"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

greenbee

Glad I charged the battery and heated the hot water overnight as there is very little generation this morning! It's getting perilously close to time to turn the heating on (although I can't until the plumber finishes at the end of next week!).

Builders are here taking shelves out of the cupboard that will become a wardrobe so the plumber can get in there, and measuring up for the loft insulation, and possibly doing some other bits. We need to work out a full list of everything that needs doing - so I'm trying to remember what all the annoying little jobs are that need doing. 

• Check front bedroom windowsill that looks like it might be leaking
• Replace second bath panel/waste/overflow
• Sand/oil/put up bathroom shelves that I'm clearly not going to get round to doing
• Install tie-back hooks for 5 windows
• Possibly fix big garden table (it's about 50 years old, if not older, so worth trying to sort out)

I'm sure there were more... 

greenbee

Design is sorted for the wardrobe. And I was dragged up into the attic to see what it looked like. We've got a plan that includes binbags as there is so much rubbish up there! It needs pipe lagging as well as insulation.

Bedroom window is definitely leaking - they're going to check the sealant round all the windows...

Shelves have been taken away to sand.

Batten is going to be put up for bedroom curtain poles (as the K2 radiators come out further than the poles) and the front door curtain. I'm contemplating getting them to put one up for the kitchen curtain pole too... and getting a new curtain pole for the kitchen as we just reused one I hate. 

They dug a hole by the garage doors - no footings, so those will need to be done before they block the doors. And we discussed options for reinstating a window in the kitchen and reconfiguring the utility room and what order to do things in. I'm feeling very poor and we haven't even started... just talking about it makes me realise it'll be expensive, and I'm not thinking about budgets, just getting it done! This bit won't be done until the new year as the bricklayer is busy, but at least it's planned. And slow does mean that at least some of the work can be cashflowed. 

I'm vaguely considering getting a thermal blind for my office (it has an interlined roman blind, but the roller blind is a light-filtering one). I've switched all the light filtering blinds for thermal blinds now - there's just one blind left to try to take down before the plumber arrives on Monday (in my ensuite) as I didn't notice that the builders hadn't taken it down. 

Animals are all cross about the weather - dog because he sees no reason for it to reduce his walk time. Cats because they want it to stop. 

Fire is lit and generating enough heat to set off high temperature alerts on one thermostat so far. Hopefully some of the warmth will penetrate the kitchen, which is freezing. 

Agile has negative pricing tonight and tomorrow, so battery and hot water timings have been set. Just need to set electric heating. I won't use much overnight, and as all my programmers only allow 4 heating periods (as does the hot water controller) I'll have to set an alarm for tomorrow to reset with the next 4 periods ... and then set another alarm for when those are over. I filled the battery and heated the hot water and towel rails on the under 6p/kwh periods last night and the solar just about kept the battery and hot water topped up. Lighting the fire kept the house warm when it started to cool. So tonight I could do with having another bath and using up hot water, discharging the battery, finding something to put on a quick wash than can then go in the TD, and finding something another load to wash overnight. As there's plenty of negative slots tomorrow I hope to get most of the washing and drying done, along with making a batch of soup for next week's meals, making some meals to reheat, and baking some snacks. Or I might just lie on the sofa and read books in front of the fire (although I may need to get more logs in... I could really do with another big log basked to put in the hall. 

greenbee

Had a lovely bath on Friday evening, did a wool wash and set it up on the airer, set all the heating/hot water/battery top up and then discharged the battery to almost zero by about midnight with everything set to charge from 1am. Looks like we had a powercut midnight to 1am (I only noticed because the ice maker power was off!), but everything kicked back in - warm house, dry woollens, full battery, hot water, and a load of laundry washed and ready to dry. 

Lots of regular reprogramming due to the need to work to the half-hour slots rather than 4 time periods, but I used 45kWh and earned 14p - plus whatever I get for solar export in the evenings as I discharged again last night, charged again (also had a bath and reheated the hot water).

Endless laundry done - clothes (dried on the heated airer as they'd have blown away if they'd been outside!), mattress protectors, pillow protectors, bedding, bedcovers, pillows. Today I'm doing the last two pillows from this batch and some pet bedding and towels. What's left after the end of this negative/free session (finishing in 2 mins) should run from solar or the very cheap power that we have until 4pm. 

Other than that, today's plans include prepping dog kongs/lick mats to freeze (have been and bought bananas), cutting up 2 venison carcasses that are in the fridge and need freezing for dog food, and stewing apples in the SC (that should probably be done first). And possibly running the DW... 

Then I'd like to relax and read a book. The dog has had a decent walk, but will probably get another one later. 

I do need to order some lights though. And a small safe. And a new mattress cover. For the last two I may well be able to use vouchers from our work perks system, so will put them off until tomorrow as I don't want to look at my work laptop until then!

rtandon27

@greenbee - can I be nosey and ask, and feel free not to answer if it's tmi to share - is the safe in ground, in wall, in attic and/or fire & flood proof?  I'm thinking about one for our vip paperwork and don't really know how it works here - across the pond, the only people I know who have a fancy set-up have it in the wall behind a painting, but they actually keep jewelry in it, and we all know full well I don't see the need to own much of that - anything I have is simple and I wear every day.  Ours would be strickly for paperwork and back-up hard-drive.

greenbee

The safe is just a small one (something like this https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7672242?clickSR=slp:term:safe:1:25:1) which I bolt to the wall inside a cupboard. I've done this in previous houses using the back of a wardrobe, and in one case under the bottom shelf of a built in set of shelves where I hid it with some removable skirting... I couldn't get it out when I left, so I did leave the skirting off and the key in the lock when I left! Useful for important paperwork, backup drives, passports and the odd valuable. They do also come in larger sizes.

I've just decanted ALL the people food into one of the freezers (it's full) so that the other one is currently empty and ready for animal food. TBH I think they can probably share, but I need a system - I'll probably put the fruit (stewed apple, stewed damsons, strawberries) in with the pet food as it's relatively simple. Cooked pulses/frozen (homemade) meals in the other one. I can probably stop cooking for a couple of months given how much I just found in there 🤣

Last of the apples are in the IP, frozen spinach has been located and added to the soup. I have a LOT of frozen peas, so there may be pea soup on the menu later this week. I also need to remember to add barley/spelt etc to things as I'm tending to add pulses and forget the grain. 

greenbee

Short walk for Stinky this morning as the plumber is due shortly. I did get the last blind down, empty the airing cupboard and clear the landing. 

Called the pet feeder people as it's taking forever to get responses via email, and they're sending out a range tester to check the microchip reader. Which beats repeatedly stuffing the cat under it. At the moment Fatty risks her food being nicked by Stripey if she doesn't eat it all. I could resolve this by just feeding her venison (which Stripey doesn't like), but that's not a balanced diet = and would set expectations!

Stinky will need another walk before I start work as meetings are back-to-back once they get going. I've got some decisions to make as the while each of two bits of my role can logically be tied to the third one, it doesn't make sense for all three to be together, and we're working on a restructure. I'm (currently at least) being given the choice as to which one I keep... I want to talk this through with my boss to decide where I can add most value. My concern is that whichever bit I hand over may not get the attention it needs to keep up momentum and will fail (neither area is fully mature - my bit of the organisation tends to be an incubator for new things which is why it's messy), which isn't fair on the people who will be impacted by the fall-out. 

I also need to check my mortgage OP options in terms of amounts and dates. i'm now down below £155k. Next milestone (which I think I can achieve with an OP this month, just before the anniversary) is £150k, then the next big one after that would be £109k which is what my first mortgage was! I'm considering taking the money for the remaining part of this year's OP allowance AND next year's out of an ISA now (with some money for this stage of the refurb) and paying it all either side of the anniversary. I'm just a bit nervous that it may leave me short for the next phase of the refurb. I'm not budgeting for the whole, just looking at each stage - getting through it, planning the next logical step etc. So a bit of thinking to do, but I'd really, really like to get the house finished next year. 

EssexHebridean

Ah - loving that other people are also using values of first mortgages and that sort of thing as targets to aim for - I think you know, we're focused firmly on £93,500 as our next one - the price we paid for the flat when we bought it! 

On the taking money out of ISAs thing - I assume you've done a sanity check on interest rates on each side to see whether you'd do better paying the lump sum off as soon as you can or leaving the money in the ISA for longer? I'd certainly say that getting the house as you want it should be key though - you know what needs doing, and that you're definitely going to do it, and you may as well get it done before prices rise further AND get the benefit of living in and enjoying it!

greenbee

Interest rate on the mortgage is currently higher than interest on savings, hence it being sensible to do BUT not if I need the cash (although I can in theory get the OPs back as long as it's before I do my next mortgage deal. 

There's only so much work I can cope with having done at once. However, it would be nice to finish. Upstairs will be done (bar the landing) this month. Hall/stairs/landing done in Nov. Then a break until the NY when the garage doors will be taken out and replaced with a door and window - and hopefully the kitchen doors fixed/replaced with ones that don't have a massive gap. Then I need a bit of a breather, and I need to get a floor plan worked out so I can work out a logical order for the rest of the work. 

The garden room just needs new flooring, a bit of electrics/lighting, and decorating. The utility room needs dividing, which means doing some working out where doors should go and then putting in a sink/worktops/cupboards to one half so it can be used for animal meal prep, cat access to the house, and cat loos. The other half will be laundry/cleaning stuff, access to the downstairs loo (which will eventually be knocked through into what is now my office, but will become the downstairs cloakroom), and somewhere for the dog to go when he comes in muddy - not ideal to have him in with the laundry, but better than having him in with cat loos...

Garage will become plant room/bootroom/loffice. So no need to come in through the front door when muddy/unlock gates and walk round to the kitchen). Bootroom will provide access to the office, plant room, and laundry/dog room, which leads into the kitchen.

Dark back bit of kitchen that used to be the boot room and leads to utility will become a larder, and the whole kitchen will move forward, taking in what used to be the dining room but was opened up by the previous owners and is currently monopolised by the dog. And I'm considering reinstating the window that was blocked up to accommodate an aga (removed before I moved in as I refused to pay extra for it) as this would allow more light towards the back of the kitchen. 

Then obviously a new kitchen... which also needs heating considering as it is currently inadequate. The ideal would be to run the UFH from the garden room into the kitchen, but that would involve channeling into the concrete slab... so... not really an option.

And I would like to switch from the oil boiler to a heat pump, and add more battery storage... 

So a PB or lottery win would be great!

greenbee

Remembered to go and cash in work perk points for JL and Argos vouchers, and ordered the stuff I'd planned on buying (with cashback, obviously - even if it's only a miniscule amount it helps to remember to do it!)

Now I need to work out the most cost-effective way to cash out my Quidco balance. 

ETA - have realised I probably should have checked first - I could have used the cashback for a JL voucher... 

greenbee

Cat feeder people have dispatched a testing gadget so they can try to work out what's wrong with the feeder. I've told them I've tried stuffing both cats near the sensor with no luck, but both work in the other one. (To me, this suggests a fault with the feeder, not the cats...).

Plumber had a struggle taking up the floor, and the existing pipework is 15mm. So he's had a tough day, but he's got the floor up and got some pipe in, and has hung the additional radiator. Existing radiator needs swapping out, and the towel rail isn't here yet. He's got until Thursday to finish as he's getting married at the weekend. He'll have to come back after his honeymoon to replace more 15mm pipework on the landing, so we'll do the landing radiators then. I'll get the dates booked when he's here tomorrow as I'll have to get the furniture back in the bedroom and the landing carpet up. 

Pictures are ready to collect from the framers, so I should be able to decide what goes where in the room I'm currently using and get them on the walls. I have far too many pictures on the floors. 

Work was back-to-back meetings, the last of which was essentially a (bad) sales pitch, which is not what I want to hear at gone 7pm...

Fire is lit, which the cats and Stinky are happy about. I need to do some clearing up in the kitchen before bed (and put away the clean laundry that I put on my bed when I cleared out the airing cupboard this morning. I'm shattered... not looking forward to three weeks of trades... but I'm sure it'll be worth it.