greent's mfw journey

So..... they've officially offered the extension now - running until Dec (20th? - 21st? - somewhere around there) and have said 3 days in the office/ 2 at home is acceptable (and have also agreed more flexibility around the time of back to school when DS2 starts a new school) Week or so off in Oct (half term - we WILL go away on holiday then) and a few odd days in the Summer hols (couple of long weekends) They are also giving him 2 days off paid to make up for some (a few!) of the many extra hours he has worked so far - he is taking those in June, as he was taking 2 days off to take DS1 to midweek uni open days anyway, so he now still gets paid for those :T

OH's contract for his Mon-Fri rental ends 22nd July. He is probably not going to extend it - the cooking facilities there are minimal, so has been eating mainly takeouts which we can't claim for as an expense as he is in self-catering style accom. If he stays in a hotel 2 nights/ week he can claim for all of his meals as well as taking an overnight allowance from the co. Also, the Mon-Fri rental is not VAT-able, whereas hotel and meals are generally likely to be - so we can then use these in our quarterly VAT returns against the VAT charged (moving from flat-rate scheme) We have agreed that if it (the extended contract) is breaking either of us that he will give notice. Other than that we are treating the extension as kitchen/ holiday etc funding - and no more extensions after that!

Kitchen news..... met with designer this week. No financial benefit in doing it in July, so I am thinking Sept/ Oct (Aug with all children at home sounds like waaay too much hassle) Re-jigged her design somewhat (random corner wall cupboard given in the design when I was already on about possibly losing some wall cupboards... that's now gone, along with some weird (not my style) boxing in of extractor above range (am thinking of a clean lines glass one) and reduced the size of the bin cupboard/ drawer unit so that I could gain a cupboard (am already losing a whole (small) cupboard sized space from current layout because we're moving from a lay-on door design to an in-frame design, so the units therefore take up more space) She's gone on holiday now for half term, so I will get re-jigged design and quote w/ comm 05/06, which is fine (quote likely to increase, I suspect, as I changed some other things) I will try and sell some of our existing kitchen - it is quality work, just not really working for us now.

Half term now - looking forward to the rest from work, but have lots of admin and housework to catch up on- and also spend some decent time doing things with kids. Have done nothing today, though - OH and I went out for dinner last night and were both unwell in the night - shame, as it was a lovely evening and we also bumped into OH's best friend from school, who joined us for a drink too, which was lovely

DD has finished her exams at uni now - coming home in 2 weeks. We are looking to re-do her bedroom - move things around and go from single to double bed, etc. Likely to involve going from a huuuuge desk to a smaller one (should be fine to do) and losing one of those coloured/ clear plastic sets of drawers on wheels (filled with stationery at present....) - the set of drawers might be handy storage for her flat next year - the bathroom doesn't have any storage, I don't think - so the drawers would possibly work in there.

Time for a cuppa and try and *do* something now, I think, although I still feel nauseous after last night

Wishing you all a lovely BH weekend!
xx

New kitchen layout will be similar to existing (in terms of sink/ dishwasher/ wm and oven) - but we do have a drain hole in the floor we need to deal with (dishwasher is balanced on a piece of granite over it!) - for some reason there is no cover and quite a large hole.......

So - it's the last day of the month. Have just sent off OH's timesheet and invoice for May We've been paid and I've transferred the money from both invigilating jobs to the kitchen fund I also sold our tent yesterday, so have transferred that amount to the KF too (massive 8m x 5m tent - too big for us now, really) I've got a wad of cash in my purse now from the tent sale, so will have to remember to pay for things in cash to use it up - have a hair and eyebrows apt tomorrow, so that will use some and also need to pay for DS2's end of Y6 event and tshirt, so that will use some more - and then I suspect the rest will be used on food shopping (I don't like carrying much cash around - I'm not used to it! ) Credit card bills have been paid (small ones this month - I've been trying to use debit card more)

Company accounts for last year were signed off yesterday - as OH didn't have a contract for basically all of it we are due a corporation tax rebate - yeay! Personal tax paperwork has gone to accountant to complete SAs too - from an initial quick calculation of mine I *think* we'll get a small personal tax rebate each as well (which will go to KF! )

Life is trundling on - June is busy once school restarts - I am working every day bar 1 and every weekend involves a uni visit with DS1 (except the one which involves a uni visit to collect DD!) - and there are 2 midweek ones. June also means a school residential trip for DS2 and some morning visits to his new school and a lot of line-learning for the end of year school play (Shakespeare - can't remember which one!) DS1 has 1 more AS exam left - but then a week of end of year 12 exams at the end of the month! I suspect that we will all be rather tired come July!

We've just come back from Sains who are being great - they're running a swap venture for the LEg0 trading cards they've been giving away - well, I say swap - we gave them our few swaps and managed to complete two whole sets for nothing - fab customer service! We hadn't bought any albums, though - and they've now sold out (and are going for crazy money on ebay! ) But all credit to Sains for this bit of customer service to enable children to complete their sets

x