Cheery's buttling diary: tea in one hand, plant pot in the other, running shoes on

starnac

Ooh loofahs sound good. Our (plastic) greenhouse was ruined during the winds we had last month so all our growing is inside on windowsills at the moment until we find a new one.

I saw somewhere about using ground loofah in soap. That might be an idea for you. Do you still make your own soap?

Cheery_Daff

I do indeed - I've been experimenting with making soap from oils grown in the UK. Latest experiment seems to actually BE SOAP (in that it foams when you wash your hands with it) which is a good start! :rotfl: Going to leave it a bit longer though as it's still very soft and I'm not convinced it's ever going to set completely...

Anyway, wibble-inducing money-related activity for today - I've just booked an appointment with a mortgage adviser! :eek: :eek: :eek: We've been talking about moving for at least 5 years, paid off this mortgage last year, I've now got a permanent contract at work... My DIY efforts in the last year or two have been partly focused on this aim and I've been forever wandering around RightMove finding unsuitable houses...

... but nothing will actually ever HAPPEN unless we take another step... but I'm not sure what that step *is*... so I've booked to see someone later this week at my normal bank and we'll take it from there.

Right now the whole thing seems unfeasibly frightening, but people take out mortgages every day, right?! And given that we'd be selling a house with NO mortgage on it, we wouldn't need much more to get somewhere else (my wish list is basically 'detached' and 'non-overlooked garden that I can put chickens and perhaps a dog in' and 'somewhere I can still cycle to the train station' :rotfl: )

So, let's see where this rollercoaster ride takes us, shall we?! :eek:

Karmacat

Cheery! Thats very, very exciting :j:j:j Detached with chickens, what a dream

Though now I'm fascinated by the idea of growing loofahs, and even more by the idea of grinding them up in soap?



ETA - some property !!!!!! please

Cheery_Daff

I've not seen them ground up in soap, sounds interesting! I've seen then cut into rings with soap poured over them to set, creating kind of a soapy scrubby disk thing... That might be fun.

Anyway, no guarantees they'll actually grow!

Been in friend's garden all afternoon - he doesn't use it so is letting me grow veg there. Cleared out the polytunnel (there was an ancient fox in there! :eek: don't know which of us was more shocked!! :rotfl: ) and dug over another couple of beds ready for planting. Not sure what I'll plant in there yet mind you. Lovely to be outside and goodness me it was FANTASTIC to be gardening without beong watched by everyone walking down the street :j :j :j

Dug up a load of rogue potatoes too which friend didn't want so we've got them :j

Had a mooch round RightMove but the only remotely suitable thing I could find was about £100,000 more than I reckon we'd get for this place :eek: They might well give me that much but i really don't think I want to take it on :eek:

Mind you, it had plenty of space for musical things and working at home, and TWO cellars for turning into a workshop and a proper pantry :j :j

Still, mustn't get carried away and find perfect thing just yet or I'll be disappointed :rotfl:

Contenting myself with painting the second coat on the ahower tiles - done half of it and just giving my arm a rest :rotfl:

starnac

Wow how exciting cheery. Realistically you've got a huge deposit there from the sale of your house so hopefully your new mortgage should be pretty small (or £100,000 depending on what you see on R1ghtm0ve :rotfl: )

starnac

This is the ground loofah I've seen. Someone was selling it on FB

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, looks interesting starnac, thanks! Wonder if they grew it or just grated shop bought ones with a cheese grater

This is the house I'm blatantly not going to buy :rotfl:

Karmacat

That house is lovely! Looks like its been really sympathetically done too ... sigh ...

And fascinating about the loofah! I didn't realise - it can be grown anywhere that cucumber can be grown. Between stimulating the lymph system, getting rid of dead skin, and spreading your soap around, they sound like handy things to have

starnac

I like that house. I think if you stopped buying tea and cake for a couple of months you could afford that no worries :rotfl:

I'm teasing of course!

Cheery_Daff

How much do you think I spend on cake?! :eek: :eek: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Thing is, I'm sure technically we *could* 'afford it' - it's just that having only just paid off the mortgage I'd rather not take out another 25 year one straight away! Don't want anything longer than 10 years really, which rather limits our options...