The Big Adventure

Goldiegirl

Hello everyone, I thought it was time for an update, and now seems to be a good time as we are a bit house bound, as our bathroom works started last week, so we are not straying very far from home at all.

I smiled when I read Greent's stockpile list - although I haven't got quite as many tins as her, I still have quite a few in various cupboards. We have managed to eat what we had in the freezer, and are currently using various packets and jars and other consumables, like loo rolls, tea, coffee, cereal, past and rice.

We're not making too much effort with the tins at the moment, just in case they are needed for the basis of a new stockpile in October :eek: I don't think about it too much, because every thing is totally mad.

Another thing I was talking about back in March / April was that hoo-ha with the Tree Preservation Order. Well, believe it or not, it's still ongoing!

The Tree Surgeon said he'd deal with getting the TPO, and it'd take about 6 weeks. Towards the end of April, we tried to contact the Tree Surgeon, but to no avail - he didn't return calls or respond the emails. After a lot of detective work, we managed to track down the Tree Officer at the local council, who advised us that no application had ever been received.

I was really cross that the Tree Surgeon had let us down. Such a waste of time!

Anyway, we did an online application ourselves at the start of May, and received an acknowledgement from the council. Their letter said that, if we don't get a response by 28th June, we can appeal. Needless to say, there's been no further communication. If I don't hear anything by the end of the week, I'll have to start chasing. So frustrating and so much work for shrubs (not even trees) that we planted ourselves.

I can't imagine for a minute that permission will be denied... but by the time it's sorted out and we find another tree surgeon, I'm fairly sure we won't get the work done until after we get back from our holiday towards the end of September.

As a result of all this, we haven't done much in the garden at all this year. We have some flowers in pots on the patio, but, to be honest, I don't want to go out there an look at the overgrown shrubs and not be able to do anything with them. The weather hasn't been that good anyway, so it probably doesn't matter to much.

We've had something that went perfectly - we had our front drive way cleaned and sealed and it looks like new. The guy who did it was prompt with quotes, and turned up to do the work on time and with no fuss -I wish it was always like that!

In the next couple of days I'll probably do a half year review, to see where I am on my year plan

Karmacat

Hi Goldie - that TPO sounds crazy! Not surprised you don't want to go out there My stockpiles are in fewer places at the moment, simply because of the extra space in the kitchen thank heavens, but I obviously have to beef up my supply of tea bags compared to greent :rotfl:

Goldiegirl

At one point we probably had about 1000 tea bags, but that includes green tea bags as well. The stores are now gradually reducing. I'm keen to reclaim the space, as I want shift some things from another cupboard. After that shuffle is done, I'll be able to easily access all my handbags (I haven't got that many!), but it'll mean I'll use them more, rather than keep using the same one.

I've been trying to use this time while we are housebound. I've been getting rid of paperwork - I've been even more ruthless than usual this time round.

When I first started on eBay, I used to keep prints of the sales notifications, and put them in binders. I'm not sure why I did this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I stopped doing that about 5 years ago. I've decided its time to get rid of all the old eBay paperwork. It's quite interesting, as I'd forgot lots of the things that I've sold over the years. I couldn't believe how much I was selling back in 2013, but it was at the height of my decluttering, and I really enjoyed eBaying at that time.

I'm currently selling a few things on eBay, and when that's done, I'll further reduce my packaging stash.

It's an ongoing process, but at some point, EVERYTHING will be done.

Tomorrow, I have a dentists appointment first thing, then I intend to list one eBay item and then do my progress review on my year plan

Karmacat

Sounds good, Goldie - I can understand keeping printed notifications back in the day, but between the ebay account itself, your own email notification and backup on your computer, I bet you're fine. I'm really looking forward to getting rid of accounts paperwork gradually, the longer I'm retired.


Hope the dentist appointment goes well for you - and I'll look forward to your review, you're really keeping going with things.

Goldiegirl

I went to the dentists, no fillings required, so all I needed to do was to book an appointment for 6 months time.

This is day 6 of bathroom/cloakroom renovations. Today the chap is doing some tiling. I'm wondering what's going on up there, as there seems to be quite a lot of banging going on, and I've heard actual swearing :eek:

To take my mind off it all, I've done a little review of progress this year

Finance.

At the start of the year, the stock market had gone down, so I wanted to monitor our ISAs and SIPPs, and take action if needed. Since then the markets have risen and our current valuation is the highest its been. It's not perfect though, as Mr Goldie has a small amount in the Woodford Equity Income Fund - that's the one that's suspended trading due to all the outflow! Fortunately, we'd moved most of the money out in 2017 and 2018, as the fund wasn't performing well, but left a small amount in there, in the hope it'd recover. We should hear soon if trading will restart again, so we'll probably withdraw the funds and invest elsewhere. As the portfolio has done ok apart from Woodford, any loss is mitigated.

Summary: Not perfect, but mostly positive.

Home

Bedroom decoration, new duvet covers, new small wardrobe - done

Bathroom and cloak room - currently in progress.

Hall and stairs. This was a possible, and I said it may be done in 2020. However, we are going to get this done after the bathroom and cloakroom is done. We have a decorator booked for 5th August to do the stairwell, and will do the rest ourselves. We'll also choose a new carpet, but it will likely be fitted after our holiday in September

New Laptop - Done. After struggling on with our old lap top, this new one is is lightening fast. I've got everything I wanted transferred on to the new laptop. Plus it has Candy Crush:D

Garden

Cut back large shrubs - the less said about it the better! My mission for next week is to get some sort of resolution

Memories

Cruise in May - Done. We went to Amersterdam, Scotland, Ireland, the Scillies, Guernsey and Honfleur. We were lucky with the weather - although it wasn't very warm, we only had one rain shower. We really enjoyed it

Days Out - not quite so many as last year. I don't think we'll be doing that many as the summer progresses, as the weather is not so good, and we are busy with home improvements.

Health

Weight - I'm maintaining my weight - that's all I can say!

Walk a 1000 Miles. I'm definitely behind last years schedule, but 1000 miles is still achievable.

Reading

I had set myself an objective to read the books that had been hanging around on shelves and Kindle archive. This is ongoing. I've read some good books, and some others were a bit of an effort. There's some books that I know I won't be able to face even starting, so I will stop this objective when I reach that point. Life is too short to read books you feel might be hard work.

Brexit

Who knows what's going to happen.



So in summary, progress has been made on most fronts, so I'm hoping for similar progress in the next 6 months.

Karmacat

There's lots of progress there, absolutely - I think you may need to set additional goals, in fact :rotfl:

Goldiegirl

On Friday, we finally had a response from the Council sbout the Tree Preservation Order. Permission granted!! :T

Also, this means I haven't got to spend time chasing them up, so it's a win/win.

This afternoon, we've set the ball rolling and have contacted a couple of tree surgeons about getting a quote, so we'll see what happens next.

Getting the TPO sorted out, gave me a boost of enthusiasm about the garden, so I spent some time outside doing some general weeding and tidying, and intend to spend some time each day this week doing the same.

The bathroom/cloakroom works are ongoing. Today is day 8 out of 17. He's still doing the tiling in the bathroom, but progress is being made. The bathroom is due to be finished on Thursday, then they start the cloakroom on Friday. We were able to have a bath at the weekend, which was very welcome

Karmacat wrote: »

There's lots of progress there, absolutely - I think you may need to set additional goals, in fact :rotfl:

I want less goals, not more ! :rotfl:

However..... we have thought of something else to do. The bathroom people use Hippo Bags to dispose of the waste, and we have slipped in a few things that we wanted to get rid of. However, when we get our new carpet, we think we'll get our own Hippo Bag, to dispose of the old carpet, some things that have accumulated in the loft and shed, plus some general rubble and rubbish that has gathered in an out of sight out of mind place at the side of the house. Even though I did all that decluttering a few years ago, it astonishes me that there's still stuff that is surplus to requirements.

Karmacat

Congratulations on the TPO!

Goldiegirl

Karmacat wrote: »

Congratulations on the TPO!

It was a relief, I can tell you! We have got a tree surgeon coming round for to do a quote on Saturday.

Day 10 out of 17 of the bathroom fit is nearly over. Its been quite intense for the last few days. He's been working from 8am to 6pm, but the bathroom is looking great now. At one point today, we had the fitter, the electrician, an apprentice and a foreman milling around. Tomorrow, the old fittings to the cloakroom will be ripped out, and the toilet and basin should go in upstairs. I've been assured there will be a working toilet at all times!

It's a slog, but we are over half way, and the end result will be worth it

Goldiegirl

Yesterday evening, I was in the kitchen, and happened to glance up at the ceiling and I was horrified to see damp patches on the ceiling, under the bathroom! :eek:

We phoned the foreman, who phoned the workman, who phoned us. Apparently, the electrician had accidently kicked over a bucket of water, and they had mopped it up. But some of it must have seeped through the floor and started soaking into the ceiling. Also, we noticed that it was dripping from the light fitting too, although that seems to have dried up now.

The foreman has been round and they are going to repaint the kitchen ceiling. But we will have to wait to make sure it's dried out and the decorator is on holiday next week, so it will be a while until this is done

I'm really happy with the way the bathroom is looking, but feel rather deflated today, with this added fuss about the kitchen ceiling.

Sometimes it seems like nothing is straightforward.