Buying a little piece of Middle England; Manifesting my way to mortgage free.

KajiKita

Does your son know you are cancelling the ski trip? Hope that the school manage to sell it on ...

Sounds like you have a friendly, pragmatic builder And it will be great if you can roll it all into one building inspector session too

KK  

debtfreewannabe321

Yes I told him I would have to cancel if he moves @KajiKita and also told him the braces won't happen as he will be too far away to come every six weeks. He didn't seem at all fazed by this. 

Well I got home from work around 3:05 which was good as I finished at 3! I declined a coffee with friend (who dropped me home)  in Waitrose as I am absolutely shattered. I came in, took my shoes off and went to ground myself outside. The builders have put the soak away in today. Did a neat job of it too and relaid the grass back over the top (which is pretty much dead anyway in this heat.) and I watered the plants. I should do the front too really but my energy levels are very low. I think it's partly hayfever to blame this time I have been nonstop sneezing and blowing my nose and I took some antihistamines which have knocked me out almost 😴.

I think quick and easy dinner of burgers and chips and fruit salad to have for pudding.

The builders left a couple of minutes before I arrived home which was nice, it means the house is quiet rather than listening to banging and digging 😌. My day off tomorrow though so I'm sure usual noise will resume... suppose I better get used to it as I will be home all summer from Fri afternoon 😁. 

Think I'm going to have a cup of tea and watch a bit of TV. It's not been on since early last week which is good as usually that's my go to entertainment of late...means I have been finding other things to do away from the screen 😁. 

debtfreewannabe321

It's my day off. I only have two more working days and I'm done until September ☺️ although I'm still job hunting and have set up notifications on a few places 😉 keeping options open ...

Builders are already here. I'm going to take a hammer and chisel to the dining room fireplace today to investigate what is behind there. I'm wondering if it has a wider opening than we think and has been boarded up. I owned a house four roads away a while back and when I did the same there I was able to open the fireplace up without even getting a new lintel so am going to see what is going on on this one...quite exciting. Demolishing and finishing are my jobs usually 😉 the building part I leave mostly to DP 🙈.

DD has been coming back from work experience at an infant school and passing out in bed telling me how exhausting children are 🤣🤣🤣 it's absolutely hilarious. She was asleep by four thirty yesterday and I had to wake her for dinner 🤣. It is the same reason I am exhausted after a day at work. Too many students vying for your attention at once ALL day long 🤣. 

Right hopefully a NSD today as we're winding down the month and there is a fair bit left in the bank still oddly. Especially considering all the things we've done this month. I want to send it over to the gas and electric bill (I don't want to actually I'd rather keep it but you know what I mean...) so a few NSD are needed so I can do that.

MeandO

Just popping out of lurkdom to say hello and happy fireplace demolishing today, that sounds like a very exciting job! I hope you find a real treasure behind the boarded up bit. Sadly, any original features had long gone in my house by the time I bought it, except for a beautiful ornate decorative ceiling in one room which has hairline cracks in and is constructed of lath and plaster so I'm willing it to stay up. 

I'm sorry to hear of the troubles you're going through with your son. I have had fears of the same scenario for a long time as a single Mum with a narcissist ex and a (now) teen son who is manipulated and guilt tripped by his father, yet defends his actions to the Nth. I can't really add to any of the amazing advice you've been given on here, but I have also taken a step back in recent months and tried to let things go a bit and let my son form his own opinions of his father and it seems to slowly be helping. I hope your son grows to see the behaviour and understand it and things settle for you soon. I think you have done all you can for him and you can rest in that knowledge. 
I also love the sound of your chair! I have a bit of a chair obsession, unfortunately I don't have the room (or the budget!) to fulfil my chair dreams, but I do have two Ercol easychairs that I absolutely love and were a budget-buster a few years ago.

Best of luck with everything, let us know if you find any gems behind the fireplace. x

debtfreewannabe321

Ah thank you @MeandO for commenting ☺️. I've got as far as I could with the fireplace. I'm exhausted and my chest was feeling very tight from the brick dust (it goes through masks and all sorts I tried!) the lintel has been found and it's low, behind the wooden beam. So we need to get a support and hold up the brick at the height we want it and then take out lintel and bricks up to that point...that is a DP job 🤣. I thought I'd use my day to do what I could do that when he has a day off he can do the bits I'm not confident on. I understand what needs to be done but not too confident on ability tbh. So yeh, hand over at this point. Still we have saved ourselves 2.5k if we can do it as that's what we were quoted ....and my response to that was pfft. We'll do it ourselves. 
Here's a before and after....(Well up to this point pic) ... didn't actually get a before so this is after a little investigative chiselling to see what's there before committing to it lol..as you can see one side came straight out..the other side was a pain in the backside.
I wanted one metre opening as the cooker I was after is 90cm. And we need space for plaster board and tiles etc...the natural opening was 1m! So this worked out well!

I also managed to make a banana bread in between this. The builders on site ate half of it 🫣 I saved one piece extra for all of us later though. 

They have sat around all day waiting for concrete to turn up whilst I've been non stop! Still it's here now so they're busy whilst I now sit and do nothing 🤣. Foundation is being laid for the extension as I type 😁. 

skint_spice

Exciting times getting the foundations done! All steam ahead.

debtfreewannabe321

Morning 😃
Thanks @skint_spice it is quite exciting looking out there today as I can visualise the size (sort of I realise the foundations are bigger than the brick course that will be put up unless they're using massive bricks fifty times bigger than usual 🤣).

I was up at stupid o'clock to drop DP to the train station. I've left the car off the drive for the bricks that are being delivered today. It took two concrete mixing lorries yesterday (whatever they're called) to do the foundation. The first one ran out and thankfully the second one turned up relatively quick. 

We've been eating very easy dinners every night for a few weeks now and it's been so easy to do and clean up. Pasta and salads and JP (I've been eating sweet potato instead and the others have normal) with salad and I've bought lots more fruit like watermelons, pomegranate and apricots etc rather than sweets. It's working well so far and I've stopped eating as much junk in the evening because I'll prepare some fruit for after dinner instead for everyone. 

I need to go to the shop today for a refund on some horrible sandals I bought. They were so painful and I only had them on five minutes! So I'm hoping they will give me a refund as I pulled the tag off. 

We had a nice soaking here last night in the garden so everything feels a bit cooler finally. It's been too muggy and it's been affecting my breathing...like I can't draw in enough air. 

Right I can hear movement the kids must be awake. I beat be off and sort out their lunches. 

debtfreewannabe321

Aw today I got some presents from my group and cards. I wasn't expecting that 🥰 this group are the ones that like to break me every week with some drama or other and they apologised for doing it to me 🫣🤣 and we had a laugh about it (I secretly prayed I'm not in any groups like that again).

I got my refund for the sandals it was the same lady who served me last week and she didn't even question it. Thankfully, as I had pulled tag off to try them to walk in (they were tagged together). So £25 back in my account. 

I got to work early so I could get parked free and only one space left! There was me thinking there would be lots free...I wonder what time they arrive. I was 40 minutes early 😳. I went and did all my paperwork so I'm caught up. Also filled out form for preference for where I'd like to work next year. And I only have a few bits of paper to hand in tomorrow and one online form to do and I am ready to sign off for summer at 4pm! Work apps will be muted until September!

Not a NSD. My bad night sleep caught up with me and I went in search of a sugary drink by lunch. I'm collecting DP at 9 but might go shower and sort myself out before I collect him.. whilst I still have some energy.

One day left at work which I'm happy about! 


I got home to bricks having been laid (a few rows) and piles of them on the driveway. And the first bill to pay. I've sent the money over so I don't forget and they down tools on me 😅. I think we will see very quick progress soon enough once the walls are up. There is bricks and also some sort of insulation on the driveway and some other bits that I can't make out as they're wrapped up. 😁

DS has got into trouble for not doing his coursework and has been told detention every day until it's done. I said well do it tonight then and it won't happen. He was grumbling about how it was his groups fault for this that and the other. And I realised how often he blames outside sources for issues, never taking responsibility himself. I've said no games until he's done but I doubt he's listening and I doubt I have the energy to even argue with him over it. 

Right off to get sorted for last day tomorrow and chill out for a bit before that last ounce of energy gets up and leaves me...

beanielou

Happy last day tomorrow. 

KajiKita

Interesting realisation about your son always blaming things outside his control but not accepting his own agency …

Sounds like the builders are cracking on 😊

Hope your last day goes smoothly and calmly! 🤞

KK