The KonMarie method

GreyQueen

:eek: Gosh, greenbee, is your house being rebuilt around you whilst you are still living in it? If so, hats off to your for your fortitude.

I've just been blowing around the streets with my shopping trolley getting a few bits in. Wonder is Jane A$sher knows her Xmas pud range is in The Land of the Pound? 300g proper puds and 2 x 100g mini-puds, if anyone is interested.

Weather is vile here, very windy and with driving cold rain. I shall lounge around at home for a few hours and possibly go see a pal late this aft, arrangements tbc.

greenbee

Pretty much GQ It's in need of complete refurbishment (TBH should have said 'in need of modernisation' when sold, but because it isn't that old and the owners had it from new 30-odd years ago they didn't see that!). Every so often I have to remind myself that I've made HUGE progress:

5 trees removed (took me nearly 2 years to convert them all to logs) and two random hedges in the middle of the garden taken out.

New boiler (relocated to garage) and mains pressure hot water put in (and airing cupboard relocated from the bathroom to a random cupboard at the top of the stairs), as well as new radiators downstairs.
New oil tank (smaller, but bunded, so less risky given that it's next to a. the sewage plant and b. the stream).

New electrical consumer unit, lights in the utility room and quite a number of new sockets.

17 new double-glazed hardwood windows to replace the rotten ones

Old boiler chimney capped, fireplace chimney ventilator added (chimney needs to be a couple of feet higher, but this will wait until I can put a stove in)

All lead on roof replaced, plus quite a lot of slates

All exterior woodwork painted, and garage doors (completely rotten) replaced.

Downstairs cloakroom redone (apart from the floor - downstairs floors all need to be done at once, after the remainder of the heating pipework has been redone so the stuff in trenches in the concrete floor can be taken out).

Loft insulation (and dead mice, birds nests and mouse poo) removed and replaced with 320mm of new, clean, warm insulation. Loft hatch replaced with one with a proper ladder (not that I intend to need to go up there..)

Bathroom gutted and replaced, with old airing cupboard removed to make room for a walk in shower and vast bath as well as loo, basin and sensible storage. And underfloor heating And the soil stack was moved outside at the same time, which means no draught in the kitchen from cold air in the attic...

This year I have finally scrounged enough vinyl and carpet offcuts to cover ALL of the downstairs floors (concrete) which should be warmer than last winter. Although obviously laying them straight on concrete is still pretty cold. I'm just going through all the odds and ends of underlay I've accumulated to see what I can put under the carpet. I really DO need new doors front and back as they rattle in their frames in this wind.

I'm having a major cleaning session at the moment, and hope to get a few things out/stored better. But I can't get rid of furniture or curtains until the house is finished

GrannyKate

Kondoed minutes of meeting from Thursday to Chair for checking. Not keen on doing these but have many years of experience doing this in world of work and know it is a strength I can bring to voluntary group. Much tact required on this occasion. Fatal to leave notes untyped for more than a couple of days. Have to write a short piece for newsletter which us thus evenings job.
Will Kondo presents to GD4 this afternoon.
Ordered guide book for trip to Germany next month and book for next years history group. Need to find my Glasgow map for next trip there in December.
Will have look in freezer for something simple to eat tomorrow as eating out this evening.

GreyQueen

:eek: OMG, greenbee, that's an awesome list of home improvements. Will be lovely when all finished, tho.

Have just had my evening knit and natter with pal rescheduled for Sun due to rellie in hospital, so will have the afternoon and evening to spend any which way I want to.

At the moment, am kondo-ing my homework - finishing the book that my bookgroup is to discuss tomorrow afternoon. I'm infamous for running it right up to the wire.:rotfl:

Still, when you have a chronic illness (and I am greedy and have two) sometimes you need to spend some sofa-time recharging your batteries.

missyrichards

carolbee wrote: »

Sorry to hear your news Jo4, I had my cat, who had been with us for nearly 13 years, put to sleep,this morning. A very large gap in our lives is left when a pet departs.

I'm sorry.:(xxx

hebwood

Hugs to carolbee, so sad.
Well done greenbe, so much done.


H

jinny

Hugs to all whos lost furry family members

Well done Greenbee on all that work. I live in a flat now and sometimes hanker after having my own front door and garden again. The flat is easy to take care of though and I kondoed it in no time. My sons have their names down on a long waiting list for an allotment. So I am looking forward to helping out with that hopefully soon.

boultdj

greenbee wrote: »

This year I have finally scrounged enough vinyl and carpet offcuts to cover ALL of the downstairs floors (concrete) which should be warmer than last winter. Although obviously laying them straight on concrete is still pretty cold. I'm just going through all the odds and ends of underlay I've accumulated to see what I can put under the carpet. I really DO need new doors front and back as they rattle in their frames in this wind.

De-lurking, to say how my Dad did his concrete floor, first off he mixed PVA glue and water and painted it on the concrete to stop damp coming up, when that dryed he got the foil coated underlay to reflect the heat back up through the carpet, then layed the carpet, unless it got realy cold he kept the heating off, but when we went to visit it never felt cold, sometimes it was cool, but not cold, like where is the nearest radiator to sit on.hth.

PollyWollyDoodle

Crumbs Greenbee you sound as if you've done loads, living through all that can't have been easy! I'm really bad at getting things done, I put up with defects for ages mainly due to the difficulty of finding reliable workmen. I had a fabulous do-everything builder but he's retired.

When it's all done you'll be glad you Kondoed all the random stuff! Hope your dream house isn't too far away now. It's miserable here, the woodburner is stoked up (discarded photos make great firelighters, I've found!), I'm sewing this afternoon and then while I watch Strictly tonight it'll be more of the dreaded photo-sorting. I'm so near the end .... must keep going.

grunnie

I have a hotpoint aquarius tumbledryer and got a phone call from them last week and I said I no longer had a dryer as I thought they were selling me something. Just watched the news and they are a fire risk and have been recalled. Oops. Guess who has KM the paperwork for it.