Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

CCL - I knew you would know the answer re bicarb of soda!
F x

foxgloves

Just grabbing a quick 5 mins outside with a coffee. I am Mrs Jobs of Jobland today - getting loads done, despite a text first thing which promptly added more jobs to the mental list.
If I'm still relatively vertical tonight, I'll pop back for an update.
F x

foxgloves

Oh, my back feels like a sack of rusty old nails......Mr F has made me a hot water bottle to put on it. Hello Diary Readers, I have to tell you that I have done far too many jobs because basically, today went crackers. I was so glad I made plenty of stew yesterday when I had my slow cooker on because at least I didn't need to cook tonight.
OK, so these are the tasks I kind of hoped I might get done today:& I did achieve them:Washed & pegged out  2 loads of laundry, wrote 2 thank-you letters & trotted down to the post box with them, baked a sourdough loaf, cut a bunch of sorrel & put it with some leftover leeks to make soup (that was lunch sorted plus plenty left for tomorrow or freezer), did a survey, did a B*dy Sh*p order for a few essentials as discovered I had £10 in loyalty vouchers, dealt with my emails, scanned & sent signed legal doc to solicitor, did my Monday morning budget update & banking, set up growbags & supports in the greenhouse for my cucumbers & aubergines & tidied the kitchen. That was pretty much what I'd intended to aim for today & I'd have been delighted with that, but no, the day took a bit of a turn first thing.......
Remember the paver who wanted to crack on with the work he'd quoted us for? We said we wanted to leave it a little longer until it was clearer which sectors were going back to work, etc, as we felt unsure about having people to our home. Well, Mr F & I talked about it over the weekend & it does seem as though many construction firms are starting to work again ( our main builder has since been in touch too) so as this particular work is mostly outside, we decided to contact him today to get a definite date booked in for as soon as he likes. Oh. My. Giddy.Trousers.......there is still a 'window' of time this week to come & do the work but only if they can start it tomorrow at 8.30am. I accepted this slot because I don't want to be in a position where all the builders are wanting to come at once, as that would make social distancing & my planned disinfectant-wielding regime a lot more tricky. So on top of all the aforementioned jobs, I waited for Mr F to get home from work, shoved some soup in his general direction, filled him in on the news & we spent the rest of the day clearing the back courtyard of absolutely everything....bench, pots, trees, bird feeding gubbins, a big climbing hydrangea in a pot which needed both a saw & some serious secateuring to get it off its metal arch, & while I was moving a group of my Mum's pink primroses into a temporary pot to save them from potential builder damage, Mr F was busy shovelling up bark chips & barrowing them down to re-use around the compost bins so he could access the black plastic underneath to remove it. We stopped for 5 mins to glug some coffee & a cracker with peanut butter (me....needed the energy & house is currently a sorry walnut whip-free zone) before then moving the conservatory furniture so as to facilitate access from side door for builders' wheelbarrows. I'm pleased to say we are now ready.......well, apart from taking up 2 door mats & a rug first thing tomorrow morning. We have been told that this is going to be quite a tricky job. Theoretically, it is replacing an old quite large patio with a new one, extending it a bit to include a nothingy area where we had bark chips. The reality is that the current patio has been atrociously laid at some point in the past by Mr DIY Numpty whoever he was, & there will need to be considerable remedial work, compounded by the fact that there isn't any way they can get an earth moving machine in because everything will need to be transported in & out of the back or the house. 
Well, at least my back is feeling more mobile with a lovely hot water bottle on it. Mr F has told me to sit here & do nothing while he washes the dishes, so I thought I'd get my dfw diary post on. I hope tomorrow goes smoothly. I've worked out all the virus precautionary measures we will need to take so that side of things should hopefully be ok.
Can't believe how quickly time is flying on lockdown because I thought it would drag. I think it is partly because of losing sense of the days. Who'd ever have thought 2020 would turn out like this. Nature certainly gives, but sadly she also takes away.
Stay safe, m'dears,
F-the-knackered xx

PurpleFairy26

That is a seriously busy day foxgloves but it will be so worth it when it’s done. Enjoy the hot water bottle, I’m just about to retire with one too. 

crazy_cat_lady

Goodness me - look after yourself woman. I am exhausted just reading what you've been up to today - hope you're good to go in the morning and your back works properly.

Pixiehouse55

Gosh Mrs F what a productive day you've had today, no wonder your back is playing up, I do hope you've rested for the rest of the day, look after yourself
 I feel bad I've not done much today. Got the hump with hubby as back garden looks cluttered and I fall over anything in my way 1😁😁
I've done 2 lots of washing. Wrote out Bill's and payments for the month. Pay day tomorrow and sat and done my knitting.
Thought it was going to be a sunny day but ended up being cloudy. Managed to get the washing dry. So that's a bonus.
Hope youve all  had a good day 

foxgloves

Thanks all - my back is feeling much better than last night, though I do have another hot water bottle tucked up on the creaky muscle.
F

foxgloves

Hello diary readers, 
What a day!! I am looking out on the most almighty pile of concrete heaped up outside the front window awaiting collection later this week. Workmen arrived bright & early and got stuck in to lifting the old cra*py patio with a pickaxe. Ahh.... & that soon exposed the reason it had been laid so badly. One of the biggest issues was that Mr DIY Numpty had laid it much too high & had breached the damp proof course. A few pickaxe chomps & they'd found tge problem. In all his 'Boys' Own Book of Junior Woodwork page 1' glory, he had simply laid his patio over an existing one! So the lads doing the labouring today had to take up a large patio (slabs), remove the 4 large lumps of cement which had been used to affix every single slab, then go & procure a concrete breaker to facilitate removing the original patio. They worked soooo hard. They have one last corner to drill out tomorrow, then I think they can start on getting the level corrected.
They were pretty good with social distancing. I felt a bit nervous about having people in our conservatory & garden, having not had anybody round since before lockdown, & I did go round all the door handles, etc, with disinfectant afterwards.
Not a no-spend day, as I ordered our regular fish box for delivery. I produced a 'use-it-up' meal tonight though.... a quiche using some more leftover pastry from Christmas, leftover bacon bits & saladdy bits from the fridge which were defo in need of using.
I've done a few minor jobs like greenhouse watering & ironing, but mostly I've been feeling that concrete breaking machine shaking the upstairs fkoorboards & watching that mountain of smashed slabs & rubble growing on our drive. 
My sister sent me a nice magazine, so that's me sorted until bedtime. 
Night all, 
F xx

PurpleFairy26

It could have been much worse under there foxgloves Mrs DIY numpty might have been laid to rest there 😂 so I recon you got off lightly with a second patio. You must be so looking forward to it being done. 

We’re having something fixed in the garden this week, like you they can enter without coming into the house and do the work with no contact etc... hopefully it will only take a day or two and we went through the same thoughts as you. I’ve a feeling we’ll be observing social distancing and new ways of people working for a long time yet. 

foxgloves

They've been pretty good about social distancing to be fair, PurpleFairy - just the odd blip here & there. For instance, this morning, they dug up a huge piece of pipe & one of them came to ask me if I knew what it was as it didn't look functional. It occurred to me afterwards that we'd only been a metre's distance at a couple of brief moments. It isn't instinctive to go out & sort out a potential problem from across the garden & I have to keep reminding myself. There is only one route through to the work site.... side door, through conservatory & out into garden. There is also a separate loo on route so this does make it straightforward to go round with my disinfectant bucket afterwards.
I did think we could communicate through an open kitchen window, but have discovered we are barely a metre apart if we do that, so going into the garden & standing at a distance is better. 
Hope your planned work goes ok. 
F x