Dave has moved!

[gunrock]

So Dave, does that mean no more primrosebank.net (unless you moved into the house next door )

Upsizing, downsizing, sideways-shifting, relocating, emigrating, repossession, changed-profession? What's happened?


...sorry, it's been a bit slow around here recently

[Dave]

Hi Steve,

Not quite next door - approximately 40 miles away, Primrosebank.net will reman though - it’s too much hassle to change, particularly as my email address is linked to it.

OK, . . . Likely too much information for most people, who should look away now, , but, since you asked . . . .

Some 10 years ago I managed to get myself fitted for a wheelchair. Whilst I am quite mobile at present, in the longer term, a two story house was going to prove difficult, so we planned to make some changes. The house at Primrosebank was nice enough, but its biggest plus point was its great location with pretty amazing views.

Until my accident, it was supposed to be our “forever” home and we really wanted to stay at the location. Initially, the idea was to do some major adaptations, but eventually decided that a complete demolition and rebuild was called for. We have spent the last 4 years working through the planning and building warrant processes to the point where we had a house ready to build, “just” needing the appointment of demo and construction contractors. However, for a number of reasons, including architect and engineer incompetence, the project turned out not to be viable. We wasted a lot of time trying to make it work before we decided that we needed to give up and move on.

So, we started looking for a nice house out in the country, to the west of Aberdeen. Most of the nice places that we found were unsuitable but we eventually found a place that we really liked. As it turns out, it’s not exactly suitable at the moment either, but has lots of scope to make the changes that I need - with a different architect obviously ! Oh, and it has lots of scope for “play” rooms too

So, we bought the new place a month ago - probably at the property peak, just before the UK economy took a nose dive, but hey-ho . . .

Oh well onto new challenges - the current one being to get BT/Openreach to deliver the promised broadband connection which is proving to be harder than they said!

The other immediate challenge is getting all my retro kit, including MTX/MFX stuff, out of the host of boxes scattered around the place!

Regards
Dave

[Martin A]

And sadly the BT/openreach issue will likely prevent Dave from joining in for a chat on Saturday

[1024MAK]

No 4G mobile coverage?

Mark

[Dave]

No 4G mobile coverage?

Mark

Very iffy, there’s a couple of places where, if I hold the phone high up, close to the window, I can occasionally get a weak 4G signal, but it’s pretty hopeless. (Typing this on 2 bars of 3G which comes and goes too.)

BT are sending me a 4G mini hub as a stopgap, but I don’t expect it to be able to get a decent signal. (It’s a tiny, portable device that doesn’t even have an external antenna.)

A far cry from the fibre optic broadband they promised for two weeks ago!

Regards
Dave

[gunrock]

Sorry to hear of your accident, Dave. I hope the move and subsequent renovation goes well. My father had a life-changing accident when I was a toddler and he missed the opportunity to move to a bungalow while he still could and it was a decision that, well, if he didn't regret it, my mum certainly did (she wasn't a fan of the stairlift!). He just had too much "man stuff" (3 sheds and a garage) to move and he had things as he liked and I think he wasn't up to starting over. I think you have made a good decision.

Hope the fiber turns up soon. Being without t'internet is surprisingly difficult to cope with.

[Martin A]

Poor Dave, he was lamenting in an e-mail the other day about that because of the pitch of the roof, the prospective MTXcave over the garage wasn't 40 foot by 30, but "only" has a workable footprint of 40 x 18

Alas, he's going to be stuck trying to fit his 194 MTX's and all the other computers into a footprint that only marginally bigger than my entire victorian terrace's 36 x 15.

Parhaps he should have tried a few miles further west, I understand there's a fair sized place a bit further out, with all mod cons, that's just had a chnage of owner.

[Dave]

Alas, he's going to be stuck trying to fit his 194 MTX's and all the other computers into a footprint that only marginally bigger than my entire victorian terrace's 36 x 15.

?

[Dave]

My father had a life-changing accident when I was a toddler and he missed the opportunity to move to a bungalow while he still could and it was a decision that, well, if he didn't regret it, my mum certainly did (she wasn't a fan of the stairlift!).

When we were looking at alternatives, a bungalow was the preferred option, but we didn’t see anything that we fancied. We liked some of the old farm cottage (steading) conversions, but a surprising number have multiple levels - even when listed as “single story”, the conversions often have relatively minor, but still inconvenient internal floor level changes.

This place doesn’t need much refurbishment as such, the big missing is a lift, which, due to the house having underfloor heating throughout, will need an external shaft, but it should be relatively easy to do.

I can understand why your dad didn’t want to move. It sounds like I have much less than he did, but moving all my “man stuff” was a pain - still, I do have plenty of places to put it once I get round to unpacking

Yes, not having internet is a really painful experience!

Regards
Dave

[Martin A]

Parhaps he should have tried a few miles further west, I understand there's a fair sized place a bit further out, with all mod cons, that's just had a chnage of owner.

For those that didn't get the reference, the Royal residence at Balmoral Castle is in Aberdeenshire, and that is also west of Aberdeen.