22 Foxhole East

kerri_gt

Congratulations on the Jan numbers f0xh0les

I too suffer with the fairy liquid gene, can taste coriander a mile off, and whilst I will eat it, it does rather taste like the scrapings of satans shoes to me....give me desecrated coconut anyday

f0xh0les

BoilerBob finally sent the yearly gas check invoice - £50, so not too horrific, but the two electrodes plus fitting plus VAT comes to another £110. Boo! But it needs to be done to keep the system working, so it will be done next week. Budget all gone for the month.

So I used up some magnetic chalkboard paint on the backing of an A1 size picture frame the kids managed to break the glass on, and have turned it into a magnetic chalkboard for the storing of kids stuff. Might be able to do it to another one, which I found in another kid's bedroom -how on earth do they break everything? Glass, perspex, makes no difference, they simply trash it all. :mad:
Got out my list of stuff to do this morning, and went into the front garden with my trusty saw, and hacked the smashed glazed door to gobbits and put it in the bin. The binmen took it away. The front garden looks much tidier (we have a hedge, so nobody could see it from the pavement) and it is another thing off the list. :T
Baked cakes for lunchboxes tonight, after cooking a chinese feast to welcome in the year of the pig. Got rid of the 20p wontons and spring rolls, ys asparagus, ys watercress, ys baby corn, ys mangetout, ys mushrooms. I think my kids would worry if I ever bought something without a ys. Tomorrow is ys Cavallo Nero. I love black kale. It makes me happy.

The house is vaguely tidy, cos I went a bit nuts yesterday and cleaned all the bathrooms, and the living room. It still looks quite tidy. I think I may have reached the stage where things have a home, and if I keep on top of it weekly, then things do not pile up

f0xh0les

So for the rest of February, all I can do is the stuff that I already have the materials in for, or that cost nothing in the first place. And measure the kitchen, and draw plans, and graphs, and wish for a kitchen that works.

kerri_gt

It must be something about picture frames ATM, we finally put up a picture last night (after 3yrs)....I fafffed about with it this afternoon and hey presto the effing thing fell off the wall...now I've cost myself a trip to the picture framers tomorrow ....why couldn't I have just left it alone. :mad:

f0xh0les

Watch out! She's got a drill! Run for it!!!
Yeah, why did I not do this before?? Again, one of those things that I built up into a massive job which is really a 5 minute job. So what have you done? I hear you ask yourselves, well, thank you for asking! So far today I have re-read the gas and electric meters. Put a final coat on a chalkboard, and drilled it to a wall. Drilled a pinboard to a wall, put up a hook to put DS4's dressing gown (at a level he can get to) on his bedroom door, put up 2 more coat hooks downstairs at a level they can put their coats on so I can stop picking them up off the floor every single day in life. And finally (well, finally so far, it is only lunchtime) I have put up the magnetic knife rack (it is wonky) but everything in the back of the house runs out front to back to left to right. But I am taking the 'done is better than perfect' route today. Also changed all the screws from the kitchen coat rack for longer ones - I had to cobble together a lot of mis-matched ones when I put it up (again, it was done, rather than perfect) and it has worked and banished a clutter corner.

BoilerBob has arranged a time next week to come and fix the electrodes. So annoying when you know the bits come to £40, but the labour + vat will make it up to nearly £120. Bet it will be a 20 minute job too. But, it is gas, and you can't diddle about with gas can you? Not if you want your house insurance to be valid. Bet that is coming up as well, March or April I think.

So what has brought on this flurry of activity? (again I am hearing voices asking me) well, last night, while carrying an armful of clean sheets and an armful of towels upstairs to the airing cupboard, I suddenly got a terrible back ache. I never suffer from achey painy bits normally. So it threw me a bit, but I am much better when I am standing up. So there was nothing to do, except do things standing up today. Hence the clearing of 2 shelves of boxes filled with screws and bits and stuff from various jobs around the house, which had accumulated in the shelves above the washing machine, and all the silly 5 minute jobs being done. Cos if I sit down it hurts. argh! So while I am happy I have got this much done, I am annoyed I can't sit down and enjoy it. boo!
Right, lunch, kid herding, easy tomato pasta for tea, with garlic bread, and green salad, and tomato salad. But most of it was ys bargains, so really I am just clearing out the fridge in readiness for cleaning that tomorrow. I don't know how I live with the excitement!

redofromstart

Soup - I don't like soup much but had a lovely pumpkin, chilli and coconut soup at one of the local foodie pubs. I've been trying to recreate it ever since. Lots of recipes for that that you may be able to adapt?

f0xh0les

Been busy already this morning. Good morning! sorry, nearly forgot.
Got up, fed kids, took kids to ping pong, came home, put up a few more posters in DS2s room, herded DS1 forcibly to his volunteering (he would have been sacked for poor timekeeping if he was employed - what part of having to be there at 11.00 really means fall out of the house at 11.05 and wander down the road looking hapless???) I am a failure as a mother. My children are not prepared for life.
Had to cobble together a pair of baseball boots in size 3 for DS4 who tried to leave the house in his trainers that he had pulled the front off (grrrr), so had to run out and buy a pair of size 2 trainers so he has them for school on Monday. While making do with the slightly small baseball boots, I found a pair of trainers that DS2 can use for his PE, that DS1 grew out of in about 30 seconds. So they are recycled to DS2 at no more cost to me. Bought lots of boxes of tissues for the house - one for each of the kids bedrooms, one for each side of my bed, and two more in readiness for the 2 in the living room to be used up.

Put off sister-in-law who want to visit 2 days after the kids go back to school after a 2 week break at Easter. Which is frankly odd - until you factor in plane flights and foreign bank holidays - why on earth she thinks it is a good idea while DH is at work, and all the kids are at school all day and doing clubs afterwards, I cannot comprehend. Except she probably has another wedding invitation and wants to go shopping for dresses. I do not have the time in the middle of SATS and GCSEs to babysit a 40 odd yr old with nothing better to do with her time that week, for 6 days. Hopefully she will listen and not book to come. I have had no response to my message to leave it til a more convenient time. So why do I feel bad about it? It is ridiculous.

I love my magnetic knife rack. It is obscene how much I love it, and it has cleared a whole shelf of stuff that had been in a disintegrated cardboard box and was a tat magnet. All gone! Clean shelf! It is above an old Kenwood Chef mixer, which is also gathering dust. When I get a kitchen with a worktop, it will live on the worktop and be used often. I do not yet have this, so it is on a shelf, and I am going to clean off the dust, put a cover on it, and store it in the pantry until I have a home for it. Freeing up another shelf, and clearing another corner. It is right in the doorway to the kitchen, so I see the clear shelf everytime I go in, and it makes me happy, and then I see old dusty Ken underneath, and that makes me sad. So I will get on with that today and clear my environment and declutter my mind at the same time - sadly my kitchen is a disgraceful mess at the moment and I need to be getting on with that and not here talking to you lot.

There are two redbush teabags left. By bedtime this will be 0. There will be one more empty canister on a shelf somewhere by bedtime.

So there . That's my plan, what are you's lot up to this weekend?

greenbee

I completely understand the kitchen thing. I haven't had one for 5 years - I do have one 3ft stretch of surface that is high enough to use as a work surface, but it's covered in clutter as I have no cupboards or shelves. My kitchen is tables with boxes and crates under them, and an ancient and tempermental electric oven with a ceramic hob.

My kenwood is also covered in dust.

Hopefully my utility room will be done by the end of the month (must check the quote and agree it) which will clear a certain amount of space and also hep me make kitchen decisions.

My friend's husband is going to do the utility room, having dealt with lots of odd jobs around the house (ones you're so good about doing yourself!). Loose tap fixed, cracks filled, curtain pole cut to the right length, other curtain pole put up securely, spare room repainted, hooks put up, mirror up on the back of the airing cupboard door, bulbs changed in fragile inaccessible landing light etc. He's just got the marble cut for the sitting room hearth and will be doing that on Tuesday. It makes such a difference.

So today, having unpacked my suitcase from last week's trip (so I can repack for next week's), I'm going to sort out the room he repainted and put everything back in there so a. I have a spare room and b. I have somewhere to do my packing/unpacking. Hopefully it will also make the other two bedrooms mostly accessible!

It's nice to see an end in sight and start feeling as if I'm living in a house rather than a building site!

f0xh0les

We will have been here 3 years come April. If I still do not have a worktop by the time we have been here 5 years I will cry.

Kitchen is clean, lunch dishes piled into the sink until I have had a cuppa - one Earl Grey, one redbush. Only one redbush teabag left!!

I went into b&Q and H0mebase this week and took a kitchen magazine from each. It should actually be a really cheap kitchen. I don't want wall cabinets, just base ones, and a U shaped run of cabinets with either a wall mounted double oven or a big £500 3 oven 5 or 7 burner dual fuel mock aga thing. Either way it is going to need a wall knocking down, chimney removing, damp proofing, etc etc etc. I am quite down about not being able to save anything at all this month due to the sodding boiler. Plus my car has developed an annoying squeak DH has sagely declared may be my bearings. Ta for that. Will book it in after BoilerBob on Tuesday.

I am dead ratty today. I have no patience with anyone. So DH has taken DS3 & 4 to the park, as I won't let DS4 play football in the yard as I have the washing on the line and he pulls it all down. Right. Tea drunk, time to get Ken clean and sparkly and stick some scones in the oven as they will no doubt be freezing and starving when they get back home. Best go be grumpy in the kitchen eh?

greenbee

You'll get there. I think it's time you prioritised the kitchen though! I can't imagine how you manage to do all the cooking you do without a proper kitchen.

I went to the local upmarket kitchen showroom yesterday with my friend's husband so we could get ideas He's going to handbuild carcasses out of ply, as that way there are no issues with things not fitting. He's given me the material costs for the utility room (I need to add them up), but having seen what he's done at his own place, I know it'll cost a few hundred to get something that would costs thousands if I bought it ready made and then had to pay their fitter...

Ikea kitchens have a pretty good reputation. I've used their units in the past and been very happy with them, so they might be worth a look.

I'm also thinking about two single ovens instead of one double, as I hardly ever seem to use the small oven in a double - I think two full-size ones would be more useful. However, I'm reluctant to do anything that reduces the amount of work surface! My goal is to have as much as possible.