we live in surrey..a good bit of which is now under water!
we live right by the river Wey but are up on a hill so have had no flooding, surrounding towns and villages have not been so lucky though, Godalming was badly flooded and lost all power and the centre of guildford at millmead lock was under 2-3 feet of water.
my auntie in reigate has the river mole running at the bottom of her garden...it now runs up to her back steps! ,it has not flooded there since the early 60's so this current weather is clearly freakish in nature...
Frankie I can relate to the wood burner and cat scenario, we live in a 16th century cottage and have a wood burner in the living room and a fluffy white lunatic called Alfie who loves nothing more than curling up on a warm lap!...
I can now see the point in a hardtop if you are getting snow like that every year...maybe on in december and off again in march..?