Forever Starts Now

starnac

Morning all. (Just) Nothing to report money wise here. I was out all day Saturday volunteering at a race and didn't get home til 6.30am Sunday morning!! An early night was had yesterday and I've also had a lazy morning this morning. 

I've fed and watered the chickens, spent some time with them and had a little tidy up in their run. Weeded some bits and pieces in the veg garden on the way back to the house. I am definitely pulling the carrots today! I keep saying I'm going to and then don't so I will def do that today. I'll prep them and freeze the majority. I want to look up how to make hummus and DH and DD love carrot sticks and hummus. I think I have everything I need to make hummus too! We have a glut of eggs again after struggling with low laying rates, I'm going to attempt home made mayo! Yikes! My sister is planning to pop round some time this week for eggs and to pick some apples off our tree. The recent wind has blown a lot of apples off the tree when they are not quite ready which is a shame. They are a bit sharper than the kids like but as the blackberries around here are ripe my sister is planning apple and blackberry crumble for next Sunday's tea! It will definitely go with this weather! How is it August but feels like November? 

DD asked if she could dye her hair over the summer and as I started dyeing my hair younger than she is now, I couldn't really say no. She has beautiful thick, long brown hair. We chose some hair dye and dyed it last night. I like it. She wasn't too keen to be honest. She had chosen a blue/black colour. I warned her that as she has dark hair it probably won't be as bright as she thinks it will be. I have the same issue with mine, although as the greys take over the dye shows up more As she was drying her hair she was a bit disappointed as her hair just looked black. But it definitely has a blue tint to it. I can see it and DH could but I think she was a bit disappointed. Today it should be more obvious as it settles down so I'm hoping she'll feel better about it today. 

EssexHebridean

Oh my - how exciting about the job! Well done you for saying yes in spite of the wobble!

As for dying darker coloured hair - yes, I can sympathise with that problem too. Mine took black pretty well when I did it years ago - it would be too harsh a colour for me now I think as my hair's got lighter over the years. I stuck a purple on it a few years back and it did take that surprisingly well - especially the front bits that get bleached blonder by the sun! 

starnac

It's been really busy in work this week. It was our annual holiday club and after all the prep work it was finally good to welcome the kids in and have some fun. I was however, exhausted yesterday and even DS is still in bed now which is not like him at all. 

Thanks to the holiday club, work owes me some money for bits and pieces so will get my receipts in either today or tomorrow. 

Banks are looking good. £100 overpayment sent this morning and I finally got paid for that invoice I sent in for the work back in November and December! So that's £1,342 into money made. Obviously that needs to be separated into SA tax etc account, pay myself back for expenses from that work, some into savings and then what's left over can be put aside. DD is 16 in October (I know *sob* ) and I want to get her a decent tablet that she can use for school work (GCSE's next year) and for drawing etc that she loves doing. So some of that money will go towards that, which obviously eases pressure on our monthly wages. 

DH has picked up some extra work today which will be handy when he gets paid for that. 

The Octopods have paid us for the electric we sold back to the grid last month too. Not as much as previous months due to the terrible weather we are having! But still £55.37 which brings our account to £700 in credit. I am glad we made the decision to reduce our monthly payment now as I'd hope that £700 will help us over the winter. We have hot water bottles, plenty of blankets and plenty of wood for the fire in the living room!  

starnac

I've had a bit of a lazy morning. I didn't sleep well last night so snoozed off and on until about 7.30 then got up and took the dog out. The chickens spotted us on our way back to the house and started complaining about breakfast so I sorted them out and put a wash on before heading back up to the middle floor. Since then I've done nothing much except read diaries on here with a cuppa. I do need to be getting a move on soon as I have a zoom meeting at 10am. I've got quite a lot of house stuff I want to get done this week so I might make a list.

DH has agreed to plastering the dining room which has a kind of swirly artex pattern on it. Like someone has stuck a finger in the wet plaster and drawn squiggles! It also has a carpet in there which I hate as I like to be able to sweep up after every meal. Apart from that room we only have carpet upstairs which means lugging the hoover up and down stairs. I also don't think it's that hygienic. Anyway, as DD has a big birthday coming up in a few months, and is planning on a big(ish) party, I asked DH if he thought he could plaster over the artex so that we can paint ready for the party and he's agreed So the dining room needs emptying this week so he can start doing that. It will take a while as he'll be doing it in the evenings after work etc but it'll be worth it to have almost all the middle floor sorted (except kitchen) ready for DD's birthday. We tend to leave things like this and just live with them so it's a nice incentive for us to get the work done. 

EssexHebridean

Ahh I can very much identify with "Oh well, we can live with it..." as a mindset - that's an easy one to slip into for sure. I was just reflecting yesterday that I was feeling quite smug that almost all the carpets that we said when we moved in to the flat "we'll need to think about replacing those" are still there and no doubt shortly to be replaced by someone else...! 

Cheery_Daff

😂 yep, I'm another one who just learns to live with stuff - our surveyor when we bought this house 5 years ago said 'you'll obviously be wanting to replace that bathroom'... Yep, it's still here 😂 We do have another bath in the garage, but so far it's not got to the top of the priority list. Would be nice to get on with all these things though, so we'll done for ticking them off!

starnac

Was it 5 years you moved @Cheery_Daff ? Wow! Time flies! 

We tend to fix things just before we move out which is annoying as someone else gets the benefit then! We are never moving from here as I literally couldn't cope with another move so I would like to have a house that is finished! It'll never be finished I realise that but something is better than nothing. 

DH emptied most of the dining room yesterday and we've been pricing up some flooring! Wow! How expensive is flooring now? I was not a happy bunny. We do have some money set aside for replacing our boundary fence this summer but as summer has been a wash out, it hasn't been done. It's not urgent so we're going to put that off til next summer and use the money for the flooring in the dining room instead. 

starnac

Morning all. Dining room is now empty apart from the actual table. The table is being moved into the conservatory but we have a locksmith coming this morning to sort out the lock on the conservatory doors. It's been stiff since we moved in but it's at the point now that I can't actually lock that door. Which isn't ideal obviously. So once he's been we can move the table in there. 

We are heading north for the weekend so my mum is moving in here for the weekend to look after the dog and the chickens, so there are a few things I need to do before we go. I need to strip our bed and remake before we leave so she has clean sheets. I also need to have a quick clean of the bedroom. Not much but a few things, like empty glasses on the bedside tables. We have a dressing room attached to our bedroom and there are some clothes that need putting away to make that look tidy. Then just a general tidy up all round. The house isn't that bad for a change!

starnac

I need to make a list of things that need doing as I have a lot of things swimming around my head

Check banks
Boxes out of porch
Sweep stairs to utility room
HC - one lot two three lots done 
Dishwasher on
Table into conservatory
Clothes away in dressing room
Bedroom tidied
Change sheets - Friday morning
Craft stuff into craft room
Shred paper recycling
Sweep all living areas
Pack some crochet/something crafty for the weekend

EssexHebridean

Agreed on the cost of flooring - we used the bamboo flooring when we did the hallway - it's utterly beautiful but it definitely wasn't cheap (and of course we're now going to be giving someone else the benefit of that, too!)

New house has wood flooring through the hallway and that apparently runs under the carpet in the sitting room/snug too - so allowing that room has the only carpet that needs replacing we may end up just stripping it back and using a big cosy rug in there - we'll see how it looks when we investigate. 

Hope you have a lovely weekend!