Annoying little things for some odd reason you put up with!
Discussion
skinnyman said:
When we first moved in I screwed down all the floorboards upstairs as they squeaked alot, circa 1000 screws went down. Since then carpets and furniture has gone in, all good, except now I have a single squeak that drives me mad, and where is it? Bang smack at the top of the stairs! You can't not step on it.
I saw these the other day.https://www.amazon.co.uk/OBerry-Squeak-No-More-Kit...
Never tried them and wouldn't unless you are 100% sure where the pipes run. Video of them being used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gUW-IhSMBc
mikeiow said:
Craikeybaby said:
On a similar note, we finally get the last of the old carpets in the house replaced, then Mrs CB drops some mascara on the floor in the bathroom, then walks it through the whole of upstairs. I managed to get the worst of it cleared up, but the carpets are still stained. Then later the same week she manages to spill bright red nail varnish on the light grey carpet in our bedroom, then makes it worse by trying to clear it up with nail varnish remover, which just spread it over a bigger area.
Hang on: *she* treads it everywhere......but *you* spend ages cleaning it up?Sounds wrong to me!!!
I used to have a bin annoyance in that neither of us like emptying the bin so would keep compressing the contents until it was approximately as dense as the Earth's core. What this meant was when removing the bin bag you were effectively trying to create a vacuum under the bag making removal tricky.
One day I could stand it no more and drilled a few air holes close to the base of the bin and problem solved, therefore making my anecdote irrelevant to the thread
One day I could stand it no more and drilled a few air holes close to the base of the bin and problem solved, therefore making my anecdote irrelevant to the thread
Must be something about bins.
I have had a push button flip lid bin for over 5 years now, popped up and let you scrape peelings etc. in. Worked for about a month before the spring mechanism detached, I glued it back in with araldite and it lasted for another few months before it detached again, if araldite couldn't hold it I couldn't be bothered fixing it again and again. Fast forward to the end of last year and the button clip that hold the lid shut has failed, i'm still living with it. I reckon the bin smell as the weather heats up may well push me into doing something about it.
The other was a HP printer. If it wasn't use regularly the ink dried up, meaning cleaning heads with cotton buds, electrical contact cleaner, if all that faff didn't work it was new cartridges, which if not used regularly...
I don't know how many years I put up with this POS, the last straw was trying to print boarding passes, I'm watching youtube videos on the best way to unblock when I snapped I f
ked it in the (above) bin, went out and bought an Epson printer, which has worked flawlessly.
I have had a push button flip lid bin for over 5 years now, popped up and let you scrape peelings etc. in. Worked for about a month before the spring mechanism detached, I glued it back in with araldite and it lasted for another few months before it detached again, if araldite couldn't hold it I couldn't be bothered fixing it again and again. Fast forward to the end of last year and the button clip that hold the lid shut has failed, i'm still living with it. I reckon the bin smell as the weather heats up may well push me into doing something about it.
The other was a HP printer. If it wasn't use regularly the ink dried up, meaning cleaning heads with cotton buds, electrical contact cleaner, if all that faff didn't work it was new cartridges, which if not used regularly...
I don't know how many years I put up with this POS, the last straw was trying to print boarding passes, I'm watching youtube videos on the best way to unblock when I snapped I f
ked it in the (above) bin, went out and bought an Epson printer, which has worked flawlessly.Again its the feckin bin at the source of fustration.
Mrs Walsh in her glorious wisdom decided an automatic bin would be "more hygenic" so we purchased one from Amazon and hey presto, no hands.
Problem 1, if you walk within 40 feet of this bd it opens the lid
Problem 2, battery cover and batteries once fell into the bin as I was emptying the bag, so I used selotape to keep the new batteries in place. Lasted about 4 minutes. I then had to take the entire lid off, press the batteries back in and replace lid to use it properly every few days
After losing several more batteries in the bin I decided I was going to aradite a peice of plastic as a new battery cover. Happy days, well a happy 5 or so days until the batteries die and so new batteries in and more araldite to put the cover back on. The new batteries somehow became dislodged in the compartment and at this point I dropped to the ground, a deflated mess, finally beaten by some cheap peice of st made in China junk.
So I regroup, have a think and at the weekend I turned it off, drilled a hole in the lid and fit a small knob so I can manually operate it, saving me billions of pounds in batteries.
Daz-1, bd bin -0
Mrs Walsh in her glorious wisdom decided an automatic bin would be "more hygenic" so we purchased one from Amazon and hey presto, no hands.
Problem 1, if you walk within 40 feet of this b
d it opens the lidProblem 2, battery cover and batteries once fell into the bin as I was emptying the bag, so I used selotape to keep the new batteries in place. Lasted about 4 minutes. I then had to take the entire lid off, press the batteries back in and replace lid to use it properly every few days
After losing several more batteries in the bin I decided I was going to aradite a peice of plastic as a new battery cover. Happy days, well a happy 5 or so days until the batteries die and so new batteries in and more araldite to put the cover back on. The new batteries somehow became dislodged in the compartment and at this point I dropped to the ground, a deflated mess, finally beaten by some cheap peice of s
t made in China junk.So I regroup, have a think and at the weekend I turned it off, drilled a hole in the lid and fit a small knob so I can manually operate it, saving me billions of pounds in batteries.
Daz-1, b
d bin -0StevieBee said:
Lightbulbs tend to go unaddressed until such time it looks like we're living in 1920.
This is partly due to the fact that ICBA and partly due to the fact that the notion of buying a lightbulb these days requires a degree in electrical installation, light engineering and a matrix chart of the various fitting types available.....which further fuels the first reason.
+ 1 here. Even when I do get round (or in other words, nagged enough) to doing something about it, half the time there won't be a suitable bulb among the 50 odd ones in the light bulb box This is partly due to the fact that ICBA and partly due to the fact that the notion of buying a lightbulb these days requires a degree in electrical installation, light engineering and a matrix chart of the various fitting types available.....which further fuels the first reason.
carreauchompeur said:
GTIAlex said:
Kitchen Ceiling Lights
Two switches as you walk in. The one closest you does the light furthest away, switch furthest away does the light closest to you.
Been like that around 10 years and I still think about it every time I turn the light on.
In the house I've just moved into, lots of light switches are upside down. Gnnnnnhh!Two switches as you walk in. The one closest you does the light furthest away, switch furthest away does the light closest to you.
Been like that around 10 years and I still think about it every time I turn the light on.
Two ceiling lights in the upstairs hall, both of which have a different switch at the top of the stairs but only one of which is linked to the switch at the bottom of the stairs. You can see where this is going...
Gets me about 50% of the time which results in going back up the stairs to switch the other light off.
Gets me about 50% of the time which results in going back up the stairs to switch the other light off.
Silent1 said:
essayer said:
Toilet cistern plumbed into the hot water.
No idea why.
Keeps it clean I guess
Usually seen in seriously cold parts of the world to stop the drains freezing, no idea why it would in the U.K.!No idea why.
Keeps it clean I guess
ETA. Reading around it sounds like you've got an anti-sweat valve and it's either adjusted wrong or is leaking and slowly pushing the cold water out of the cistern
Edited by Silent1 on Monday 30th January 18:52
Who fed you that fountain of bullst ? 
alock said:
skinnyman said:
When we first moved in I screwed down all the floorboards upstairs as they squeaked alot, circa 1000 screws went down. Since then carpets and furniture has gone in, all good, except now I have a single squeak that drives me mad, and where is it? Bang smack at the top of the stairs! You can't not step on it.
I saw these the other day.https://www.amazon.co.uk/OBerry-Squeak-No-More-Kit...
Never tried them and wouldn't unless you are 100% sure where the pipes run. Video of them being used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gUW-IhSMBc
My brother visited 18 months ago and stood on the alarm sensor on the conservatory door - long story but there's not an out of the way place to put it, though it's not so in the way he should have stood on it. Knocked it off it's mounting screws, so it's just sat in the corner of the conservatory and the £800 alarm system hasn't been on since!
In my defence, I have a list as long as your arm and that's reasonably close to the top. Obviously I spend my time doing jobs that aren't on the list, but that's not the point.
I'm actually usually quite good at keeping on top of the little jobs, though I do need to replace quite a few light bulbs; there are 10 on my landing and I'm down to 2 that work. I learned early on that the trick with all these different bulb types is to make sure you go on eBay and buy a box of 10 when you use the last one and you still have a packet that says what the bulb is. I've since learned that if you buy non-branded bulbs that are good for 10,000 hours, they'll last a few hundred hours at best and it's impossible to keep on top of the blown bulbs.
In my defence, I have a list as long as your arm and that's reasonably close to the top. Obviously I spend my time doing jobs that aren't on the list, but that's not the point.
I'm actually usually quite good at keeping on top of the little jobs, though I do need to replace quite a few light bulbs; there are 10 on my landing and I'm down to 2 that work. I learned early on that the trick with all these different bulb types is to make sure you go on eBay and buy a box of 10 when you use the last one and you still have a packet that says what the bulb is. I've since learned that if you buy non-branded bulbs that are good for 10,000 hours, they'll last a few hundred hours at best and it's impossible to keep on top of the blown bulbs.
I have a desktop PC, the wife has a laptop. Printer connected to my desktop and shared over the network so she can print on it...in theory. No idea why by pretty much every time she goes to print something we have to spend ages buggering about getting print sharing to work properly. Probably been having the same issues for about 5 years until I finally snapped at christmas and bought a new wifi printer.
RizzoTheRat said:
I have a desktop PC, the wife has a laptop. Printer connected to my desktop and shared over the network so she can print on it...in theory. No idea why by pretty much every time she goes to print something we have to spend ages buggering about getting print sharing to work properly. Probably been having the same issues for about 5 years until I finally snapped at christmas and bought a new wifi printer.
This - every time we go to print with our Canon 5650 it can be found on the network but won't print. The only solution appears to be to reboot the router every time you want to print something. Definitely annoying....I tell myself that all the broken light bulbs are there to save energy when my wife will walk through the house and only use the light switches in one direction, or the classic "I left the kitchen lights on because I'm going back to get a cup of tea... two hours from now".
My biggest minor annoyance is the wiper speed on my car (BMW e39). The stalk has three positions for speed which is fine but also a dial which I've always assumed was for intermittent speed. However it doesn't do anything. When I'm in stalk position 1 the wipers stay on automatic mode which is ALWAYS too fast so if it's raining I drive my whole 25 mile commute manually pulling the lever down to swish at the correct time when I need it to. This thread has inspired me to read the manual and find out what's going on.
My biggest minor annoyance is the wiper speed on my car (BMW e39). The stalk has three positions for speed which is fine but also a dial which I've always assumed was for intermittent speed. However it doesn't do anything. When I'm in stalk position 1 the wipers stay on automatic mode which is ALWAYS too fast so if it's raining I drive my whole 25 mile commute manually pulling the lever down to swish at the correct time when I need it to. This thread has inspired me to read the manual and find out what's going on.
fttm said:
Who fed you that fountain of bullst ? 
I think for us it's a bit simpler - guessing the plumber got the pipes mixed up when doing the fitting, then after the wet room was tiled nobody wanted to rip things apart to fix it
BelfastBlack said:
I tell myself that all the broken light bulbs are there to save energy when my wife will walk through the house and only use the light switches in one direction, or the classic "I left the kitchen lights on because I'm going back to get a cup of tea... two hours from now".
My biggest minor annoyance is the wiper speed on my car (BMW e39). The stalk has three positions for speed which is fine but also a dial which I've always assumed was for intermittent speed. However it doesn't do anything. When I'm in stalk position 1 the wipers stay on automatic mode which is ALWAYS too fast so if it's raining I drive my whole 25 mile commute manually pulling the lever down to swish at the correct time when I need it to. This thread has inspired me to read the manual and find out what's going on.
A waste of time. No set of wipers has *ever* had an intermittent setting that actually matches the weather conditions, ever.My biggest minor annoyance is the wiper speed on my car (BMW e39). The stalk has three positions for speed which is fine but also a dial which I've always assumed was for intermittent speed. However it doesn't do anything. When I'm in stalk position 1 the wipers stay on automatic mode which is ALWAYS too fast so if it's raining I drive my whole 25 mile commute manually pulling the lever down to swish at the correct time when I need it to. This thread has inspired me to read the manual and find out what's going on.
The new back door has swollen in the winter weather and has required ever harsher slams and jerks (ooh!) to close/open. I have been successfully ignoring this until this morning when the handle decided enough was enough and committed hari-kari leaving the door wedged in the frame and bits of handle all over the floor.
So, out the front door to screwfix for a new handle and I've spent the last hour sanding the edge of the door and fitting the new handle.
As a quid pro quo I have decided to put off changing the hall light bulbs until the last one goes.
So, out the front door to screwfix for a new handle and I've spent the last hour sanding the edge of the door and fitting the new handle.
As a quid pro quo I have decided to put off changing the hall light bulbs until the last one goes.
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