OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

mothernerd

Sorry to hear your sad news Horace, look after yourself.

CRANKY40

Thinking of you and your mum Horace. Hugs xxx

JustKeepSwimming_2

Hi All,

not caught up yet (& possibly won't for a few days as life is mad again) But just wanted to send Horace a hug - so sorry to hear your news; it must still be a shock as it all happened so quickly. Look after yourself.

I'll be back (later).

LavenderBees

Morning All,

Sorry to read your news, Horace. A sad time.

I've been awol for a while as up to my eyes in so many different things my head is spinning....or maybe that's last night's wee tipple creating that effect . I'm supposed to be out and about by now, but am still in pjs and having yet another cuppa. My get up and go has well and truly got up and gone :eek:

My home improvements are going well, thanks, Ellie. "My team" of builder/plasterer, joiner and electrician are lovely guys, who enjoy their work, work well together, want to get it right for me, and don't seem to mind explaining the same thing numerous times in different ways until I understand what they are suggesting .

And it's all looking really good. The improvement is HUGE, although a walled off bedroom will take some getting used to after having been used to open plan for nearly 10 years. And to have smooth, beautifully plastered walls and ceilings is phenomenal :T

Still a week or so's work to go, and my little spare room looks like the worst kind of hoarding is going on. I can just about crawl into the bed. If any of the piles dislodge, I'm in danger of suffocation :rotfl:

Ellie, you have my sympathy about the kitchen work, but we need to keep in mind the goal..it will be worth it! And I have to say, demolition suits me. :rotfl:

Apart from that, been busy at work too and feeling a little more settled as part of the new team, albeit remote. This time when I turned up in their office 200 odd miles away, quite a number of people smiled or came over to speak to me, so it felt better.

The worst thing about this week is that the pusses are in the cattery, and I miss them so much, it is a physical ache. I did see them the other evening, and sucked up as many cat cuddles as I could, but don't want to go every day as it unsettles me to see them in there, so close to home, but so far away. I know it is the right thing for them to be kept safe, and away from the noise and upheaval but the house isn't a home without them. One week to go...it will pass.

Well, I can't spend all day in PJs and drinking cuppas....or can I?? :rotfl:

Have a great day, whatever you're up to.

LB xx

LavenderBees

ellie99 wrote: »

I've been into town to look at worktops and sinks and paint (oh I know how to live :rotfl:)...spent all the money I took at the car boot sale. Had an eleventh hour change of plan for my paint colour (I'd been planning on a muted green for ages)...I blame pinterest!

Not having green?? :eek:

What colour scheme are you thinking of....please share, I have huge decorating decisions to make and am feeling overwhelmed. Ridiculous...it's paint, for goodness sake! :rotfl:

LB xx

ellie99

Condolences to you and your mum Horace...do you live near your mum?

I've had better weeks. Was up for hours last night trying to work out what was tripping my fuse box and putting the power out (I know I didn't need to do it in the night but if I can't sleep I need to read, and wanted my light). Finally fell asleep about half an hour before I had to get up for work, so very tired.

Spent this evening at the hospital with my aunt, she is dying and it is just a matter of time. Poor soul is having a hard time of it, she couldn't speak, I hope she knew I was there.

Drove home planning a bath and TV...DS2 was here, he was unwell and wanted a lift home, so had to go back out again.
Got home from that and discovered the power had gone off again. So spent a happy hour unplugging everything and trying to work it out. By this time it's getting dark and I kept laying my torch down and losing it! Finally found it was my fridge freezer in the garage...don't want everything to defrost so ran a cable from a house socket to freezer (in the rain, of course it was raining!) but that put the power off again, so must be the appliance that's the problem, not the socket.

Finally sat down to see the closing credits of Rebus, missed the whole thing, and no bath! Honestly, I could have cried with frustration, sometimes I get so sick of having to deal with all this !!!!!! alone. Just for once it would be nice to have someone to share the problem (even DS1 is away) or even...shock horror...someone to TAKE CHARGE. Well we can but dream, who's got the man in the cupboard just now?

So now I need to work out what's wrong with freezer and whether it can be fixed, just what I need! And my router keeps losing connection to the internet, it doesn't like being interfered with, plays up if the power gets disconnected.

Sorry for ranting.
LB, I shall answer your paint query tomorrow when I'm less grumpy and back to my normal calm and imperturbable self

BookWorm

Evening all (or should it be morning since I've just noticed it's gone midnight?! :eek:)

I've been called away unexpectedly this weekend to deal with an unexpected family situation...so just trying to catch up in here.... and I can see it's certainly been an eventful week for the singlies.


Horace - I hope you and your Mum are ok

Ellie - sorry to hear about your aunt. Sending hugs to you too. Also not good that you are having so many things go wrong around the house too. Eeek with the power problems - perhaps you need to get an electrician to take a look? (I'm always very wary of problems with anything electrical). Hope everything looks better in the morning

LB - good to hear the job is settling down.

Re: paint choices. I can't help with actual colour suggestions as have no idea about what you like or don't like. However, I tried something when I was having problems deciding on a paint colour and I wondered if it may be of use to you.

I got several tester pots and painted up an A4 piece of paper with the different colours (a different colour on each a4 sheet that is) I then taped it to the wall with masking tape and 'lived with it' for a few days to see what I like and what I didn't. I also moved the sheet around a few times to different spots to see what it looked like in different lights/times of day, etc. I ended up picking a colour that at the outset I probably wouldn't have expected. However, because I had already tested it out, I was really happy with the final choice.

Hope everyone else is doing ok

BW

JustKeepSwimming_2

dND wrote: »

Had to jump in here - still only time to stalk the thread most of the time :-(

Firstly though Horace, I'm really sorry to hear about your Dad. Secondly, - the above jumped out at me. It's so much what I do and the best way I've found to get myself back on track eating wise during stressful times is to make sure I take a multi vitamin with the trace minerals.

I usually buy an effervescent one and I drop in an effervescent magnesium tablet too (over here, L!dl do the straight magnesium at 99 centimes for 20). I've found that the worse I eat, the worse I eat, IYSIM, and topping up whatever vits/mins I must be lacking seems to help me eat better.

Congratulations, hugs to everyone else on the thread as required - back to lurkdom here as still working like mad to get the house to a place where the estate agent can come back and photograph.

Great advice dND & something I should do (but often don't get around to, like all good advice ). I'm dreadful at looking after myself food wise if DD & DS aren't here - I tend to survive on toast & Vegemite, with gallons of tea. The odd glass of red does count as 1 of my 5 a day though, doesn't it?

mum2one wrote: »

2 hrs stuck at school 2ngt for the forthcoming trip, what annoyed me was we were given a form and had to list parents details (just mine), but appoint a 2nd contact who would possibly need to go to FRance if anything happened.......... It sounds daft but for me and another parent by me who the heck were we going to nominate....

If the school had sent a note with the letter for the meeting saying you need x,y,and z info it would have been easier..

A no spend day today...long may they continue... xx

I'd have been stuck with another nominee too Mum2one, & was in exactly the same position when DD had a recent trip to Germany. One of the office staff said she didn't think DD would be able to go on the trip if "I wasn't prepared to have 2 people on standby", as if I just couldn't be bothered to fill in the forms :wall:.... Of course this situation only reared its head after I'd paid for the entire trip & the office worker even said she wasn't sure I'd get the deposit back :eek: so I had a worrying night thinking I'd lose the trip money & have to cancel my plans for the weekend she'd be away that I'd made for DS & I & also paid for....

Thankfully all was fine, DD went & had a great time. Her teacher told me not to worry about any of it. But how I'd love for things to just be easier, & to not have to think about plan A, plan B & all the way through to plan S on my own :rotfl: Ellie, you sum it up beautifully...

ellie99 wrote: »

...Honestly, I could have cried with frustration, sometimes I get so sick of having to deal with all this !!!!!! alone. Just for once it would be nice to have someone to share the problem (even DS1 is away) or even...shock horror...someone to TAKE CHARGE. Well we can but dream, who's got the man in the cupboard just now?...

No idea where the man is - have some gardening to do here so send him my way next please :rotfl:

LavenderBees wrote: »

...The worst thing about this week is that the pusses are in the cattery, and I miss them so much, it is a physical ache. I did see them the other evening, and sucked up as many cat cuddles as I could, but don't want to go every day as it unsettles me to see them in there, so close to home, but so far away. I know it is the right thing for them to be kept safe, and away from the noise and upheaval but the house isn't a home without them. One week to go...it will pass.

Well, I can't spend all day in PJs and drinking cuppas....or can I?? :rotfl:

Have a great day, whatever you're up to.

LB xx

You can certainly spend all day in PJs drinking tea LB - that's my plan today. It must be rubbish without your cats; I miss the cat-that-isn't-mine if he misses a day's visit so hugs to you :grouphug:. Sounds like the house is coming along nicely though & you have a good bunch of workmen so it'll all be done how you want it done :T

I have a very rare day to myself today - was supposed to be visiting Mother to talk about her ongoing care needs, but she's decided she doesn't want to have that conversation . I'm relieved as I had a busy day yesterday trying to sort out one of my late Dad's ongoing business problems & got home after a lot of train travelling at around 10pm. But I'm sure Mother's future will come up again soon so I've only dodged that bullet for a short time.

So I'm planning to just be a blob for today, watching rubbish TV & eating curry. Just need to sort out some paperwork, do laundry, menu plan & shop for next week, clean the kitchen & bathroom first....

Possibly not too much TV watching then

Hope all have a good weekend & hugs to all who'd like one :grouphug:

LavenderBees

I think I have all the men here Mon to Fri, JKS, sorry...well, not sorry really :beer:. I'll give them up when they have finished and not a second before :rotfl:

Sorry to hear about your Aunt, Ellie, lets hope they can keep her comfortable. It's a horrible time. I remember it all too well

And yes, we've talked before on here about how sh!te it can be to have to struggle on with everything ourselves. It can be very tough.

Thanks for the advice on the A4 paper, BW, sounds like a good idea. I know I want my wee house to be light and airy but cosy, so not easy to achieve. I looked at wallpapers yesterday and there are some very pretty ones, but I'm essentially a plain wall girl, so I think I will have the same light/pale paint from the front porch, in the living room, up the stairs and in the main bedroom, but with the living room and bedroom having a darker feature wall that tones with the lighter paint.

This then means that all my cushions and bed linen etc can all still be used. So no extra unnecessary expense.

So, just have to choose the actual colours now...and I know they will be some variation of green

I have time though to decide as I need to save up...

I'm going to see my pusses later this afternoon, and am feeling a little less blue as "Village Cat" who visits YBC is in today keeping me company. He's a sweetie :A

Right, it's only drizzle now so am off to deep clean the henhouse.

Have a lovely restful Sunday afternoon

LB xx

ellie99

BookWorm, hope your weekend is going okay.

Well the frustrations of last night are now a distant memory
Have calmly gone through trying everything and confirmed the fridge freezer is kaput. It's pretty old, so not a surprise I guess.
Have taken a big bag of food to DS2, whose cupboards were bare, as per usual..he's very happy to have free food. Kept enough back to do meals for next week.
(and we won't mention that it's only a few weeks since we sold aunts' pretty new freezer to the house clearance people, bad timing or what?)

LavenderBees wrote: »

Not having green?? :eek:

What colour scheme are you thinking of....please share, I have huge decorating decisions to make and am feeling overwhelmed. Ridiculous...it's paint, for goodness sake! :rotfl:

LB xx

I've spent a couple of years wanting to paint the cupboards green...the night before I bought the paint I changed my mind!

I got this
http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/dulux-timeless---quick-dry-satinwood---750ml-273093

for the wall units and splashback....

and this
http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/decorating/satin-and-gloss-paint/dulux-vanilla-sundae---quick-dry-satinwood---750ml-273046

for the base units.

Thought the soft yellow might make it feel cheery, the units are dark brown wood just now, so a bit dull.

With perhaps a worktop something like this, which would blend with the woodwork.
https://www.howdens.com/kitchen-collection/kitchen-worktops/square-edged-laminates-38mm/american-pecan/

I like the idea of having the wall and base units a different colour.
I'm approaching the paint choices like I did the haircut...if I get it wrong, I can change it in a bit.

I'm going very slowly, have got all the tiles off the walls (and a bit more plaster than I would have liked!), but that's all.
Tbh I wish I hadn't started it just now, I feel a bit overwhelmed with what I've taken on. I wanted it all done before family visit from abroad in July, and I can't see that happening now. Well I'm sure it'll be done by christmas :rotfl:

I think the MITC has gone AWOL...unless he is hiding in plain sight amongst LBs lovely workmen...have you got an extra one there LB? :rotfl: