Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

It's me, the beast from under the duvet! :eek:

Well I had to get up and move both cars as I have 5 tons of aggregate coming this morning (ordered before it all went wrong on Thursday). A bit of serious personal nurturing with paracetamol to keep my temp under control, and lots of water, tissues and hot water bottles. DH stocked up on Sudafed decongestant nasal spray and I think the old asthma reactive inhaler will come into play now as the wheezing phase is here. I am what is known (apparently) as a happy wheezer. Well it does not make me happy as it is always a bit of a worry but medically I think it means it is to be expected and not in itself a cause for concern.

We have high hopes of getting my greenhouse base done before Thursday - at least the dry mix foundations (they won't stay dry - the holes have had water in since the second week of November) but no rain and even sun is forecast for the first three days of the week. I have two friends lined up to help shift the aggregate which is to improve the parking area and do the foundations, and we have 20 paving slabs to nestle into the gravel to stop it all getting trodden into the house.

In other things the boiler man was able to fix the boiler with some "gentle persuasion" (basically a strategic tap of the central heating pump fan with a hammer) as the problem was non-use. That is me. We had not used the central heating yet this winter because until recently it just was not cold enough. Financially a result too - just £25 as he was passing and just popped in. Lovely man!

The dishwasher part was apparently out of stock until 6th Feb despite showing as available when we ordered it, so I got DH to complain (while I was in bed) and ask for a refund of next day delivery premium. They have now mysteriously found the part and text just arrived to say it will be delivered this morning by mid-day. I am awaiting it being in my hot sweaty hand before I tell the nice man who is going to fit it.

Money wise we are eking out the money until we get paid!

Karmacat

Hello little duvet beast! I'm astonished you can do so much (ok, DH is doing his part, but still) while you're that lurgified. Heapings of positivity to you

Suffolk_lass

DH is doing most of the work. We went to the Coop for milk and tissues and decided to go to the slightly bigger one over the river in Essex as there is a bottle bank - so while I collected the grocery spend, DH did the bottles. They had been lurking since Christmas so that needed sorting.

Our friend who lost his job is coming to labour today as we have borrowed a neighbour's concrete mixer which makes the process a whole lot more user friendly - just need both wheel-barrows - one from the kerb (where the 5x1t bags are) to the mixer, and one from the mixer to the foundations. It looked really wet outside at 05.40 when I woke up but there is now a clear pale blue sky so I am hopeful that if I fill the first one, the friend and DH oversee the mix and they then take it and get it in the dug holes, we can do it all this afternoon.

The part arrived for the dishwasher and the nice man is coming this evening between 5.30 and 6.30pm. I hope the day goes well.

Money wise there is £300 in the current account and no spends except fuel for DH's car envisaged (and he will do that on his credit card so there are enough DDs to trigger the loyalty payment next month). I need to check the bills account next...

themadvix

Aha, I've finally found you at last SL! (I kept wondering why I couldn't see you on the MFW forum... now I know, you lurk here instead )

Sorry to hear you're rather under the weather though. Going to have to read back a bit to find out what all the aggregate and cement mixing is about....

ETA... ooh a greenhouse, sounds like it'll be lovely... when there's less rain in the post holes!

Suffolk_lass

themadvix wrote: »

Aha, I've finally found you at last SL! (I kept wondering why I couldn't see you on the MFW forum... now I know, you lurk here instead )

Sorry to hear you're rather under the weather though. Going to have to read back a bit to find out what all the aggregate and cement mixing is about....

ETA... ooh a greenhouse, sounds like it'll be lovely... when there's less rain in the post holes!

It seemed like a good idea at the start because I had quite a lot of other debt that we were managing down! Nice to see you over here though! - the sand and gravel is first to fill the greenhouse trenches for its foundations, and these will be topped off by lightweight breeze-blocks before the metal framed greenhouse is built from it's unconstructed delivery (£450 saved in money but possibly not from effort).

What is left (including at least 3 tons of shingle) is to fill the new parking area we have set up. It needs some remedial work that the rest of the sand will help with, and some of it will have gravel mats to stop the gravel all walking off down the road. The gully that had a hedge is the most worry-some bit - the reversing alarm goes off as soon as I get into gear because there is a dip before the grass verge. There is a drop kerb, but no sign of any tarmac in there so a bit of judicious gravel will improve traction I think.

Most of the rainwater has dried and we will be filling the trenches with dry mix. Starting now so must go...

Suffolk_lass

Well I shifted about a ton and a half (I was on bag shovelling, friend was on wheelbarrow moving and concrete mixer management, DH was on mixture QC, distribution and tamping down and levelling). We think we are there with that stage and still four one-ton bags out front, although the sand one is only one-third to half full now.

Today we will be concentrating on the parking area and making an executive decision how much of the existing gravel we need to shift away to get the mats in place and a decent covering of weed suppressing membrane down (got a 50m roll again).

I am surprisingly not too stiff at this point but mostly because as soon as the last barrow of aggregate mix was done, I made them a cup of tea and went indoors to have a very hot shower and two paracetamol to stop the stiffening muscles from going into one (residual nerve "memory" from a fracture means this is what can happen with me). All good this morning.

The dishwasher repair to the heating element was done but there is now an internal water leak so still out of action and poor man coming back this evening to sort that out. I paid him so I hope he does not let me down.

Karmacat

SL, what an amazing piece of work you all managed yesterday! Congratulations - and great pre-emptive self care too

Suffolk_lass

ALL done now KC - the three of us did the parking area, re-did the membrane where it had obviously perished both there and in the paths around the vegetable garden raised beds, levelled and filled holes with some of the sand and then took the rest round to use in the mortar for the base level of blocks before we start actually building the greenhouse. Then we spread out and clipped together the gravel matting and spread the remaining three very full bags of shingle - base layer of 10ml, top dressing of 20ml. All done in four and a bit hours. Our friend is really fit and strong and did most of the heavy stuff, with a great big shovel, filling barrows and bringing them back and forth to us to distribute and spread and level. Oh yes, and we laid 16 of the 20 paving slabs that I bought off FB-M for £1 each - using them as stepping stones in the paths to try and minimise the 10ml spread into the house!

A really rewarding piece of work.

Just as we were finishing, the dishwasher man returned and we now have a working dishwasher! - I did not mention it before but his repair on night one was interrupted when he cut his finger really badly. Fortunately I was able to stick back together what would otherwise have been a couple of stitches, using the Steri-strips I bought when I cut my own finger so badly before Christmas. Apparently the Nurse he saw yesterday said she was not going to attempt to move those and just dressed it, and his tetanus was up to date. His "real" job means this is essential. I'm taking that as a compliment for my First Aid skills (I made him hold it in a cloth soaked in neat TCP too, so was fairly hopeful that any infection risk was minimised). She is just going to re-dress it on Friday which will make sure there is no infection in there.

The upshot was he refused to charge me any more, despite spending another hour and a half on the repair yesterday, so we agreed I would buy him a drink and passed him a tenner! And we now have a working dishwasher :j:j - I am so relieved I did not attempt this repair myself!

Back to normal today and DH must go and see his Mum (98) who has been admitted to hospital and is due to have a medical procedure. I leave her "management" to him and his Sis, who have Power of Attorney for Care as well as finances. They need to have a discussion about what sort of intervention is appropriate. Me? Haircut, washing and shopping, with a couple of cheques to bank.

I'm a bit more stiff across my shoulders from our exertions but my back is fine and apart from sleeping the sleep of a sleepy thing, I feel fine this morning!

themadvix

Wow SL, not surprised you slept well after all of that - I’m tired just reading about it! Excellent productive day though and the dishwasher just tops it off!

Suffolk_lass

I'm still struggling with the congestion caused by my cold but you kind of have to keep going. The pharmacist said I need to get some pholcodeine cough medicine and have a steam inhalation before bed really, to give myself the best chance of a night's sleep. In the meantime a second pillow is helping the breathing but not my neck, which is rather stiff this morning.

Now this morning we have no hot water - the boiler is not firing when the call comes in! I could really do without this. The Central Heating has also stopped again and I think the pressure is dropping, which could mean a leak somewhere. I have re-pressurised from 1-1.5 twice now and so I am going to have to call the boilerman out again.

And my car has suddenly pinged on a "check system" light that is not fixed by charging the battery so that will be another trip to the garage.

With the dishwasher (now repaired) that is hopefully my three. Built in redundancy did I hear you say?