Latest Homes magazine

Don’t let the winter chills bring you down – stay warm with Latest Interiors’ guide to heating your home effectively and stylishly

Traditional radiators are perfect in period properties. Colour by Crown Paints, www.crownpaints.co.uk

Winter hasn’t really got its teeth into us yet, but there’s still plenty of time for the temperature to drop. And when it does, how will you be keeping warm? Mass uptake of central heating was a 20th century phenomenon, freeing householders from the daily toil of cleaning and stoking stoves and fires, and dramatically improving winter living conditions. 21st century technologies, and our need to conserve energy and the environment, make heating choices more complex.

A warm glow

A while back, Latest Interiors took a trip to Sri Lanka, travelling, meeting locals and – of course – checking out local art and artisans (see www.paradiseroadsl.com for fabulous Sri Lankan style – and they ship). Discussing cultural differences one night, we were asked: “We’ve seen a lot of the UK on TV and in the papers, but we don’t understand – How do you keep your houses warm?” We did our best to describe central heating, but our new friends shook their heads: heat running through pipes into every room was almost unbelievable. Well, living in a climate like that, it would be…
In the absence of tropical winters, most British homes still use radiators and central heating to stay warm. However, the technology has changed for the better (gas fired boilers fitted since April 07 must be a high efficiency condensing model), and the style choices are almost bewildering.

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Andrew Kay is getting square eyes and speaking in tongues

Prone as I am to obsession, I find myself now hooked on the BBC’s new iPlayer. My TV viewing habits have always been odd, I am a lifelong Coronation Street fan – I wept when Vera shuffled off a few weeks back and still think that Kevin Webster is the sexiest character, but have no idea why. Sadly the iPlayer is only BBC, so my favourite square eyed vice is as yet unavailable on demand. As a committed Apple Macintosh user I do hope that the rest of the TV channels start to acknowledge our existence and produce players that work in all formats.

“The slogan is ‘Making the unmissable, unmissable’. I prefer ‘Making the unacceptable dispensable’”

The BBC player has changed my viewing habits completely. I now watch what I want when I choose to. It means that I am no longer frustrated when I stay home to watch something which promises to be good but turns out to be absolute rubbish.

The BBC slogan is ‘Making the unmissable, unmissable’. I prefer to think of it as ‘Making the unacceptable dispensable’. If it doesn’t suit I switch it off, but at my own convenience.

It has though reminded me of one of the most bizarre aspects of TV drama, and that is the random appearance of regional accents. It was an episode of Casualty that reminded me of this. I quite like Casualty, although that was certainly a symptom of my ‘staying in is the new going out’ phase. Currently, going out is definitely my modus operandi. Hence sitting up late and watching TV on the laptop.

Anyway, Casualty is populated by characters with the most diverse range of regional accents currently on the box. Holby City runs a close second, but then it is set in the same hospital in some fictionalised version of Bristol. In Casualty the characters spout accents in a manner that can only be described as profligate. Oh, I know we became a nomadic race in the last half of the 20th century, when 18-year-olds fled the parental nest to study as far away from home as possible. And I guess that with kids now not leaving home, ever, the dispersal of our accents and dialects may slow down. They may even strengthen as migrant cultures do in their new found homes.

I rather like my soft Lancashire tongue, with its funny qualities that make softy southerners giggle. But I do baulk at the broth of brogues that casting directors see fit to force upon us in some multicultural stew. It may seem inclusive, but more often than not it simply sounds daft.

Design and construction

Small spaces
We like small spaces. Outdoor small spaces are actually good sized rooms and there is so much we can do with them. Just think of the bathroom in your house and how wonderful that can look. Small spaces are often attached to apartments or terraced houses where access is all through the property. Over the years we have amassed a great assortment of protective equipment for work through the house.

We put down hardboard, carpet underlay, polythene sheets and cover everything. We clear up at the end of each day, and then have a good clean and hoover on Fridays to get you all tidy for the weekend. There’s no doubt that limited access is difficult for us and you but the overall benefit of turning that horrible space outside into something wonderful and useable soon outweighs a couple of weeks of upheaval.

You have to think practically about the amount of material that‘s going to come out of the garden or courtyard. Bringing materials in is relatively simple as new materials will be clean, packaged and can be organised in small component parts. Taking things out will be the thing that causes the problem. If you have large overgrown shrubs these will need to be cut up into small bits as you can’t drag huge branches of things through your hallway. Everything that comes out needs to go into a clean bag or bucket and be carried through.

If there are level changes to implement, then we may need to remove part of your garden or even bring in more. Walls may come down, fences may need replacing and all of these things will have to be removed. Sometimes it’s less expensive to build a much bigger garden simply because they have a back gate, a drive where we can site a skip and wide pathways for diggers and wheelbarrows. Labour time is always the most expensive element of any project and if you pay for good labour too, then your costs will go up.

We just completed a roof terrace in Brighton, (it’s in 25 Beautiful Homes this month. Did I sound modest – cause I’m really quite excited!) and that cost over £14,000. The problem was that their apartment was absolutely gorgeous and we didn’t want to bring a single thing in through the building. We rented a scissor lift and took everything up the side of the building (and took everything out down the side of the building too). The massive standard magnolia tree that stands in a pot on the terrace was the scariest thing we’ve ever moved. There was a gale force wind blowing. The tree needed three people to lift it, the scissor lift was extended to its maximum height and we still had to lift the tree up five feet and over a parapet wall. I stood on the terrace and watched the thing swing backwards and forwards in the wind as the guys strained and heaved the pot up onto the wall. We did it of course, but how on earth do you cost in something like that?!

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The Paul O’Grady Show’s Marc Abraham looks at how pet ownership is a lifesaver for the elderly and the lonely

We’ve all heard the rather dated expression that a dog is a man’s best friend, but did you know that a pet could be an elderly person’s lifeline?

Having a pet provides different advantages to different people. Companionship is usually top of the list, but to an elderly person, this extends much more than one can sometimes imagine. Many older people live by themselves, and these days improved communications and ease of local and global travel mean that many older generations live far away from their families or friends.

“Often the most serious disease for the elderly is not cancer or heart disease – it’s loneliness”

Older people are much more susceptible to a number of health issues, which rarely apply to younger adults or children. These include dealing frequently with grief and loss, reduced activity, high incidence of depression, and their personal security feeling more threatened. The good news is that there is treatment available for all these conditions that doesn’t even need a prescription. As you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s called pet ownership.

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Matt McGuire does a bit of overdue sole searching, all in the name of a good cause

This week we’re off into the wardrobe. Not one of those fancy Narnia or Monsters Inc. ones, just a common-or-garden one full of all the normal stuff: favourite party clothes, dishevelled work wear, ill-fitting presents, and, of course, guiltily stowed and woefully under used sporting attire. Like Lycra-blend t-shirts and shorts. Like bright white trainers that are just too, well, bright white.

A few weeks ago I unearthed a pair of such shirking shoes in my own wardrobe and decided to put them through their paces.

“It’s not that we’re lazy,” they insisted. “It’s just the weather’s been so blooming unencouraging, hasn’t it? I mean, yes, you’re right when you say we haven’t made it out of our box quite yet, but we’re sure we’d still fit! And then there’s this ravenous appetite for sachets of silica gel that neither of us can seem to kick…”

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