Forever Starts Now

starnac

Morning all. I'm out all day today. Got an all day meeting then home and college in the evening. This means that not much will get done in the house today. 

DH plans to do the last of the plastering this evening while I am out so hopefully we can start painting it this weekend. It's taken quite a while to get the plastering finished as DH is doing it as and when he can, but what it is costing us in time, it's saving in cash so I can't complain. 

DH gets paid tomorrow so I need to check banks today and see where money needs to be moved. A lot of our savings pots are looking a bit sad as we've just paid both house and car insurance. That's fine and it's what they are there for but it's still a bit sad when the pots go from looking quite healthy to looking a bit empty! We have monthly payments set up to fill those so I don't need to do anything there but a quick check around never hurts. 

EssexHebridean

Busy few days for you!

I am also right there with you on feeling the loss of the money in the savings pots when it goes to pay for the exact thing it was always designated for! Daft isn't it - but it does feel "wrong" seeing them empty! 

And your DH being able to do the plastering must be such a money saver - it's a great skill to have. 

starnac

I'm lucky that DH is pretty capable on the DIY front. He used to work a seasonal job and the staff would then do maintenance on the buildings during the off season, meaning he learnt how to do a lot of different jobs. Obviously it would have been quicker to hire a plasterer but DH is doing a good job and it's saving us some cash. 

Tea for tonight is already sorted. Left over Bolognese was turned into lasagne which is now in the fridge and just needs warming this evening. 

It's a bit misty here this morning but it does look like the sun is trying to break through so I'm waiting for a bit before putting the washing on to use the solar panels. They are currently recharging the batteries so I'll leave it for about an hour. I want to get that load of washing done ready for school uniforms. I will probably do those tomorrow as I'll add DH's work shirts to that wash too. 

I'm currently sat making a list of things I need to achieve tomorrow. DH is in work so it's just me and the kids. DD is planning to make her birthday invites tomorrow so she'll be in her room designing and painting those most of the day I should think. We also need to sort her phone out once and for all. I'm not sure what DS has planned, if anything.

It's one of the kids' turn to bring "afters" to my mum's for Sunday lunch, so I'll have to ask which one would like to do some baking. Mam cooks Sunday lunch for all of us every week, so between me, the kids, my sister and my brother, we take turns bringing dessert. DH is the only one that gets away with it as he is the favourite 🤣

We have a well stocked baking cupboard so whichever one of them chooses to bake, they can. 

starnac

Morning all. Happy Saturday. 

What a miserable day it is though! 

I've had a bit of a leisurely morning, sitting with a cuppa and the dog but do need to get a move on. I've got one load of washing on and the next ready to go once it's finished. Luckily we can get it all hung up in the drying room downstairs so the weather won't affect it too much. 

Lots of sorting and organising to do today. The plan was to organise the storage room downstairs into a more useable space. It's currently half a gym and half a sewing room but there is stuff everywhere as things get dumped there. I want to properly mark out the different spaces and make it enjoyable to be down there. 

Problem is yesterday I was in the office upstairs looking for a piece of paperwork (I followed @EssexHebridean 's lead and ate a Frog I've been putting off for weeks!) and I started sorting out up there to make things easier to find. 

The question now is: do I finish off the office as I've started it or go downstairs as planned? 

Hope you all have lovely weekends planned

starnac

The office won today! I sorted through every file and folder and all the piles of paperwork. I filed away everything that needed filing, relocated everything that didn't belong in there, organised the shelving and filled 5 big shopping bags worth of paper ready for shredding. Why I thought I needed to keep the stuff that is almost 10 years old I have no idea!!!

I still have two boxes to sort out in there and there is a small pile of paperwork to be filed sat on the desk. Once that is done, I can hoover in there and then that room is done!

This evening DH and I have used the shredded paper to make firelighters and paper bricks for the fire ready for the winter. The firelighters need some melted wax poured over the top but DD has taken over the kitchen baking for tomorrow, so that will have to be a job for tomorrow evening. We still have about a bag's worth of paper to be shredded and a big box worth of already-shredded paper to make more bricks when the others dry and we can stack them to take up less space. 

Both the firelighters and the bricks will then head downstairs with the wood ready for winter. Quite a productive day I feel especially as it definitely felt like winter today. 

Cheery_Daff

Definitely sounds like a productive day to me, well done!

EssexHebridean

How do you make your firelighters Starnac? We'd already planned to do bricks using shredded paper, but it hadn't occurred to me to think about firelighters as well!  

Great plan to use the momentum and enthusiasm that was there to get the office sorted too - there is a fair bit to tackle in ours but I really need to hold off until we've got rid of the remaining boxes as they are all flattened and stacked against the wall in front of the fling cabinet at the moment. I want to sort the cabinet itself first anyway as there will be a lot of clutter in there that can be transferred to the wall cupboards that are in there.

starnac

We made firelighters for the first time last year and this is what worked for us @EssexHebridean

Toilet roll inners, fold the bottom over so nothing falls out, we then stuff them with shredded/ripped up paper or card and some rough sawdust DH collected when he put some thin tree branches through the wood shredder. To finish it off we pour melted wax over the stuffing, let it set then fold the top over. 

We have a box downstairs with our wood pile to store them and we bring a few up at a time when we start lighting the fire (soon probably looking at the weather!). We have wood storage above the fire and a basket where we keep the smaller pieces of wood and the firelighters. 

Apparently you can use pinecones coated in wax too but we have plenty of toilet roll inners as we save them throughout the year now. We save them all in a box then spend an hour or so making a big batch when we have a decent amount. We are trying to get our energy use, especially heating as cost effective as possible. 

greenbee

Dried citrus peel makes good firefighters too. And it smells nice.

starnac

I haven't touched the office since Saturday which is sad as I was on a roll there but I literally haven't had time and DH is teaching in there (online) today so I can't go in there. 

DH made use of the time that me and the kids were out last night to put the glue coat on the fresh plaster in the dining room. That makes me happy as it means we can start painting in there soon. Once it's painted we can lay the flooring and then start putting everything back together. We got a welsh dresser from FB market thing and I've prepped the top of it and started to paint it. I need to take the drawer and door handles off to prep the bottom half which I hope to get that all done by the end of this week. Ideally I'd like it all painted and finished on the weekend so that's another thing off the list. 

DD started to hand out her invites for her birthday party. We are having an open house for the afternoon so that family or family friends that want to see her for her 16th can, and then she's hoping to have a bonfire with her friends in the evening. We have a fire pit and some gazebos that we plan to set up at a safe distance from the fire that they can sit in with snacks and drinks and watch the fire. DH and I will probably sit in the conservatory watching the fire for safety while in the warmth If the weather is foul then they can take over the snug and watch N3tfl1x or they can sit in the living room with the fire lit and watch something with the projector, projected onto the wall like the cinema. Up to them but at least we have options. I also have 2 crochet blankets on the go that I hope to have finished by then for them to have a blanket each. 

We just need to crack on with the dining room and then get everything put back where it belongs so that the house doesn't look like a tip!