Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Thank you! Getting there! 

So, today has been mostly productive - everywhere in bedroom now has at least one coat, including awkward bits like behind radiators and pipes, and we've primed the new loft hatch (very exciting - there wasn't one at all before, it's just been a giant hole since we moved in 😂) 

Also chose carpet and booked fitters to measure on Wednesday. Think I may have already said that but I've already lost this post once so don't want to go back to check! 

Anyway, here's a sneaky peak, from an odd angle with a weird perspective. Wall on the left is going gold tomorrow! 



Plans for tomorrow...

* paint 2 gold walls in bedroom 😁
* paint rest of orange walls
* IF that all dries enough while it's still light enough, do second coat on ceiling (unlikely)
* finish cleaning plaster and sealant off UPVC window frames 🙄
* paint inside window reveals (twice if it's dry in time)

Need to finish at 4 for band practice,  but if there is time for anything else...

* visitors helped me load car ready for the tip so it would be good to whizz and get everything out 
* want to have a go at letting the new chickens out to free range - one of them is getting a bit naughty pecking at the other new ones, so want them all to have a bit more space to get used to each other.

Oh, and once it's gone dark...

*send requests for quotes to a couple of stone places about the windowsills. Mr Cheery just bought a new diamond blade from the angle grinder so there's a chance we may experiment with re-using some of the MASSIVE stone roof tiles from the collapsed barn, but I want to get the ball rolling on a few quotes too, just in case.

That's probably enough for one day I imagine! 

EssexHebridean

I should think so….all very exciting, and I love the idea of reusing the roof tiles too! 

Cheery_Daff

EssexHebridean said:

I should think so….all very exciting, and I love the idea of reusing the roof tiles too! 

I don't think any of them will be big enough on their own for the downstairs windows, although they are truly massive old York stone things, a bit like tombstones 😮 So it will depend if we can make it look ok with a join in the middle... Would be lovely to use them if we can - if nothing else, they're free! 😁😁

Karmacat

As long as the mortar or whatever is good quality, I bet it's fine.

And, by the way, orange and gold?  Yay!  That's much more than sensible, that's a wow!  Great news  

EssexHebridean

If the join is straight - which with the angle grinder it would be - then I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. In fact I bet it would barely be noticeable! 

Chiglepig

I LOVE that colour

Fortune_Smiles

Lovely warm orange Cheery - I love colours that glow.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all! Might give you a glimpse of the gold at some point

Got a few bits done today. My sporadic tickly cough turned rather more persistent last night, so I booked a PCR test Had to go 13 miles to the nearest walk through one, so that was a bit of a trip. they did say results would be within 12-24 hours, but should be quicker - 10 hours and counting now. Obviously if I've not heard by the morning I'll be working from home. 

Anyway, got on with some painting, since I'm not incapacitated, just coughing a bit more than I'd like (and nowhere near what I'd rationally describe as 'continuous' but better safe than sorry, given how many people I'll be in contact with at work). Got another coat of gold on one wall, and a first coat of gold on another, and a couple of walls with a second orange coat. Doesn't sound like much but there was a LOT of faffing behind radiators and pipes. 

Mixed the two sets of chickens for half an hour this evening - mostly uneventful, although our existing ladies seem rather intimidated by one of the new ones in particular. I was hoping they'd put up more of a fight - usually the existing ones are the ones doing all the pecking! 

So now I have two jobs I've been putting off. One is to sort out the last batch of covid vouchers - I've not actually downloaded them yet and you only have access for a few weeks, which may have already run out, eek! Need to get on the case. 

The other job is to reply to the builder. He's sent another invoice - none of his have been itemised yet (although the original quote was, but we've strayed quite far from that!). Plumber, plasterer etc have all sent separate itemised invoices and I've paid them directly, but builder has just sent an amount. I didn't mind with the first couple of invoices as we were at/near the beginning and we were obviously going to use up that much dosh, but now the builder has had £6500 already (before this invoice, which is another £2500) which doesn't include plumber, electrician, plasterer, apprentice, or £2500 worth of materials which we paid directly to the yard place. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for an itemised list of work at this point, especially as we've gone considerably over budget. 

Also, apparently the electrician has requested he be paid in cash. The builder did mention this a couple of months ago he's dragged him back from retirement) but I didn't think anything of it, as at that point I was expecting to pay a single amount to the builder, not have everyone invoice separately. I'm not completely averse to paying cash, but I want a proper invoice first, and a receipt on the day, and we'll need the relevant certification as well. I'd rather pay by bank transfer like with everything else!

Not sure why I'm putting that off - stupidly feeling bad for asking for itemised bill (ridiculous, I know...). Also he had kitchen fitting in the original quote - but now we've got with a kitchen from his recommended geezers, who are fitting it themselves, I'm not sure whether he's including fitting in his costs to pass on to them (unlikely, given everyone else has charged separately). If not, it's even more expensive than I thought... YAWN. 

Right - putting on my brave pants, will email the builder first, then do the covid vouchers, and then have a nice hot chocolate as a reward

EssexHebridean

Absolutely reasonable to ask for itemisation of the work done for that sort of money I’d say. Apart from anything else you need to know what’s happening about the kitchen fitting cost.

interesting that you’ve had a tickly cough as well - I have too, thankfully mine has stayed definitely sporadic rather than persistent- I’m putting it down to having spent a lot of time over the last few weeks working on the old files and shredding at work so all the paper dust has been triggering it. A good chance yours could be building dust related I’d hope! Fingers crossed for a negative PCR result. 

Cheery_Daff

Ok, 24 minutes and BOTH of those things are now done - with considerable faffing and re-wording of the email of course. I think in my head I'm arguing with the builder, but in reality he's been completely reasonable and above board all the way through (apart from a very slightly frosty exchange with Mr Cheery near at the end, which was unfortunate). His original quote was very detailed, and he's already given me rough estimations of some of the extra costs for things we've had, so I imagine he has decent records. We'll see. 

Vouchers ordered too - there is an expiry date for the link, but it's 3 months, not 1 month like I feared, so all good, and I've sent them to my work email so I can print (my home laptop doesn't talk to the printer without a LOT of huffing and puffing, whereas the work one does it with no fuss...)

Tomorrow's activities will depend on the result of my PCR test. I'm meant to be in work tomorrow, just for an hour but I was going to go in for the whole day... If I get a negative result by about 8am, I'll go in for the whole day. If it's between 8 and about 9.30, I'll work at home for the morning, and just go in for the hour I need to be there. If I haven't heard by 9.30, I'll shift my teaching online anyway and work from home - don't really want to leave it much later, as I don't want to mess anyone about. 

And if it's positive, then obviously I'll be staying put! Mr Cheery, however, will be off on a little adventure regardless, as he left his phone in B&Q (and not the most local one either). I was surprised to get a text from him this afternoon while he was standing next to me - but it was B&Q saying they had the phone Clearly they'd checked his most recent text - which was from me (several hours before), asking if he was ok because he'd been in B&Q for so long  

Right, must be time for a hot chocolate, possibly with a little knock off Baileys in it...