Find the SecondStar and soar, and then straight on till the morning…

dawnybabes

I understand your reluctance to sell the property - I’d been married 3 years before I sold mine. 

Humdinger1

Your plans sound fab @SecondStar! Enjoy working them through love Humdinger xx 

linz

We are building our own house at the moment with no prior experience. Feel free to drop me a message if you decide to build. Can tell you a lot about all the clean energy aspect (solar, ASHP, MVHR). You'd need (well his parents would as the landowners) to apply for outline planning permission for a dwelling if you're going to build on what is currently farmland. Its not all living in a caravan for years and going massively over budget but you will need to factor in an extra 20% for unforeseen expenses. We've enjoyed it so far. Good luck!  

SecondStar

dawnybabes said:

I understand your reluctance to sell the property - I’d been married 3 years before I sold mine. 

Thank you @dawnybabes , it feels sensible, albeit not very romantic! Can I ask what you did with your property for those 3 years? Were you both occupying it after marriage, or did you do something else with it?

I do adore my house, and whilst I do want us to live together here as a practice run I do also think it’s too small for long term co-habitation - especially if there are other options, such as his parent’s barn.

If we were to live here long term, or after marriage, my partner would likely need to relocate his job to a more local area, and would also need to source a local workshop space to continue forging. We could maybe throw up a 3-sided structure, but I doubt the neighbours would be pleased about the noise. We would save a lot of money though - I’d put him on the mortgage, with my current equity ring-fenced.

Still lots to think about, and no rush.



In other news, I was able to find the exact model of chicken run that I tried to order from Amazon, in a town over from my partner’s house! Still new in the box, and £50 less than the Amazon one! So he’s collected that for me this morning, using the money from my refund. I’m hoping to have it assembled next week, and will need to order hard wood chips for the ground cover.

Delphine has become broody this past week, so she’s on day 2 of broody jail - a dog cage alongside the run, with food, water, and a perch so that she isn’t able to nest. 1 more day and then she should be able to join her friends again.

Next project after building the run will be to finish painting the bl*ody fence, to install trellis screening for the shed, to build an archway to section some of the garden, and to paint the outside of the house! Just a few things…

SecondStar

Hmm, forecast of rain this coming week may scupper any outdoor painting ideas, but may soften the ground enough to sink the posts for the trellis, and possibly plant out my poor apple tree. I’ve been dousing all my pots every evening, but they’re still getting crispy in all this heat and sunshine.

I’ve been amusing myself after work today by dragging all my furniture around, again. I’ve lifted the horrid pale grey, jute, living room rug which I hated as soon as I laid it 2 years ago, and replaced it with the brown basket-weave bedroom rug which I like slightly more. The brown rug is smaller, so it creates a visual divide in the room between the sitting area and my desk, which feels nice. The sofa does now block my storage cupboards though, so I either need to remove the feet, or accept that the original layout is the best (only) option, and just make do with the ‘new’ rug.

I’ve been having bedroom-decorating thoughts again, but would like to approach it with the intent that my partner is sharing my home as well - allowing for space for a 2nd desk, if we can fit it, and another set of drawers or a wardrobe. I would like his input and ideas to be just as important as mine.

After 2 days in broody jail, Delphine decided she’d far rather be child-free, and has stopped attempting to nest. Florence on the other hand has taken up her mantle, and so she finds herself in jail now for at least 1 more day. Bloody hens!

SecondStar

All hens are now out of broody jail, thank goodness! They reintegrated just fine, and are enjoying scratching about with their friends again.

We seem to have hit the end of our good weather for now, with the forecast showing gusty winds and heavy showers for the foreseeable. Partner forgot to bring the new chicken run up last night, but it wasn’t the weather for building it anyway! Instead we took a look around B&Q for the first time in ages - him to get an oak stair spindle for making the handles of knives, me for paint samples for the bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom. YES, I know that’s a lot of space to wrangle at one time! But I have a plan, and went prepared!

I’ve not been happy with the bathroom since I painted it in a wild fit last year - the duck egg blue was far too cold and sterile over the winter, and the space needs warming up. I’ve picked out a pretty blue and pink floral wallpaper to go below the dado rail, and then a warm dusky pink for the walls above. The tiles will stay white for now, but may get little blue or green designs on them down the line. I need to learn to wallpaper now, it can’t be that hard, surely?!

The kitchen is currently yellow, but it’s *too* yellow. It’ll be toned down with F&B Dayroom Yellow, which is a nice pale buttery yellow. The cabinets will stay cream, and the tiles will go green. I’ll also experiment with painting the disgusting stainless steel extractor hood - it would be lovely to get it cream as well. I may also swap the worktop sticky back plastic for a darker wood shade, and replacing the Lino will be down the line also.

The bedroom will go a pale pink, with one end of the room being turned into a bed nook, which will be a darker green than the living room, and curtained off to make a cosy sleeping area.

I’m off for the bank hol tomorrow, and then off next Friday & Monday, and then a week off in June. I would like to have at least 2 of the 3 spaces done, and will be starting with the bathroom tomorrow. Off to YouTube to learn how to wallpaper, wish me luck.

SecondStar

I’m so cross I could spit.

I’m mad at myself for not checking stock levels before heading out this morning, but I’m more mad at B&Q for stocking samples of expensive paint but not the actual full size tins. I really miss Homebase! How is a person meant to impulse-decorate on a bank holiday, when nothing is kept in stock??

I got the bathroom wallpaper since it was on offer, along with all the wallpapering accessories I’ll need, but I can’t paper until I’ve painted. Ended up ordering the paint from Screwfix, in the hopes that it’ll be in store before Friday - it seemed the faster bet, rather than ordering from Lick.

I can get the Lick paint for the bedroom in B&Q, if I do click and collect for the next day. However, the F&B bedroom paint I’ll need to order, or check if the fancy interiors shop in the next town has the colour & finish I want, but of course they’re closed today. I also found a potential wallpaper for the bedroom, in the Range of all places. I’ll see how well the bathroom wallpapering goes, as to whether I attempt paper in the bedroom or not.

So all I’ve done today is spend money, without the dopamine hit of being able to do anything with the items that I’ve bought. The purchases have come out of my DIY pot, but the pot has gone from £300 to £0 over the past few days, and it feels horrid somehow, even though it’s been spent on things it was ear-marked for! Does anyone else get that?



I also got another snotty message from my second job today, saying I was once again on the rota, despite me saying both verbally and in a follow up email (which was not acknowledged) that I was NOT AVAILABLE IN MAY. I have my review rescheduled for this coming Saturday, and I’ll be airing my grievances with their disastrous rota-ing system, as well as possibly giving my notice.

This second job was meant to be for fun - to make friends, to work somewhere that I love, and to earn a bit of spending money - but it’s proving to be more stress and hassle than it’s worth if I’m honest. It’s definitely spoilt the place for me, and left a sour taste in my mouth for it, which is sad too.

dawnybabes

Does your orange store not have a paint mixing service ?  ours will match to the F & B paints.

My flat - at first I let a bloke I worked with going through a rough time but he didn’t take care of it at all, so he soon left.  After that I didn’t want to let it out at all, so as we worked just round the corner we used it to go and eat fish and chips at lunchtime 🤣🤣🤣

SecondStar

The matching and mixing never get it quite right, as experienced with the living room saga - the walls were like a green Elmer the elephant for weeks whilst I tried to find the best match, and I just don’t want to do that again!

I got the bathroom paint from Screwfix this afternoon - Lick Pink 13 if you were wondering! - and got it on after work. I got the trade range in eggshell, and less than half of the 2.5l tin has done for the upper walls and ceiling of my small bathroom. It might only need 1 cost, but will see in the daylight tomorrow.

I might not get started on the bathroom papering until Sunday - I’m working tomorrow and then my partner’s over in the evening, we’re both off on Friday but need to build the chicken run, and we’ve specsavers appointments at 2pm, and I have my review on Saturday at 1pm. Not my preferred times to schedule things, I usually like my appointments to be first thing, so I can still use the rest of the day. I’ve a feeling that papering will need to be a ‘get on with it’ job, that needs to be seen through till the end, and may take a few hours.

Tomorrow I might nip across to a local flooring place to see if they’ve any nice lino offcuts which would suit to replace the grotty grey one.

They say that a woman is healing when she starts to like pink / like pink again, and I think there’s some truth to that. I was always nervous of being ‘too girly’, but at the same time not ‘being feminine enough’. It’s taken a long time to figure out the things that I like, and what makes me happy and feel good about myself and my space, and that’s started to include pink. 

SecondStar

Just a quick check in, as I really must start the day.

I got the pink on the bathroom, and it looks lovely! A really warm, cosy colour. I also found a local stockist of F&B paints, and so I’ll be able to get that mixed when I’m ready, rather than having to wait a week for shipping. Perfect for impulse decorating!

My partner brought over the new chicken run yesterday, and we got it assembled and partially wired in the morning. We had to cut it short though, as we both had appointments at specsavers - we’ve both needed eye checks since we started dating! We both ordered new frames, and got free prescription sunglasses to be ready for India as well. I did a contact lenses trial, but my prescription isn’t best suited to them unfortunately. I can wear them for a few hours, and then get a headache - they’ll do for events and occasional wear, but it probably won’t be an every day thing.

I have to do more of the run wiring this morning and then I have my job review at 1pm, so I need to get a scoot on. The run is too big for the spot I originally wanted it in, so will need to revisit the garden plans also.

Need to do some food shopping after my review, and at my partner’s on Sunday, so wallpapering has been pushed to Monday. I’m also going to try fitting a new lino floor…