Buying a home and don't know how anything works

[Elpenor]

I’ve never slept on a premier inn bed, are they comfy? I’m still not sure about the memory foam Simba mattress I bought. It’s still under warranty for a while so I ought to go and try some other ones out

I stayed a night at the Conrad in London (free night voucher) and the bed was quite nice there.

 

[spanglechick]

I have a tip that may be irrelevant, but it genuinely changed my life and headed off what would certainly have been arthritis in my hip.

I am a side sleeper. I am not light of weight. I am prone to back aches, and was, by my mid thirties having to turn over several times a night because of pain in whichever hip I had been sleeping on.

I’d always thought that soft mattresses were the cause of back problems and aches and pains when sleeping, and so as the pain got worse I bought ever more “orthopaedic” and firmly sprung mattresses. Then in a whim I bought a really thick (3-4 inch) memory foam mattress topper. Not an expensive brand, but thick. And overnight, my sleeping comfort was transformed. The thick foam absorbed my curves and weight much more effectively than my very expensive firm, hand tufted, pocket sprung mattress. My naescent hip arthritis disappeared. I tossed and turned no more. I occasionally even find it comfy enough to find myself asleep on my back without the need to prop my legs up (I have a lordotic spine - meaning an unusually deep inward curve to my lower back. Laying on my back is usually painful because the lower half isn’t in contact with the mattress and so not supporting me at all, unless I bend my legs up sharply, to rotate through the pelvis and push my lower back down).

Anyway. Even if not relevant to the op, I post this in case my experience does ring a bell for anyone. Because it Changed My Life.

 

[danski]

I have a tip that may be irrelevant, but it genuinely changed my life and headed off what would certainly have been arthritis in my hip.

I am a side sleeper. I am not light of weight. I am prone to back aches, and was, by my mid thirties having to turn over several times a night because of pain in whichever hip I had been sleeping on.

I’d always thought that soft mattresses were the cause of back problems and aches and pains when sleeping, and so as the pain got worse I bought ever more “orthopaedic” and firmly sprung mattresses. Then in a whim I bought a really thick (3-4 inch) memory foam mattress topper. Not an expensive brand, but thick. And overnight, my sleeping comfort was transformed. The thick foam absorbed my curves and weight much more effectively than my very expensive firm, hand tufted, pocket sprung mattress. My naescent hip arthritis disappeared. I tossed and turned no more. I occasionally even find it comfy enough to find myself asleep on my back without the need to prop my legs up (I have a lordotic spine - meaning an unusually deep inward curve to my lower back. Laying on my back is usually painful because the lower half isn’t in contact with the mattress and so not supporting me at all, unless I bend my legs up sharply, to rotate through the pelvis and push my lower back down).

Anyway. Even if not relevant to the op, I post this in case my experience does ring a bell for anyone. Because it Changed My Life.

Thank you. Has got me thinking as I am/was a side sleeper but now mainly sleep on my front as it’s become too uncomfortable.

 

[Saffy]

spanglechick you've just described exactly what I've been going through. I bought a really expensive mattress and I was really pissed off that my hip was so painful. Did you have shoulder pain as well?
I'm off to Google memory foam toppers.

 

[danski]

spanglechick you've just described exactly what I've been going through. I bought a really expensive mattress and I was really pissed off that my hip was so painful. Did you have shoulder pain as well?
I'm off to Google memory foam toppers.

Ooh, yeah, shoulder pain here as well.

It’s like a choreographed piece. Every time I wake, I move to the next position.

 

[miss direct]

Well, a friend has offered to come with me for the second viewing. In an ideal world I would take someone useful who knows about DIY but I havent got anyone. Perhaps she can just chat to the estate agent so I can get on with checking everything really carefully

Yay, I will start my list tomorrow!

The Premier Inn mattresses look good. My current mattress is an amazon memory foam one. At first I thought it was great but its now kind of saggy and not firm enough. It will be great to sleep on a harder bed and wake up feeling refreshed rather than back achey.

My previous landlady is giving me a memory foam topper thing which will be really useful to sleep on until I get a bed and also for guests.

 

[spanglechick]

spanglechick you've just described exactly what I've been going through. I bought a really expensive mattress and I was really pissed off that my hip was so painful. Did you have shoulder pain as well?
I'm off to Google memory foam toppers.

Yes, yes! Shoulder pain! I forget about that because it probably wasn’t a precursor for arthritis (my arthritis has matched my mum’s, and other matrilineal relatives, very closely. Except my hip is now fine, while theirs deteriorated in time with the knees. That’s why I’m so sure that the bed thing has been so important. Until I got the topper my hips were as bad as my knees.)

 

[Epona]

I have a tip that may be irrelevant, but it genuinely changed my life and headed off what would certainly have been arthritis in my hip.

I am a side sleeper. I am not light of weight. I am prone to back aches, and was, by my mid thirties having to turn over several times a night because of pain in whichever hip I had been sleeping on.

I’d always thought that soft mattresses were the cause of back problems and aches and pains when sleeping, and so as the pain got worse I bought ever more “orthopaedic” and firmly sprung mattresses. Then in a whim I bought a really thick (3-4 inch) memory foam mattress topper. Not an expensive brand, but thick. And overnight, my sleeping comfort was transformed. The thick foam absorbed my curves and weight much more effectively than my very expensive firm, hand tufted, pocket sprung mattress. My naescent hip arthritis disappeared. I tossed and turned no more. I occasionally even find it comfy enough to find myself asleep on my back without the need to prop my legs up (I have a lordotic spine - meaning an unusually deep inward curve to my lower back. Laying on my back is usually painful because the lower half isn’t in contact with the mattress and so not supporting me at all, unless I bend my legs up sharply, to rotate through the pelvis and push my lower back down).

Anyway. Even if not relevant to the op, I post this in case my experience does ring a bell for anyone. Because it Changed My Life.

I've always been put off memory foam because I heard it gets very warm, and due to night terrors and sleep paralysis I have to be careful to avoid getting hot while I am asleep (as that can be a major trigger). Is that still an issue?

I certainly need something because I am wide across the hips and narrow across the shoulders (more like a wedge of cheese than a pear LOL) and even during times when I am not overweight, I still get arthritic pain in my hips and shoulders after a few hours sleep, meaning I sometimes have to get up even though I am still tired because I have exhausted all comfortable positions for sleep! So I need to try something to help. OH also has severe back issues, so it needs to take him into account too.

 

[Boudicca]

Yes, will echo spanglechick, a softer mattress works much better for me as I have strong curves (well fat arse and wide hips). I cannot lie flat on anything hard as my back screeches with pain.

I have a mattess which is pocket springs with a layer of memory foam. It is indeed hot (my quilt is 4.5 tog) Epona but I put up with it because it is so comfortable otherwise. There are other versions out there with more 'cooling' foam which I will investigate when it it time to replace it.

 

[Epona]

Yes, will echo spanglechick, a softer mattress works much better for me as I have strong curves (well fat arse and wide hips). I cannot lie flat on anything hard as my back screeches with pain.

I have a mattess which is pocket springs with a layer of memory foam. It is indeed hot (my quilt is 4.5 tog) Epona but I put up with it because it is so comfortable otherwise. There are other versions out there with more 'cooling' foam which I will investigate when it it time to replace it.

Ah I can't put up with something that gets hot because sleep disorders are very debilitating and while it might solve one issue of joint comfort and back support, it would cause a different one (night terrors are somewhat related to a type of temporal lobe seizure, and overheating can trigger them). I think once we're looking at ventilated memory foam we are at the price point of a new mattress.

 

[spanglechick]

Yeah. I’m not best placed to judge the heat thing, sorry. 99.9% of the time, because of my hypersomnia, I could be sleeping in a sauna and I wouldn’t notice.

 

[Epona]

Yeah. I’m not best placed to judge the heat thing, sorry. 99.9% of the time, because of my hypersomnia, I could be sleeping in a sauna and I wouldn’t notice.

No worries, you've given great advice and I don't expect you to be able to provide an answer to my particular shitty brain/sleep thing! Love and respect to you

 

[hash tag]

Great advice from spanglechick but I hated memory foam. We had a memory foam mattress which we quickly ditched as we found it uncomfortably hot.

 

[Epona]

Great advice from spanglechick but I think Epona is under playing the warmth of memory foam. We had a memory foam mattress which we quickly ditched as we found it uncomfortably hot.

I'm not underplaying it at all and I don't currently own any memory foam, I was the one asking questions and concerned about it being too hot due to potential of triggering night terrors/sleep paralysis which are a massive problem for me - I think you may have either confused my posts with someone elses or misunderstood my query.

Please remove my name from that allegation.

 

[Looby]

I’ve just got back from Ikea. Little tip, don’t go on your own to buy furniture because flat pack is heavier than it looks. I’m fucked and every part of my body hurts.

 

[scifisam]

I thought about Facebook etc but not having a car means I always have to rely on favours.

There are plenty of wooden bed frames in the local BHF furniture shop so maybe it's worth thinking about getting one of those and then spending money on a decent mattress, which is what really matters. I would like a proper headboard though, so I can sit up in bed.

The alternative to relying on mates is to engage a courier. There are tons of them that specifically collect stuff from ebay, Facebook etc, and they have insurance etc. Most of the time I'd rather spend a little on a courier and save favours for when I really need them.

I got a really nice, almost new oven for about a fifth of the cost first hand, and paid £40 for a courier to collect it. It was easy to tell it was almost new because the owner put up the actual model and it had only been out for around four years (can't remember exactly now).

Freestanding ovens are a good call for secondhand because people get rid of them when changing to a fitted kitchen, rather than because they're knackered or they're upgrading from a crappy version. Quite often in that situation people will put their old freestanding fridge-freezer in the garage or something, but they don't/can't do that with ovens. Electric ovens are also easy to wire in yourself, or cheap to get fitted (£20 here in that London).

IME fridge-freezers are best bought first hand if you can afford it - they just seem to wear out more quickly than ovens.

Local shops deliver far faster than most of the big shops, if you buy first hand. Plus, at the moment, some of the big shops are still refusing to deliver to anywhere further than the pavement, whereas a small shop is more likely to just ask you to mask up and stand away from them for the five minutes they're in your house. Some also refuse to deliver above the ground floor, but with a local shop (for local people!) you can be reasonable and offer a bit more money for that instead.

 

[miss direct]

Good advice thank you. I dont even know if its gas or electric for the oven..how do I find that out when I go to the flat next week?

Most people here don't seem to be bothered about covid precautions which usually bothers me but am hoping that would mean places would deliver to the home...there are steps up to the front door that I wouldn't be able to manage.

 

[muscovyduck]

The alternative to relying on mates is to engage a courier. There are tons of them that specifically collect stuff from ebay, Facebook etc, and they have insurance etc. Most of the time I'd rather spend a little on a courier and save favours for when I really need them.

I got a really nice, almost new oven for about a fifth of the cost first hand, and paid £40 for a courier to collect it. It was easy to tell it was almost new because the owner put up the actual model and it had only been out for around four years (can't remember exactly now).

Freestanding ovens are a good call for secondhand because people get rid of them when changing to a fitted kitchen, rather than because they're knackered or they're upgrading from a crappy version. Quite often in that situation people will put their old freestanding fridge-freezer in the garage or something, but they don't/can't do that with ovens. Electric ovens are also easy to wire in yourself, or cheap to get fitted (£20 here in that London).

IME fridge-freezers are best bought first hand if you can afford it - they just seem to wear out more quickly than ovens.

Local shops deliver far faster than most of the big shops, if you buy first hand. Plus, at the moment, some of the big shops are still refusing to deliver to anywhere further than the pavement, whereas a small shop is more likely to just ask you to mask up and stand away from them for the five minutes they're in your house. Some also refuse to deliver above the ground floor, but with a local shop (for local people!) you can be reasonable and offer a bit more money for that instead.

How do you find a courier?

 

[Saunders]

The alternative to relying on mates is to engage a courier. There are tons of them that specifically collect stuff from ebay, Facebook etc, and they have insurance etc. Most of the time I'd rather spend a little on a courier and save favours for when I really need them.

I got a really nice, almost new oven for about a fifth of the cost first hand, and paid £40 for a courier to collect it. It was easy to tell it was almost new because the owner put up the actual model and it had only been out for around four years (can't remember exactly now).

Freestanding ovens are a good call for secondhand because people get rid of them when changing to a fitted kitchen, rather than because they're knackered or they're upgrading from a crappy version. Quite often in that situation people will put their old freestanding fridge-freezer in the garage or something, but they don't/can't do that with ovens. Electric ovens are also easy to wire in yourself, or cheap to get fitted (£20 here in that London).

IME fridge-freezers are best bought first hand if you can afford it - they just seem to wear out more quickly than ovens.

Local shops deliver far faster than most of the big shops, if you buy first hand. Plus, at the moment, some of the big shops are still refusing to deliver to anywhere further than the pavement, whereas a small shop is more likely to just ask you to mask up and stand away from them for the five minutes they're in your house. Some also refuse to deliver above the ground floor, but with a local shop (for local people!) you can be reasonable and offer a bit more money for that instead.

Agree with all of that and would add, re fridge-freezer... We got one off gumtree three years ago, as a temporary thing while we were still turning building site into a home, and it’s been ace. Just sold it last week for the same £50 we bought it for.

 

[scifisam]

Good advice thank you. I dont even know if its gas or electric for the oven..how do I find that out when I go to the flat next week?

Most people here don't seem to be bothered about covid precautions which usually bothers me but am hoping that would mean places would deliver to the home...there are steps up to the front door that I wouldn't be able to manage.

Well, with the oven, even if there is a gas connection - less likely in a flat - you can choose to get an electric oven. If the old oven's gone, and it was electric, there'll be a space where it was, with a socket that doesn't look like a normal plug socket in that space, and next to that will be a big switch that says "cooker." If it was gas, there will be very obvious gas connections.

I honestly don't think covid restrictions should apply to delivering appliances to the home. Legally they don't, anyway, it's down to the business concerned. It's very easy to stay away from the delivery person so that neither of you are at risk.

 

[scifisam]

How do you find a courier?

I just googled for places with good reviews and paid COD. Can't find links to the ones I used before, annoyingly.

 

[Epona]

If there is a gas combi-boiler then there will likely be a gas point for a cooker - this is not something you can install yourself. If in doubt, you should ask whether there is mains gas for the cooker. If there is, then when you get a cooker if it is gas get someone to install it. There are legal safety considerations in flats (auto shut-off etc).

EDIT: Actually, if you get an electric cooker, if you don't know what you are doing get someone to install it properly - they are usually wired directly onto their own branch of your wiring circuit, it's not something you buy and plug in, it has to be connected properly - so whether you are getting gas or electric or dual it is going to need proper installation if you don't know what you are doing. (I'd consider doing electric oven installation myself because I know which wires are which but I wouldn't fuck with installation of anything gas related - and if you aren't absolutely sure what you are doing then even an electric cooker will need someone to do the installation to wire it properly).

 

[moonsi til]

miss direct you will get items delivered no problem. In past few months I have bought a fridge & a cooker. Fridge I could have got next day but I waited until I was off & the cooker due to one I wanted it was around 4 week wait. Both were brought fully into my kitchen. Cooker caused a few questions so the very helpful delivery & installation guys were in the house a while.

 

[scifisam]

miss direct you will get items delivered no problem. In past few months I have bought a fridge & a cooker. Fridge I could have got next day but I waited until I was off & the cooker due to one I wanted it was around 4 week wait. Both were brought fully into my kitchen. Cooker caused a few questions so the very helpful delivery & installation guys were in the house a while.

The major sites like John Lewis and Curry's were, until at least a few days ago, saying they'd only deliver to the pavement. Even if you were getting your old appliance recycled by them, you had to get it out there yourself.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

i'm not quite sure what level of lockdown was on at the time, but i got a new washing machine delivered (to first floor flat) and installed, and the old one taken away in november via a major national retailer

i kept a mask on when they came in, kept a sensible distance, pointed them in the direction of the kitchen and let them get on with it

 

[miss direct]

Oh I really hope it's gas..don't like cooking on electric hobs. I'll see. No massive rush though.

I've now had the following donated for my new place: mattress, wardrobe, chest of drawers x 2, big desk

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I’ve just got back from Ikea. Little tip, don’t go on your own to buy furniture because flat pack is heavier than it looks. I’m fucked and every part of my body hurts.

IKEA offer a delivery service. No need to get a courier, scifisam .

You go to the store, do your shopping, pay for it, then go over to customer services and ask them to deliver it to you. It costs £29 or £39 or £more, depending on how far away you live and how much you want them to deliver.

I only found out when I went to the store to have a look at a chest of drawers, (which it turned out wasn't on display, because they were rearranging the show rooms), and I asked the staff about it, saying I'd wanted to see it before ordering it online (along with a chair and some other stuff).

That's when the staff told me that I could get one from the product shelves and buy it and take it to customer services and get it delivered the next day. Brilliant!

I got the chest of drawers and a chair and I also got some random bits and pieces that I put in one of their big zipped bags that I bought, and I got them to deliver the bits and pieces too, to save me carrying them home on the tram. I mean, I figured the van was coming with the other stuff, they might as well.

The only thing they won't deliver, though, is real live plants. And that's how I ended up carrying a small tree home on the tram. And more recently that's why I carried a 4' big frondy thing home on the tram.

It's a really useful service for those who don't have cars/vans or don't drive.

 

[scifisam]

IKEA offer a delivery service. No need to get a courier, scifisam .

I was talking about Facebook/ebay, though.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I was talking about Facebook/ebay, though.

Sorry, I was just about to come back and say I'd belatedly realised the more general point, I'd initially skim read it as a response/follow on post to Looby's about Ikea flat pack furniture, as I feel the pain.

I'm currently 'camping' on a single trundle bed in a new flat, because I got Ikea to deliver the bed and wardrobe I bought in store, but I've looked at the instructions and need two people to assemble the damned things.

 

[scifisam]

Sorry, I was just about to come back and say I'd belatedly realised the more general point, I'd initially skim read it as a response/follow on post to Looby's about Ikea flat pack furniture, as I feel the pain.

I'm currently 'camping' on a single trundle bed in a new flat, because I got Ikea to deliver the bed and wardrobe I bought in store, but I've looked at the instructions and need two people to assemble the damned things.

Yeah. I've got people in to help assemble flatpack furniture before. Sometimes it's skill and sometimes it's literally just not being Zaphod Beeblebrox.