Moving on

rtandon27

@cherryfudge - I have a Bissel upright that shampoos and vacuums up the soap if that's what you mean? they still make them - I think we may have bought ours at john lewis on sale.

Cherryfudge

@Sun_Addict , that's very impressive! We have a little handheld Sh4rk which does us very well for quick cleans and especially hair, though it's not easy to clean out the head part. It's a make I'd consider.

@rtandon27 , I'd forgotten B1ssel, they were around ages ago and the fact they are still going strong speaks well for them.

Thanks for the thoughts, both of you. I've not investigated further today but it's giving me food for thought. I don't think the two-in-one vacuum and shampooer is a 'thing' as it used to be, which is quite significant as we don't have much storage space.

WelshmansDaughter

One of the random cleaning videos I used to watch had a bissel wet dry vacuum that was very good. I don't know if that would be of any use.

Cherryfudge

I've been looking at wet and dry vacuums but I think they only deal with spills and floods, rather than actually cleaning the carpets. I probably have it down to one of two carpet cleaners now, but I'm not deciding tonight.

Sunday has been a bit unusual. I was introduced to someone who's interested in joining in the children's work this morning and who came into the group to get the feel of it today. That's timely as one of the regular helpers is about to have a baby!

Dinner was chicken, and we watched more of Race Around the World. Mongolia is fascinating. This series has shown me places I would never have seen otherwise, though I may have flown over them. I remember going over bare brown mountains and thinking I would never get as close as this to that country, wherever it was.

In the afternoon, DH and I started cleaning up the loft. It's very light there with just the membrane between us and the sky and tomorrow the new slates should go on, so this was the best opportunity to clear the crumbled mortar that's showered over everything. There was a phenomenal amount! Thankfully nearly everything up there is in bags or boxes, but we put on masks and got very, very dirty crawling around sweeping up with dust pans and brushes. A bag of DD's baby clothes came to light so I've washed them and will offer them to her for her little girl - though some are first size so not suitable. I think it's more about opportunity than likelihood but they can't stay up there forever. We also found DD's old rocking horse, who needed a thorough vacuuming but has been brought downstairs to be cleaned and patched up - then he or she will go back to DD, again for her little girl, who is the right age.

DH and I have had showers and hair washes and there are lots of filthy clothes to wash asap - which is unlikely to be tomorrow as any laundry will be in the way of the roofers.

Cherryfudge

The men have been hammering on the roof since about eight - it makes it hard to think! I'm going to give up and do the church cleaning soon, to get me out of the house. It's also having the odd side effect of making me want to eat so I had lunch early (baked potato with tuna melt).

I've chosen a compact Vax and ordered it. It was £10 cheaper off their site, but I then spent that £10 on cleaning fluid and the order is due tomorrow. We've used Vaxes for years and they've all been workhorses that we wore out eventually. This one was chosen for its size as well, because we have limited storage and will have to keep a vacuum cleaner going as well. I checked for cashback and found it with two rival firms, but at least I got the £10 off.

I've also swapped round some giving so that it goes out in DH's name. I have his consent for that! He's a tax payer and I'm not and this way, they can claim gift aid.

Cherryfudge

I got some of the cleaning done but will need to go back to finish it. As usual I got distracted sorting out some stuff for the children: people keep sneaking donations of toys in but we actually have too much! I agreed to swap out a toy kitchen, and the kids love the new one that appeared last week. The old one I have now lugged into storage so the mid-week tots group can use it. Then I added two tubs of small bricks that the children don't really play with - the best 'bricks' seem to be the small, sturdy cardboard boxes that they can stack high and knock over. The little bricks just take ages to pick up and get into odd corners and I've yet to see a child choose to get them out.

All that took time but I also noticed some mega blocks in 'our' room that I've never seen before, and a number of children's books added to our bookshelf - which I expanded by two boxes a few months ago because we had too much to put on the shelves… I need to find a tactful way to stop people donating to us! I wonder if the women's refuge would benefit from some toys?

I was really thirsty so I called at the shops and spent about £13… no, not a bottle of wine but some fancy flavoured coffees that were being sold off, and a few groceries on promotion.

It came on to rain as I was walking home and the builders had already gone. My poor neighbour was struggling to get his vehicle past a pallet of slates that the roofers had inconsiderately left in the road, so he and I put our shoulders to it and moved it a few inches so he could get home. I took a few photos so I can complain to the company but resisted the temptation to make an angry phone call: as the neighbour said, wait till they've finished the job. It's a private road so I doubt we have many rights as a Council-maintained road would have, but honestly, how completely inconsiderate of the builders. They had emptied the pallet nearest the house and could have used their forklift to put this one where the other had been, instead of blocking the road. Grr.

DH and I had chicken and chorizo pasta for tea and watched some more of 'Trading Places' on Ch 5, which we are really enjoying. I take my hat off to the young people who are willing to put themselves so far out of their comfort zones.

I've managed to get a load of laundry washed and partly dried. We are having a home-based day tomorrow as the grandchildren are away, but first we have DH's infusion appointment. Will be good to have that behind us and perhaps get some ordinary things done. I sent our children a photo of various toys found in our loft and they don't want them so I will sort out one or two to put in our toy box and the rest can go (but not to the Sunday morning group!).

The forecast for the next couple of days is a lot of rain so the roof may not be finished, though it's mostly done.

Cherryfudge

A big day today: the grandchildren are on holiday (making the most of not yet being school age) so in theory we had the day to ourselves but DH had an appointment to get the first infusion of his new medication. Both of us have been very concerned about it but really it needed to be tried and people have been very reassuring about how effective it is and they don't know anyone who's had bad side effects. It will take a few weeks to take effect so there is unlikely to be any more news on that in the near future.

It rained in the morning so we didn't expect the workmen, but they turned up when the rain stopped and did their last hour of actual roofing. They are coming back to take down an old aerial and tidy up. It's good to have an intact roof, and I can now see that the adjoining roofs have a very slight tendency to a wavy surface. One straight new one to highlights it. Ours must have been the same - after 90 years it's not surprising.

I will be so, so glad when this cold spell ends and the scaffolding is gone and I can have a washing line again, and pick out bits of slate from the grass and rake out the thatch from the weedkiller… maybe even cut the grass! J and L have a company in to treat their grass about every three months and it's very effective but they said it took several visits to get rid of all the weeds, so I won't despair (yet) that apparently only the moss has gone.

I was tired in the afternoon and dozed on the sofa, then we went out for coffee. This was a place we'd visited in the past and hadn't been impressed but we knew they had a new café. This time was a much more positive experience. There's also a small gift shop so I spent £7 on a couple of greetings cards.

Dinner was a chicken pie, courtesy of DH, who cooked while I cleaned and tidied. It helps to have one good room, and my 'Tuesday friends' were round for coffee at eight. Good to catch up again as we no longer see each other regularly.

It's been an emotionally taxing day so I'm glad it's done and DH has another day off tomorrow. We might go out again, but then again we might crack on and try to get the house and garden back to feeling 'ours' again.

ladybird1106

🤞DH new medication works and has no side effects. As someone who struggles to take medication due to reactions, I get how nerve wracking it can be.
love 🐞

Cherryfudge

Thanks @ladybird1106 , much appreciated. He said he feels he may already be benefitting, and he's not mentioned any negative side effects yet.

On a related note, I got my blood tests done this morning and the results are already back. Iron is low, and they recommend I get tablets over the counter (I know what effect these have on my and also that my Ferritin has been low since forever so I may be self-prescribing liver, spinach and anything else I can think of that is more user-friendly than iron tablets!)

All the other tests came back as normal so my tiredness is not the result of an obvious deficiency. I need to make the GP appointment and let her test for whatever she has in mind, but, having woken DH again with my snoring last night, I need to push for the possibility of sleep apnoea.

It's been an overcast day but the temperature is climbing. We decided against a trip out and DH went for quite a long bike ride, while I got some washing and ironing done, then went to finish the cleaning I said I'd do at church. My sense of time is very poor, so there's still some to do but at least all the bins are done. DH gave me a lift to work afterwards as I'd lost track of the passage of time while trying to solve some minor issues.

Work was three hours, and I came out possibly rather better off as some department had cleared out their cupboards so I benefitted from unopened coffees and teas as well as some small sturdy boxes for the children to play with. The thing is, I have plenty of tea and coffee already - it just went against the grain to bin it all! Some has gone in the food recycling, so at least it should be put to good use. I do wonder at how very differently people tackle things like clearing out cupboards - I always try to reuse or recycle but I understand lots of people would rather just be rid, and I can see that is far more time efficient.

I noticed I had some L1dl vouchers about to expire so I called in on the way back and got a free bag of almonds (timely, as DH is eating these to increase his magnesium levels) and a couple of other bits and pieces.

I'd better get to bed now as I am working again tomorrow.

liselle

Did I mention the iron spray I use, from the health food shop? Much gentler on the stomach than the tablets.