kc38

Another recommendation - excellent, fast work.

Big recommendation for Martin Raynsford (07747 042686), who recently did a great job doing loads of work in our flat, including putting in a new kitchen and building a wardrobe, cupboard, floating shelves, a glass door, and other stuff. Very nice guy, sensibly priced, and reliable (turns up when he says he will and is good at communicating things in advance).

Can someone provide Greg's contact details?

Leon is great - he's quick, turns up when he says he will, does a good job and has smart suggestions, is reasonably priced and, importantly, a nice guy to have round.

Also just used Down the Drain - very quick, effective and a reasonable price.

Ate there last Thursday - excellent.

Interested to join in

More praise for Lionel. He did a great job replacing our boiler, including installing a new gas pipe to it. Very friendly, finds good solutions to problems, and keeps to his agreed schedule, plus follows up to ensure the warranties are in place. Highly recommended.

Also highly recommend Carl. Replied quickly after the storms brought down some fencing (not put up by him) and did an excellent job in fixing the situation, making the fencing/trellis panels look better than before. His number: 07841 124010

Hi We're in the process of hosting/sponsoring a Ukrainian mother and her daughter to stay in our separate flat. We were flooded with applications and eventually talked to three mothers, each with a child. As, sadly, we can only host one, we have two who will be disappointed. Both are really nice. So if anyone is interested in hosting them, I can put you in touch with them. One speaks excellent English, has a two-year old and is clearly independent and driven; she would definitely be able to manage virtually everything herself. The other's spoken English is OK, but not great, and has an eight-year old son, who only knows a few words of English - a more challenging situation but she's keen to improve her English. Both have husbands in Kyiv and are keen to return to Ukraine.

Having been down the subsidence road before, and having had our property underpinned as a result (and knowing other people who have been in a similar situation), be prepared for a long battle with the insurers if you have subsidence. I will guarantee with almost 100% certainty that the insurers will argue it is due to a remote tree or bush as it is dramatically cheaper to cut a plant down than underpin, and they'll hope this will shut you up. They will argue this even if their tests of the soil show no evidence of relevant roots: read the engineers' and tree 'experts' reports very carefully. Our battle with the insurers - where they relentlessly pursued cutting trees with no evidence to do so - went on for a year a half before they threw in the towel and underpinned (costing them ?150K as the whole house had to be redone inside, versus ?2K for cutting down a tree). And the property next to ours now has the exact same situation/argument, with zero evidence for removing plants.

No - she paid ?2000.......the bank called the police when she went back to get a further ?1,800 out (presumably because the price had gone up when she got back with the first lot of money), shortly after withdrawing the first lot. So the conmen got away with ?2000....CID is now looking into it

No, it wasn't just for the guttering - when the guy got up on the ladder, needless to say he found all sorts of non-existent problems with the roof. Typical roofing scam, and people can be gullible (particularly if they're relatively old and seriously ill). With credit to Barclays on Lordship Lane, the bank called the police when the lady came back, shortly after withdrawing ?2K, to get out an extra ?1.8K - presumably the bank had seen this before and knew what was happening. By then, the conmen had vanished.

Someone on our street was yesterday conned by a group of four men claiming to fix some guttering for ?10 - and before she knew it, surprise surprise, the price went up and up - she paid out ?2000 in cash in advance (yes, stupid I know)and they did a runner after getting their cash and ripping down some guttering (but not the extra ?1800 they wanted). Police are now involved. The guys are knocking on doors (tried us first) and handing out false/meaningless leaflets with 'Protech Roofing' on the leaflet and are believed to be driving around in a silver Astra estate. One of them is a guy, around 30-ish, with red hair and an Irish accent. There was also an older guy, about 50,who had a black- and blue-checked lumber jacket. As a touching gesture, the red-haired guy chatted with the lady, who has cancer, asking how she's getting on with her illness while he waited for his money to be delivered. If you see them, call the police.

It's very interesting how the Church of England is trying to muzzle any discussion of Charles' disappearance from St John's and sudden death, including deletions of items in this thread. You don't need a lot of imagination to read into that.