On TV - see where all your advice went... *LINK*

[Anonymous]

Hello peeps, Have been very busy on the house for ages. We have voluntarily been under the cosh of the Brighton TV thing we found on this site about being on TV. Not for the fame, but because Marianne Suhr of SPAB was running it. We wanted (and got in plenty) all her good networking and experienced advice. If any of you are interested, as lots of advice came from you too, the prog is on Discovery realtime on Thursdays at 10pm, and repeated on Sundays at 6pm. It is called Project Restoration and we feature on three episodes starting on April 27th. The prog. looks very interesting anyway, some of the other contributors are seriously brave...have a look on the link...

Meanwhile Vincent and I are taking a restoration break until it gets warmer, and being lazy, just landscaping the garden instead!!!! Well out of the cameras eye...which is where we will stay.

Thanks everyone for all the help. I shall be back for more advice no doubt, in the next stint.

Frances



www.realtimetv.co.uk/projectrestoration/index.shtm

 

[Anonymous]

Well it all sounds fascinating - but I can't get Discovery! (Or even Channel 5!)

Great though that progress is being made.

The link to the progs - I must admit when you read the descriptions it's not actually designed to encourage, is it?

Are we mad?

 

[Anonymous]

Are we mad?
I take it you're being rhetorical m'dear; of course we're mad. Mad as bloody rats. What sane person would eschew uPVC, Gyproc, OPC and all modern conveniences to take on the care of an old wreck?
And that heavens for that. Not so much for the caring for wrecks, but for the madness. Mad people are far more fun. Imagine a life of dull conformity twitching the net curtains in Acacia Avenue while awaiting some vulgar little tumour. Far better to live a full life, put back as much as you take out and fall eventually to hypothermia induced by getting rat-4rsed and falling into a ditch on your 100th birthday.
Let's celebrate the mad ones!

 

[Anonymous]

SO it was you who took our place!!!!! We very nearly made it onto the programme, what was for us was the age, what needed doing and we had a moat, what was against us was the number of people who were much closer who also had applied.
In the mean time I'll set a reminder in Outlook.
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[Anonymous]

Didn't mean to nick anyone's place...they are still looking for people according to the web page. As for mad....I will go for that anyday....except sheer exhaustion nearly put Vincent in hospital. If one was going to get ratted and fall in the ditch, then it would certainly be one we had dug ourselves.

I think we need a general questionaire to find out if we are all mad and/or a certain 'type'....What would the questions be? Something along these lines....

1) How many of us were 'baddies' when younger
2) Are we good at working for others or self empoyed
3) Have we been fanatical about something (like toy soldiers, or stamp collecting) in the past
4) Who was a rebel at school
5) Maybe too telling, but who tried drugs and/or alcohol in larger than normal quantities?
6) Are we all Virgoan or obsessed

...Or are we just plain barking? Do we need an answer?

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, barking and Scorpio! Mad as a bag of ferrets!

Rat arsed? That's for me...

 

[Anonymous]

Don't worry about being out of pocket though....they only paid £200! But it paid for 4/5ths of the beam over the fireplace....so better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Not that we did it for the dosh though, more because we hadn't got a clue where to begin. It certainly shouldn't have been the kitchen, more like drains, guttering and shoring up a large bulge, or the leaning gable to name but a few....but I had to feed the kids somewhere.
If you go to the link they are still looking, but are you so far?

 

[Anonymous]

We are in Staffordshire. I've emailed and spoken tm several times, so I don't think there is much chance of getting them here, but I will investigate.
Can you post more info on what they've done, what they get you to do, how long they are with you etc etc....

Graham

 

[Anonymous]

When I first applied, we hadn't been here long, and they didn't get back to us for 6 months. By which time we had ripped out the old 50's kitchen the day before they rang.
They have been here 6 times over 6 months and wanted to film total ignorami finding their feet. We are both practical but had never taken on something as large as this before.
I think we are rather small fry next to their other big projects.

I have to admit that we hadn't considered restoration matters as seriously as wanting the sheer space with three kids. We couldn't have afforded this if it hadn't been on the BAR register anyway! You gets what you pays for in this world.

They wanted us to be filmed learning old crafts, and doing things up the original way. We were fully up for this, which is why we wanted the contact because we didn't really know where to start, and we hadn't got any restoration money so had to do everything ourselves anyway - not the way you're meant to do it!

 

[Anonymous]

You definately took our spot then, as the first thing we wanted to do was change our early 60's kitchen and we had just moved in, have been here a few days over 1 year now. We also had no experience in old style ways, we also wanted the contacts to help us on our way.
We also blew our budget buying this house, although ours isn't registered in any way. Luckily for us though my wife's business has taken off and we now have enough income to pay for the things we want to do, but are tackling them ourselves as it is so gratifying and getting somebody else to do what you want and take care of what you have is so hard.

Our biggest help has come from SPAB, can't believe how good they are. We joined as we were so grateful to them. Then from the little time I've been visiting here I've learnt so much from reading the posts and looking at others websites, such as Biff's etc and then visiting the sites recommended by the likes of Evelyn etc..........

Good luck with the rest of the project, I look forward to hearing more from you.

I looked at discovery real time, but ours seems to finish at some time in the afternoon, I'll have to dig up a guide and see if it's on at all.

Graham

 

[Anonymous]

Oi - taking a break?!!

On the website is says that your life is "incredibly busy" and you are a "supermum".

I don't think that ties in with statements like "taking a break" and "being lazy"!

Get your noses back to that grindstone!

(I think I've just used up my annual allocation of exclamation marks)

 

[Anonymous]

So - your wife is earning the money to allow you to play with your restoration project, eh?!

If she ever gets tired of you, mention my name to her, would you?!

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[Anonymous]

I think the incredibly busy supermum must be one of the others.... I'm an incredibly busy forgetful mum and our house looks like a pigsty most of the time. Only the bit in front of the camera was tidy!!!!

I saw a mug once that said a clean house was a sign of a wasted life! My sort of wasted has more to do with a wine bottle.

Back to landscaping the garden and planting the spuds then...am I allowed?

 

[Anonymous]

I'll allow that, but you must get the TV company to review their website copy!

On the other hand, if you grow your own spuds too, maybe you *are* a supermum!

 

[Anonymous]

I had another look and I can't see the reference to a supermum. You're just after my spuds!

You can have some jerusalem (f)artichokes, i've got a few hundred. I didn't realize how many grew from one....or their after effects either....maybe this could relate to the question on green heating...