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The grumpy thread


outlaw118

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12 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Bloody used car prices for early Jeep Cherokees.  I really thought the current fuel pricing uncertainty would have hurt their values a bit... really doesn't look like it based on the prices they're still going for it seems.  Whole market is nuts at the moment, but I really thought thirsty motors like that might have dropped a bit.

Oh well...I can keep periodically window shopping I guess.

Banger racers are paying good money, so the cheaper ones disappear fast 

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Turns out that the frame of the roof light over our upstairs landing is rotten and needs to be replaced.  Great.  Plus despite being quite careful they managed to punch a couple of holes in the surrounding ceiling plaster when removing it to replace the surrounding roof.

Wonderful.

*Adds "get upstairs ceiling plaster repaired" to the never ending to do list.*

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7 minutes ago, chadders said:

You've never had anything like this done before on an oldish house have you? Punching  a couple of holes is far better than the ceiling collapsing.

For example our kitchen ceiling was supported by 2 narrow gauge railway rails and we had cupboards mounted in front of other ones. That was just the beginning.

Nope.

Well yes...but in >100 year old houses where we already had the ceilings down beforehand and everything was already being replaced wholesale anyway.  This is the first time we've had any substantial work done on something from the 80s.

It's a small niggle in the grand scheme of things, just would have been nice if the to do list wouldn't keep gaining additional items!

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Speaking of old houses. Got a knock in the kitchen as I was having my porridge early this morn. I live in a mid terrace 1890s build Yorkshire stone house

Neighbours are getting an extension done, which is fine, so have had the groundworkers out to do foundations and drainage. 

We share some of the common drainage system as there used to be a shared outhouse in neighbours garden. My sink drainage comes out of a Victorian glazed 6-7 inch pipe and merges into the common larger glazed clay waste pipe that drains to the street sewer. 

Turns out when the fence was done back a few years back pre-dating all our ownership, they drove the concrete fence post through our sink drain and filled it up with postcrete. My sink/washing machine now just drains into neighbours garden. 

Now left with a £600 bill to hand dig new drainage and install a better system for the front of the house. Surprise bills. Yay. Glad I'd a few pounds put away, rainy day funds. 

Couldn't really put this one off. Neighbours have the ground dug up waiting... 

I want to meet which cowboy who dug a fence hole, felt the drain and then continued to put a post through the drain and then concrete it up. Continued to cover that up and left it for someone else to find and fix. 😔

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https://youtu.be/CAIq20Lptg0

this is one i had today

two women, i'd say in their late 60s in the car.....couldn't get it into gear, i suspected the clutch has gone

anyway, look at all the people who just drove round them......they'd been there for 10 minutes at that point

sorry the camera cut off, but i helped them and pushed them to the side of the road

i feel quite bad as i didn't have a tow rope in the car, as i'd have towed them to the halfords autocentre down the road to get it sorted

but i feel quite good about it

i mean seriously, does no one help anyone?

it took me a few minutes and honestly, why wouldn't you

 

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1 minute ago, maxxo said:

i mean seriously, does no one help anyone?

The risk here is that you make yourself vulnerable to accusations by others.

Push a car to the side of the road?  "You've dented the body"

Tow a car to help someone out?  They fail to brake in time and smash into the back of you.  You now have endless shit to deal with and increased insurance premiums.

Car breakdowns are just nowhere near as common as they once were, meaning people are not attuned to helping others out, and if they do, they put themselves at risk.  I have to say, I'd think twice these days.

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1 minute ago, Talbot said:

The risk here is that you make yourself vulnerable to accusations by others.

Push a car to the side of the road?  "You've dented the body"

Tow a car to help someone out?  They fail to brake in time and smash into the back of you.  You now have endless shit to deal with and increased insurance premiums.

Car breakdowns are just nowhere near as common as they once were, meaning people are not attuned to helping others out, and if they do, they put themselves at risk.  I have to say, I'd think twice these days.

i just didn't think twice about it really

as i say i wish i'd have done more and maybe pushed them round the corner, but just wanted to help them quickly

i'll do it again tomorrow if needs be

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Don't get me wrong, I'd likely have assisted too.  I think the point I'm making is just be careful.  You don't want to end up liable for something that wasn't your fault or even your issue.

Thusly: https://www.thejournal.ie/crash-leitrim-emergency-services-car-paul-egan-3234577-Feb2017/

Not the first time I've heard of that happening.. it's a story that happens time and time again.

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13 minutes ago, Talbot said:

The risk here is that you make yourself vulnerable to accusations by others.

Push a car to the side of the road?  "You've dented the body"

Tow a car to help someone out?  They fail to brake in time and smash into the back of you.  You now have endless shit to deal with and increased insurance premiums.

Car breakdowns are just nowhere near as common as they once were, meaning people are not attuned to helping others out, and if they do, they put themselves at risk.  I have to say, I'd think twice these days.

I think you did the right thing, well done. Even if you had a tow rope handy I wouldn't have offered unless they were proficient in the art of towing. There is a knack to it and I wouldn't entrust it to somebody who's never done it. So I think you did the right thing just getting them out of the way.  

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11 minutes ago, maxxo said:

i just didn't think twice about it really

as i say i wish i'd have done more and maybe pushed them round the corner, but just wanted to help them quickly

i'll do it again tomorrow if needs be

Last time I stopped to offer assistance to someone who had broken down (halfway round a busy roundabout), they threatened to "f**ing kill me if I didn't f*** off and mind my own f***ing business." at the top of their lungs. Several times over, and then followed me on foot gesticulating wildly at me as I left.

The other that springs to mind was a lady in a Range Rover Velar.  Again, awkward location.  Quick assessment - "Looks like you're out of fuel.  When did you last put any in?" Me wondering if the gauge could be on the blink.

"You have to put fuel in it?"

"Um...yes..."

"Oh, my husband does all that dirty stuff..."

"...Do you have breakdown cover?"

"No idea...what's that?"

This was about the point at which I noticed that the cords on the front tyres were visible.  At that point I politely suggested they phone their husband, excused myself and walked away.

I'm not getting any more entangled in that in case it turned out that her understanding of insurance, tax or MOT was as thorough as how to read a fuel gauge.  Plus it had an electronic handbrake which I had not the foggiest idea how to release without the engine running so couldn't have helped shift it anyway.

Did have one a year or so back which went okay - aside from not even getting a begrudging thank you for having given them a jump start on an absolute stinker of a January evening with sideways rain.

 

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18 hours ago, Talbot said:

The risk here is that you make yourself vulnerable to accusations by others.

Push a car to the side of the road?  "You've dented the body"

Tow a car to help someone out?  They fail to brake in time and smash into the back of you.  You now have endless shit to deal with and increased insurance premiums.

Car breakdowns are just nowhere near as common as they once were, meaning people are not attuned to helping others out, and if they do, they put themselves at risk.  I have to say, I'd think twice these days.

I get what you're saying but I'd always stop to offer help (and always have done). I used to do a long commute and if I spotted someone stranded I'd always slow down and ask if they needed help or had been able to call someone. If my mrs was stranded and couldn't use her phone for whatever reason then I'd hope that someone would stop to ask if she's ok.

I wouldn't tow someone for the reasons you mentioned, towing my Favorit with my mrs piloting it resulted in the towing eye getting ripped off and her rolling to a stop in a (quiet) junction. It did not improve our relationship.

I have changed tyres etc. for stranded giffers - a while back an elderly lady in a Volvo gave me a crate of Guinness for changing her tyre when I refused money. Probably should have refused the beer but I'm a weak man. I picked up an elderly lady who was walking down the carriageway of an NSL road a few years back as well, after seeing the 2 cars in front of me swerve round her on a bend. Was worried she'd get splatted if I didn't go back and abduct rescue her. Couldn't bear it if I read the local news and saw she'd come to harm and I'd just driven by.

So far nobody has scuttled me for helping, so I'm sure next time I'll end up wearing it now I've posted this!

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7 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I wouldn't tow someone for the reasons you mentioned, towing my Favorit with my mrs piloting it resulted in the towing eye getting ripped off and her rolling to a stop in a (quiet) junction. It did not improve our relationship.

I absolutely have to recount a story from many years back:  Walking into town at lunchtime from college in about 1992, saw a husband-and-wife combo trying to tow a Rover 800 with a Skoda Estelle.  The lady hadn't a clue what she was doing and he was even worse (as he thought he knew, but blatantly didn't).

There was a mass of slack in the rope, which wasn't taken up gently.. the Lady driving the Skoda just pulled away as normal.  When the rope went taught it jerked the Rover forward about 500mm, and proceeded to rip the nearside driveshaft out of the Skoda, as they'd used that as the anchor point.  Both vehicles came to a very undignified stop.

I looked on, pulled a "oooh, that's not good" face, and kept walking.  The ensuing argument behind me was probably audible for about 3 miles around.  Still makes me wince to think of the force needed to pull a driveshaft clean out of a car!

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18 hours ago, maxxo said:

https://youtu.be/CAIq20Lptg0

this is one i had today

two women, i'd say in their late 60s in the car.....couldn't get it into gear, i suspected the clutch has gone

anyway, look at all the people who just drove round them......they'd been there for 10 minutes at that point

sorry the camera cut off, but i helped them and pushed them to the side of the road

i feel quite bad as i didn't have a tow rope in the car, as i'd have towed them to the halfords autocentre down the road to get it sorted

but i feel quite good about it

i mean seriously, does no one help anyone?

it took me a few minutes and honestly, why wouldn't you

 

Well done for helping out👍🏻
Being towed in a car by a rope or chain is actually quite a horrible experience and a lot  of people tend to panic and slam on the brakes steer round the tow car etc unless i know the person you are towing is 100% up to it it’s really not worth the risk .

You shouldn’t feel bad at all, I think you went above and beyond by pushing them out of harms way 👍🏻

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21 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Turns out that the frame of the roof light over our upstairs landing is rotten and needs to be replaced.  Great.  Plus despite being quite careful they managed to punch a couple of holes in the surrounding ceiling plaster when removing it to replace the surrounding roof.

Wonderful.

*Adds "get upstairs ceiling plaster repaired" to the never ending to do list.*

Yep...roof light itself is also fscked on closer examination.  *Adds somewhere another grand to the running total.*

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2 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Yep...roof light itself is also fscked on closer examination.  *Adds somewhere another grand to the running total.*

This is probably why no one wanted to quote for it 😂

The unexpected thing here I guess is you willing to chuck money at it now to fix it forever rather than blaming the builders for finding it

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13 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

This is probably why no one wanted to quote for it 😂

The unexpected thing here I guess is you willing to chuck money at it now to fix it forever rather than blaming the builders for finding it

They're just doing what we've asked them to.  I'd far rather know about it and have it fixed properly than to work round it and hide it.  They seem to be doing a pretty decent job so far.  

I'd budgeted somewhere in the region of £30K for this in my head, and I think +/- a couple of grand we're going to be pretty much on that.  The only thing which might tip it over is tiles - we've needed a LOT more replaced than had been hoped originally and that adds up quickly.

We're at the "putting stuff back together" phase now, so *hopefully* there's no further headaches to be found...

...What do we bet I get a phone call in 15 minutes telling me the roof light is an oddball size and it will cost me three grand to replace?

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