22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

greenbee wrote: »

I don't know why they would have put your sockets down too low. The standard now is to have them fairly high (annoyingly so in my opinion... but then there's flood risk here, so it makes sense in some ways), so too low is unusual. Can you make them come back and redo it, or do you never want to see them again? .

They wanted to put them all at waist height, which would have looked odd, so I told them an inch off the skirting boards, that way they can be hidden behind sofas, bedside wires don't get pulled, all that jazz, then one of the idiots took a couple of skirting boards off when they were rewiring and they must have just guessed. :mad: Mind you I also have one in the living room which is too close to the skirting board to get one of those longer computer adaptor plugs in.

No jokes about men and inches please. :rotfl:

They were probably thinking they were saving me money on replastering if they put them closer to the skirting board (that was me trying to be charitable) , but more likely they could not be bothered to chase the recesses in. I dunno. I just don't understand how they can do things so badly, and then whine about how much work they have on.

They were worse than kids. Bunking off as soon as anyone's back was turned and whining when they were made to do any work. It was embarrassing.

I just have not found 'my' workmen yet.

f0xh0les

So, as my plans for world domination, oops, sorry, I meant skirting boards, my plans for skirting boards were scuppered, I put up two shelves in DS2s bedroom and put up the new blind instead. His third blind in 12 months.
Hopefully they have all now figured out how to use blinds and what NOT to do to them, i.e not to yank as hard as you can!!

Had a bit of a baking session and made bottom-of-the-fridge stew, trying to run down the fresh stuff before our little trip. Keeping all the spends very low as I am using stuff up rather than buying stuff in.

I still have to buy my M-i-L a birthday present, will have to have a think about that sharpish...

f0xh0les

Back from Ireland and back in sunny Leicestershire.
I can see with fresh eyes what needs to be done in the house, which is great, but also terrifying.

As it was sunny and lovely here today, I put the two skirts back in the yard, chopped off the first bump of the planks and gave them another three coats of white so they are ready to go back on the wall under the plug sockets.

Got another £5 amaz0n voucher from a survey thing I did, and have had rather a lot of Y0ug0v surveys lately so up to £39.00. Annoyingly a cashback claim has been unsuccessful so that is £25 lost that I never had. Very frustrating, but car insurance is notoriously hard to actually get the cashback from.

DH is off camping with his friends from Friday - Monday, which will give me the space and time to get some more stuff cleared and either put, or thrown, away. He thinks he is an Elf, or a Dwarf or something. Hope it is not too muddy or I will end up with a massive tent drying in the back room for weeks on end (last time I gave in after 5 weeks of waiting for him to put it away).

In further news ......The Cannabis house - next door - someone put the bin out this week, so there is someone back in there, although there does not seem to be any sign of life. Hopefully the owner has been around the place, but as we were not here, we have not met yet.

I have made a few sneaky mortgage overpayments this month- a couple of under £5 tidies and as I managed to spend very little while we were away - I still have £50 of planned holiday budget spends in my purse, even after doing this week's food shop, the bank balance is looking quite healthy so I may be able to pay a bit more off . I still have a couple of money off vouchers for both Mr M and Mr T for a £20 spend and Mr M chucked my £5 voucher at me yesterday so I have that to spend on fripperies, probably for lunchboxes next week.

Went through the kids homework bags yesterday, and found a request for £7.50 for a visit to the local Botanical Gardens (a free place we go often) which is less than 3 miles from school. 60 kids at £7.50 each is £450!!! Of course I will pay it, I am probably subsidising someone else, which I don't mind, if they can't afford it, but I know the school gets extra funding for people eligable for 'free school meals' . If only the parents did not talk about how much they were planning to drink at the weekend and arrange on the playground the route of their pub crawls. Now I sound judgemental, but it is their choice of how they spend their money and in what order I have a problem with, and their choice to get plastered on a Friday and Saturday leads to their complaining on a Tuesday they have no money left. It is not what tax credits/child benefit was intended for. Anyway, rant over.
Their choices, their budget, their kids.

Kittenkirst

Great work on the surveys especially Yougov! Almost at that magic payout number

Totally understand your frustrations re people's budgets and priorities, I have many thoughts on the subject but try to remind myself that it's not my personal funds and I wouldn't want someone telling me how to spend my cash, but still!!

Needhelpsaving

Hi Foxholes,

I have been reading your diary and wanted to congratulate you on the amount of both DIY your have completed and your mortgage OP's!

I am going to be a bit cheeky and ask whether you could recommend any good vegan baking sites/recipe sources at all? I am not vegan myself, but would like to expand my baking skills - and frankly your creations sound lovely!

f0xh0les

Have a google of Isa Chandra Moskowitz, she is the goddess of vegan cooking.

f0xh0les

Wrote a huge tome, and lost it, !!!!!!.

So, the mortgage should be down to £111,600 at some point after Monday's bank holiday, whenever the stupid mortgage company get round to taking the payment.

Nearly lost DH for the next 5 weeks - he was asked to stand in the election, but was able to decline as two other candidates came forward. He has stood before, but the travelling around doing hustings after a full day of work, and weekends, and driving 90 minutes each way took their toll. I am not sorry he isn't standing. There will be other times for him, and he would only go and get elected or something. Honestly, you can't leave him alone for a minute.

I have joined the gym under the heath referral scheme and am rather loving it. It makes a change from stripping wallpaper. I went a bit stripper-happy last weekend - DH was away with his friends - so my bedroom is half stripped, the upstairs loo is totally stripped and one wall in the kitchen is stripped down to the paint, which is patchy and I am having to scrape it off and it is taking AGES! Oh, and I was so sick of the dead muppet carpet tiles on the kitchen floor (yeah I know, !!!!!!?? in a kitchen??? seriously?? ) I have taken half of them up - the reason for only half is that the tape holding them down is so horribly strong it takes off a couple of layers of skin if it sticks to you and I can only do 6 -8 tiles before having to stop for a few days and let my hands recover.

So the house is in total chaos but at least I am getting stuff done, in between the body pump class, the LBT class, the Aquafit class and the gym sessions.
Annoyingly I have put on 2lbs. My poor body is obviously in shock, it has only been 6 days and I am certain that soon I will be able to see a difference. That is if the aching muscles are anything to go by. The scales are going to go down !! I just need to have a look at what I am eating. Small changes can make a huge difference.

Anyway, due to being in Ireland I have 3 weeks of Agents of Shield to catch up on before tomorrow... see you later.

kerri_gt

Well done once the gym f0xh0les, don't forget, muscle weighs more than fat so depending on what you do, you may well see those scales go up...I used to check inches...before my added muscle also made my back / shoulders expand, as did running with my thighs...now I've given up both weights ans measures

Needhelpsaving

Thanks for the recipe info and well done on the gym and DIY!

f0xh0les

Did a Legs, Bums and Tums class at lunchtime. Very odd.
My weight seems to have stabilised, now it just needs to start going down.

Still stripping a particularly stubborn wall.
Very Very bored with it now, just need to steam on through the last square metre or so and then it will be buckets and paste and lots of sticky fun.

I bought a bag of compost, the kids are going to plant seeds. It will be lovely.

Tomorrow is Body Pump (!) which sounds like it should involve plumbers, but doesn't.

Annoyingly the mortgage company has not yet updated our balance. Will let you know when it does.