2014 - New Rules to Live By

Pennydropped

Whew!! DCs back in school and I can get my shopping at Aldi's again! Hooray!! Already seeing savings!


The big push right now is cleaning up the garden. I had to spend some money that I didn't anticipate recently, as I had bees coming into the chimney and down into the living room. I had to pay for pest control to come out twice to sort it. Those bees were persistent!! And when I was back starting to clean out the shed, I realised why there were so many bees in the garden recently! I think there is a bee hive/nest (whatever you want to call it) in a neighbour's garden - out behind their shed, which is close to the back of my garden. I'll give it a few days and see if they sort it. If not, then I think a trip to pick up some plants that bees don't like might be in order. I've started doing a little research so I'll compile a list of what might be appropriate and go from there.


I've trimmed back the hedge by the roadside quite a bit. Still more to do, but once I've cleaned out the shed properly (avoiding the bees), then I can get the electric hedge trimmer out and finish it off properly. At the moment, it's nestled right at the back of the shed and I can't get to it without dragging everything out - not something I want to do on a day that looks like rain. (ha - now I'll be thinking of Winnie the Pooh and "tut tut, looks like rain!")


I've taken the big tool box out of the shed and brought it inside. I'm going to spend some time tonight cleaning it all out, lining up the tools between that box and my smaller tool box and seeing what I have. A bit of organisation is needed I think. That shed has tons of stuff in it, so I'm looking forward to having it clean and organised.


I seem to be doing a scatter-shot approach lately, I will admit. A bit of garden work, a bit of shed cleaning, some work on the inside of the house. But at least this way I'm seeing a bit of progress in all 3 areas, so that's a good method for me right now.

Pennydropped

I've gone through the tool boxes. A lot of just miscellaneous junk in there. But I do have a few tools and items that will be helpful to keep around. So at least that's taken care of.


Today I'm just focusing on the kitchen and dining room. I've filled up two carrier bags of things that I've simply tossed out in the rubbish. It's just old paperwork or broken items (that I planned on fixing but have never gotten to) or simply older things that I just don't need or use anymore that wouldn't be of much use to a charity shop.


After a full week of beekeepers coming out and repeatedly removing bees from the neighbour's trees, one huge mass of bees slowly swarmed off this afternoon. It was quite probably the largest swarm I've seen - at one point it was literally on both sides of the house and I could see it from windows on either side at the same time (that was a bit disturbing!!). But then it sort of "meandered" down the street. Hopefully it won't return. That leaves a smaller group down at the end of his garden, which I believe the beekeeper was working on removing today. Fingers crossed. I'd like to go out into my back garden again.


I painted my patio table the other day (before the big swarm showed up). It still needs another coat, but it looks quite good. I'm glad I didn't give in and toss it and get a new one, as I had been debating it. I've also painted one of the two chairs. So hopefully this week I can finish that and rip out the weeds on the patio. I put weedkiller on them the same day I painted the table, and the bottle said it would take up to 7 days (supposed to inhibit further growth as well). Then I need to repaint my chiminea. It's slightly rusty so I suppose a spray paint that can protect against the rust issue? And black, of course, as that's the colour it is now (although I did think red would be quite cheery).


Still thinking about the sheds in the back of the garden. I have a friend that will happily help me with taking out one of them, and she will take it away as she'd like it for her chicken equipment at hers. That leaves us to reposition the shed that is there, reinforce the interior with plywood, and paint the exterior. The roof is in excellent condition. So while I would love to just get rid and get a new one, I suspect it would be less expensive to simply reinforce and paint it. So that's the plan at the moment.


Cinco de Mayo on Monday means it must be Mexican food! So I made sure I picked up fresh veg (tomatoes, onions, peppers) along with cheese and mince and taco shells (crunchy corn shells and soft flour wraps). And salsa. Cannot have Mexican food without salsa. Yum!!

Pennydropped

Two big bags of "stuff" in the rubbish today. Hoorah!! I love getting rid of stuff and clearing out the house. It's taking forever, it seems, but at least I'm slowly getting through it. Even managed to clean off the stuff piled on top of the piano so I could polish up the wood a bit. How embarrassing is that? Haven't seen the top fo the piano in a while, you know?!? Now it smells all lemony fresh of a dab of furniture polish and it has two framed pictures on it. Very nice! I've even dug out a nice table cloth so the table is looking very nice.


I think I have too much furniture in my dining room. It's all about storage, as I just have too many "things" in it. Let's see... what do we have?


A box of kitchen items - such as a couple tablecloths, tea towels, aprons and so on. If I made an effort, I could find a place to store it in the kitchen. That's ONE box sorted. (a lot more to go though!)


Toilet roll - hmm. Tricky. No room in the toilet to store it. Is it safe/okay to store it in the airing cupboard? That's a definite possibility. As long as it's not right next to the heater, it's not a fire hazard, is it? Must think about this one. Where does one store one's loo roll? (not exactly a question you ask people, to be fair)


Board games for the DCs - okay there aren't that many right now, but now they are getting a bit older (primary school), I anticipate more being bought (ANYTHING to keep some attention away from video games!). So I have to find a good place to keep them that has room for more games as they get older. DS1 has a free shelf on his bookcase, which is just inside his bedroom. That means DS2 can access them (with permission to enter DS1's room of course) without going too far into DS1's room (trust me, DS2 has Velcro hands - the less he can reach, the better!). I think that may be a good option, so that's another bit sorted.


Legos. Oh, dilemma here. Legos are definitely not bedroom toys here. They get everywhere and get stepped on (ouch!), vacuumed (I like my vacuum to continue working, thanks!), and in the case of DS1, swallowed. So in the bedrooms is not an option. They're in an open bucket right now, but I could get a plastic box with cover and put them in that and tuck them behind the chair in the living room. They can take them out when they want to play, and then it's out of sight at other times. Win-win!


Books. Alright. I'll bite the bullet on this one. I'll move these books to the upstairs bookcases, so they all go to the room of their owner. We each have a bookcase in our bedrooms, as I like to encourage reading, so that's feasible.


Then there's the DIY stuff. My small tool box (the larger one is on the floor of the airing cupboard as it has things I don't use as often). Four containers of paint - which I will be using eventually, some new, some partway used. I don't want to put those things in the airing cupboard, and I can't put them in the outside shed (not room at the moment anyway). Also a small portable gas cooker with gas canisters (purchased a few years ago in case of winter power outages - and haven't used them once!). And a box of light bulbs (spares).


Let's see. I have a shelf over my big freezer that has some DIY stuff - a sander, a hot air gun, some painting tools. I could move THOSE to the airing cupboard (it's fairly good sized, so there's room for those things), and move the gas cooker up to the shelf. I don't think it gets hot up there - are the gas canisters safe to put on the shelf as well? I think there's probably room a couple of the paint cans as well, although not all four.


My scrapbooking photo books will have to be integrated into my craft boxes somehow. The craft supplies need to be organised (again) and set up in a manner that takes up less room. I don't want to get rid of the craft stuff as I enjoy it (when I actually get time to do it!!).


I can move my sewing stuff up to my room - that's where my material is anyway.


I have a microwave that is sitting here, unplugged and taking up room. I put it in here over a month ago, as I wanted to see how frequently I actually use it. Haven't used it at all, don't really miss it. So I may get rid of it. I'll see if anyone I know needs one.


Wow. That's a huge difference - time to move it all now that I know where it's going. That's my afternoon project. And once I downsize the amount of furniture in here, then I can start thinking about replacing the flooring, so that it's the same wood vinyl planks that are in the hallway and toilet, as they all open up into each other. That will be brilliant!! And again, something I can do myself.

Pennydropped

Dining room is looking better and better. I've gotten rid of a large bookcase (it was just a junk magnet anyway) and I'll be getting rid of a cabinet soon as well. So it's looking much more open in there. Of course, that means the horrible flooring is more visible, but eventually I'll have that replaced.


More progress on the living room, as I've gotten a new sofa and gotten rid of the old furniture. I donated the old furniture to a local charity that collects (much easier than me trying to get rid of it myself!!). I still need to get another chair, but this new sofa is smaller, so it fits the room much better. Plus it matches the colour on my new wallpaper that will be going up in a couple weeks. So the plan is this. In 2 weeks my friend and I will be whitewashing the fireplace and painting the ceiling. Then the walls will be painted (already chose colour, just need to pick it up when I pick up the wallpaper), and lastly the wallpaper goes up. And that will be closely followed (hopefully, depending on cost) by new carpeting. And I'll be jumping up and down to have the room done!! (okay, I will still have to get new curtains, however, I have a good idea what I want, it's just a matter of finding them for the right price!)


I'm still slowly working on the hallway. A bit of sanding here and there on the bannister seems to be making good progress. Nearly done now.


I'm a bit flummoxed over what to do with the door frames throughout the house, to be honest. They're all awful - no uniformity at all, they all look horrible and choppy. I think it may have to be a job that I hire out, so they can do them all and have them all look the same. Hopefully it won't cost the earth!


When I get the carpeting done in the living room, I'll be getting a quote for the stairway carpeting, so I know what amount of money I'll need to put aside to get that done.


Long term goal - I'd like the living room, hallway/stairway, and kitchen done by Christmas. Ideally, the dining room as well, but I think that may be pushing my luck. The dining room really only needs new flooring (which I can do) and new paint/wallpaper - but removing that wallpaper will be quite a task! I've debated whether or not I can remove the wallpaper but leave the lining and just paper over the existing lining if it's in good shape. Can that be done? Not a clue! If so, then happy days, as it will make it a whole lot faster and cheaper!


The kitchen just needs fresh paint (which I can do) and flooring (again, I can do that). So not a huge expense. The upstairs bedrooms just need fresh paint, wallpaper borders in the DCs' rooms, and fresh paint and wallpaper put up in my room. I won't even discuss the bathroom upstairs - I think the whole room needs to be gutted and started over. I'm avoiding thinking about it right now!

Pennydropped

New (to me anyway) sofa delivered. Huge bookcase and large chair taken by charity, but they wouldn't take sofa and other chair. Apparently the fire tags had been removed. I didn't remove them, and we bought them second hand from another charity shop, so not sure how that happened, but it's sorted now. I've rung the council and they'll be picking up the remaining furniture. I did have someone express an interest in the sofa and chair, however, I told them it was out for the council pick up, and if they wanted it, they would need to make sure they collected it before the council did. I'm not going to mess about with that. So either way, the old furniture will be gone tomorrow. It did cost just over £20 to have the council pick it up, but considering I only paid £35 for the new sofa, I am still well ahead overall.


The living room looks brilliant. So much roomier. And the second hand table I bought is the perfect size. It does mean that I now have a coffee table that I don't think I need anymore. I'll deal with that soon. I fashioned a tablecloth out of a comforter cover that was ripped. I trimmed the ripped half for a tablecloth, and the other half will be used to back a quilt.


Good weather lately means less energy expenditure. Very little gas expense, and I'm being very careful of the electricity. I'm still putting a bit extra on the meters, so hopefully will build up a good amount of credit by winter.


I can't believe I'm already contemplating plans for next winter and it's only May. But the sooner I start working on organising, the less I have to worry about it later, I suppose. I may spend some time this week browsing the OS board and that "prep for winter" thread in particular.


My patio table looks brilliant. The painting worked well, and I painted a chair also. Two new inexpensive patio chairs were purchased locally, for a total cost of £11. I suppose I could have looked around and gotten something second hand cheaper, but I felt £11 was perfectly reasonable, so am happy with that.


I also spent money on a haircut this week. Desperately needed. I've found that when my hair has a decent cut, it looks better and then I feel better. When I feel better, I tend to get busy and get things done around the house, rather than just schlep around moping or doing nothing. So you see? Spending to get a decent haircut is definitely beneficial!!


I need to check the weather for next week, but the plan is to spend time at inexpensive and free venues locally and keep the costs down. We've got that holiday coming up this summer and I want to make sure there are no financial hiccups associated with it.


Off to browse the OS board for a bit!

Pennydropped

My DD gave me a bag of old clothing of hers that she is no longer wearing. She is quite tiny, but there are a couple jumpers and a hoody in the bag that will be perfect for "slightly oversized" jumpers for the boys. They're quite amused at the thought of hand-me-downs from their big sister.


A number of items will be cut up into squares to put in my pile of material for a patchwork quilt, cushions, and curtains for my room, and patchwork quilts for both boys. I'm hoping to get those done by Christmas.


Two shirts in particular have a lovely material, and I'm planning on making cushion covers out of them. I hope my sewing skills (and my sewing machine) are up to the task!


I'd been mulling over taking the DCs out to a few places this week, however, a warning light has come on in the car, which means any money needs to be tagged for this purpose. I have an appointment for later in the week to get the car checked and repaired, and unfortunately that means it's not a good idea to do any driving that I don't have to either. So other than a brief appointment that is unavoidable, the car is parked for the week. At least it'll mean an inexpensive week, right?

Pennydropped

The car is in the shop. They should be ringing me tomorrow morning to advise me of the damage to my budget. Fingers crossed that it's not too bad!


Job Centre appointment this morning, window repairers this afternoon, and car in the shop. It's been a busy day!


The window repair company had to replace 3 windows as the double glazing had condensation on the inside of the glass panels. I was a bit upset that they initially said they'd finished the small window in the hallway, and it was awful. Silicone holding on parts of the window handle, all wonky and crooked, obviously not secure or safe. I insisted they come back and look at it and the handle literally came off in his hand. The handles could not be attached to the window, and it couldn't be secured closed at all - there was nothing to hold the window shut. This window is at the top of the stairs, going from floor level to almost shoulder height, so from a danger perspective, it's the most dangerous for my DCs as they could have pushed it open easily and fallen from the first floor to the ground (and DS1 has no sense of safety so it MUST be secured safely). Thankfully, he agreed that the window is actually too badly damaged and needs to be completely replaced, so they'll be ordering a new window and fitting it within a few weeks. In the meantime, the window is screwed shut so the DCs can't open it.


Someone suggested to me the idea of watering down the fabric softener so I'm now doing that. I'm using a medium range store brand (the store's version of Pure - rather than the basics one) and have watered it down by half. I still use the same amount, and it still seems to be doing the same job, but now it goes further.

Pennydropped

Just arrived back home from our holiday that we purchased through the Sun Plus promotion. £60 provided us with a 5 day/4 night stay at a seaside holiday park in a lovely caravan. As it was self-catering, we brought food from home to keep the expenses down, and only purchased a few meals while we were there. After all, you can't go to the seaside and not have some ice cream and fish and chips, can you? But overall it was a lovely holiday with very little expense. Well pleased and plans to definitely do it again next year!


Now I know that holidays are not necessities, but the DCs have never actually been on holiday and I felt that at 7 and 4, they were at good ages to enjoy it. They've also had a horrific year with everything that's been going on, and I felt that they deserved some happy holiday memories to balance out the year. I wouldn't have spent the money on an expensive holiday, but this was perfectly within budget.


A few days to be spent now catching up on the mountain of holiday laundry we've brought home, and then next week begins more work on the living room. Hopefully I'll be starting with whitewashing the fireplace. Eeeeeeek! It's such a huge change, I'm a bit nervous, but fingers crossed it will look good. I think it will - and it will hide the white patches that the previous owner put on it here and there when they "fixed" some areas.

Pennydropped

Fireplace is now whitewashed. And WOW it looks AMAZING!! I am so pleased with how it turned out! It makes the room look completely different, definitely much lighter.


Ironically, the wallpaper I'd purchased a few years ago (then reluctantly put aside when we bought new furniture) actually looks perfect next to the fireplace, so a friend is going to help me put that up in the next couple weeks. First is a touch up on a few places on the ceiling. Then I will be painting three walls a pale grey (I believe the colour is silver mist??), and then the wallpaper on the walls surrounding the fireplace. I already have matching curtains, so it's just a matter of putting them up in the living room. And then saving up a bit of money to put in carpet.


I have to admit I've waffled back and forth on carpet or wood flooring in the living room, but I've come down on the side of carpet. I am looking at a nice grey berber carpet, which I think will look lovely (and won't be an issue if the occasional bit of soot from the fireplace wafts onto it).


I'm still taking 10 minutes here and there and doing sanding on the bannister in the hallway. It's one of those "ongoing" projects.


The long term goal is still to have the living room, hallway, stairway, and DCs' bedrooms done before Christmas (preferably by mid November, so I can relax over the holidays!). I want to be able to decorate my lovely new rooms for Christmas this year!


Once those are done, then the kitchen needs a few touch ups, new paint, and new flooring. I'll be carrying on the wood vinyl planking into the kitchen and dining room once both rooms have been painted.


As usual, my room will end up being last - after the upstairs bathroom. That's fine, actually, as I'm still undecided how I want to do it. I need to get a new bed, and I'm planning on downsizing some of the furniture in it. So I think it's a good idea to plan it all ahead of time, save up, and then just do it. But I'm rarely in there during the day, except to put clothing away or go over paperwork, so I'm not worried about it being last in the "redeco" lineup.


I'm just chuffed to bits over my fireplace right now. Every time I walk into the living room, it's just "wow!!" all over again.

Pennydropped

Yesterday I painted 3 walls in my living room a lovely pale grey colour. :j I cannot believe how different it makes the living room look!! I've put up the curtains (that I already had) that match the new living room decor as well. Another coat of paint will need to go on the walls, probably Thursday. And then next week the wallpaper will (hopefully) go up.

After that it's small things to finish up.
- getting some gaps in the brickwork of the fireplace filled
- painting moulding and putting it around the top of the fireplace and side edge by wall, to give it a more finished look
- purchasing a nice white wooden radiator cover. I want this to be wooden and quite sturdy as it's near the sofa and the children tend to move the sofa around a bit, so I don't want them to push it into the radiator cover and break it easily.
- choose a small chair to finish the "seating" arrangement
- paint the small table and chairs the same "antique white" that I used on the fireplace and trim in the room
- replace the seat covering of the chairs at the table, so it looks nice and matches the colours in the room
- figure out what frames I want on the pictures in the room and either paint or change them.

Then I will need to replace the carpeting. That's going to be the absolute last thing I do in the room.