Daydream fund challenge part 4

choille

Goodness Dave - looks quite serious.

We are going to get some wood from the old fish farm - nice chunky oak that's all sea weathered. Hopefully guy will come next week to start doing stuff around the outside of house.

Tomorrow OH has hospital appointment after Dr's - so over a two hundred mile round trip to do both in same day - I am feeling a bit fed up with all the trailing miles for appointments. Shouldn't moan I suppose.

Fay

Thanks Dave, we are leaving it natural. I'll put some clear waterproof preserver on as advised by the carpenter. The bench part is made of sleepers like the deck under it. It was the landscapers idea, I asked for a sleeper deck and he said lets do the bench from them too. I do love it. Long enough to lie down on or seat 4. I have cushions on order for it and I'm planning to grow some roses over it...I think!

alfie_1

busy bees you lot !


fay....love the space created from taking out the "hedge" !


dave.... that's one hellova mole in y'ore garden


choille.... you have enough on your plate re hosp' app's etc to worry about grafting on the land..


weve had 3 muggy hot days here. had to water pots etc daily.


booked trip to Canada now. august 21st.. have birthday at "whistler" apparently [organised by son and gf] bear watching :j
wont be going on to alberta to see cousin as she has plans to move to minasota so not a good time BUT im having longer around Vancouver. whale watch still on, as is "meeting potential IL's ....
pups are doing well [3.5 weeks now] had their first dish of Weetabix yesterday.. they looked like bog monsters after but ate it all..
2 def booked, one potential.. so one likkle boy to go but plenty of time to find the right home..


dad had his 89th birthday last Tuesday

pink_poppy

Fay, the garden and fence look fab and the bench is amazing ~ so solid and chunky.
My sister ended up with an all-over rash after her husband left her Dr diagnosed Pityriasis. Hope your rash clears up soon, it's definitely not something plant related is it?? An allergic reaction to one of the plants you have put in your garden??

Laughing at alfie's mole quip

Nothing exciting happening here, still desperate to move but don't know when or where to...

Have a lovely weekend daydreamers

Fay

Hi Poppy, I'm sorry to hear your sister has had similar. I don't think it is any kind of allergic reaction. I've had it since early March, went to the GP early april as never like to use their time. First they said fungal infection...tablets didn't work, then pityriasis rosea and said just to leave it...then it started spreading and getting worse so went back. No, it's not that as it shouldn't spread, so now the hypothesis is psoriasis but the ointment isn't doing anything. If anything it's making it much more sensitive and redder. It's bizarre how much discomfort it can cause when your neck and face are stinging and burning.

Today is a wash out here, very heavy rain, but I'm off out to see an old friend who is over from New Zealand. I hope tomorrow is better as I'm going to my parents to do their garden.

choille

It's rained & rained & rained here - none stop.

Did some more painting - tidying up some wonky lines really.

Listed some stuff on the bay - which will sit & sit & sit - but gotta keep fingers crossed.

Puppies sound real fun Alfie - as does the planned holiday. Goodness, it sounds very grown up & proper vacation stuff.

Poppie - what sort of house are you looking for? Do you have any preferred area of the country? Are you looking for work where you go?
Sorry for being so nosy, but it is interesting to see how these decisions are made - what s important in deciding where to go.

Fay you do need to ask to be referred to a dermatologist at your local hospital.

Davesnave

Our car alarm went off.......! It was either a badger having a scratch, or it rolled a little bit, as the new handbrake cable has stretched.....

I don't suppose it could be some sort of dermatitis, Fay? I got that about 9 or 10 years ago as a result of treating a wart. The doc told me to carry on treating it, so I did, but then, when it became obvious it was spreading, she said, "Oh, that's dermatitis, you'll probably have that for life now."

Charming!

It did stay for a long time, it was very sore, and being on a forefinger, I was forever knocking it. I remember one day I clouted it so hard I had to go and lie down.....in the middle of a tour around Pembroke Castle! :rotfl:
But I was determined it would go.....and very gradually, it did.

No news here. I am just rushing about, trying to keep up with all the growth....and failing. We did the village Market on Saturday and made buttons. Compared with the one in the larger village a few miles away, it's good and varied, but will folks support it? Same old crowd who support everything, but it's not enough.

Fay

I am going to give it another week and go back to the GP and ask to see a dermatologist. Luckily, I'm not that affect by how it is impacting on my appearance but if it continues I think it will bother me. I have olive skin and where the patches come up and start to fade from red they are leaving white and pink patches...which are quite obvious now and if I spent time in the sun would be very very noticeable. At least I can model good self acceptance to my clients lol
No gardening in my own patch for me this weekend. Off to my parents to tidy their garden up and help them with some jobs. I miss my garden!

pink_poppy

choille wrote: »

Poppie - what sort of house are you looking for? Do you have any preferred area of the country? Are you looking for work where you go?
Sorry for being so nosy, but it is interesting to see how these decisions are made - what s important in deciding where to go.

A house in the middle of nowhere
We are still yearning for somewhere in Scotland (DH is from the SW) and have considered the Highlands, West Coast, Borders.
We have DDs to take into consideration though, they're both at Uni and live at home. They have NO intention of moving with us so we can't/don't want to be too far away.
Very difficult to decide what to do for the best...

greenbee

I'm wondering how it took me so long to find this thread. I'm hoping you'll let me join in (I'm currently catching up from the beginning of this one while I procrastinate about housework...).

I'm in the process of complete gutting and refurbishing a very neglected 1980s 'arts and crafts wannabe' style house I bought just under 3 years ago and have just (bar the snagging) finished upstairs.

I moved in at the start of September and in addition to ripping out all the carpet & underlay and most of the kitchen, by Christmas we had:

• Cut down 5 vast rotting conifers that were threatening to squash the house plus several smaller ones
• Replaced the boiler and moved it to the garage
• Replaced the hot water tank with a megaflo system and moved it out of the bathroom and into the cupboard at the top of the stairs
• Fitted ikea units and a sink in the utility room to allow for the kitchen coming out
• Scrounged carpet and vinyl offcuts and threadbare rugs to cover parts of the floors

It was COLD!

In the second year:

• Scrounged more carpet, underlay and vinyl..
• Removed two random hedges that divided up the garden oddly
• Replaced 17 windows
• Redone all the lead in the gullies and around the dormers
• Replaced quite a lot of slates...
• Restored and repainted the external woodwork
• Replaced the rotten garage doors
• Replaced the consumer unit with a more robust one
• Discovered that the downstairs toilet cistern had been incorrectly fitted 30 years ago and had been leaking into the channel where the heating pipes went through - but the insulation had been soaking it up. It explained the smell - we only found out when clearing out the gullies re-insulating
• Gutted and refitted the downstairs toilet (apart from skirtings and flooring)
• Removed the loft insulation (complete with dead mice) and reinsulated properly. Added a proper loft hatch with ladder now we'll never need to go up there again... but it is draught proof!
• Replaced the main bathroom ('champagne' coloured suite and constantly blocking toilet) with a bath, walk in shower (after two years of no shower) and suddenly realised the house COULD look as nice as we'd hoped
• Built a MASSIVE log store out of old pallets to house the logs we'd finally chopped from the felled trees
• Burned lots of logs (as they were softwood) in an attempt to keep the house warm
• New bunded oiltank

This year so far the whole of upstairs has been finished:

• All floorboards up, electrics and heating pipework for both upstairs and downstairs done (heating pipework for downstairs is being removed from the gullies in the concrete floor)
• Insulation between ceilings and floorboards
• Upstairs radiators replaced
• Lots of filler (2 rooms had over 5kgs each, one was replastered)
• Ensuite redone
• Old floorboards sanded and reused where possible
• Doorhandles replaced with doorknobs
• Ensuite door replaced and cut down to fit airing cupboard
• All rooms redecorated
• Landing enlarged (and balustrade replaced by bookcases)
• Staircase replaced
• Heating system finally balanced by someone competent and working properly
• New mains smoke/CO detectors (that talk to my mobile phone :cool:)

I'm just waiting for the clever new heating controllers to go in, as we've zoned the heating this time.

I'm also hoping to get the kitchen at least half done this year, but we need to work out how to deal with the downstairs floors if we do downstairs in sections as they're not currently level and the original plan was to level them first. However, the idea of trying to empty the whole house and dry out a screed in November doesn't appeal!

I travel a lot for work, so with that and all the building work the garden has been rather neglected. I've got a couple of months at home so am hoping to tackle it in the evenings/at weekends. Yesterday was spent mowing (it had been left to grow for three weeks), and I've made a start on clearing the stream (I have streams on two sides).

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to discourage water parsnip from being quite so prolific I'd appreciate it. Originally it was clogged with yellow flags, and due to flooding risk I've had a major clearout of these - however, there does need to be some vegetation otherwise the water isn't filtered or oxygenated and the fish have nowhere to hide. I also have water voles. I have a feeling that I need to focus my gardening efforts on planting in and around the stream. The rest of the garden will have to wait until the builders have stopped wrecking it!