Simple living in the country - back to basics

Cheery_Daff

Please don't get the impression I'm some kind of perfectionist fusspot! I really am not looking for them to be perfect or a uniform colour. I just want to make sure the grubbiness from them having been buried in a field, and any other muck that can come off, is off before I install them in the kitchen, which is hardly an outpost of shiny perfection in itself. This morning the bit I cleaned has settled and, I think, looks fine (although I am not the only person living in this house).

Yes, the ones on the wall are the ones we selected for being in pretty good shape, but none of them fit the windowsills, which will all have to be a patchwork of cut stones. Some are in better shape than others, so I will be cleaning them all before they come in.

They'll be cut with a diamond blade on an angle grinder - we've already got one and a neighbour has recently done something similar as well so is on hand for advice. Working out which ones to cut in what way to fit has been a headache but I think we've done it now, although I imagine it won't be quite as smooth as my little diagram 😂

Anyway, enough of that - I'm just moaning really and it's probably more in hand than I've given the impression of. Last day off work before going back properly so cafe breakfast for us 😊 Then 4 day working weeks for the foreseeable future - shocking! 😮😂

themadvix

Imagine... a four-day working week! How nice that would be! 😝

Cheery_Daff

themadvix said:

Imagine... a four-day working week! How nice that would be! 😝

Ha, four days is, in my opinion, the very most a person should have to work 😂 

It'll be good to be back actually, I've felt like hardly anything has been done in the last few weeks, but given that I omly worked 12 days in July and will have only worked 7 days in the whole of August, that's not surprising 🙄😂 

#slacker #notsorry

rtandon27

Cheery_Daff said:

themadvix said:

Imagine... a four-day working week! How nice that would be! 😝

Ha, four days is, in my opinion, the very most a person should have to work 😂 ...

I don't mind four as long as two of them are from home!  I usually spend at least one day on the weekend sleeping/recovering from the week, so three day weekends are ideal!

Unfortunately, the boss of the boss is old school and does not approve of working from home, so as soon as my medically supervised return to the office is complete it's back to four days in the office and one from home - SIGH, if only I worked where I could set the rules 🤣🤣🤣

Cheery_Daff

Oh yes, four days in the office would be quite objectionable, unless the office was literally just round the corner - I quite like the separation of work and home, but in my case at the minute that requires 2 hours of driving, so I usually try to arrange it so I'm only in 2 days at the most. When I lived within walking distance, I went into the office most days.

Right, cafe done, meal plans for the week done (incorporating flurry of visitors). Home now and it's raining, so I'm just running a sneaky luxurious daytime bath 😊😊

Ramouth

Re stone cleaning, I have found a paste of biological washing powder with softener (I used Lidl’s version of Bold) surprisingly effective for cleaning timber so it might work on stone.  Applied with a brush, left for a day or so, then scrubbed off with a brush.  The biological agents work well against organic stains while I think the softener might be helping with oil based stains.  May be worth a go if you haven’t tried washing powder yet (I don’t think I saw it on your list)

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

#slacker #notsorry

I love the above ⭐ and I *really* love those stones.  Yes, I'd want the grubbiness all cleaned away, whatever it looked like, and maybe the one near the stove sealed if it was very absorbent stone?  But they're just beautiful!

starnac

A 4 day week would be ideal. As @rtandon27 said, one day of the weekend recovering from a busy week seems wasteful when you only have 2 days off. But if you had 3 it wouldn't be so bad. I have always said I'd like an extra day between Sunday and Monday. Sunday's are so busy here then I feel exhausted for the week before it's even started! Maybe I need to work a 4 day week and only work Tuesday to Friday??

Karmacat

Huge sympathies to everyone on a long commute: I just had a weekly commute to London from the south coast when I was working, and for the last 15 years or so, that was by car (which had its own trauma, including hanging out of the window cleaning the windscreen by hand, on the M25, when the wipers broke down 😁😱) I could always have a nice chat with my business partner, but even so I'm *so* glad I don't have to do it any more. 

Cheery_Daff

Yes I can see that would be traumatic KC! My commute is at least mostly pretty! 

I prefer to have Fridays off. My mum does compressed hours, so full time hours but over 4 days, and she prefers to have Wednesdays off, because then she never works more than 2 days in a row 😂 I prefer to get it all over and done with then have a 3 day weekend!