The Edcawber Principle

beanielou

Well done.

edinburgher

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

That is impressive progress in not much time since you resolved to clear the CCs - well done. I think your weather has been pants this week - my Mum is not far south and I see some spent a night on the Motorway South one night this week - I hope it picks up for you. Especially for your long weekend.

It is b-cold here but that is a normal EA Spring. I don't mind now my heating is working again.

It's just cold and soggy here SL, nothing we can't cope with

Well done.

Thanks Beanie!

£77.55 paid off CC (American buyer finally found the bottom of his pockets to pay for a £15 CD) :rotfl: £3,313.29 paid off in January :j

Plan for today is daddy daughter trip to the pool, healthy lunch and a splash about the park.

beanielou

Have a good day with your DD

edinburgher

Plan B - brother's wife took DD and my neice to soft play! I have been all weirdly relaxed... :rotfl: DD has expressed a wish to go swimming as well, I'll see how knackered she is after soft play.

Went for a walk for an hour or so (first exercise bar commuting since bike fall), then had a nice healthy lunch of chicken soup with sourdough bread and a posh tuna salad :drool:

Have since processed a couple loads of laundry, taken the rubbish and recycling out and drooled over granite worktops online

*Edit: Paid off the balance of Mrs E's phone as well (damn phone gate)! £120 down the swanee, but at least we're using YNAB to budget for replacements now. Had been using Am@azon 5 installment interest free credit, but don't like credit much these days if it's small enough to avoid.

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, granite worktops! We have 15-year old granite worktops from Rock Revelations (London) Ltd, ordered direct and they came and fitted too, which together took out 50% of the cost from a posh kitchen shop - Ours are Vizag Blue and although they still list it, it is closer to Blue-Pearl of some shade now, I think. It is fantastic and definitely worth the investment - we actually got 40mm thick (! :eek:) - I know, mad.

Only now, the cut-out for the cracked glass hob does not fit any other appliance than the £1000 Kitchenaid hob that I cannot find a UK supplier for. DH (engineer) is hoping to get a brushed steel hob made at a fabricator but it depends whether he can disassemble the glass one (and get it signed off safe by a gas fitter afterwards). I want to speak to the insurance company. Let us say it is under discussion and may yet come to calling Rock Revelations back to cut a bigger hole (which means the extractor, and cupboards above are all potentially in the wrong place.

I thought we had bought standard size stuff but apparently there is no such thing - a lesson to be aware of, in your considerations.

edinburgher

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Ooh, granite worktops! We have 15-year old granite worktops from Rock Revelations (London) Ltd, ordered direct and they came and fitted too, which together took out 50% of the cost from a posh kitchen shop - Ours are Vizag Blue and although they still list it, it is closer to Blue-Pearl of some shade now, I think. It is fantastic and definitely worth the investment - we actually got 40mm thick (! :eek:) - I know, mad.

Suffolk Lass - I am actually now working on the assumption that we must be related somehow :rotfl:

Love blue pearl, although Mrs E wonders if (in the style of my Mum) "it's a bit much"? What style/colour of units do you have?

I have sold another cheap CD and having calculated the total profit, it's rubbish! When I started clearing space in our living room shelves, I decided not to list anything cheaper than £2.50 as it would feel like a waste of time. Doing the maths suggests that the actual money made for selling one CD at £2.50 is about 90p! :eek: That said, I suppose it's better than Mus1c M@gpie etc., used two firms to sell the worthless stuff and neither has paid out yet :mad:

Still, have now sold more than half of it and have made £350 gross in the last 90 days.

New month means new budgetary categories to rob and I have paid off £483.22 from the CC this morning. Monday's payment will take it below £6k :j I'm also pleased to see that our "age of money" in YNAB is now 31 days, which I think means we are a month in advance/have a month's emergency fund?

I had a great time at the pool with DD. We didn't get there until after four in the afternoon and to be honest, we'd normally be winding down by then on a Friday. We went to Barrhead Foundry, which is a great multi-use space with two compact pools (warm, clean and relatively empty), a library, caf!, tiny soft play area and council offices next door. Money well spent (although DD didn't return the favour by sleeping like a log)!

She's off to her drama class just now and we'll try and brave the gales to go out for a family walk before the rugby starts this afternoon. The plan is to watch the match as a family under a blanket

Have a lovely weekend everyone :coffee:

Suffolk_lass

edinburgher wrote: »

Suffolk Lass - I am actually now working on the assumption that we must be related somehow :rotfl:

Me too! (be very afraid...:eek:)

edinburgher wrote: »

Love blue pearl, although Mrs E wonders if (in the style of my Mum) "it's a bit much"? What style/colour of units do you have?

At the moment they are oak veneer with long handles like this, but the plan is to sand and fill the holes and spray them a very pale cream colour with different handles (under discussion).

The alternative is to use one of plywood or MDF doors. The (schreiber; from made for idiots) cabinets have really stood the test of time (reassuring) with just the cupboards on the walls either side of the extractor showing any signs of wear, from steam damage on the inner pointing corners (hence the concern with a wider hob). It is really a cosmetic update with a couple of niggles triggering it (the hob is one) - the sealant and grouting around all the tiles needs attention and is it refresh or replace? We are in discussion. I suspect it looks rather dated and could look a lot more contemporary with not much effort or expense.

I might end up doing some options for us to consider.

Back to you, I promise you would not regret granite. I use an e-cloth (with minimum chemicals - maybe washing up liquid or Milton fluid or even just vinegar diluted to remove sticky or mucky marks). I do not chop on it usually, though cutting a lime or lemon, or salad is sometimes a shortcut without a board, and just a wipe with a hot damp cloth usually brings it back to pristine, with a rub with any sort of scourer to remove any stubborn, stuck on splashes. It is heat-proof, durable, hygenic and beautiful (I promise I don't work for them :rotfl:).

Have a great weekend and enjoy the rugby. We are refreshing our defibrillator training this afternoon :beer:

greent

We've had granite worktops twice - and have also used Rock Revelations - great service. They also used to do a fixed price deal (limited choice of colours) where as long as your worktop fell within a certain amount (and it was a lot - we have a run of over 4m plus other areas) you got it for the price (£1500 when we got the first lot 13 years ago)

We've got Nero Assoluto and granite is a dream in that it doesn't burn, warp, fade etc. Sure, I used to get water marks by the sink (in the channels cut for draining) but have solved that by putting washing up on a tea towel (have a selection of perfectly sized, funky coloured ones which are perfect for this) I clean it with a damp cloth from the sink (ie: hot water with fa1ry liquid in) and then polish off with a microfibre - in a 'wax on/ wax off' way. I've used metal scourers on it before with no problems and often cut things on it without boards (only if I'm cutting say 1 slice or similar - too lazy to use the board!)

We only have 30mm, though - which is plenty, I can assure you!!

Our black granite is teamed with black Karndean flooring, purple walls (3 light purple, 1 darker) and solid handmade maple cupboards with a good sized length solid metal 'bar' handle. Definitely not to many people's tastes nowadays (most have painted/ high gloss from what I've seen) but my view is that real wood has a warmth to it and the colour mellows/ changes with time - and if we really want it painted we could get that done. I actually like that all of our kitchen is made from one tree

Cornish_mum

Congratulations on your CC repayment in January really brilliant. CM

edinburgher

@greent - sounds amazing! :drool:

The thing is, I'm not sure if some of the high end fancy kitchens people are describing on here are appropriate for a pebbledash shoebox in the suburbs? I know (for example), that Suffolk Lass lives somewhere with character and a thatched roof, so that level of cool is probably just about right. I suppose what I'm saying is, I'd like a dream kitchen, but I don't know if the house [STRIKE]deserves[/STRIKE] warrants it?