I love it here, but I need a rant...

LOL camasato.

That is good info CB!

Unfortunately, my ILs can't quite make the logic leap of insulation equaling saved energy, so its wasted on them, but I am sort of glad in this instance. The constant damp + mold means that I get bad allergies from visiting the ILs. Perfect excuse to spend less time with them 

You do find with a lot of the older houses that putting insulation in actually means you keep the damp in, rather than letting it escape through all the cracks and crevices.   You then need to proactively find ways to get rid of it in other ways (i.e. humidifiers, open windows, upgrading terrible heating sytems, etc)

You do find with a lot of the older houses that putting insulation in actually means you keep the damp in, rather than letting it escape through all the cracks and crevices.   You then need to proactively find ways to get rid of it in other ways (i.e. humidifiers, open windows, upgrading terrible heating sytems, etc)

THIS! We live in an older semi with double glazing and insulation. We get mold in all the rooms on the upper floors. I have to keep the trickle vents open (lets the heating right out and the cold air in) and we have big hunks of rock salt in bowls in the rooms up there to collect extra moisture out of the air. As soon as the trickle vents get closed (when the wind is howling usually) you can bet within days I will have mold growing. Can't wait till Spring and I can keep the windows open!

You do find with a lot of the older houses that putting insulation in actually means you keep the damp in, rather than letting it escape through all the cracks and crevices.   You then need to proactively find ways to get rid of it in other ways (i.e. humidifiers, open windows, upgrading terrible heating sytems, etc)

They put a huge structure over Rosslyn Chapel so it could dry out properly, because at some point someone put some kind of cement-y white wash on the inside walls to keep out damp, which meant that now moisture would come in from the outside and then just sit there with no where to go and make the stone decay. When living in my end-of-terrace in Bothwell, with the moldiest closet I've ever encountered, I'd often wished for a dry-out structure of my very own! 

You do find with a lot of the older houses that putting insulation in actually means you keep the damp in, rather than letting it escape through all the cracks and crevices.   You then need to proactively find ways to get rid of it in other ways (i.e. humidifiers, open windows, upgrading terrible heating sytems, etc)

And this is why I've had my bedroom windows open every morning in January... 

This thread is cracking me up big time!

My IL's house has double glazing on the windows, doesn't seem to help too much.  Must be dampness trapped inside as the window sills all have mold. 

Also, the double glazing doesn't help much as my FIL will barely turn on the heat so I found out. (I thought the heat output it was on was normal for a radiator as everyone we seem to visit has the radiators barely going.) It is a bit warmer this year as I've figured out the radiators actually can go higher. Last winter (2011's winter) it was just freezing inside and the clothes on the radiator would still be damp five days later and stinking of mold.  This year hubby and I have cranked it up so the clothes dry within a couple hours, tired of rewashing clothes and smelling like a mushroom!

One thing I had never heard about before living here are air bricks. The kitchen was always super cold if no one was in there cooking.  One day I was standing in front of the dishwasher and I could feel a ton of air just blowing in on my leg.  I told my FIL as I thought he might want to investigate why there was air blowing in fairly well into the kitchen.  He explained that since it was so damp they had to have a brick with holes in it on the side of the house to blow in air so the floor boards don't all rot away!  OK...

One thing I had never heard about before living here are air bricks. The kitchen was always super cold if no one was in there cooking.  One day I was standing in front of the dishwasher and I could feel a ton of air just blowing in on my leg.  I told my FIL as I thought he might want to investigate why there was air blowing in fairly well into the kitchen.  He explained that since it was so damp they had to have a brick with holes in it on the side of the house to blow in air so the floor boards don't all rot away!  OK...

I have these in my flat. I didn't know what they were for until now. But if anything, they're basically like a front door to my flat for massive spiders!!

Yep, we have airbricks too on the lower floor. Our kitchen and hallway are ALWAYS FREEZING. It doesn't matter how high the heat is up. The only time the kitchen isn't like an icebox is if I'm in there cooking.

First rule of British housing: fresh air! Lots and lots of fresh freezing air.

I work in retail and I have to say I wouldn't want shops to be open later than they already are.  I really appreciate closing up at 5:00.

Well back to the issue of shop hours:  I worked in retail in the States and it wasn't unusual for a store to be open from 8am to 10pm.  Employee shifts started as early as 5am and ended as late as midnight so that we could clean, stock and prepare for opening hours. Some pharmacies and grocery stores were open 24 hours.

Having worked various shifts, I can attest to the fact that evenings were almost always the busiest; office workers coming in needing things for the next day, perhaps a new outfit for a special meeting or a gift for a party, and families with school kids needing supplies for a project.  Who can wait or be confined to the weekend when their printer runs out of ink and that report has to be printed for the next morning? We are the "now" generation.

Longer opening hours provide more jobs for more people, greater flexibility and consequently a better quality of life. Nobody has to be tied down to the same shift every day and there is flexibility to trade shifts and days when desired.  I preferred working evenings because that gave me the best part of the day to get done what I needed or even spend the day at the beach.    

I also miss screens on sliding windows and garbage disposals!   

Well back to the issue of shop hours:  I worked in retail in the States and it wasn't unusual for a store to be open from 8am to 10pm.  Employee shifts started as early as 5am and ended as late as midnight so that we could clean, stock and prepare for opening hours. Some pharmacies and grocery stores were open 24 hours.

Having worked various shifts, I can attest to the fact that evenings were almost always the busiest; office workers coming in needing things for the next day, perhaps a new outfit for a special meeting or a gift for a party, and families with school kids needing supplies for a project.  Who can wait or be confined to the weekend when their printer runs out of ink and that report has to be printed for the next morning? We are the "now" generation.

Longer opening hours provide more jobs for more people, greater flexibility and consequently a better quality of life. Nobody has to be tied down to the same shift every day and there is flexibility to trade shifts and days when desired.  I preferred working evenings because that gave me the best part of the day to get done what I needed or even spend the day at the beach.    

I've worked retail most of  my life and am very aware of the positives of being able to buy stuff 24 hours a day.  |Of course it works in the US .  In the UK it would work in a big city maybe, but most likely not a small town or village.

At  my job there are only two paid employees per shop (a charity shop)--a manager and an assistant.  So early / late hours before 9 and after 5 does not work.

Re: shop hours - I used to work retail too, and longer opening hours meant more/longer shifts and more money, so I was happy working until 9:30pm. Not really during Christmas when customers acted like animals, but generally yeah. I was a university student though, not someone with a family.

My rants:
1) As above, opening times. Not just for retail but also for call centres. I work until at least 6 every night, so a helpline open from 9-4:30 is NOT helpful (looking at you, UKBA, Council, and energy companies)

2) Again, already mentioned, but the damp. Even in Florida it was not this damp in the house. It's ridiculous.

3) Climate control, or more accurately, the lack of central heating and cooling.

4) The condescending way everyone wants to correct my American pronunciation of things. I said "aluminum" and I meant it.

5) Royal Mail. How on Earth does it take 3 days to send something from London to Herts? I've had things go from Florida to Michigan in 3 days in the US! Also, Royal Mail's AirSure.

6) The cost of living.

7) The tiny amount of living space per capita and the cost of it.

8 The appalling lack of decent crackers. My mom ships me Goldfish, Triscuits, Wheat Thins, Saltines, and Oyster crackers in care packages!

My rant is the constant stream of complaints for it being different in a different country . . .

Sorry, just tired at the moment. Not trying to be a brat.

Can I just say though, most radiators here ARE central heating.  I'm getting really tired of people whinging about no central heating when there is.  It just is a different system than you're used to. Do you have thermostats that help you control the heat or a central boiler system? Then you have central heating. End of.  Central heating doesn't mean just a system that forces hot air through a house, but it's centrally controlled and regulated. Radiators just use water instead of air to do the heating.

You can also turn them up higher.  People in the UK just are more acclimated to not having unnatural amounts of heat at all times in all rooms at the same time. They wear winter clothes in winter and curl up under blankets when watching TV to keep warm.  I always thought it was cold here, but now I laugh as my family visits and shivers in a corner.  I keep my house warmer than my friends, but it seems I've also adjusted to having it set lower than I ever did in the States because I'm not cold like I used to be.

Heh. Just read this whole thread. I've been back in the US for 4 years now but still get homesick for England. This was a little reminder of some of the things that drove me nuts, though!

I used to live in the Kendal town centre. I didn't work so most of the time shopping was fine. But if we needed anything too big to carry, we had to wait until Saturday when the former OH wasn't working, drive in gridlock less than a quarter mile to the sole parking garage, pray for a space, wait for a space, and effectively lose half the day to one relatively small errand.

I still miss it there though!

My rant is the constant stream of complaints for it being different in a different country . . .

Sorry, just tired at the moment. Not trying to be a brat.

Can I just say though, most radiators here ARE central heating.  I'm getting really tired of people whinging about no central heating when there is.  It just is a different system than you're used to. Do you have thermostats that help you control the heat or a central boiler system? Then you have central heating. End of.  Central heating doesn't mean just a system that forces hot air through a house, but it's centrally controlled and regulated. Radiators just use water instead of air to do the heating.

You can also turn them up higher.  People in the UK just are more acclimated to not having unnatural amounts of heat at all times in all rooms at the same time. They wear winter clothes in winter and curl up under blankets when watching TV to keep warm.  I always thought it was cold here, but now I laugh as my family visits and shivers in a corner.  I keep my house warmer than my friends, but it seems I've also adjusted to having it set lower than I ever did in the States because I'm not cold like I used to be.

So true! But I live in the US now in a house built in 1930 with ZERO insulation and oil heat radiators. I am grateful for building up my UK resistance to the cold as we definitely live more like the British in this house. Oil costs a fortune to heat this house properly. We have tons of blankets, fleecy tops, and a few space heaters.

I don't miss forced air heat. The fans are noisy and they are so drying. I would get nosebleeds every winter when I lived in a house with forced air. My son has such dry skin, I dread to think how he's do in a house like that.