about 2m-ish I guess? Our eldest miiight be able to make it up there if he wanted to, but he’s a timid momma’s boy with no interest in venturing out of his safe space. His little brother would if he could, but he’s built like a kitbull - all shoulders and stumpy legs, not exactly made for jumping :)
Our two cats get supervised time in the backyard every couple of days - we used to put them in harnesses until we moved to a place with high enough fences that they couldn’t get out even if they wanted to.
Mostly they just wanna chew grass for 15 minutes and maybe investigate a random plant bed, and they quickly learned that if they come back inside when called they get treats :)
Last week’s episode of No Such Thing As A Fish had some wonderful facts about this sport, including that the top competitors can jump high enough to clear the first two fences at the Grand National steeplechase.
Been with ING for… hell, 20ish years? My only issues with them are:
For day-to-day regular transaction account stuff they’ve been super chill, and their front-line customer service is surprisingly decent.
My gf got me a custom-printed Frank cup and it’s super pretty but it’s leaked since day 1 and the lid is a nightmare to take apart and clean properly. They do appear to be selling non-seal sippy lids now though so I might just order one of those to get some use out of it.
Good to know, thanks! Renting atm so we’re stuck with whatever we have for now, but I’m keeping a list of nice-to-haves when we eventually buy our own place.
Is the heat pump system continuous/unlimited, or tank-based? I have enjoyed the luxury of never running out of hot water on gas, but weighed against squandering a finite resource and/or destroying the planet it’s hardly a necessity for our two-person household.
As for cooking, I’ve heard nothing but good things about modern induction setups and a rapidly growing body of research highlighting the toxic byproducts of gas stoves/ovens - even when turned off - due to inevitable leaks from imperfect seals and aging equipment.
The last big argument for gas cooking seems to be wok burners, but I just did a quick google and not only is wok induction a thing now, but it looks sci-fi af so I’m here for it. They’re not cheap yet, but I imagine that’s only a matter of time as adoption picks up.
I just checked the app and yeah, Uber Pet is a clearly marked option on there.
Our previous landlord has 10+ properties and owns a building company; far as I can tell he targets dilapidated old houses on oversized plots of land, knocks 'em down and barfs up cardboard duplex new builds in their place. They look great - aircon, high ceilings, stone countertops, fancy appliances, etc. - but everything behind that is as shoddy as he can get away with and then some. Rain flooding THROUGH the walls, black mould, unsealed window frames, creaking floors, unlockable doors, dead outlets… Getting anything fixed was like pulling teeth, and literally all he cared about was maximum immediate profit with as little effort as possible.
The biggest favour that parasite ever did for us was jacking up the rent enough to force us out, because we only discovered the rampant black mould problem while we were packing up. Bullet narrowly dodged, and I learned a bunch of super valuable red flags to look out for (and under, and behind) next time.
By contrast, our current landlord is an absolute legend and the best I’ve ever encountered. He has a day-job in Defense so not a hardcore investor, and this was his family home before we became the first tenants to live here. The place is solid brick and built to owner-occupier standards, his parents are our neighbours, we chat over the fence whenever he’s over there for a bbq, RE is super chill, and repairs generally take a few days at most. We know how lucky we are, but I really wish this was the norm, not the exception.
Even aside from the temptation to use offsets to kick the can down the road for reduction targets, the rampant abuse of carbon credits make this absolutely the right decision.
Relevant viewing: Wendover Productions: The Carbon Offset Problem