Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Morning chums.

Had an unexpected spate of cleaning about 11 last night - we could hear the mouse rummaging around, so we ended up stripping everything off all the temporary kitchen surfaces and giving everything a good Hoover and clean (still didn't catch the mouse though   ) 

Still, it does mean that while the temporary kitchen is in a reasonable state of cleanliness I can show you a picture



This is really Mr Cheery's music room, although he's had very little opportunity to use it as that. Stuff is everywhere (it was much worse before last night) as there's hardly any cupboard space. You can see the tiny oven and 2 ring induction hob on the right of the first pic. As you can also see, the window on the left in the second pic has blown, and is also leaking - quite low down the priority list of windows to fix so not going to be done yet, so is stuffed with tea towels for now.

Oh dear!

Obviously as a room, it's not that tiny, and if it were actually set up as a kitchen, it would be fine. But it was only ever intended to last a few weeks and is a bit more like a bedsit arrangement, and is getting a bit annoying over a year in

South_coast

Think how much you'll appreciate your actual kitchen once it's done though Cheery - you'll be terrified to use it! I can totally sympathise though, I've lived here almost 5 years now and my fridge and freezer are still in the lounge as I haven't done anything about the kitchen yet!

Viking_mfw

Also - what views!

greenbee

I had 7 years like that Cheery Kitchen full of random bits of furniture that changed as I did other bits of the house. Full size cooker, but uncontrollable oven temps so pretty much useless. Mostly used the SC and hob. I love my new kitchen, with stuff in cupboards not crates, and surfaces for doing proper cooking on! I'm hoping I might locate a plumber at some point and actually finish it... 

I did the windows in the first year (after the new boiler and radiators), as it was cheaper (in the long run) and less disruptive to do them all at once. Plus it was hard to prioritise when every time you opened one bits of wood fell off. I was terrified that one day one of the windows would just fall off completely when I opened it.

Cheery_Daff

Glad it's not just us living like this

Yes, the views are lovely! I've not ruled out swapping my study with Mr Cheery's music room in the very long term (although I've not broached that with him yet... and in reality I could do without the distraction!)

Going to sort out the windows in the actual kitchen first while it's a building site, and the single glazed ones. Then we need to sort out the guttering above this window, and repaint the outside wall and do some minor roof repairs, and then we'll sort the window out Probably when I'm retired!

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums! 

Long but cheerful enough day here. Had a break for a blood test in the middle, and my friend lives right by the place I went, so we had a nicely distanced walk round the park which was SO lovely - she's the only person I've seen this year other than Mr Cheery and the odd shop assistant. Submitted my big funding bid at work today too (hooray!) so I suspect I'll wake up in the middle of the night realising I've forgotten to attach something important

Monday is Finances Day in the Cheery household, although I confess I almost forgot as I didn't stop working til 8pm, having had a large break in the afternoon. Still, I have

• Closed the post office account and transferred all savings to the current account
• Checked banks and reconciled YNAB
• Chased the Wickes delivery, which has still not arrived Had a sympathetic email from them on Sunday saying it was due Monday, and another one this morning asking me to update them, so now I have. Earlier today the tracker said 'out for delivery', but now it just says 'awaiting first delivery' (whatever that means). Hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow but I won't hold my breath!

What else? Some money arrived into the bank owed to Mr Cheery by a friend, and I VERY nearly threw it at the mortgage... before fortunately remembering he had it earmarked for something else. A near miss! But I've transferred the £4.20 bank accounts rewards money - it all counts! And that's reminded me that I need to ring and increase the direct debit amount - I'll do that this week. 

That's it I think! 

Baileys_Babe

Our kitchen is a work in progress (ie not finished) the sink we reclaimed from next doors outbuilding, its old and chipped. The taps are 2 taps intended for outside taps. The sink sits on a frame of 2" by 4" 's, beautiful it isn't, functional it is. Either side of the sink there is more framework with worktops and appliances below. The fireplace needs renovating and is behind a sheet of insulation board, with a table in front which we store lots of things on (including utensils) and under. We have 2 lots of wide racking at about worktop height with shelves underneath. We have a unit which a worktop, 3 drawers below and some long shelves - we store our vegetables and many other things in the boxes Aldi/Lidl sell tortillas in. We used to use bookshelves to store lots of our food on but over the years these have been upgraded by cast off furniture from our friends and family and charity shop finds. In the middle, we have a generous sized 6 seater table. Until recently the cooker has been a ok hob on top of a ok grill and a useless oven. But in the autumn a family member moved house and their new home came with 2 range cookers but only space for one, so they gave us the spare. I'm loving having an oven that works, a 7 burner hob in an arrangement that suits our style of cooking. It has been this way for close to a decade and it will easily be another decade before we replace it completely. OH would like to design & build our kitchen from scratch, what with him working full time and being chronically ill it may be some time. 

taka

Cheery What are all the instruments? Especially the one next to the Balalaika (?) - the one slightly covered up by the kitchen roll in your top pick?

We're still trying to clear my Dad's house and keep finding more instruments... it seems he had even more than we thought! We could identify the balalaika and mandolin but are struggling with some. Last time we found a banjo (as you do!) that we had no idea he had. (Dad loved instruments - my parents are the only people I've ever heard of who accidently bought a victorian pipe organ when actualy shopping for School stuff! ) There are rumours of bongo drums being somewhere too and the violin (that no one can play!) hasn't been found yet!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, love the stories of your dad's instruments taka! Apparently the thing behind the kitchen roll is 'kind of a zither' Mr Cheery would definitely approve of your parents accidentally buying a Victorian pipe organ Would you believe we have TWO portable pianos, and an American organ?? Although they do NOT fit my idea of 'portable' I had to get two burly farmers to help me get the last one in the door

Funny old day today. First round of teaching this year, and the system wouldn't let me into the o line classroom, had to ring IT and try all kinds of shenanigans and was 20 mins late. Fortunately a colleague was already there.

Mr Cheery and I managed a very blustery and rainy walk at dusk which definitely blew away the cobwebs...

In financial news... our Wickes order has still failed to materialize - I have emailed the very nice customer service person who has been checking with me every day to ask whether I should just cancel my order and drive to B&Q. 

We've just had an email from our broadband provider offering a faster service for £9 a month less, so I've emailed to say we are theoretically interested, but asking if there's anything we can do about our service dropping out several times a day, just for a few moments at a time, but it's most vexing. We'll see. Will definitely switch to the faster service though if possible. 

What else? Oh 《looks shamefaced》 I followed a FB advert to a reputable shoe supplier having a sale and bought two pairs of wintery knee high boots for £36 each In normal times I wear these all the time, and am forever searching for the perfect pair These two may well be the very thing. I have some great ones at the minute which are fab for the office, but have a slight heel, whereas these are both flatter. I live in hope that I'll be able to wear them to work and walking round town one day in the future. They'll last several years at my current rate of use, very MSE! 

That's it I think... not entirely sure how it's quarter to eight might try and get another couple of bits of insulation in before the dressing gown goes on...

South_coast

Wait, you mean the dressing gown's not been on all day? Whoops, just me then 😳!