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

greenbee

I managed to turn the mattress and make up my bed with clean everything, which was nice (cats came to join me at bedtime to make it grubby again, but politely stayed on their blankets!

Last night's muntjac loin was delicious. I need to prep the defrosted leg to go in the SC this afternoon.

This morning we had a lie-in, breakfast, as slow walk (partly down to my mum, partly down to meeting lots of people/dogs), and then I sent my mum off with various bits from the fridge/freezer given I need to move lots of stuff.

I put the WM drawer in the DW, which is once again taking all day to run a 45 minute cycle, so I'm hoping the builders will agree to swap it out for the freestanding one. I've taken the WM drawer back out as it was pretty clean - but only after I looked in the drawer space, saw how filthy it was, and gave it a scrub with vinegar!

Debobbled some woollens, which are washed and on the heated airer. Then took some bedcovers off (the top bedcover is essentially cat-proofing) - one is in the WM, the others are queueing. Windows are open, heating is off. Utility room dof is open for the first time in months, and I've dried, hoovered, and moved the small chest freezer so it's now in there which will be more convenient for pet food. I think I'm going to switch to upright freezers in there when it's done, and just keep a chest freezer for venison joints.

This afternoon is going to involve weeding. I have a border to do, and if I get that done, I'll start digging the hole for the magnolia. I really do need to get going in the veg plot, but the border is achievable today. Plus I'm taking out some of the overcrowded spring bulbs and primroses to stick in the orchard.

beanielou

How on earth do you get the cats to stay on their blankets on your bed ?! 🐱🐱🤔

greenbee

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81952220#Comment_81952220

By telling them to.

Admittedly the blankets are where they sleep anyway, but if they have ideas about sleeping on my legs I tell them to sit on their own blanket and they either do, or go off in a huff 🤣

Two buckets of weeds removed from the left border. Had to stop then as the garden waste bins were full. Vast numbers of crocuses, some random narcissi, and some primroses moved to the orchard. And the magnolia planted.

Muntjac leg didn't fit in the SC, so have had to roast it - it was delicious, but I now need to cut it up and .

Managed to get the DW to finish it's 44 minute programme in about 4 hours so need to put it away and wash up the rest of the stuff in the hope that I can switch it out for the other one tomorrow.

Not looking forward to the building work starting tomorrow, so need to remind myself that I'm looking forward to it being over.

Baileys_Babe

I am exhausted just reading about what you are doing.

Your home will work so much better for you once the work is done, try and keep hold of that thought whilst in the middle of it.

Fingers crossed the builders swap the dishwashers for you 🫰

greenbee

I'm exhausted too…

But the washing up is done, the laundry is done (bar some cat blankets from various sofas) and in the airing cupboard so can safely be ignored for a few days before it needs rehoming, the roast has been shoved in the fridge still in the tin it was cooked in and will be sorted out tomorrow.

Too tired to write a list of non-work stuff for tomorrow, but there might be some quick wins available, like scattering the night-scented stock seeds in the pots I want them in, and scattering some other flower seeds randomly (after all, they won't grow in their packets!). Bins need to go out too (and I can start weeding again once the garden waste bins are empty 🤣). And there's a compost sifter to put together so I can start using the compost rather than getting cross about other people messing up my system. But mostly I need to weed, get the wire up for the blackberry and fig, and clear the greenhouse so I can clean it.

i also want to talk to my neighbour who does flooring and find out whether he can do ceramic/stone floor tiles. If he can, then that's one less thing for the builders to do, and means they can get on with other stuff while he does the floors. His team have done a great job of the carpets and bamboo flooring here, and carpet and vinyl at my mum's. And he lives just down the road :)

beanielou

Your cats are way better trained than mine then 😹

Hope all goes smoothly with the work.

greenbee

My moggies are generally pretty well behaved. Not as sociable as I’d like, but very affectionate… and demanding!

Took a chance that the optimistic estimates on how long a freezer should be left after moving it were right (it mostly got dragged, and wasn’t tipped on its side or end), so turned it on. So it should be cold enough in the morning for me to transfer the contents of the other freezer over. I’ll take out as much pet food as I can fit in the fridge for this week if necessary. The other chest freezer and the spare fridge will have to go in the workshop.

I’ve had a longish, hot, Epsom salt and lavender bath. Stripey cat is on the bed. Electric blanket is on. I bet I fall asleep as soon as I try to read my book!

redofromstart

beanie - I find that mine will sleep on anything that is folded on a bed (preferably my jumpers obviously) and that a folded fleece or blanket tricks them into thinking they are being naughty.

greenbee

Lovely sunny day. Builders are here and getting on. They arrived at 7.45 (while I was giving Stinky his pre-breakfast walk, luckily we were on the footpath next to the house so came home when we got the alerts from the cameras), swiftly followed by the builders merchant delivery.

Freezer appeared to be at a sensible temperature, so I decant everything I could into it, put some pet food in the fridge to defrost, and shoehorned the last bits into the bottom of the F/F. Most of the space is taken up by pet food, although there is frozen fruit and pulses in there for me :)

Just having coffee, and will then go and find out more about the plan for today - they're currently digging out the footings ready for building control to have a look. And it looks like they can swap the DW out sometime this week too.

Lots of sunshine, so a good day to get the last of the cat blankets washed and dried. I'm ignoring the negative electricity pricing other than programming what I can to make the most of it and reduce what I'm adding to an already overloaded grid.

Need to get my head back into work mode, but am going to try to make sure I get an hour in the garden every day from now on, as it's good for me (not necessarily in terms of backache!) and reduces stress by getting things I need to do off my list. Today I should dig up some raspberry runners and pack them up with a parcel of stuff to send to my brother (also need to include books for nephew and b'day card for SIL).

greenbee

There's a big trench at the front of the garage (and underneath the edge of the floor). And the building inspector has been and given some input.

Some decisions have been made - the window at the front is going to be smaller than we originally planned, as we can't source the same ones (they were from the builder's merchant, but the manufacturer no longer makes them) and were going to have to pay for a bespoke window to match the cheap wooden windows. However, we are taking one out at the back, so can use that - it's smaller, but so are all the others (bar the one in the utility room) on the south side, and I realised that I keep the blind down permanently in the utility room both for privacy and due to the amount of light.

Because raising the floor level to match the utility room doesn't give us much room for insulation and UFH, if we have a step up from the boot room to the office we can have UFH in there, and the boot room can have a radiator (plant room gets no new floor and no heating and there will be a step down from the boot room).

Electrician is due tomorrow - the one day builders aren't here. I'm hoping that he can fit in with their timetable, but that does mean that they have to commit to doing things on certain days (I thought we'd agreed on Monday for the inverter move, but then someone mentioned Friday for building the stud wall - so I had to point out that we need to see when the electrician can come… there's also the fact that we'll mostly be without power for the day). I really don't want to end up having to project manage every detail of this. I've told them if they mark up where the walls will come to internally once the insulation is in, I can work out where the internal stud walls need to go, and where I want the doors. Although I'm beginning to think I need to do some more floorplans myself and make more notes as they don't seem to have taken on board what we've already been through.

Other than that, i've packed up some books for my nephew and dug up some raspberry runners for my niece and arranged for the parcel to be collected tomorrow. And paid for a heat pump survey. And walked the dog - meeting neighbours both times, so walks were shorter than he'd like, but he got to play with friends and have lots of sniffing time.

Oil tank is now down to under 100l and a red flashing light, so heating is off and we'll be relying on the solar for hot water and solar/woodburner for heat from now on!