The Ultimate Incentive to have an amazing 2010.

Dinah93

I can't dive unfortunately. I have really narrow ear canals, needed a lot of surgery to widen them as a baby but they really can't take pressure. NIM could dive... but well, I get bored easily and he doesn't really like leaving me alone for fear of me befriending the local madman!

Will definately post some after pics, and probably some during piccies too!

Dinah93

Listed lots of bits of our house on ebay last night. Already had an offer of £100 for the shed and greenhouse, and have 12 watchers on the wardrobe doors and 10 on the hideous chandelier! We were offered £40 for the chandelier, but we turned it down as I want to know I can get it down without breaking it first.

Got a letter off work today, my sick pay runs out the 12th June, earlier than I thought, and they've given me the number of jobcentre to call see if I can get any benefits to stop us living off credit for 6 weeks.

Tete_en_l'Air

Yikes 12 people would want those wardrobe doors! Different strokes for different folks though I guess! I think you might get a lot for the chandelier. I didn't know you had a shed and greenhouse, my Dad may have been interested, however he's an 'allotmenteer' now and 'they don't pay for anything' - honestly he's like bloody Steptoe!

Annoying about the sick pay, when you spent so much of that time waiting on appointments, you could have had the op and recovered twice over by now!

Dinah93

Dad says he bets the wardrobe doors will go to a buy to letter, cheap built in but durable furniture.

That table arrived yesterday, it looks very smart, but my God it's big, we're going to take it to the house tomorrow, see if it even fits in the conservatory.

We also made an event last night on facebook (some of you got invites, you may have thought we're mad). We're inviting all our friends to come to our house next saturday, basically we're having a bbq, cakes, beer and bubbly, and giving out paint strippers and powertools and hoping to get the house stripped and gutted by the end of the day. Everyone seems to be studiously ignoring the invites though! Really hope people do turn up - last night I ordered 10 paint scrappers, 10 pairs of safety goggles, 50 masks, 10 spray bottles, 10 sets of leather DIY gloves, and arranged to go pick up a pneumatic drill!

lulu984

Dinah93 wrote: »

Everyone seems to be studiously ignoring the invites though! Really hope people do turn up - last night I ordered 10 paint scrappers, 10 pairs of safety goggles, 50 masks, 10 spray bottles, 10 sets of leather DIY gloves, and arranged to go pick up a pneumatic drill!

:rotfl:Maybe you should've mentioned the bbq and dropped the decorating bombshell when they arrived! Go the emotional blackmail route lol.

Omg! How much did all that set you back? I'm sure everyone has those sorts of things they could bring with them. Thats a big turnout you're expecting :eek:

Dinah93

10 sets of stuff?! I'd hope thats not a big turnout! We're hoping to get 30 there! The masks just came in a pack of 50 for £2.39! Only paid £40 for everything including delivery which I didn't think was bad.

What if they came in their sunday best though?! Plus I can't lie at all!

poddle911

Dinah93 wrote: »

We also made an event last night on facebook (some of you got invites, you may have thought we're mad). We're inviting all our friends to come to our house next saturday, basically we're having a bbq, cakes, beer and bubbly, and giving out paint strippers and powertools and hoping to get the house stripped and gutted by the end of the day. Everyone seems to be studiously ignoring the invites though! Really hope people do turn up - last night I ordered 10 paint scrappers, 10 pairs of safety goggles, 50 masks, 10 spray bottles, 10 sets of leather DIY gloves, and arranged to go pick up a pneumatic drill!

You're SO organised, that's brilliant - I hope you do get a good turnout! Sounds like you've already made headway with the house and I love the pictures - yet again you've motivated me! We hardly took any 'before' pictures of our flat, partly because it wasn't really a 'project' and also because much of the work isn't visible - central heating etc... but now we're doing more 'cosmetic' stuff I need to remember to take lots of pics.

That's annoying about the sick pay; like Tete says if you hadn't wasted so much time waiting for the NHS you'd have been well on your way to recovery - do you not get anything from the council after that date?

Dinah93

I still get half pay, but that means dropping about £850 a month. So I'm going to call the job centre on Monday see if there are any benefits I'm entitled to like this letter suggests. I've paid NI and taxes etc for over 10 years, but I still feel bad about it!

Poolie

Shame about your pay being cut Dinah, hopefully you can claim income support. Well payday here so for the first time in ages going to get £250 into a monthly savings account along with £70 into another account with different bank. Still have about £250 for the rest of the month for trip to Glasgow.

Dinah93

Spent yesterday over at the house. NIM and my dad were very industrious, I walked them round the house and told them everything that needed doing (which according to my dad was suprisingly realistic), and they took down all the lights, took off the fireplace and ceiling roses (made of polystyrene!) and NIM started demolising the wierd room within the garage (which is so insanely insulated we have reason to suspect one of the previous owners used it as a grow house!). Today we're going back to ToolStation to get a strimmer, and also to spend a little time at all the tile places see if we can agree on ones for the kitchen - NIM didn't like any of the samples I got - sometimes I genuinely think if I didn't tell him the prices of things he'd like them more - his mother has really hammered into him that if something is cheap or discounted, its automatically trash.

All we've done is started to strip it, but its wierd, it really feels like ours already. Can't wait till we've finished and its just as we want it.

To do list this week is just a roll over of last weeks.

• Post surveyors letter
• Reply to solicitor
• Post sold ebay items
• Call stockton council recycling
• Arrange an electricity provider
• Arrange a gas provider
• Arrange a water provider if I find out who the current one is
• Look into boiler cover
• Do 2 Vine reviews
• Finish 'The Girls'
• Make 2 get well soon cards
• Post vouchers to Tesco
• List additional bits of house on ebay
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• List 10 ebay items
• Get outside lace seam halfway around the veil
• Rearrange saturdays MS
• Sort NIMs credit report
• Check MB account and update sig
• Sort out all the bits of paper for when job center call
• Find vet receipts