swingers parties
Country living and an aga
- Thread starter Dr House
- Start date
swingers parties
Ref internet - a friend of mine ended up getting some small company to install fibre as broadband via the phone line was utter **** where he lived. Might be worth looking into seeing if there is some alternative service that will cover where you live. Potentially will cost you $$$$ though....
I looked into satellite broadband for one place - fairly costly and capped too
Caporegime
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isnt it tea rooms in the country, run by people called Mrs Bakewell and her sister Gladys?
Soldato
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- 13 Apr 2013
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- La France
After living in central london with a small child we decided to move to the countryside (better paying job also)
I’m living in a old Converted barn Which is pretty cool but costs a fortune in oil to heat up and has very slow Internet.
It’s got this huge Aga which just seems a bit pointless. It has Half a dozen ovens which I don’t think you can actually set the temperature on and two oversize hot plates that also do not have a temperature control.
But on the upside I have enough parking to start a small car dealership.
The second positive point is that this place costs about the same as my one bedroom london flat.
What do people do in their free time out here? Not many coffee shops around
Do you have any land? Does the house need any repairs? If the answer to either of those is “Yes”, that’s what you’ll be doing.
We keep it ourselves, don't want it spoiled any further.After living in central london with a small child we decided to move to the countryside (better paying job also)
I’m living in a old Converted barn Which is pretty cool but costs a fortune in oil to heat up and has very slow Internet.
It’s got this huge Aga which just seems a bit pointless. It has Half a dozen ovens which I don’t think you can actually set the temperature on and two oversize hot plates that also do not have a temperature control.
But on the upside I have enough parking to start a small car dealership.
The second positive point is that this place costs about the same as my one bedroom london flat.
What do people do in their free time out here? Not many coffee shops around
But walk your dog to the local and be care free.
A little but not lots, the house does not need much doing but im thinking about a small vegetable patch, there is a big pound out front so I'm keen to get some ducks lol
Actually so far we are loving it, my GF comes from a farming family so it's nothing new to her. We kept the place in London so I can still go back from time to time.
The aga is not really used for heating as we have UFH thought which is oil powered but its quite a big area to heat
The 4G is quite good out here strangely so if the BT broadband is not working out then we will switch to that.
Im hoping to find places to walk, my GF and I walk at last 10km per day in London if I'm not working, normally just around the river or to one of the parks and back.
It’s so nice to have a bit of space again, we lived in a lovely area before but 1 bedroom with a baby is a pain.
That’s dining area. Lots of cool old oak beams
Caporegime
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- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
I'd keep the Aga for that space, it will be great in the winter.
Man of Honour
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- 11 Dec 2002
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- Darkest Norfolk
is that you posting on the bottom left? nice looking barn, office on the balcony?
Yep that’s the plan. 2 desks and a small sofa. I have exams coming so again it’s nice to have a dedicated space.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Aug 2004
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- 7,607
If you end up keeping ducks, you can introduce them to the aga at some point too!
They are particularly great if you are in a location where power cuts may be likley, especially in the winter.
If I had one, it would have to be a solid fuel or oil one, both of which should be able to operate even if there is no electricity (I dont know about Ags since I have never seen one in pieces. But I know somebody with a similar type of oil stove and basically, it is just a big paraffin heater with a wick sitting in a pool of oil fed by gravity from the fuel tank! Very simple and reliable. All you need to do is trim the wick once every couple of months or so.)
Aga cooking is all about using the ovens. You are only supposed to use the hotplates sparingly since they lose too much heat too quickly. (Although, is that an electric hob on the left?)
Aga's etc basically work as storage heaters, a constant low level heat input maintaining a constant temperature through the day.
The "cool" ovens are particularly good for reviving hypothermic Lambs/Cats/Puppies/Etc though you have to make sure that you dont forget about them!
Thing is you cant beat opening the back door at 2300 and not hearing anything apart from the wind, just utter silence and maybe the odd animal kicking off.
AGAs are pain in the ass yet so lovely, when we lived in the sticks we ripped it out, biggest thing we noticed was not having warm plates, or somewhere to hang damp tea towls
AGAs are pain in the ass yet so lovely, when we lived in the sticks we ripped it out, biggest thing we noticed was not having warm plates, or somewhere to hang damp tea towls
Why don't you use all that spare time to learn to share photos bigger than a postage stamp?
You can learn about coffee and why most of the stuff that they sell in coffee shops is mainly over-priced floor sweepings. Then you can roast your own beans, buy a decent burr grinder and brew your own. Sitting smug infront of your Aga that finally you got to drink decent coffee in peace without being surrounded by hipsters who set up their apple-camps and trendy mummy's with their hyperactive children running around screaming. Plus you always get to sit on the sofa and you get to drink coffee out of a normal size mug and not a bucket with a handle or paper cup with some Gaelic or Hebrew spelling of your name on it.
The trouble with townies is they think the countryside is so tranquil and quiet. - Try having a lie in with tractors running round a field at bottom of garden at 5.00am or like us now blasting past on the road out front - Then don't forget the every other sunday clay shoot or Motocross/go-carts event or the airplane the sky divers use droning all day Sat and Sunday. The worst thing is the townies complain to environmental department at the council and get things stopped on noise -Only been there a month -- Well excuse me didn't you check before you purchased.
When it's freezing cold a AGA is the best thing to lean on when you get home. - Mate in Wolverhampton has one on 24-7 -365 -it is gas fired.
When it's freezing cold a AGA is the best thing to lean on when you get home. - Mate in Wolverhampton has one on 24-7 -365 -it is gas fired.
When did Wolverhampton become the sticks ????
We are just coming up to 2 years living in our converted barn..... a similar situation to yourself Dr.House.
What you write is incredibly familiar! The poor internet speeds, an initially intimidating aga but also maintaining a country property. The aga is now great, we all love it. I promised myself I wasn't going to be one of these smug country folk with an Aga... but it is fantastic and I wouldn't swap it out. In fact we are currently re-doing the entire kitchen and the aga remains the centre and focal point. That said, the thing was nearly unbearable during the heat-wave last year so we are going to get a small electric oven added to the new kitchen so we can turn off the aga next summer. We were hitting 40 degrees inthe kitchen during the day last summer. For the remaining 48 weeks of the year when the UK isn't that warm the aga is brilliant.
As for what to do.... I feel like a walking cliche - but as already featured in this thread, I brew beer, I brew different wines, I have now two smokers. We also have 2 veg patches and a green house and probably provided maybe 60% of our fresh veg in the last 12 months. We do a lot more community involved things with the local village and schools, I mountain bike, the boy and I go "rambling"... generally spend a lot mroe time outdoors mucking around and exploring.
Downsides are that is is more expensive to run a home like this.... we ran out of heating oil on the first two opportunities that we could have. After 2 years running the place we are better at being more efficient at using the heating oil. Having off mains sewage also brings its own challenges.... and is an eye opener at jsut how much waste water/sewage a small family can generate. General repairs, maintenance and upkeep are higher as well.... but at two years in I don't think we would ever move again.
Oh yes.... the internet. We had a 2mb connection for the first 6 months. After nearly weekly calling to BT and anyone else I could find we finally got the line upgraded to 20mb (its meant to be 70mb but 20mb is the best that we get and suffices). The government is meant to be upgrading all lines by whatever date, I don;t know if my reminding BT of this so regularly helped but it felt like a mini-victory.
What you write is incredibly familiar! The poor internet speeds, an initially intimidating aga but also maintaining a country property. The aga is now great, we all love it. I promised myself I wasn't going to be one of these smug country folk with an Aga... but it is fantastic and I wouldn't swap it out. In fact we are currently re-doing the entire kitchen and the aga remains the centre and focal point. That said, the thing was nearly unbearable during the heat-wave last year so we are going to get a small electric oven added to the new kitchen so we can turn off the aga next summer. We were hitting 40 degrees inthe kitchen during the day last summer. For the remaining 48 weeks of the year when the UK isn't that warm the aga is brilliant.
As for what to do.... I feel like a walking cliche - but as already featured in this thread, I brew beer, I brew different wines, I have now two smokers. We also have 2 veg patches and a green house and probably provided maybe 60% of our fresh veg in the last 12 months. We do a lot more community involved things with the local village and schools, I mountain bike, the boy and I go "rambling"... generally spend a lot mroe time outdoors mucking around and exploring.
Downsides are that is is more expensive to run a home like this.... we ran out of heating oil on the first two opportunities that we could have. After 2 years running the place we are better at being more efficient at using the heating oil. Having off mains sewage also brings its own challenges.... and is an eye opener at jsut how much waste water/sewage a small family can generate. General repairs, maintenance and upkeep are higher as well.... but at two years in I don't think we would ever move again.
Oh yes.... the internet. We had a 2mb connection for the first 6 months. After nearly weekly calling to BT and anyone else I could find we finally got the line upgraded to 20mb (its meant to be 70mb but 20mb is the best that we get and suffices). The government is meant to be upgrading all lines by whatever date, I don;t know if my reminding BT of this so regularly helped but it felt like a mini-victory.