Prosperous & Creative Soul & MFW Year 3

KajiKita

Drip down or climb up the stone:
- Drip down - how about variegated Vinca? 

- Climb up - interesting ivies? There are some very delicate, fresh or elegant garden cultivars. 

What’s the soil at the top like? What aspect is that bed? 

I’m going to be mum-nag here and state: pacing! 😉
I think it is correct to say your body has been through one heck of a shock to itself, is adjusting to a new food reality (your gut biome will be changing as a result too) and you need to find new routines that will allow you to ‘do’ but also rest. The ‘do’ may have to be somewhat smaller to start with than you are used to and the rest bigger, but gradually over time the ratio will shift. 

Re returning to work, was this a chat with your line manager or Occ Health? If not the latter, please ask to see or have a call with them as they should be determining what your phased return would look like, rather than your boss.  

KK

savingholmes

Thanks KK and MF

KK - sent you a PM.

Totally agree on the Vinca - and I recently bought 3 different colours. I think it could look amazing. I've also bought winter jasmine (yellow flowers), ceonothus (blue flowers) and an evergreen clematis (white flowers) recently which may also help although I haven't totally decided what layer to plant them on.

MF - it's not a typical raised bed - more of a slightly terraced garden. Unfortunately there aren't any inbuilt steps up to the higher bit which makes it harder to maintain. I'm hoping the handyman will help fix that at some point. It's reachable from the slightly raised lawn - but that's how come I slid off the super wet, damp lawn and hurt myself last week - so lots left to do.

Longer term I'd like to put down fossil sandstone - but short term I'm likely to just get the paving and concrete power washed and take it from there. 

I've taken a step back from the big house decisions currently - I want to know whether I'm likely to need to pay for an operation or not and whether I'm likely to need related time off - before letting too much of my savings go. I therefore decided yesterday to buy a matching JL rug to the one the sellers left. That will make my front room look a bit better and be more liveable. That arrives Monday.

Yesterday I saw a garden bistro rocking chair set at the Rng3 for around £110. I may buy that - as it could be good inside furniture for guests and would only take up a small footprint - and I could use it outdoors when needed rather than leaving it out there to rot/rust.

savingholmes

A few of you suggested a while ago that I clean out the shower basket etc - I removed and cleaned it - and didn't put it back - as the handyman said it could be part of why it's slow to drain. I put drain cleaner stuff down it yesterday too - and had a more successful shower - but still had to turn it off multiple times as it didn't drain quickly enough but it was much better. I recently brought a rubber brush with a squeegee blade so kept directing water back to the plug hole which also helped.

Beanie asked a page or two back whether there was much left for the handyman to do. Unfortunately yes. As he knocks off other jobs, I keep adding new ones.

1. Resolve cause of the kitchen ceiling damp patch in the wet room above. This is likely to mean that the moving, poorly grouted tiles in the bathroom need to be taken up and relaid among other things. Plus fill the known gap in tiling underneath and behind the bath where the seller just didn't finish the job! Hence plenty of opportunity for water ingress - and not a total shock that it was leaking. It was a clearly bodged job.
2. Move plug socket where arch mirror is - lower - so I can then have an uplighter.
3. Buy and fit new large bathroom mirror to reduce the glare / overwhelm caused by the blingy tiles. (I may also tile paint at some point - as they are really busy - but I don't have the energy or necessarily want to spend the money on a complete bathroom overhaul at this point).
4. Fit toilet door and bathroom door locks - there aren't any. He's bought them but not fitted them yet.
5. Fit new stair rail and spindles - He's bought them but they hadn't yet arrived.
6. Get rid of weeds, grasses and bamboo in the back garden.
7. Possibly fit new video doorbell by backdoor - I'd need to buy it first.
8. Fit castors to most downstairs furniture (or sliders) - so it's easier for me to move alone on hard floors.
9. Move washing machine and dryer. This will mean amending existing cupboard/shelving areas and pipe work near the back door, boxing things in, plumbing connections etc and the creation of a new 'platform' for them to sit on. That way they won't be affected if I end up going ahead with screeding the floor. He reckons he can sit them on rubber too which would then reduce noise transfer.
10. Box in other pipework.
11. Potentially hide the boiler in a cupboard. It will be above where the dryer is due to go. There is spare shelving and white gloss acrylic type panels in the garage that should help with this. There are even some spare cupboard doors which may be suitable.
12. Resolve lounge radiator pipework - it's not been pulled back properly.
13. Lag heating pipework in the garage!! Potentially tidy it up and box it in. Unfortunately there is also pipework in the inner store / utility area - so this may end up being part of a bigger garage conversion job for a builder at some point. I still don't have electrics into my garage although I have a temp light in my utility. He wasn't very happy with my fuse board - but again would see that as being resolved as part of a builder's job rather than by him.
14. Put in a side light. (I've already bought it).
15. etc etc etc

I'm hoping once the main house is functioning better it will be easier to make bigger decisions about other more expensive works. My 0% card is ratcheting up with some of my recent spends - so again I need to look at what my take home pay is going to be from mid April - and then decide what's reasonable to keep spending and what to put on hold.

skint_spice

Please don’t be rushed into going back to work before you are fit to do so.

I think slowing down on the decisions is a good thing as it helps you get a better feel for the place.

beanielou

Also agree, do not be railroaded into going back to work too soon.

aludcov

Bit late to the party @savingholmes but I hope you are still being creative and it is bring opportunities up for you. The urge to create never goes away, so keep going for it!

savingholmes

Thanks Skint and Beanie - I think I'm convinced. I'll ask for another week's sicknote on the doc's portal thing tomorrow am and then review how I'm doing next week. My stamina just isn't where it needs to be yet. It's not clear enough what I'm walking back into either as it doesn't appear anyone has been covering my work and various important people are also out of office. One of them is back next week.

A positive from delaying house related spends - is that I got £123 of free £, interest, cashback etc this month which is very nice indeed.  Feels very novel. All but £5 of that is sitting in my savings account - and therefore I'm finally earning interest on interest. Once the new tax year kicks in - I'll need to sort another ISA and do a money shuffle. Some of the sites also offer you cashback if you move a certain value of ISA to them - so I may also look into that although I'm on around a 5.25% fixed rate I think so it may not be worth doing.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks for the update 😁
Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell and that the new house has had issues.
Agree with not rushing back, health comes first.

savingholmes

aludcov said:

Bit late to the party @savingholmes but I hope you are still being creative and it is bring opportunities up for you. The urge to create never goes away, so keep going for it!

Welcome. I'm still being creative - but mainly mono printing - or cutting up things I've already printed and putting them in my journal or drawing on them currently. I'm also playing with stencils. Part of what I bought today was some transparent paint that wasn't available locally and was almost twice the price online. That will then help me make some more prints. I saw on a utube video that another artist - rag rates his prints by how 'finished' they are and keeps them in different baskets. I may try that.

ohdearhowdidthathappen said:

Thanks for the update 😁
Sorry to hear you’ve been unwell and that the new house has had issues.
Agree with not rushing back, health comes first.

Just wanted to make it easier for you - as too many pages is just overwhelming. Thanks for the health vote.

badmemory

I have total sympathy with the bodged jobs.  Some of mine were actually done by the builders.  As an example my father was putting new light fittings up for me downstairs.  He took one look & said I think you had better get an electrician in to do this.  The electrician spent a lot of time at my house & once actuallly called on his way out on a date to fix yet another botched job.