Cheery's country living adventure

Jessy103

Sorry to hear about Rusty ❤
Hope you get rid of the cold sharpish and feel better soon x

Cheery_Daff

For goodness sake, just lost a huge post dropping my phone and pressing the wrong button! Pah! 

Anyway, in brief...

- thank you for your kind words about Rusty
- I feel rotten and have been coughing all day, but today's covid test was negative, so hopefully it is indeed just a cold and will pass soon. Giving myself sore ribs with all the coughing - not helped when I moved a ladder which I hadn't realised was propping up a door, which then fell onto my shoulder...
- got lots more ceiling panels put up. Only 7 main ones to go now, and a couple of small fiddly ones (then some painting etc)

Skip is going tomorrow, after 10 weeks of getting in the way of my favourite view, making it awkward to get the cars in and out and causing rubbish to blow everywhere, no matter how much we tried to edge it in. Good riddance! No idea if builder is coming but kitchen should be here Tuesday!

Right, best go to sleep...

EssexHebridean

Progress then! Great to hear - and fingers crossed for the kitchen arriving as planned along with the builder as needed! And halleluiah to the skip departing - that definitely sounds like it will make things feel on the way to being done, too! 

Cheery_Daff

Progress indeed, although slightly delayed as the council geezer turned up this morning at 8.45 saying the tarmac lorry was arriving at 9am and we wouldn't be able to get in or out for a couple of hours 😠

Most annoying - I don't know how many times we have to say we want 24 hours notice, but clearly it's not enough. The road literally only comes to us and one other house (90 year old neighbour who doesn't have a car) so it's not exactly arduous to give me a quick ring when they order the tarmac (which presumably wasn't this morning).

Blah blah. We grabbed our stuff quickly and came out (to the cafe, of course), rang the builder who'd arranged the skip - he didn't answer so I rang the number on the skip, and now they're coming tomorrow. Yawn.

I slept reasonably well on the sofa so things do seem quite manageable today (so far!) We're going to use our forced removal from the house to do the food shopping, rock n roll.

EssexHebridean

I suspect the issue with the council blokes is that they don't care - you're only talking to them, so they just ignore you. I'd look at making an official complaint now if I were you - at some stage this is going to happen at a time when it causes a real problem - either because something important can't get in, or because you have to be somewhere important and can't get out - and the only way of tackling it will be if someone further up their own individual foodchain who they can't just choose to ignore tells them. It's a bit like complaining about something in the supermarket to someone on the checkout - they appear to listen, nod and smile, and say they will definitely pass it on, but 30 seconds after you've gone they're on to the next person and it never even crosses their mind again!  It's a nuisance that it's disrupted the removal of the skip which you were so pleased to know you were seeing the back of, though!

Hurrah for things feeling more manageable as well - I'm glad, it's awful when you reach that point where everything just feels overwhelming and as though you've had enough of it. It WILL be worth it when it's all done though - well, done until your next project, knowing you! 

Fortune_Smiles

It's coming together Cheery and you're over the hump of it now.  I've got my fingers crossed for you that it's all in before Christmas and you can relax properly and enjoy your Christmas dinner cooked in your new kitchen.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

You're both right, and EH, especially, I will be emailing the main geezer who's dealing with it. Not sure there's much point spending energy on an official complaint mind you at this point, as this is the last piece of tarmac they're doing on our bit anyway, but at least it might make them behave better for the next people (they're moving round the corner after us). I have already told the site manager twice so I would at least have expected him to do something - especially since I saw him last week and he told me they'd be done with our road by last Friday!

Anyway, yes, focusing on what I can do myself (put the ceiling up for a start) - best go and get on!

Cheery_Daff

Well we had a detour to the DIY shop and the supermarket, and finally got home at 1pm, only to find the tarmac had only just been laid, despite them saying it would be done and drivable by 11am... Wisely the nice man cleared everything, let us drive over it very slowly, and they were going to roller it again afterwards... 🙄

Bizarrely, the skip has been collected! I didn't ring the skip people til we were already at the cafe, and the tarmac was a couple of hours later than planned, so the skip truck clearly was just already on its way when I rang and snuck in while the road was still open. Very nice to have that space, and it's left a lovely square of damp earth which the chickens are having a GREAT time digging for worms in 😁

Speaking of chickens... I've just rung and added an extra one on our booking for Saturday 🙄😂 I wasn't prepared to have seven, but now we've lost Rusty, an extra 3 will give us 6, which is a good number, and allows for the potential (heaven forbid) of losing one of the new ones quite quickly and the other one still having an ally.

Have also paid the garage, and the builder. Feeling much more lively today!

EssexHebridean

That sounds remarkably good all round - hurrah to having your view back, with added bonus worms for the beaky ones, and VERY sensible of the road geezers, may I say! 

Cheery_Daff

Goah, what an afternoon! 

Went all out on getting ready for the kitchen, and got LOADS done. Another couple of panels in the kitchen ceiling, then masking taped all the bits over where the kitchen is going and sealed round the edges with caulk - I won't be able to reach once kitchen is in. My least favourite kitchen ceiling job - it's a sticky, horrid mess and a complete faff, and I've still not perfected the knack so if you look at it closely it looks quite scruffy (I might paint the walls fuchsia or something so nobody looks at the ceiling...). Most unsatisfying, but at least that bit's done! 

Then I cleared everything else out of the room, and shifted the dining table (which is too big to get out - we brought it in when the ceiling was down 😂), hoovered, and then spent several hours trying to clear plaster dust from the floor 🙄 Scrubbed and cleaned and wiped, and even then only did the bit in the middle of where the kitchen itself is going and ignored the rest 🙄

Stopping now. Am filthy and worn out 🙄