Latest news with #Rayburn
Belfast Telegraph
08-08-2025
- General
- Belfast Telegraph
Look inside: Cosy character-filled cottage by Co Antrim coast on the market £275,000
Amenities include oil-fired central heating and wood-framed double-glazed windows, and there are plans passed for extension. Imbued with a welcoming atmosphere, which sets it apart from what else is on the market, it is set on a generously sized plot and boasts mature gardens complete with personality. (If you imagine winding paths and private nooks, you're on the money.) Inside, the interior continues to pay homage to the property's heritage, while full of comfort and functionality. There are ample original features to entice potential homeowners. The utility area has a Belfast-style sink, built-in units and is plumbed for a slimline dishwasher. The kitchen has an integrated Rayburn range with tiled surround, with space for fridge. Additional amenities include mug hooks, plate racks and shelving units. It is open plan through to the lounge/dining area, which has a log burner with slate hearth and feature beamed ceilings. Within, there is a solid wood floor and wood-framed double-glazed French doors leading to rear garden. There are three bedrooms, each with wood flooring and one with a wood surround fireplace with cast iron inset and tiled hearth. The shower room has a fully tiled walk-in shower area with mains rainfall shower head and electric underfloor heating. Externally, there is a brick built barbecue area with solid wood worktop with storage below and recessed brick fire pit. A caravan to the rear of the garden has electric points and wood flooring. The gardens are surrounded by a selection of trees, shrubbery and hedging, and there are two outhouses (one with space for fridge-freezer) and a potting shed with light and power. Christmas Cottage is a short drive Ballycastle's town centre, beaches and the Causeway Coast.
Times
19-07-2025
- Business
- Times
Repairs to our £16k oven will cost £3.6k — Aga says that's normal
In 2020, my wife and I had to replace our Stanley range cooker after it had served us reliably for more than 30 years. After doing some research we decided to buy a Rayburn, which are made by Aga Rangemaster. This cost us £16,000, so it was a significant investment, but we hoped it would last as long as our Stanley cooker. The Rayburn was fitted by an Aga-approved agent and, as recommended, we have had it serviced every year at an average cost of about £370 a time. During its most recent service this year we were told that the hot plate was worn and the oven protection plate had blown. As I understand it, these items are supposed to protect the oven casing from the heat within the unit. Apparently the failure of these parts is due to the high temperatures within the Rayburn. We were told that to rectify these problems would cost at least £1,071. I don't feel it's reasonable to expect me to replace these items at such great expense after only four years. I wrote to Aga asking for a contribution to the repairs. It refused and said it was normal to have to replace these plates every three to five years. I was disappointed by this response, especially as Aga didn't make it clear that these parts might need replacing when I bought the Rayburn. Despite my protests, the company refused to help and I reluctantly accepted that we would have to fund the repairs. But then the engineer who came to carry out the work found that the steel structural casing of the oven was also badly cracked. This is part of its fundamental structure so we were very concerned that this should have cracked after only a few years. The quote for all the repairs is £3,672. I contacted Aga again but it still refused to make a contribution. To my mind, this is equivalent to a new car suffering a major structural failure within a few years and the manufacturer dismissing it as a normal ongoing cost. We are bitterly Somerset • Help me get a handle on my £5.6k door saga After spending such a huge sum on this appliance, I agreed that it seemed unreasonable to expect you to have to pay several thousands of pounds to have it repaired just four years later. By comparison, the most you spent on repairs to your old Stanley range over 30 years was £378 for a replacement pump. Aga said that the oven plates are known as sacrificial parts, which are subject to wear over time from high operating temperatures, and are checked during the annual service. It told me that these components are similar in principle to brake pads in a car and are 'relatively low-cost' to replace. Part of the problem was that you were not told that these parts may need to be replaced every three to five years. I felt that Aga should spell out the ongoing costs of owning this appliance so that customers can factor them in before buying. But surely the cracked oven casing couldn't be considered a sacrificial part? It told me this was a very rare issue, but that there was no evidence it was caused by a manufacturing fault. It said that because your Rayburn was outside its three-year warranty, it would not contribute towards the repair. I really didn't think this was fair. If this damage wasn't caused by a manufacturing fault, what else could cause the casing to crack? You had maintained the appliance and paid hundreds of pounds to service it every year, as recommended by the company. When I went back to Aga, it took another look at your case and I was pleased when it decided to cover your whole repair bill. Aga said: 'This level of damage is extremely unusual, and in light of this — and because the issues our customer has experienced are through no fault of his own — we will cover the full cost of the replacement parts and their installation. We will also be reviewing our engineer training to ensure that our team is aware that this has happened so they can do everything possible to ensure it is a one off.' You said: 'I am still surprised that Aga considers it reasonable to expect to replace parts at a cost of about £1,000 every few years. However, I am delighted that it has agreed to fund the repair work. Thank you so much for your help and persistence.' Your experience is also useful for anyone who is thinking of buying a Rayburn: make sure to factor in the ongoing costs of those sacrificial parts before you commit. • Lumpy £3,000 Loaf sofa is like sitting on concrete Just after Christmas my wife and I flew to Nice in France for a few days. I decided to rent a car from the hire company Virtuo and paid €895.65 for the booking. I have used Virtuo for years and usually get a text message when I land, telling me where the car is and how to access it. You then use the Virtuo app to unlock and start the vehicle. When we landed at Nice airport I was surprised that I hadn't had the usual text telling me where I would find the car. I emailed the company and it sent me the car's location. When we got to the vehicle, for some reason the app didn't show the booking, so I couldn't do anything to unlock the car; I had no way of opening it, let alone driving it away. We were standing outside on a cold December evening so I thought it would be quicker to call Virtuo rather than communicate over email, but it would not give me a phone number. There then followed a series of emails where Virtuo said that it was my fault because I had booked on its website, which had not been linked to the app. I wasn't told that this would be a problem when I booked. After waiting for about for an hour while it got later and colder, I cancelled the booking. My wife and I went back to the airport and were thankfully able to get a car from a different firm quite easily and for less than the cost of the Virtuo hire. Virtuo then told me that because I had cancelled the booking, it was contractually allowed to charge me for two days' hire, amounting to €210.70. Since then I have repeatedly asked how I was supposed to get into the car, and not had any answer. Virtuo eventually relented a bit and said that it would give me one day's credit of €105.35 to use towards a future booking, but I don't want to use Virtuo again so this is of no use to me. Is there anything that you can do to make the company see sense?Henry, London • 'Alamo charged me £2,000 for damage to hire car I'm sure I didn't cause' As you couldn't get Virtuo to answer your question, I can see why you decided to cancel your booking rather than waste any more of your holiday standing in a cold car park. When I spoke to Virtuo it claimed that you had contacted its support team after cancelling the booking, which meant it wasn't able to assist with the issue in real time. You disputed this and said you had asked multiple times how to access the car before giving up. It then found a record of the email exchange from before you cancelled and apologised. Virtuo then told me that it believed your issue had been caused by you logging into the app using a different email address from the one you had used to make the booking. Yet you were still frustrated that Virtuo wasn't able to tell you that at the time. You said the company never gave the impression that it would try to figure out what had gone wrong. I put this to Virtuo and it agreed to cancel the credit and refund your €210.70. Virtuo said: 'To demonstrate our good faith, we have refunded the full amount. We completely understand how frustrating this must have been for Henry, and we truly hope he will give us a chance in the future to show him that the Virtuo experience can be very different, and seamless, from the one he unfortunately had.' • £1,373,298 — the amount Your Money Matters has saved readers this year If you have a money problem you would like Katherine Denham to investigate email yourmoneymatters@ Please include a phone number
Western Telegraph
30-05-2025
- Business
- Western Telegraph
Clynderwen smallholding with caravan site for sale
According to estate agents J J Morris, the property includes a detached house with three or four bedrooms, surrounded by productive grazing land suitable for horses and livestock. The land sits to the front and both sides of the house, and is described by the agents as 'highly suitable for equine and general grazing.' The home has been modernised and updated, with triple-glazed windows, a woodburning stove in the living room, and a kitchen fitted with wall and base storage units, an oil-fired Rayburn, and a four-ring gas hob. One of the bedrooms (Image: J J Morris) Agents say the accommodation is 'efficient and tasteful' and benefits from 'superb country views.' Externally, the property features a hardstanding driveway providing parking and turning space, enclosed gardens, and a chicken run. There is a gated entrance to the main yard, which contains several outbuildings. These include a multi-purpose barn, a former cubicle shed with four stables, a Dutch barn with additional stables, a lean-to stable, and a tack room. There are a range of outbuildings (Image: J J Morris) The agents highlight the 'excellent range of multipurpose buildings' for animal housing and machinery. A sand school for exercising horses is situated behind the house. The site also contains a legally compliant static caravan with water, electricity, and drainage, as well as a touring caravan and camping area with five hook-up points and a shower block. J J Morris recommend viewing to 'fully appreciate this fine country holding.'
Epoch Times
27-04-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
Make America Healthy Again Movement Extends Beyond Its Architect
For avid supporters, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement itself is not new. It began long before Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign and subsequent confirmation as health secretary. 'The principles of the MAHA movement were once a way of life all over the country decades ago,' Samantha Rayburn, a 40-year-old mother of two teenage sons, told The Epoch Times. 'It's encouraging to see more people adopting those beliefs and understanding that God gave us what we need to feed our bodies and heal our bodies. With how sick and unhealthy we are as a society, this return to the basics is needed.' Rayburn developed an interest in foraging for herbs and plants when she was a little girl and was inspired to make her first tincture when her oldest son caught whooping cough when he was 2. She describes the MAHA movement as 'a return to the basics.' 'It's getting back to when we knew what was in our food because we grew it and got what we didn't have from local farmers,' said Rayburn, who lives in southern Ohio. Related Stories 4/10/2025 4/6/2025 'RFK Jr. and MAHA have made what many of us believe in more mainstream. People are now contacting me and wanting to learn more about herbs. I don't seem so crazy anymore,' Rayburn said with a laugh, referring to her business, Hadassah's Herbs for Health and Healing. When Kennedy delivered a speech last August announcing that he was suspending his campaign and backing then former President Donald Trump, he said that Trump is giving him the opportunity to help make America healthy again. What followed was a social media frenzy with 'Make America Healthy Again' and 'MAHA' hashtags. MAHA, the acronym, was born. Samantha Rayburn has treated her sons, Holden and Wyatt, with herbal remedies since they were infants and believes in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again platform. Photo courtesy of Samantha Rayburn New Jersey-based Jacqueline Capriotti volunteered for Kennedy's campaign and has championed the creation of gardens. She now heads the Victory Garden Alliance, which encourages people, communities, and organizations to grow their own food. 'There is a revival in growing our own food, supporting local farms, and knowing what's in our food. Bobby and the MAHA movement have catapulted that interest,' Capriotti told The Epoch Times. 'We need this. Our kids need this. It's important they understand how food is grown and where it comes from. That will inspire healthier new generations because they will become smarter consumers.' Capriotti calls what is happening with the MAHA movement a 'health revolution.' She is working to educate elected officials and political candidates. 'Many of us who worked on the presidential campaign didn't stop our objectives when it ended. That's an example of how MAHA is a movement not tied to one person,' Capriotti said. Victory Gardens Alliance founder Jacqueline Capriotti stands in her Victory Garden in New Jersey in 2024. Photo courtesy of Jacqueline Capriotti As health secretary, Kennedy has a mandate to fight chronic disease, improve children's health, and address corporate influence on government agencies. He has pledged to remove toxic chemicals from the nation's food supply, increase transparency, improve vaccine safety, and make changes to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—operating divisions within Health and Human Services (HHS). These plans, along with encouraging Americans to grow their own food and buy meat and produce from farmers who do not use pesticides and toxins, are among the initiatives of the MAHA movement. Jeffrey Rose is a New York-based sleep specialist, hypnotherapist, and addiction recovery coach who helped raise funds for American Values 2024, the Kennedy-aligned super PAC, during his presidential campaign. He says that the 'passion for change' instilled during that time has motivated many volunteers to continue their efforts on MAHA issues that are important to them—himself included. Rose is currently focused on what he calls a health issue that needs more discussion and emphasis—more sleep for high school-age children. He is the New York State legislative coordinator for Start School Later, an organization composed of clinical professionals working to change start times in U.S. high schools. Rose said volunteers for the Kennedy presidential campaign came from all backgrounds. 'We had Republicans, Democrats, libertarians, and independents. We had people who are passionate about removing chemicals from our food, people who advocate for informed consent, vaccine safety, and medical freedom. We had people who embraced Kennedy's mission to end corporate capture of government health agencies, and people who believe in holistic medicine and clean eating,' he said. 'MAHA is a movement that started years before, but one that had an official name last August, and for the first time, mainstream media interest.' Calley Means has advised Trump and Kennedy on health care policy and currently serves in an advisory role to Kennedy. He believes it's the grassroots efforts of advocates and groups nationwide that will help get results. 'This movement has energy and impatience, and both are strengths,' Means said. He is the founder of True Med, a platform that aims to enable people to use health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts for expenses related to healthy living. 'This is a long-term plan, and it will take time and persistence to keep getting wins. I believe MAHA is a sustained movement that will outlast Bobby Kennedy and President Trump' he said. 'Truly revolutionizing our agriculture system and health care system is a long-term journey.' Del Bigtree, host of 'The HighWire' and founder of the Informed Consent Action Network, served as communications director during Kennedy's campaign. He is now CEO of the MAHA Action PAC, which advocates for policies such as vaccine safety information transparency, improved access to holistic health care, examining the food industry, and addressing corporate influence on government health agencies. The PAC is also debuting a national directory of physicians who are pro-MAHA and prioritize lifestyle adjustments over prescription drugs. The organization has a database that tracks proposed health-related legislation in states nationwide—as well as which legislators support it. 'There is a time we need drugs and surgery, but those times mean something went wrong. How do we prevent more people from having health conditions? How can we inspire them to change their lifestyle so they don't have to get to the point where they need those drugs and surgeries? That is part of MAHA Action's focus,' Bigtree told The Epoch Times. 'MAHA is not and should not be limited to what happens in government. There must be public education and public pressure on the government to get long-needed results,' he added. Del Bigtree, founder of the Informed Consent Action Network and host of The Highwire, is the head of the RFK Jr.-aligned MAHA Action PAC, which was launched in 2024. Photo courtesy of Del Bigtree Jeff Hutt, a former national field director for the Kennedy campaign, is now the outreach director for the Make America Healthy Again PAC, which was founded by a dozen former senior presidential campaign staff members. Initially, the PAC focused on getting Kennedy confirmed by the Senate as health secretary. Hutt said the organization now concentrates on supporting candidates at the state and local levels who embrace the MAHA platform. The work includes state level activity to encourage the passage of MAHA-friendly bills and the election of pro-MAHA candidates. 'Americans are disillusioned with Washington D.C., and since COVID, there has become a growing understanding that, to make substantial change, you need to think local. Take action in your own town and your state,' Hutt said. 'What's going on in every state across the country—with no connection to Secretary Kennedy—is driving the MAHA movement outside of the Trump administration,' Hutt said. During Kennedy's confirmation process, groups such as MAHA Action, the MAHA PAC, the American Values PAC, and Stand for Health Freedom flooded senators with phone calls, emails, and letters urging them to support the nominee. Sayer Ji, chairman and co-founder of Global Wellness Forum and founder of also co-founded Stand for Health Freedom, a nonprofit that advocates for informed consent, parental rights, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and privacy. 'The grassroots movement behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation fight proves that real change rises from the ground up,' Ji told The Epoch Times. 'While senators parroted pharmaceutical talking points and corporate interests worked to silence him, it was the people, the increasingly vocal, once-silent majority, who stepped up,' he said. 'They reminded the establishment that political survival depends not on industry dollars but on the will of the people.' Ji said the MAHA movement has a broad focus and is here to stay. 'It's about reclaiming medical freedom, bodily autonomy, and the right to informed choice,' he said. 'It's no longer a niche issue; it's a demand for accountability, transparency, and an end to policies that put profit over people. 'The future of MAHA is in the hands of this awakening majority.'
Irish Examiner
27-04-2025
- Irish Examiner
Teachers' 'lifestyle' family home was a successful learning curve
ONE metre high standing stones from the Bronze age are an archaeological feature in the fields directly behind this sizeable, fully maximised West Cork family lifestyle home, a mix both of being off the beaten track, yet accessible to a range of amenities and attractions. Set at Clogagh North, near Ballinsacarthy south of the N71 between Bandon and Clonakilty, the 2,700 sq ft extended dormer home on a lovingly tended wedge-shaped site just now ready to burst into summer glories is a trade-down sale offer on behalf of a family that appreciated the setting, coastal proximity, and links to the ancient past, with UCC student archaeologists and other school groups that surveyed them, likely linked to a burial site. One of the owners here would have paid particular attention to its significant past, as well as to a nearby 16th century prayer house, as he was the local school principal in Clogagh for many years, now retired and both he and his wife (also a teacher) are downsizing, moving closer to adult offspring. They are vacating their immaculate five-bed home, extended from a three-bed house down the years, as their family grew, with two kitchens, one with a powerful black Rayburn (very suitable for multi-generational families, guests etc). It's got bedrooms and bathrooms on both levels, with a library on the landing; apart from the main sitting room off the original kitchen, there's now a feature lofted gable end living/dining room with stove and access to a side patio, one of two. This one includes a glass-roofed screening veranda overhead for all weather, al fresco meals, BBQs and entertaining, both young and old: the vaulted end room became a hub for all sorts of gatherings, games, parties and study sessions, as needs, seasons and exam schedules indicated. The home evolved on a greenfield, triangular c 0.6 acre site over 36 years, and now is home to dozens of trees species, with a big front lawn, and behind evolved into more niche sections for organic veg and herb beds (the photography here must have been done last summer?). Down the years, the gardens have been home to hens, ducks, geese and even a pot belly pig called Napoleon, trained by the youngest sibling to even sit, on command. Hopefully their Napoleon was more benign in its day than the fictional porker Napoleon in George Orwell's chilling classic Animal Farm, and today just two curly-haired dogs are residents of this Clogagh animal farm, with their own house and dog run generously assigned. Pig out... Selling agent Majella Galvin of DNG Galvin guides the mix of spacious home, and pristine gardens at €595,000 and says it's a great lifestyle offer, for families of all sizes, with a national school 600 metres away in the village, plus proximity to beaches and hideaway coves around Timoleague, Courtmacsherry and west towards Clonakilty. The family enjoyed walks, hikes and sea swims as well as fishing on the Argideen river, and there's also proximity to the charming timepiece Argideen Vale Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, with a history back to the 1890s, and ongoing tea days this summer. Argideen Vale Tennis Club VERDICT: Clearly a much loved and appreciated home, ready to go again.
