Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

savingholmes

Thanks MF @Mickyh-s and @astrocytic_kitten

My workman is here. Charging me around £50 to put up shelf, mirror and Roman blind. He's also taking down a couple of shelves for me.

He reckons he can use his chainsaw next time to take down rest of tree. Thinks that will be 20 minutes. He'll take the wood home for his wood burner. He's going to replace a missing bit of felt on my shed.

He is going to take down the ceiling of the understairs cupboard next time and come back with a more experienced joiner to work out what to do but reckons should be fixable. Can't quote on that bit yet.

He doesn't think putting together the arbour would be a big job. So all looking positive from today so far. Really grateful I have someone I trust.

savingholmes

astrocytic_kitten said:

Just dropping in to say hi SH. I haven't read the almost 600 posts since I was last online, but you're sounding brighter and like you're getting loads done - love the sound of the garden!

I don't blame you not catching up on 600 posts!!! I got P1p so finally have some spare £.

Mickyh-s said:

Even if you re-read your diary from a few months ago there seems to be a lot of progress.

I did re read it recently and illustrated how much time I spend needlessly worrying! As well as achievements.

MF definitely want to prioritise spends and not fritter.

Mickyh-s

Trustworthy tradesmen are worth their weight in gold! I have a couple I can call/rely on. 

astrocytic_kitten

Mickyh-s said:

Trustworthy tradesmen are worth their weight in gold! I have a couple I can call/rely on. 

Totally agree with this, I’ve found a handyman who does stuff so much quicker and better than I could ever do. It’s such a relief to just be able to hand him a list of jobs and have it sorted, takes a bit weight off the shoulders 

beanielou

Great news on the tradesman 

savingholmes

Thanks Beanie, @Mickyh-s and @astrocytic_kitten

This guy is lovely and did a fab job. The shelf he put up I've had for a couple of years but Ex never got around to putting it up for me. He did one but not the other. It now has a couple of my paintings resting on it where the TV used to be. I only asked him about the mirror today - so he didn't end up doing that as he needs some heavier duty rawl plugs. Still he said he can come back in about a fortnight to do some more of my list so that makes me happy. Makes me wish I'd thought of asking him earlier as so far his costs have all been very reasonable. He's another of those very calming people to be around. It's also nice to not be so reliant on BIL - who lives a bit of trek away and has young kids.

The roman blind looks very smart. If and when I come to sell - I may just leave it like that and take down the curtains. For room darkening though - I've put my new eyelet curtains up too (and kept the venetian blinds) - but at some point I need to paint the window sill and then I'll have to temporarily take them down again. I've tested them with all three shut and it's much better than before so I'm hoping my sleep will improve. After I've had tea - I'll carry on sorting out the room. It gives me hope that I can gradually work through my list and get things sorted - probably quicker than if I was relying on a partner or husband to do it! 

DD and her friend are going clubbing later. I'm dropping her off but thankfully she's getting a taxi back.

I still need to make myself ring the tax people - so that needs to be my next job!! 

Blackcats

Sounds like great progress in your room.  I hope the better light blocking will improve your sleep.  

savingholmes

Thanks Blackcats. Mindful of your admonition yesterday, after dropping off DD and her friend, I bought myself pretty underwear and lemon drizzle cake. Just had some cake with strawberries. Yummy! Thank you for reminding me the £ is for me and it's okay to spend some and not just save / invest etc.

My health plan upgrade should go through in time for August pay day so I'll ask a friend for her chiropractor's details and get some sessions booked in. Hoping it makes a difference. One of my legs has never been right since a fall down the stairs a few years ago. I also struggle to even get close to cross legged on one side in particular - so while that could be my hips - it could be related to my back too. I also have a weird area on my back where if you touch it I jump a mile - and I have referred pain - so I'm hoping that she can work a miracle and resolve some of those issues. It would be amazing if it's fixable - but also irritating that I waited so long to even try. Chiropractors have always scared me - movies where they show them don't help either as the movements always seem very dramatic or seem to cause significant pain before the improvement... I'm allowed to reclaim up to £350 on the scheme so hoping it doesn't cost more than that.

However, there's a hold up with my AVCs - as my organisation needs setting up with a new provider which I'm told could take 4-8 weeks. I need to check if they backdate the AVC collection but assuming they don't that may compensate for any work I get done on the house and garden - so could still be a short term win. I then need to consider whether to increase the AVCs to compensate for the delay - or just see doing stuff to my home and garden as another form of investment and let it ride. My BIL made the point that when you fix stuff / do stuff that's been nagging at you for a while it releases so much head space. He's not wrong.

Someone recently gave me comfort shorts from Sn@g. Love them - so may get more. They are as thin as tights but moisture wicking and very breathable. Much better than other makes I've seen. There were a couple of pairs of cropped trousers I couldn't wear before as the material was relatively thin and too 'slidey' / stretchy and now I can. 

I tried ringing the Tax people but the hours listed on the web were not real - so missed them. I need to put something in the post tomorrow or I could be fined.

jwil

All sounds good.  Good luck with sorting the tax stuff.

Baileys_Babe

savingholmes said:

 I need to check if they backdate the AVC collection but assuming they don't that may compensate for any work I get done on the house and garden - so could still be a short term win. I then need to consider whether to increase the AVCs to compensate for the delay - or just see doing stuff to my home and garden as another form of investment and let it ride. My BIL made the point that when you fix stuff / do stuff that's been nagging at you for a while it releases so much head space. He's not wrong.

If it was me I wouldn't be increasing the payments to AVC's to compensate for the delays as long as I had invested the money on the house and garden which are also a forms of investing for now and the future.
If the delay was longer than 2 months lI would no doubt plan to increase my payments.