Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

I certainly do! I wonder if this type of work is ever NOT stressful?? 

I'm much better doing this stuff by email, and our visitors are here now (I'm just waiting by the kettle) so I'm planning to email to confirm what else needs doing and what the plan is. I did just mention one of the final jobs (finishing round the window - I don't think it's reasonable to leave it just with a squirt of expanding foam in) but I don't think that'll get done today, so they'll have to come back at some point. 

Anyway, right now I don't care - they are lovely, but I am beyond ready to have the house back, whatever that takes 🙄 

Cheery_Daff

Had a quick conversation with them as visitors were leaving (and missed saying goodbye to visitors properly) - they're coming back Monday to finish a few bits. I did ask about the plan for round the window frames, but the response was very much couched in terms of 'what you'll need to do is xxx' not 'we can do this'. He's definitely got his head in other jobs now, and I get the impression he thinks we're just adding stuff and he's a bit fed up of it 🙄 

Hey ho. I don't have the energy to fight it, and I do recognise that quite a few of the decisions we've made have made other things more difficult 🙄 but I'd rather all this didn't end on a slightly sour note after all this time 🙄

Ah well. At this point I think we're both so wound up with the whole thing we'd rather just have it back under our control - I certainly would. DIY comes with its own stresses, and I know Mr Cheery will be resentful if not everything gets finished perfectly, but he's not willing to have those conversations, and I'd rather do everything myself than cause a conflict, however justified, so here we are.

We WILL have a finished kitchen by Christmas though, darn it! 

EssexHebridean

Path of least resistance lovely - sometimes it’s standing your ground, and sometimes it’s admitting defeat, no shame in either for the sake of your sanity! 

Cheery_Daff

EssexHebridean said:

Path of least resistance lovely - sometimes it’s standing your ground, and sometimes it’s admitting defeat, no shame in either for the sake of your sanity! 

Thank you xx Admitting defeat is definitely where I'm at right now (or rather 'bringing things back under my control in a way that I'm comfortable with').

Clearly I have more lessons to learn around being assertive, and I'm feeling quite pathetic tonight 😕 But my overriding priorities are sanity, and a working kitchen. Hoping to have at least one of those by Christmas, preferably both! 

Anyway. Builders are coming back on Monday to do the last few bits (on their list at least). Including levelling the kitchen floor, connecting water pipes to the sink, and filling holes the electrician made in the plaster 🙄 

Then they're leaving, possibly for the last time. After that, this is what's left.

STUFF FOR OTHER PEOPLE TO DO
* oak put on under breakfast bar, then
* granite fitted (7-10 days from last Wed), then
* kitchen cupboard doors fitted
* appliances fitted
* electrician back to connect fridge and hob
* electrician to attach last two plug sockets properly to wall (plaster wasn't completely dry when he was last here)

STUFF FOR US TO DO
* finish kitchen ceiling
* downstairs skirting boards
* final coat of PVA on kitchen floor
* do something with step between kitchen and dining room (plan is to grind the uneven bits, then add a piece of wood - builder suggested something different but if we're doing it ourselves, we'll try this first)
* seal round kitchen windows, they've left it just expanding foam at the minute, and I was basically told it was our fault for choosing not to plaster up to the frames (we wanted to leave some of the stone exposed) 🙄
* paint bedroom
* sort bedroom carpet
* sort stone windowsills 
* paint kitchen
* find and fit blinds

OK, some of that will be a faff (some of the ceiling, the step, probably the skirting), but most of it is just a case of working through step by step... Deep breaths. I'll try to ring carpets and windowsills people this weekend in the hope we can get in before Christmas.

It would be helpful if the kitchen was painted before the granite/doors/appliances were in, so I'll try to get on the case. And it would be helpful if the bedroom was painted before the carpet was put in. 

Skirting board and step will be down to Mr Cheery, and fortunately neither is dependent on, or causes a delay to, any other job. 

We can do this, we've done worse in less time, and it will be SO good to have everything sorted for Christmas!

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

Admitting defeat is definitely where I'm at right now (or rather 'bringing things back under my control in a way that I'm comfortable with').

I like that lots and lots!

Clearly I have more lessons to learn around being assertive, and I'm feeling quite pathetic tonight 😕 But my overriding priorities are sanity, and a working kitchen. Hoping to have at least one of those by Christmas, preferably both! 

Aww, sorry to hear of the pathetic feeling.  I don't think that's actually true, and I hope you know that too, even though it's the way you feel at the moment - assertive is "I want it this way, it's transpired that this firm of builders has now crunched their calendar of commitments, so I, Cheery, will finish it off the way I want it finished".

Anyway. Builders are coming back on Monday to do the last few bits (on their list at least). Including levelling the kitchen floor, connecting water pipes to the sink, and filling holes the electrician made in the plaster 🙄 

Then they're leaving, possibly for the last time. 

I hope the atmosphere doesn't stay even a little bit soured with the builders - that they can be proud of what they *have* accomplished, and you can get some rest and fall in love with your place all over again.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC xx I think I've felt so torn mediating between what other people want all the way through this that I've lost sight of what I myself want - which is a working kitchen, as soon as possible. Must keep reminding myself of that. 

Anyway, I had a very long bath and a very early night, and slept well, but I'm still tense and teary this morning 🙄 Don't feel like I've had a week off at all 🙄

Anyway, on the cards for today:

* dressed and breakfast (got to have some easy wins to tick off, right??)
* pay plasterer again now I have the right details
* pay kitchen fitters now money has arrived from premium bonds
* sort banks & YNAB
* update kitchen spreadsheet
* sort out box and car for collecting new chickens! 😮
* directions and podcasts for the journey (I'm going on my own, as Mr Cheery still needs to prepare the chicken run)
* leave at 11.30, back about 3 with new ladies

Rest of the daylight hours will be spent getting to know the new chickens, and calming tantrums from the existing ones 🙄 However, they should all be fast asleep by 5pm which leaves plenty of time in the evening for a few bits of DIY

*put up another ceiling panel
* cut an extra one to put up in the morning
* might try and get a first watery coat of paint on another of the upstairs walls

That'll do for now I think.

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums 😊

Well, it's been a funny old day, and (of course) I've not done half the things I planned 🙄 but we have our new chickens! 

Mr Cheery has sectioned off part of the chicken run extension, with a nest box and shelter etc, and we bundled them in there. Initial impressions are that we have one quite vocal one, one quiet one, and one who spent quite a lot of time pecking at the tail feathers of the quiet one 🙄

We didn't get back til about 3.30, and they go to bed about 4pm these days, so the existing ladies were hovering round their chicken house, and only Bunty came out to investigate, the others just stayed away. Hope there's a bit more curiosity tomorrow.

We sat with them for a bit, but both old and new were ignoring us, so as they were safely separated, we left them to it and went to the cafe. Came back after dark, thought the three new ones would be huddled together but no, one was on top of the nest box, one on another perch and another just plonked in the middle of the floor.

Scooped them up and shoved them in the chicken house with the others, and we'll have to get up super early to separate them again before they wake up and notice each other 🙄😂

EssexHebridean

Aww poor girls Cheery - sounds like they’re all a bit bewildered by things! 

Cheery_Daff

Yep, they've had a tough day! They're put into cages at about 4 months old I think, and they've been in the same cage ever since. Removed this morning, transported to a big holding pen where they saw grass for the first time (and mixed with a whole load of different chickens). Then scooped up and shoved in a box with 2 others they've probably never met, driven for another 1.5 hours, and dumped into our run, and stared at by us (and Bunty, who was just curious, not aggressive). Then unceremoniously grabbed in the middle of the night and shoved in a different box with a load of other new chickens and all the lights off.

I think I'd be pretty bewildered after all that! 

So, money-saving things today...

Not sure there have been any 🙄😂 Paid the plasterer (again - hope he's actually given me the right bank details this time 🙄) and the next installment to the kitchen fitters. Started reconciling YNAB then realised I needed to build a new chicken transport box. Stopped in a cafe for lunch (by myself! Luxury!) Just had toast, and was having a nice time til part of my tooth fell out 🙄 the one I had a root canal done on last week - it seems to be a bit of tooth that's come off, not the filling 🙄

We ended up in the cafe late this afternoon, then the supermarket. 

So basically no MSE activities whatsoever today 🙄

greenbee

Sorry to hear about your tooth. Unfortunately dead teeth are often fragile. Hopefully as you've had the root canal done it at least it doesn't hurt.