Cheery's country living adventure

Pollie

Many thanks for the website info Cheery. Hope you are as pleased with your kitchen as I was when I had mine done. Took just over 6 weeks with the perfectionist fitter working 12 hours a day, the price was double what I had hoped, Fitter had to bodge a cold water supply for several days etc etc. The slow cooker was my friend. However, 5 years later and I still get a kick out of it whenever I walk in.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you lovely people 😊

Good suggestion about the bath and the blood test Vix, although as you say, not always practical! I get the same voucher whether I do the blood test or not, so while I will continue to try, I'm not making life awkward for myself in the process. Let's see what happens next time...

Pollie, I am so pleased you are still enjoying your kitchen, how lovely! What's it like?

Not having a super weekend here, although some cheery things going on. First Friday off yesterday, went out for breakfast then to a little art exhibition which was nice (I may have already said this, sorry!) then down to a big shop in another town to buy some light fittings for the kitchen.

Met some friends for a pizza in the evening, which was jolly 😊

This morning went for a cuppa with a nearby ish neighbour - within walking distance which is rare! Experienced a new little local tea room which I hadn't realised had opened (they did an excellent Victoria sponge) and had a nice chat, getting to know neighbours a bit more. They took us for a wander through their field too, similar view to some of ours but further along the ridge, interesting to see the slightly different vantage point. 

Then things took a more gloomy turn - some work is being done locally,which may have implications for the tranquility of both us and the neighbour, and Mr Cheery is very anxious about it. I won't say more but we are both finding it difficult to deal with, but for different reasons, so we're not always entirely sympathetic to each other 🙄

Anyway, I am out in the garden now so things are more calm. 

£14 on the Happy wheel this morning, up to about £31 for September so far, which is an improvement on August's £8 😂

The builder has emailed a list of things that will be extra to the original bill - most don't have actual prices attached yet, as most are extra hours, and not all of them are finished, but I've done a bit of estimating and reckon it will be between an extra £2k to £3k. 

So all focus on stocking up the kitchen fund from now on! 

Cheery_Daff

OK, more concrete estimations, based on hourly rates on original builder quotes = £55 each for plumber & electrician, and £75 for the builder (including assistant from what I can work out).

So.

* labour for installing right size copper pipes x 16 hours x £55 = £880

* labour for installing insulation on one bedroom wall = 2 hrs(?) x £75(?) = £150 (not convinced it will take 2 of them 2 hours but trying to overestimate so I'm not shocked later!)

* new concrete lintel = £50(?) (Seems to be a wildly different range of prices for these!)

* labour for installing new lintel = 16 hrs(?) x £75(?) = £1200 (they've had to redo part of the stone wall)

* re-concreting bedroom windowsill = 2 hrs × £75(?) = £150

* strip stud wall and insulate = 4 hours x £75(?) = £300

* extra 1st fix electrics (originally had 4 light, 6 sockets & reinstating ring upstairs, now having 10 lights just downstairs...). 24(?) x £55 = £1320 (original first fix electrics was £660 so I've just assumed it'll take 3 times as long) 

Total estimated extra £4000 🙄 current known total is £24682, so if I'm right, this'll take us to £28682 😮 without appliances, lights, carpet, extra second fix electrics, or anything else going wrong...

Hoping some of my guesses are wild overestimations!

greenbee

I'd assume £30k to be on the safe side. And at least your heating should work and the electrics will have all the right paperwork. You might even be warm this winter!

Cheery_Daff

Yep, working towards £30k (so saving £7k into the top up fund) although at this point I wouldn't be surprised if it goes over that 😮

And yes, excited about the prospect of my study being warmer this winter - might even save on the electricity bill if I've not got a heater on all the time! 

Anyway, on a related note, busy getting Mr Cheery started on Happy Wheel sign ups. Trying to get my head round which places are happy with two accounts in a house - got a list so will start with those (although first starting with new email and bank account...)

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊

Well, we have rounded off the weekend nicely 😊 I spent a couple of hours helping a local friend clear some of her garden to make some raised beds, and then Mr Cheery joined us and we spent a couple of hours outside a cafe 😁

Then I spent the afternoon sitting around in the garden in the sunshine, and it was so nice out there we decided to stay out and have a little fire, so we nipped to get some sausages, and cooked and ate out there, and only just came back in 😊😊  we were joined at one point by an extremely shouty owl 😂

In financial news... I did a YouGov survey this morning, and am now at 2495 points - only 5 more points until I'm half way! 

Also joined Populus since I keep seeing people mention them - I assume they email surveys as there didn't seem to be any way of seeing them on the website??

Mr Cheery attached a cable to one of the lights we bought the other day, and it looks like they'll be fine for the kitchen, so we're going to keep them (which is great, because it would be a 1.5 hour round trip to take them back 😂 )

Tomorrow I'm going to the office - I think the last time was for a couple of hours last October, and before that was Feb 2020 😮

We're also going to go and choose the worktops. 

While we're out, the builder is going to fit the new lintel, and hopefully drill an extremely neat hole into the toilet pipe and attach the new sink outlet 😮 Fingers crossed everything goes to plan - it's a ceramic pipe with the bottom half encased in concrete, so if it doesn't, it'll be a right pain to sort out. Hoping that whatever happens it'll all be fixed by the time we get home... fingers crossed... 🙈

hb2

Cheery, I hope that the loud and messy work is carried out successfully before you return home! It's a shame that (by the sound of it) your peace and serenity is going to be disturbed by whatever is happening locally

I find that the Prolific surveys are very intermittent; I get a few in quick succession and then nothing for a couple of weeks. I usually check out when I get over £20, am currently on £13+ and have just 55p waiting to clear, so still have a bit of a way to go yet. I was complaining recently that I don't seem to get as many YouGov surveys now that they have the daily chat but then got a few. Checked out £50 a couple of months ago and expect a long wait until next time.

We don't have anything like £45,000 in PBs so don't expect to win much - but at least it keeps our dreams alive!

We are currently waiting for the lift engineers to come and do the annual service. We were told 8am and that we were needed to give access (I am named contact for the block) so were up and dressed bright and early. We are still waiting for them to arrive . . .

Cheery_Daff

Hope the lift engineer turned up eventually hb!! 

Suspect I've got at least another year until you gov payout, but at least Prolific is more prolific for me 😁 Sitting at a desk all day helps when you can have the notifications on, although I've not done that for a bit. Need to get back on the case! 

So. In the office today! 😮 felt very weird. We talked to the builder before we left, annoyingly the loo will get done tomorrow or Wednesday which means we'll probably have to go out then (well, we don't HAVE to, but likely will). 

Met ex boss (now colleague) for a lovely chat in the sunshine and sorted out some work stuff. Had a couple of other useful online meetings (not as easy to just jump on Zoom in an open plan office as it is in my own house...). Fretting slightly about various bits of work but hopefully that will pass with this deadline on Wednesday. 

Not much to report finance wise. Oh!! We went to pick our granite for the kitchen worktops! 😁 Most disconcerting wandering round a giant warehouse with a huge overhead crane carrying giant slabs around the place 😮 

Of course none of them were priced, and they wouldn't even tell us which were cheaper/more expensive 🤨 Bit annoying. So we've picked a not-so-short-list of nine, and they'll have to price up ALL of them to we can make an informed decision 😂 which is their own stupid fault so I don't feel remotely guilty. 

I imagine we've probably chosen all the most expensive ones... 

Having tea in the garden again tonight, it was so nice yesterday and the weather is lovely again 😊😊

Cheery_Daff

All spare fingers and toes crossed here please for the next little while - builder is currently drilling into our terracotta toilet pipe 😮😮🙈🙈

If it goes right, it will be fine 😁 if the pipe cracks... he'll have to excavate the concrete floor round it and it will turn into a right palaver... 

Kind of wish I wasn't here - and I'm very glad Mr Cheery took himself off out for the afternoon!

themadvix

😮😮 Keeping fingers crossed for you Cheery! I don't blame you for wishing you weren't there!