solid oak beds. They look good and since they’re not divan style there’ll be storage space underneath them. The video below gives a feel for the style:
So the big challenge was getting rid of the beds that were in the house (all four of them, as I have a bed for my own room and I’m turning the downstairs bedroom into my home office / study) as well as the 3 piece suite from hell. Luckily one of the local charities takes furniture and sent a truck around to collect everything, which also helped get rid of a load of stuff that I’d have had difficulty off loading (the demand for CRT TV ain’t what it used to be!).
I’m still waiting on a couple of deliveries of sockets, a desk and a few other bits and pieces but the really big challenge will be packing up all my books and clothes and actually moving!
Leave a Reply