Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

We are usually pretty stingy about paying for tea 😂 and wouldn't usually go for somewhere so posh looking - we'd just been traipsing around a LOT and there may have been An Incident if I didn't get to sit down with a cup of tea very shortly 🙄😂 Not something we'll be repeating though! 😂

Our old garage used to basically do a pre-MOT where they checked and just fixed everything, then sent it round the corner for the MOT 😂Never had one fail there! 😂 These guys don't do that, they just do the actual MOT 🙄 But miraculously this car passed anyway (good job, as we already spent £500 on it in August and I didn't fancy paying much more 😂)

badmemory

You don't know how lucky you are to have a garage that doesn't rip you off.  I never used to be able to get my car through an MOT without a significant bill (as in over £1k on a 4 yr old car back in the 90s) until reading his advice.  Perhaps they saw me coming.  Once I found a place that just did MOTs that is all I ever paid for, thanks Martin.  I don't even pay for that now as my "friend" owns a repair & sales place, so I make it his problem.  With only 2 cars in the last almost 20 years the only thing mentioned on the MOT was new wiper blades.

Cheery_Daff

Right, carpet progress made (although no carpet on the study floor yet 😂😂)

My head was being quite scrambled by various bits of carpet (which I can cut) and rugs (which I'm not cutting), and some bits of furniture which can move, and some which can't, so I made myself a little scale cut out of the room and all the rugs/carpets 😂😂

Also remembered Mr Cheery had mentioned there was more carpet in an outbuilding... 🤔 Found the carpet in the bath 🙄😂 Gosh, it was massive! Where on earth did it come from?! (I suspect he picked it up off Freegle at some point). Of course, he's not here, so it took me forever to wangle it out of the outbuilding and into the house 🙄

I did it though, and it seems to be big enough to do the entire room in one go 😁 So I abandoned all my rug/offcut patches, and started contemplating underlay instead...

Very nearly ran to B&Q, but I think moving all the furniture and laying an entire room if underlay and carpet after work one evening is beyond even my overenthusiastic capabilities 🙄😂 So I'm going to do a bit more underlay investigating, and do it on Friday. Won't look perfect, carpets been rolled for a while, floor is tiled so nothing to nail it to, and I'm not exactly a master carpet fitter 🙄 But it's free! 


Just need to sort underlay - I could not bother, but since I'm doing the whole room I might as well. Don't want to spend £60 on it though.

Anyway, Henry Hoover gave up the ghost, and on inspection I couldn't blame him - the bag was absolutely packed full 🙄 I emptied it, but he still wouldn't start - going to give that and the filter a good bashing out in the field tomorrow and hopefully that'll fix it. 

Also cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes, and now making an omelette, having found one of the chickens' secret egg laying places when I was retrieving the carpet 😂

KajiKita

I would do underlay - it will make a significant difference to the levels of warmth, which is the aim of the whole effort 😊 Excellent news on having enough to do the whole room! 👏

I love that you found a secret egg spot via frugalling too 😊

KK

Cheery_Daff

I did laugh at the eggs 😂😂 To be fair, they weren't very well hidden - I've looked there several times lately as it's a very likely spot, and there were only 4 eggs in it, so I reckon they're still laying somewhere else too. Usually it's easier to follow a chicken than try to randomly find a pile of eggs! 😂

Meant to say, I am finally starting to feel like I have a decent amount of energy. Just checked the diary - it was 8 weeks ago I was prescribed vitamin B9 tablets, and I'd been pondering whether they were working... But this last week or two I've really felt quite different, like the fog is lifting from my head a bit, and like I've finally got a decent amount of energy after I finish work to actually get on with stuff. Not felt like that for ages.

Not going to hold my breath, and of course new coil is throwing different hormones into the mix too... But B9 deficiency is meant to cause confusion, tiredness, lack of energy etc, so it would make sense if that's lifting after 8 weeks of tablets. Another 4 to go, and then we'll see where we are. Consciously trying to get plenty in what I'm eating too.  

beanielou

I really really NEED vitamin B9 in my life!!!

SusieT

If you are careful with the actual motor type for Henry, you can buy them online and they are very easy to fit, be aware that you will get black hands though. Much cheaper than a new Henry  

beanielou

OH & another vote for underlay.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks all, there will definitely be underlay! 

Susie, I'm hoping this will be fixed by just cleaning out the filter and bag rather than having to replace the motor! Good to know it can be done relatively easily if necessary though.

I'm amazed how different I feel this week Beanie. Mind you, I've not been doing 7 hours of scything a week so that's probably helped 🙄😂😂 Not drawing any conclusions just yet!

Windows measured for new blinds, and I think I've found the thermal fabric, just going to sit down with a hot chocolate olate, double check, and order it. Should be able to get enough for bedroom plus kitchen (6 windows in total) for about £35. I've got the facy fabric for the front for upstairs, but no decisions on downstairs yet... Mr Cheery was in charge of aesthetics, but has been warned that if a decision isn't forthcoming soon, I'll be making them out of something I've already got, and will add remaking them to the bottom of my to do list 🙄😂

Cheery_Daff

Afternoon chums!

More progress on Project Cosiness today 😁

Thermal fabric for blinds ordered yesterday - enough to do all 6 windows in bedroom/kitchen/dining area for £41, including delivery. Already got patterned fabric for upstairs, and today we found something we already have to do downstairs as well. We'll need to buy battens and maybe some fixings, not decided exactly how we're doing it yet, but shouldn't cost much more.

On the carpet front, I did some more investigating, and I've gone for a thicker underlay with a much higher TOG rating (3.6, as opposed to 1.2, which was the one I almost ordered yesterday). An extra £17 for the room, which I figured was well worth it - having the oil radiator on costs about £2 per working day so worth getting it as cosy as possible.

Carpet was, of course, free, but I'll be spending

£60 on underlay (including postage)
£5 on adhesive
£18 on gripper rods
£10 ish on tape
= £93.

Underlay will be here in 2-3 days (should be dispatched today as I ordered before 2,  so I'm hoping for Fri/Sat). Everything else was cheaper at Screwfix, which is open til 8pm, so I'll nip after work today or tomorrow.

Not decided whether to buy a knee kicker yet or make one. B&Q do one for £20, but none in stock in our local shop, and this will probably be the only carpet I fit (ha, famous last words as all my relatives line up to ask me to fit carpets 😂). Will decide that tonight.

So Thursday night/Friday will be emptying the room (VERY glad I spent ages decluttering a few months ago! There's plenty in here, but it's pretty organised and not a tip). Then gripper rods down (Friday/Saturday morning), then hopefully underlay arrives Fri/Sat, and that can go down Saturday afternoon, then carpet down Sat/Sunday morning, then all the stuff back in ready to start work Monday morning.

Easy peasy - how hard can it be?! 🤔😂😂😂😂😂