22 Foxhole East

KajiKita

f0xh0les said:

Roger the electrician (his name, not a request) arrived with his mate just before 8am, and I will have working lights and sockets by the end of today, yay!  no sign of Builder 2 who is supposed to be skirting and dooring. He would just get in Roger's way, probably. 

 But what do I know?  Funny how the attitude of the builder changes as soon as the job starts,

How much have you paid them so far ….? Do you have a retainer?

I am hugely, hugely, hugely impressed by all the work in the loft and on the stairs! 👏👏👏 Very glad DH is feeding you - you must have fallen on that soup like a ravaging mountain lion! 😊

KK

f0xh0les

I still have three water tanks to get out of the loft before I can say it is finished and totally insulated, but they are larger than the loft hatch hole. So I am going to have to go a bit mad with a saw to be able to remove them.

3/4 of the loft is now fully insulated - 27cm deep, nothing near light fittings, and all wires laid either without, or over  the top of the insulation so they keep cool - new advice is that there should not be ANY insulation laid over any wiring - who knew?  Safe walkway (crawlway, it is about 4 feet high) created down the middle of the loft, so only 10cm of insulation there and no danger of falling through the ceiling faffing about on 5cm wide struts. Xmas is now boxed and in the loft , which means the Xmas cupboard in the kitchen ceiling can get knocked down, and the chimney cupboards can get knocked down, I am going to put the shrink wrapped spare duvets up there as well, now the airing cupboard in the bathroom has been destroyed.   It is all starting to come together.

The builder has had £14,500 so far, there is a further £6,500k to go.  It is just annoying that they do not turn up on the day they say they will (because they have a lot of other jobs on, no doubt).  It has not been cold whilst they have been here, I know they do not work if it is raining, but not sure if they do not work if it is chilly, I have sent a message to ask what day someone is coming.

Someone turned up on Friday, and did the door and the skirting boards ( the grumpy one who just grunts), the plumber turned up and did the radiator in the afternoon ( the speedy, friendly one), so just the window and foul air waste pipe extension left to go! No sign of leaks, soon the scaffold can go, and I really enjoyed staying in bed until 8am yesterday and today.  

School starts back on Tuesday, and we  still need to do shoe shopping and coat shopping and blazer shopping, and lunchbox tat food shopping tomorrow. Also need to shave DS4s undercut, and it is due to get cold, so I am not sure whether he is going to be happy about riding his bike to school next week -which will automatically be my fault for making the weather -  hormonal teen boy - nothing is fair!

And then.... the decorating of the bedrooms can begin.  I am aiming to have the top floor ready for carpeting by the end of January - after my week of work - and DH is teaching 4 days a week from 15th, and just found out a colleague has just gone off long term sick, so they are going to have to  divide up their teaching commitments between the rest of them, because there is no budget to hire anyone else to cover .... the week before term  starts .....  absolutely no disrespect meant to the colleague off sick. It happens, if you are sick, you are sick, you need to take time off.  But there is no money in the coffers for emergencies.

KajiKita

Good luck with all the school shopping tomorrow and if DS4 starts whinging about it being too cold to ride a bike to school, start on the “In my day …. “ tall tales - with a bit of luck he will run (or even cycle 😉) in the opposite direction… 😉

Forgive me, but I am sceptical there is absolutely no funding for a spare teacher … methinks I can ‘smell’ end of year budget watching … I hope not too much extra lands on Mr FH. 

KK

f0xh0les

Day 55 since the builders started, but still on day 20 of builders being present.  Nobody turned up yesterday, nor today.  Still no window, so there! 

Made a really nice garlicky puy lentil stew, and lobbed some sausage chunks into it.  The kids mostly had noodles, because that is what they had asked for, and then they ate the lentils because they were nicer.   Except DS4, who refused.  Leftover noodles in the fridge with a prominent blob of  salted chilli flakes on the top - they will not be there in the morning.

Cleaned and tidied the top two floors, and the bathrooms.  The washing machine is denying there was ever anything wrong with it, and is behaving, so quickly did two loads and dried them in the dryer, which has also decided to stop shrieking for today. Now I have a massive pile of laundry to sort, in the coldest bit of the house, so I am bravely ignoring it for tonight.  It was bad enough cooking in there. 

Because it is so cold, the living room is only 17 degrees.  I really have to insulate the living room floor, but I am trying to get the top floor totally finished.  I should have enough loft insulation left over to do the job, so it will only be the cost of a roll of breathable membrane and a staple gun.

I have told the kids that I will not decorate a messy bedroom. They need to sort their stuff out and keep it tidy.  So far,  No Good.

Got quite excited when I realised the scaffold will soon be gone, and that means I can have a washing line again!! Woo Hooo!  Tragic, I know.  I do not like using the dryer unless absolutely necessary.  

 Energy bill came in for last month - we were  at home for most of it, and it is the first month of the new boiler, and we have not been cold - but it was £50 more than the month before, a smidge over £300.   We have not run out of hot water, the kids can have baths whenever they want, we are still £400 in credit, and the dryer has been used for two months solid.  It is all trial and error innit? 

f0xh0les

Day 21 of 56, grumpy builder rocked up and put in the last window, so now it only needs a half wall plastered and the foul air pipe vent put back up. The end is in sight!  My fantasy washing line creeps ever closer.....

Just sewed up the crotch on a pair of school trousers and matched a million pairs of socks ( yawn!), have about 30 friendless toe coverings - (e-sock-harmony.com??) left to find . 

 Had to bin a laundry basket as it had been trashed to pieces. I think the next one I get will be collapsible. They seem very sensible. DH is very good at putting laundry in the washer and dryer, but leaves washing baskets full of unsorted, unfolded clothes all over the place because 'they can do it themselves' - the difference between having something done, or being angry while their clothes spill all over the kitchen floor.  They can do it themselves, they just do not do it. I would just rather it was done. Not a hill I am desperate to die on.

All food today will be from stores.  Going to make a cauliflower cheese soup, a potato and cabbage curry, and a pineapple upside down cake, because I need to use up stuff, and that is what we have in the house without me having to go outside and spend any money. See!  - there is method.

Anyway, I have a nice little pile of cardboard boxes, and the last two Xmas items left to go up into the loft.

The living room is looking much clearer, and there is a definite gap in the centre of the back room where two bags of cloth recycling seem to have been shunted 'out of the way' (to get in everyone's way). 

No decorating will be done today. I am cleaning and clearing instead, and am working opposite Q&B tomorrow anway, so I can pick up the last 2 paint colours, and then get stuck in Friday morning onwards.

Starlight_at_Sea

Hooray for the window!!! And thank you for the prompt..I was just wondering what to make for my lodgers birthday tomorrow - and think I too have all the things in for a pineapple upside down cake   

LadyWithAPlan

These builders sound exhausting .. trying to get them all to point forward in one line....argh .... really think I may have to upskill further as I would not have your patience ... Or I will have  to put in a v tight money payments   vs action schedule -

Never tried making an upside down cake ..... might see what I  can do with GF flour ,,,

greenbee

Builders (in fact most trades) are always hard work. Luckily @f0xh0les is very tolerant. But I guess that four boys will do that to you... 

redofromstart

Ooh do you have ticking (death watch) beetle? I would be very interested to know how your get rid options work out.

f0xh0les

Plasterers will allegedly rock up around 11.00 on Monday.

Skirting boards on the top floor got stripped with horrid gel yesterday.  The boys are not playing ball with their bedroom cleaning.  You can practically hear them thinking, 'she will cave first' which of course I will, because it is my house, and I want it decorated  <sigh> so I can get on with having a life after Easter.   I got plans!