Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)

Suffolk_lass

We have been picking up composters on FB marketplace, if that helps. When I moved my remaining bricks last time, I got a rental van and moved them myself. About 3000 from memory, with the two different types and half a pallet of pavers. It never occurred to me to ask the removers.

I know you said the cold box with your Stornaway treasure would be topped with newspaper - why not use tea-towels and a dishcloth, so you can wipe anything that has acquired dust as they go into cupboards, or wipe down any residual dust or marks you find around the house?

themadvix

Another vote for fb marketplace for composters here - people give them away quite frequently near me.

EssexHebridean

Morning all - lovely as always to see so many cheerful visitors so thank you all for that!

Essex CC do offer subsidised compost bins but they are not the shape we'll need for the new garden - so I'm happy to pay for something that will fit better. We may want to take up their subsidised water butt offer at some stage though - there is one present but we've no real idea what condition it's in, that's one to look at once we are in! FB marketplace isn't something I use at all - in fairness I barely use Facebook these days! 

Our local council do almost nothing "free" if they can avoid it - although the garden waste collection is a very reasonable £48 a year (plus £33 one-off for the bin). It will be lovely to have food waste collections again once we're in the house too - they stopped doing them for the flats because they just ended up constantly getting contaminated by folk shoving in stuff that didn't belong in the bins. I hung on to the food waste caddy that we had originally so that will no doubt get put back into use again - whether the sellers will leave the one that "belongs to" the house we don't know. 

We'll be using newspaper to top the cold box off on moving day because it's a superb insulator - we've used it before to bring stuff home from holiday and know full well that the combination of gel ice packs and a thick layer of newspaper both above and below will keep stuff frozen for upwards of 12 hours - which is pretty impressive and far more than we will need on the day. This is why I'm so confident about moving *some* frozen stuff without issues!  I do have a stash of less effective microfibre cloths that will be treated as "disposable" for the last minute clean round. We're gradually replacing those with better ones anyway, so that will be part of that planned replacement. (Small wins - life is too short to use cloths that simply move around the thing you're trying to wipe up!)

MSE stuff:
- I did a re-evaluation of our various savings pots last night. I've been getting a little twitchy about how low our funds will be once the house money goes out (which is ludicrous I know because we are after all converting saved funds to an actual asset) but having added up what is where I feel rather more reassured. 
- I also did a proper work-through of the money that needs to transfer back to me to cover the refunds for the cancelled airshow accommodation. 
- Renewed the bonus on both the M@rcu5 accounts this morning.
- Paid a pal for the spending that he covered while we were in Dorset last month - we usually do it this way on the group holidays - one person picks up the tab at the time for various things then everyone transfers the money to them afterwards. works well and we all know each other well enough that the trust for it is there. 
- Council tax, service charge and garage rent payments have all come out today, along with the broadband bill and the money for my RD regular saver. Joint account now looking somewhat depleted, but that's pretty much it for the monthly amounts going out now, and with that in mind, not so depleted after all! 
- MrEH has collected my prescription this morning - that still comes in on my prepaid certificate and I'll get a few more out of it yet too. 

Moving stuff:
- Boxes have been delivered this morning MrEH tells me. We'll be storing the bulk of them in the garage for the time being, just bringing a few of each size indoors at any one time ready for use.
- MrBoss heard back from the buyer's solicitor yesterday afternoon and it appears that they are also on the same page as the rest of us which is excellent news. 
- I need to start researching on how best to go about doing all the various changes of address - as I'm hopeful that it will be possible to start on these once we've exchanged. I imagine most things can be done online these days...at least if we do get the 1st as a moving date it will be a nice easy one to manage for most things! I already have a list of the things that will  need changes made - so now it's a case of noting against each one what steps are needed to deal with it. 
My Amazon wishlist is growing - I'm trying to add stuff that I know we want/need to that as I think of it so it's all in one place. 
Also need to start a new shopping list of the things that will need restocking once we're in! 

Last night's spicy ragu with rice was lovely - and I used brown rice without even a murmur from MrEH which sometimes feels like a small miracle! I'll be roasting mushrooms, courgette, chick peas and red pepper to go with couscous this evening, and remembered to get the wild garlic pesto out to defrost last night so will stir that through too. Still haven't done the freezer audit - need to get that done as it will make a difference to what we cook over the next couple of weeks. 

Plans for this evening are that MrEH is rugby training, so I plan to pack ONE box, and then make the most of time to catch up on some TV, and probably fit in a yoga session as well as I really want to get back to that. 
Today's activity will be that yoga, plus a walk before work and walking back to collect the car at lunchtime - both those being done at a brisk pace. 

lucielle

Organised as ever. All starting to get a bit exciting! 

L

rtandon27

EssexHebridean said:

...and I used brown rice without even a murmur from MrEH which sometimes feels like a small miracle!...

EH - this gave me a good giggle! - They are all the same I think - mine usually has a prolonged moan if I try to 'sneak' healthy things into his meals, but if I ask him to find a recipe to use the same ingredient, he'll not only find one, but make it and eat the ingredient without a single complaint.  Last night we had a spicy tofu stir-fry with pak-choi and jasmine rice.  For a man who does not 'like' tofu, he sure did scoff it down with relish.  Even pronounced he'd 'do that one again' - for me a win, as I love tofu!

Baileys_Babe

We do the same when we go on holidays with our friends. I usually pay for everything and then everyone pays me back once we are home.

Makingabobor2

DH hates brown rice....so he says. But has been eating if for well over a year now....he thinks its white rice and that I've added soy sauce to it!!  

beanielou

I thought free food waste collection was statuary.

jwil

beanielou said:

I thought free food waste collection was statuary.

Not yet in England.  Will be in a few years time.

greenbee

Keeping everything crossed for a quick exchange and confirmation of the completion date. I was the same in terms of not really planning properly until exchange (and then only just had enough time to transfer the capital from the previous sale in March to the solicitor!).

It's worth holding off on spending on your wish list until you've been in for a bit - once the vendors have moved out things can look a bit different. This place was superficially clean, but after a closer look it was filthy - luckily my stuff was in storage and I was still at my mum's (and the movers gave me a date 2 weeks after completion). With help from my mum, her lovely cleaner (who is now also doing a regular clean for me) and our gardener/handyman (also doing regular hours here plus all his wet days/cancellations, we have cleaned all the gunk out of the window frames (spider nurseries), taken off all the sink/basin traps and removed declogged them (the kitchen sink had the waste pipe off too, and we had to clear it with a hose), the wastes and taps descaled, the flooring up in the downstairs loo and the concrete treated with enzymatic cleaner, falling down curtain poles removed, broken pop-up wastes removed. I booked a professional carpet clean after friends came to help with the hoovering and we picked up enough hair to knit two whole spaniels - it took 6 hours with no furniture in the place, and one carpet he advised us not to do, as it needs replacing.

I've had constant amazon deliveries, including things like replacement sink and bath plugs, new water filter cartridge, new loo seats and the enzymatic cleaner.

On the list to do are still the leaking soil stack and the really grim bathroom extractor vents which are beyond cleaning and need replacing. I'm lucky in that I have plenty of local contacts and help. But I'm glad I wasn't buying from someone I knew, as I now know far too much about them...