And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

Absolutely no shade on anyone who does choose to use Freecycle/Freegle etc - far from it. Ultimately though in this situation it still wouldn’t solve our issue which is notably that we want to actually be able to look at the thing we intend to get before we get it as we don’t *quite* know exactly what it IS we want! I rather suspect even the most kind hearted Freegler might object if we asked to go and view the thing before taking it! 😉 So for us it is a trip to two shops tomorrow - we’ve seen things we like online from both and hopefully seeing them in the flesh will help us to make up our mind whether one or the other - or neither - will be right for the room. And then we will be able to put this whole buying of furniture thing to bed! 😎

Dishwasher has run and been emptied. First load of washing is dry, the second is on the line, and the third is running on a timesaver programme in the hope that it just might dry before the day is out. I’ve cleaned the bathroom and the downstairs loo, pushed Jaws round everywhere  and done my trip to Lil’s. £17.70 spent there and made use of the kale, mushrooms, sweet potatoes and salad from the pick of the week offer - it was a good one this week! 

I’ve made use of the supermarket voucher thing that Cheery mentioned on her diary to nab the TCB bonus £2 - only went for £10 on the voucher as although we are heading to M’s tomorrow I’m not entirely sure how much we will spend, and it’s not somewhere we shop all that often. 

Time for a bit of a sit with some TV and my crochet now - before I stick the kettle on and find the choccy biscuits that I can guarantee MrEH will ask for! (Yes - I’m aware that makes him sound rather like Foxgloves’ cat that’s always after treats! 😆) 

Cheery_Daff

I went with £100 - we do go reasonably often although not for the main shop. They're valid for a while, although confusingly their own website says that

* they expire after 12 months
* they are valid for 24 months
* they expire 24 months after the last use

At any rate, I expect you'll get through £10 in whatever of those is true 😂

(Can all those things be true? Must start using within 12 months, but once you've started, you have to use up within 24 months, but then no! They're valid 24 months after the last use, and you clearly don't have to use them all in one go. Someone's not been proofreading!) 😂

EssexHebridean

That definitely doesn’t make sense does it! 

foxgloves

I bet your photographic canvas will look fab, @EssexHebridean. We did a similar thing for our bedroom wall during our refurb..I wanted a large floral 'portrait' so we enjoyed an evening of going through Mr F's photo files as he seems to have a knack for them. We made a long list, then got it down to 5, then final 3 & finally selected an echinacea, which worked well as a canvas, as the fully-opened bloom is the large one in the foreground, with less opened ones visible in sort of soft-focus. So we ordered that as a square canvas & it turned out to be just what we wanted. I'm sure yours will be just right too.
F

milann

Hope you enjoyed the crochet and choccy biccy. Enjoy your trip to the shops 👍

savingholmes

Your photos usually look stunning - so I'm sure it will print up really well on large scale

EssexHebridean

Thanks lovelies - I've got my fingers firmly crossed on the canvas being OK! Enlarging stuff up to that scale just isn't something I do usually so I'm a bit worried in case I've messed it up!  

Right then - we did make it to the two planned shops on Saturday - the first was a dead loss- think lots of very trendy furniture with a distinct note of "Essex Bling" - not for us! The Land of 0ak furniture however turned out to be a far better bet - and there were several other places we were able to look on the same estate too, meaning while out we also managed to solve the frying pan shortage (a decent 26cm one which will do just fine for the time being, and actually having used it once I am impressed enough that it might turn into a longer term solution - we'll see!) We've bought a nice chunky solid oak TV unit - a smaller one which is fine as we didn't want anything huge and imposing, with a cupboard rather than drawers which we decided would suit us better. It came down to a choice of two in the end - the same dimensions but slightly different styling and we both preferred the slightly less fussy style of the one we've gone for. Now the next dilemma is to get the delivery date sorted as the chap in the stop persuaded us to order there and then y telling us one of the benefits of an in-store order was "delivery on a day of your choice" only to find out when he started processing it that in our area that means "as long as it's a Wednesday" - no good to us at all, and no we don't want to pay a lot more for a genuine "day of choice" delivery, so he was promptly told to make good on his promise! we'll see - I'll be quite cross if we both have to rearrange days around being there on the Wednesday! 

The one good thing about the original shop with the blingy furniture by the way was that it turned out to have a Turkish Supermarket pretty much next door. I commented to MrEH that the reason I rarely go into the one near work from the same chain is that invariably I end up half an hour and about £15 lighter - and sure enough we emerged from this one half an hour later having spent £14.40!   Anyway - some spices that we needed (and a couple that we didn't but sounded interesting!) a new bag of black beans, a couple of treaty bits, and some very nice pitta and flatbreads much of which is now in the freezer. Oh - we also dismissed the idea of using the furniture store's own carpark (£3 - "but you can claim that back when you buy from us!") in favour of parking on the street for free a few minutes away so that was a win. 

MSE Stuff:
- Shopping all done BUT forgot to use that flipping voucher! By the time we got to M's I was just in a mindset of wanting to get round and done - except that of course MrEH was with me so it takes longer - sigh! Handily I will be near another M's on Friday and now have a note on my shopping list on my phone that it needs using so it'll still be used, just a week later. 
- Banks checked and all OK
- Mortgage payment went out as scheduled this morning - no surprise because I set up the standing order but you know, it's nice to see it all works! 
- An initial run through the bank balance -v- payments remaining to go out this month looks fine - I will be keeping a VERY close eye on everything this month mind you - and there now needs to be a proper rein in on spending from joint funds until we ensure that the new budget is watertight! 
- I had a read through the central heating thermostat user guide last night and so have it set on a programme that will work for us as a starting point although initially it will need some interaction I think. The display is also set up to show the room temperature now and we've checked it against our little digital thermometer and discovered that the two read very close together (as in - 0.1 degree C difference this morning!) so that's handy. I need to put sorting the boiler service on my to do list. 
- Chimney sweeping company have come back to confirm a price (V reasonable) and potential date (quite a way off but fine - and we'll need to slip it for a more accessible day anyway)
- Food under control for the week albeit with a fairly fluid mealplan in place. 

I need to remember that there are 3 eggs that need using - I may well simply deal with those being doing sausage egg and chips again for Friday though!  This evening will be a prawn stir fry although with rice rather than noodles - noodles now added to the shopping list!
I batch cooked curry yesterday - butternut squash & chickpea - a double portion for eating later this week (probably Wednesday to provide a quick & easy meal after a day in London) and a single portion for the freezer. 

One job we did get completed over the weekend was the painting of the panelled wall in the living room - it's now a lovely rich blue and looks brilliant! We got my vinyl collection back in to the tv unit in there yesterday, and will now have to work out what fixings are needed for wall-mounting the TV - we've got the bracket but not the bolts so MrEH is getting on to that. One last thing we want for that I think is just a corner shelf - probably a "floating" one - to take an additional lamp. It's definitely starting to feel like the house is now "ours" - there are still things we want to get done, but we really do feel like we've achieved a fair amount in just a month - because yes, we'd been in exactly a month yesterday! 

beanielou

The month has flown. 

dreaming

Totally amazed at how much you have completed in such a short time. I moved into this house in May 2010 and one of the first things I wanted to do was renew all the flooring as it was all rental house beige carpet.  Not that it was a rental but had been done up by 2 guys who were obviously excellent workmen but possibly a bit lacking in the aesthetics (although probably just "neutralised" with selling in mind).  However, not only were funds a bit tight (as I'd stretched to buy the property) but I was working in finance at the time and we were still mega-busy with the fall-out from the financial crash a couple of years before - and I was studying for my OU degree! My daughter came for lunch yesterday and I was telling her that I have finally booked for my bedroom to be done mid-November, which leaves just the spare room/study/craft room to be done next year, and I can shut the door on that easily enough. The only thing is that as I have had the other rooms done piecemeal when funds allowed I am now considering saving up and having the hall, living room, and kitchen re-done next year as well. I have to get the bedroom done asap as the carpet is gross and since being ill I no longer have the energy to keep shampooing it. Even vacuuming is getting harder and I suffer from dust allergies so I am going for a laminate floor - I can manage to sweep daily (most of the house is now wood/laminate/tile) and do a quick mop. My vacuum seems really heavy and I've never got on with it. I've also had work done on the garden to make it safer for my doddery days and finally feel it's getting how I want it.

Cheery_Daff

I can't believe you've been there a month, that's flown by! And you've got so much done!