22 Foxhole East

apple_muncher

We recently replaced our P0ttert0n boiler, which was in the kitchen, with a combi one, and got rid of the hot and cold tanks. We re-placed the boiler in the airing cupboard - pipe work was straightforward. Prob haven't gained much more space in the airing cupboard, but it fees like we have! And the kitchen can move from the thinking-about-it to the thinking-about-it-slightly-more-seriously position. Personally, I daren't go up in the loft without a rope tied around my middle for rescue, as it is dh's storage space and it's a danger to anyone who didn't do the original tetris packing design...

We were lucky that the middle section of the loft was already boarded over - but you still  hit your head on beams as the design and pitch is rubbish.

Good luck with your plots and plans!

f0xh0les

I have made them a pie instead of pasties as I could not be faffed with it. The meringues are made, the flapjacks are made, I just have to boil some water for me, and make a fruit salad, and the work day is over.  Laundry is folded and the kitchen has been cleared. It is sweltering, it is too hot to just sit about even, so I have been stood in the kitchen for the last 4 hours just labeling jars and tidying up.  It is all looking very tidy and ordered, but I can't quite bring myself to care very much. DH has announced he is going to take himself off on his bike for a short ride tomorrow (he does not understand the meaning of the word short ). 

f0xh0les

I am like a meerkat up there apple.  As it is not boarded out I just stand on the top of an unsecured ladder  with a torch and do a lighthouse impression.  I have heard too many stories of people going from an open flow gravity fed system to a pressurised system, and suddenly the pipework starts leaking like a sieve as it was not designed for it. 

I have so many ideas!

kerri_gt

f0xh0les said:

I am like a meerkat up there apple.  As it is not boarded out I just stand on the top of an unsecured ladder  with a torch and do a lighthouse impression.  I have heard too many stories of people going from an open flow gravity fed system to a pressurised system, and suddenly the pipework starts leaking like a sieve as it was not designed for it. 

I have so many ideas!

I remember helping my dad board the loft at my parents. I must've been about 7 or 8. My simple instructions were 'make sure you stand on the beams and don't put your foot through the ceiling or mum will be cross with me' 🤣  i am the one in this house who shimmys up and down ladders, OH not keen on heights, or ladders for that matter.

apple_muncher

Did you have any floorboards left over from doing the bay window? Or spare doors just laying around? Or old shelving units to dismantle...?

Suffolksue

that chair Is wonderful.i want one ! This is where I confess I ve only ever been to the yellow shop once

kerri_gt

f0xh0les said:

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/strandmon-wing-chair-skiftebo-yellow-40361896/

He has been going on about his golden throne for over a year. I can get him a footstool for his birthday 2 months.

Thats the one I imagined,  i must admit i do rather love the colour, I'd love a 'reading room' complete with fire and smoking jacket to have one in. No chance of that in this area without a lotto win.
We have the blue storage footstool (although initially i recall it was a ltd edn as i ended up sourcing it on gumtree with a drive to London to collect)...was in store last week and noticed one on display. 
Ohhh lucky DH, I hope he appreciates it x

f0xh0les

He is going to be delighted.  It is still a surprise, I have not even told the kids. It is due for delivery on 18th.

Himself is being annoying this morning.  He wanted to go out on his bike in the sunshine, ' heading North' is the only detail I can get out of him - he knows full well where he is heading, and how far away it is, he is just not saying. However it is overcast and only 17 degrees out (only!) and he is sulking.  Why he would want to be sweating sunblock into his eyes I do not know, at least this way he can leave the sunblock out of it. 

Anyway, still 12.3, all meals planned and from stores. Not spending anything today, so shunted the budget excess around, which means another 3 % to the armchair fund, and the leftover 99p went as a mortgage overpayment. 

Today I am watering my plants - the shady ones do not like temperatures of over 15 degrees, so they are going yellow and looking very very sad.  Urgent action needed.

If himself is going to be going out on his bike again in any regular fashion, I can get some sneaky jobs done while he is out! Like putting up a curtain pole so I can get rid of those horrid blinds (those shredded things that you can turn left or right) on the patio doors.   I do love a good fait accompli.  Makes my life easier.

Oh, the main problem with the loft is that the insulation is well over the height of the thingies, and the loft hatch is barely shoulder width.  I want a drop down hatch, I want a proper stair case, I want singing, I want dancing, I want bears on tricycles!  Health and safety nightmare on a staircase though, come to think of it.

f0xh0les

It was a 25 mile round trip and over 1800 calories burned.  He rode up  Beacon Hill, ate a flapjack and a banana, and came home.  He is very pleased with himself.   He rang me from the top.  He is unrepentant.

The house is lovely and clean and tidy and hoovered.   I am bored out of my mind.  DS3 and 4 want to go shopping for 'snacks'.  So I have stayed in my pyjamas all day long so that I cannot take them.  They have to wait until tomorrow, which is my shopping day, before dragging me down every sweetie, crisp, biscuit, cake, and chocolate aisle they can find - they are spending their own money- they have plans for watching some films, and a new series is coming out next week, and they want to be prepared.   Gotta love a boy with a plan, not gotta love a boy who takes a dieting woman through every high calorie aisle in the shop.

I am beginning to think about Xmas.  How nuts is that? Shoot me now.   It is just that:

DS2 is 16 next month,

DS1 is 18 the month after,

then 2 weeks later dh is 46 (not an important birthday) then

Hallowe'en,

Fireworks night,

all the 'end of term jazz',

Solstice

DS4's birthday,

Xmas,

New Year,

then 5 weeks later DS3's birthday. 

That  is a lot of flippin' cakes! That is a lot of 'celebration meals', that is a lot of money.  

I think I need to go and hide in the bath with a book for a while.  I am getting anxious, and I know it is because I am dieting. I can feel the panic setting in.  The kids drank all my sugar free cola with their meringues and biscuits earlier - they cannot see the ridiculousness in this.   I am not in the right mindset to make any important decisions, or be in charge of any device where I am able to shop.

@Suffolksue The Swedish shop is online and delivers - which is good for avoiding impulse buys, but it does mean you miss out on bargain corner.  They have closed the Coventry branch here, so Nottingham is  our closest one, and that involves the M1 and I do not like even being a passenger on the M1. Hooray for the interweb. 

bizzie

Be prepared for an earlier delivery - I placed two orders for some garden furniture from them ( delivery worked out the same, some items were out of stock to start with and also gave me time to deal with recycling the packaging) and both times they arrived 5 days earlier than due date. Only realised they were on their way when I received an email on the morning of delivery informing me of estimated time of arrival.