Cheery's country living adventure

greenbee

You should probably paint the concrete - either with floor paint or just sealant. It'll stop the dust for a start! It's pretty easy to do. 

The underlay I got for the bedroom works well - I'd have a look on ebay as there are lots of options and it's pretty cheap to buy by the roll. Hopefully the insulation you've put in the kitchen ceiling will help too. I've done the same - all the floorboards have come up at some point, so there is insulation between all the joists! My brother did even better and used soundproofing insulation, which I wish I'd though of (the again, it's solid, and would have been harder work).

If you have a rug that's big enough (and nice enough!) to do your bedroom with I'd seriously consider spending the money on decent underlay (and carpet blades for your stanley knife and one of those spiky carpet-stretcher things) and reusing what you've got. The rug I used was bigger than my bedroom, so has been cut down (all the fringes removed for a start, and a cutout round the chimney breast. I LOVE the colours, and it's completely unique. 

Karmacat

Those exact numbers are really something - yes, it's gone up, but that level of precision on the finances to come are really empowering.  I'm not a fan of carpet myself, really, but I'm a *huge* fan of tiles, terrazzo, quarry, anything, I love them.  

Cheery_Daff

We've got quarry tiles in the offshot by the back door - they've got a gash piece of old carpet down at the minute to keep a bit of the muck from spreading everywhere else but I'm looking forward to releasing them and cleaning them up properly! 

The concrete will get sealed with something - but it's clearly a bad mix of concrete, it's clouds of dust, not just a bit, and you couldn't just paint it as it is. Builder said originally he'd be able to seal it with something, but if he doesn't get round to it I'll definitely do something before sticking a rug down. It's had another gash bit of old carpet on it for months, just took it up so the builders didn't trip over it. 

I'm not sure we've got anything big enough for the bedroom, but will have a look - it's two rooms knocked into one so we'll want to do both halves. However, I don't share your aversion to carpet so I suspect we will end up sticking with the original plan on this occasion! 

Just went out for a chip butty 😂 Most jolly. The place is bedecked with fairy light, you sit outside in a really big space (but sheltered) and we had a cup of tea and shared a twix for afters 😂

Cheery_Daff

We've got quarry tiles in the offshot by the back door - they've got a gash piece of old carpet down at the minute to keep a bit of the muck from spreading everywhere else but I'm looking forward to releasing them and cleaning them up properly! 

The concrete will get sealed with something - but it's clearly a bad mix of concrete, it's clouds of dust, not just a bit, and you couldn't just paint it as it is. Builder said originally he'd be able to seal it with something, but if he doesn't get round to it I'll definitely do something before sticking a rug down. It's had another gash bit of old carpet on it for months, just took it up so the builders didn't trip over it. 

I'm not sure we've got anything big enough for the bedroom, but will have a look - it's two rooms knocked into one so we'll want to do both halves. However, I don't share your aversion to carpet so I suspect we will end up sticking with the original plan on this occasion! 

Just went out for a chip butty 😂 Most jolly. The place is bedecked with fairy light, you sit outside in a really big space (but sheltered) and we had a cup of tea and shared a twix for afters 😂

greenbee

enjoy cleaning up your quarry tiles. You may end up needing brick acid. And then sealing with a mixture of turps and boiled linseed. And then polishing... But once sealed and polished they should take a lot of punishment!

beanielou

My quarry tiles are over 30 years old & will see me out I think 

Cheery_Daff

I'm hoping my quarry tiles will see me out as well! 

Right, Mr Cheery is now signed up to four bookies, and has made a grant total of £28.86 already, with more free bets to come. Most pleasing for the kitchen fund! 

I think that's quite enough counting for one day though... 

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon chums 😊

Cafe this morning, but no breakfast for me, and only one drink each, so a cheap and cheerful one. 

I've been sat in the garden in the sunshine reading a book, but the sun has gone in and it's starting to get a little chilly... have a vague feeling I should be doing something useful...

Sadly I loaded the washing machine this morning and forgot to switch it on 🙄 Most vexing, as it breezy right now so everything could be drying nicely, but it takes about 2.5 hours so it now won't be finished til 4 - it'll get a bit of drying time but not enough. Hey ho, will transfer to the building site overnight 🙄

Mostly today I need to prepare for a full day in the office tomorrow! 😮😮 I've had the odd hour in the last couple of weeks, but not a whole day yet. Need to make some lunch, and find my clothes, clean my shoes, make sure I have tedious things like laptop plug etc. Going to leave at 7am so it's going to be quite a shock!

edwink

Cheery_Daff said:

I've been sat in the garden in the sunshine reading a book, but the sun has gone in and it's starting to get a little chilly... have a vague feeling I should be doing something useful...  

Hi Cheery

After all the hard graft you have put in to all of your projects lately and the budgeting that has constantly been whirling around in your head, not to mention your building work going on right now, I would say that a Sunday sitting in the garden reading in the sunshine is definitely time well spent and very useful to recharge yourself even if it did start to get a bit chilly.  So glad you gave yourself some "ME TIME" today 😊

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Thanks edwink It actually turned out to be quite a restful day in the end, with a cafe trip, reading in the garden, and an afternoon nap! 

Also did some washing, cleaned out the beaky house, and did all the washing up, and went to my first musical project rehearsal since March last year Quite a shock to the system I tell you, especially since I've barely played since then

Anyway, appliances. Should have got round to ordering yesterday, as the fridge we wanted is now out of stock Most vexing. And I realised AFTER I'd ordered the hob, that we could get the same fridge for the same place - £50 more expensive, but a £50 discount for ordering 2 appliances at the same time. Except I'd already ordered the hob, and it wouldn't let me add the discount code in a separate transaction... 

So I've taken a risk and ordered a second hob and I'll ring at 8am tomorrow and cancel the first order. Figured that was better than trying to order separately and beg them to apply the discount! 

I also managed to go through Quidco for all of them - 20% cash back for the oven, and 1.6% cashback for the others. And I got l loyalty points for the hob/fridge. And it's all gone on the credit card, which is currently on 5% cashback as well, so if all goes to plan we should get

£38.72 loyalty points
£15 cashback for oven
£37 cashback for hob and fridge
£55.35 credit card cashback
= £146.07 for the kitchen offset fund (if/when it eventually turns up)

Not too bad! 

Rather annoyingly, it occurred to me last night that they've not put wiring in for the smoke alarm, which is meant to be wired into the mains (to fulfil the building regs from the previous project, because there's no door between the kitchen and stairs). We did talk about it with the builder and electrician, and clearly they just forgot and we didn't notice til yesterday. Hopefully not too much of a faff to sort out at this point, as downstairs isn't even boarded yet, and the boarding isn't finished on the landing - glad I realised before they started plastering, but YAWN at having to have another conversation with the builder tomorrow. 

All packed and ready for work, but when I get there at 8am I'll have to 
* ring and cancel spare hob
* text builder re smoke alarm
* book car for MOT (not due til 15th but they're a small garage and it generally takes a couple of weeks to get booked in)

And do some work, of course