When we moved to this house, the first room we “hit” was the living room/diner. It had a pinky-red carpet, and a horiffic read painted, wooden hearth under the gas fire. We liked neither. The hearth was removed with a hammer (Thankyou Kristofer!), and carpet was removed and replaced with “wood effect” vinyl. Even if I say so myself, it looks good. Very good match for the real wood flooring in the hall.
Why do this? Simple! BABIES. Well, Toddlers now (where did the time go?!). Toddlers are by nature messy. Food gets dropped, wee happens, and so on. With a carpet, it’s a small pain. With Vinyl, it’s a towel and forget it. Better.
Secondarily, it makes cleaning easier. If you recall, we have 3 cats. Hex, Fudge and Crumble. They’re lovely. They all shed fur, but in that respect Fudgie is TERRIBLE. He sheds his white coat oh-so easily. It drives us mad – it did in the cottage as well..continual battle against cat-fur.
So..given that working+toddler = little time to vaccum except weekends, I went on a hunt for a way to make it less of a bind and reduce Jem’s stress levels. Enter our trusty Roomba! I took delivery of him a week or so ago, from the US.
For those who don’t know – a Roomba is a robotic Vacuum Cleaner. Think of an oversized frisbee that’s about 10cm high, with a button on the top marked “Clean”. and you have an idea. I’ve bene watching them with interest for a few years, and now I had the perfect excuse to indulge my geek. So..baulking at the cost of £300 for the newer models, for tech I’ve never used that may or may not do the job, I went on a hunt. I got this Roomba for around £150. It’s a 400 series, so an older unit. It lacks the self-charging “home base” dock, or the virtual walls, or the scheduler function that automates it’s cleaning cycle when you’re at work.
However, the base and scheduling remote are available as upgrades, which is tempting.
So far, I’m very pleased. Put him on the floor, press “Clean”, and off he wanders. He’s managed the living room/diner, hall and kitchen easily on a charge. The stuff he picks up is quite scary – OK, he’s no Dyson, but I have a Dyson for that. He’s damn effective though. Cathair, food, crumbs, paper scraps, exploding floor cake, you name it, he picks it up. Literally it’s a case of “unplug charger, put Roomba in room to clean, push “clean”, walk away”.
We use him to clean while we’re at work – it makes the whole thing effortless. On Sunday we were in the garden all day, having fun in the sun. Roomba did the ground floor, and then I moved him upstairs and the bedroom/landing, bathroom and even Izzys playroom got hoovered. Under the beds, everywhere. I had to empty him a few times, but it was an odd feeling knowing that the housework was being done, without us being involved. Love it. Izzy’s getitng used to him, the cats are a bit unsure. The gas meter reading guy was rather surprised when it shot past him on a mission.
I can highly recommend a Roomba – and that’s not just my inner geek talking..;)
Second Recommendation –
He came out on Friday to service our boiler. When I got there, it was in peices, on a dust sheet. Every bit was being cleaned carefully, checked, greased, reassembled and tested. By all accounts, it was well and truly overdue for a service, and in a bit of a state. The level of detail, stripdown and care given to the job was frankly impressive, and from me, this is no small compliment.
He was polite, cheerful, and when asked about the boiler, condition thereof, practicality of changing it for a combi etc, he gave an honest opinion. By all accounts the Bermuda backboilers are a thing of simplicity, and built like a brick toilet, capable of LONG periods of good service (talking 30 years or more), and not worth replacing for a “modern” unit with a design life of 10 years max, really.
BG etc will try to get you buy a new boiler, as Bermudas are old, non-efficient..think 80% max, and apt to not go boing as often as other types, due to the lack of moving parts and complex bits, so less callouts and revenue for them I suspect.
He also checked for adequate ventilation, advised about a CO detector (got one already), and once it was all reassembled, it even got a wipe down!
It’s far happier, quieter, and I daresay running a fair bit better post-service. I certainly feel happier about it.
Total cost? £55 for the serice, both of boiler and firefront. Can’t beat that with a stick.
Consider the first company that came out…£80 to tell me it was broken and mis-diagnose the fault, then leave me hanging for a week. Then a further £80 to do a service, that would, I bet, not have been as in depth as the one it recieved.
I know who I’ll be calling in 12 months time.
