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

debtfreewannabe321

So today we've about had enough of kitchen talk it's fast becoming a don't mention the K word here. We had issues with the extractor fan not fitting - thankfully DP had mocked up the size with a template made from cardboard and we quickly realised it will not fit. So I cancelled the order I had on one..we found another then realised recirculating fans still need kinda fitting in a similar way to ones out the wall. Our chimney opening doesn't go straight up, I mean why would it 🙄,.it goes at a 45° angle away from the outside wall. Of course. We are still sort of scratching our head on this one..
Then we needed tiles just for behind the cooker so we can get this all done before we plaster the outside. About five hours later and nearly crying over looking we found what we were looking for. Then got told we can't use ceramic tiles behind cooker. We have to have porcelain. So back to the drawing board. We tried one last place and found one we loved! And it was porcelain! And they had 20% off and an extra 10% ending today! Got it priced up, paid for and put to bed so we don't have to think about it. It looks the same as the fire place chambers we loved (quoted £1000 and a few pound change) and this costs £180 instead including all the grout and other bits, whereas the chambers were just that and we needed all the extra bits on top of that quote 👏🏻🤞🏻 fingers crossed it looks as good and we don't need to order any more. I want to get to the fun part where it all starts to come together.

After all that I cooked dinner in my dusty old kitchen and wanted to cry from exhaustion! However one day I will look back and think it was all worth it...I'm sure..right? 🤣🤣🤣

I have a list of jobs for tomorrow...but I'll post them in the morning I may change my mind on them 🙈🤣. 

missymoo81

What a crazy, long and exhausting day for you! But super well done on persevering! I’m so happy you’ve fii on and what you needed for such a small word percentage of what you would have paid! You need to relax and recoup this evening! No thoughts of ironing or kitchens allowed!

daisy_1571

omg dfw you do have your work cut out for you at the moment between children, kitchen planning, doing your shift as an HMP Slade prison warder (hope you get a pension from them after all these years you've been doing it!!) and no doubt 17 other tasks.  Hope you sleep well tonight having got a few decisions out the way.

What did you think to my main post about ironing and the piles of clo?  Hope it was helpful 

debtfreewannabe321

daisy_1571 said:

omg dfw you do have your work cut out for you at the moment between children, kitchen planning, doing your shift as an HMP Slade prison warder (hope you get a pension from them after all these years you've been doing it!!) and no doubt 17 other tasks.  Hope you sleep well tonight having got a few decisions out the way.

What did you think to my main post about ironing and the piles of clo?  Hope it was helpful 

I'm debating your idea on just setting up a permanent area for the iron and board as currently it is a, where did you last see it game... The iron has a permanent spot atm under the sink but the board - as big as it is- is always going missing?! I don't have space for a lovely walk in utility area with space for ironing piles and boards in there so I will see how big those pull out ones are that attach to a wall and fold out they look pretty good?
Overall I would say we just have too many clothes. And need to downsize. I'm thinking about four outfits each should solve my problem 🤣.

debtfreewannabe321

missymoo81 said:

What a crazy, long and exhausting day for you! But super well done on persevering! I’m so happy you’ve fii on and what you needed for such a small word percentage of what you would have paid! You need to relax and recoup this evening! No thoughts of ironing or kitchens allowed!

Getting a bargain is usually fun but this is so stressful I think more so because I don't know what I'm searching for half the time 🤣. We had a nice relaxing evening with some snacks and well deserved g&ts and a couple of movies 😁

debtfreewannabe321

Morning all, DP is back at work today. I'm going to go out and get myself a step ladder this morning. DP accidentally squashed and killed my old one when he took the shed down. The ladder was at least fifteen ft away but the way it fell meant it travelled and ended up absolutely killing the ladder. I'd had it since I left home too and my mother had used it since the 80s. Is it possible to be sentimentally attached to a rickety old aluminium step ladder 🫣🤔🤣. So yes I need another one as I can't reach the tall bits of walls and ceilings to strip wallpaper. That leads on to my job today...to try and get the walls completely stripped and ready for mist coat and painting 😁.
I've already looked on FB MP but nothing local to me. So I'm going to just go and get one from the shops. After all we have a whole house to do up....
I also want to do some things for me today - some gardening, reading, meditation. 
I've also made a job list for the week rather than a day. 

• Sort out paperwork mess (I've accumulated three baskets of paperwork!?)

• Strip wallpaper in dining room (did half already really when standing chatting to dp working 🤣 so easy enough - just the highest places left and the stubborn bits )

• Clean walls

• Fill holes

• Mist paint (bare plaster at the mo)

• Pull down blown plaster on chimney breast - measure for new plasterboard. 

• Hoover /sweep downstairs.

• Dust front room (and remember to shut the door when decorating going forward)

• Clean main bathroom

• Clean main toilet room

• Keep up with washing 

• Weed garden - at least one bed. 

• Plant new lettuce. Feed veg and fruit. 

• Harvest last rhubarb

• Mini food shop

• MOT and service car weds 

• Collect tiles on Thursday 

• Kitchen measurement Tues

• Help friend with job application?

Now that my conservatory has been taken away, and the large freezer I had has broken and been replaced with a smaller one, I am really struggling for space for food to go so I am shopping for food every few days instead of a big shop. This is okay whilst I'm on holiday, but when I go back to work? ...so really we need to get the kitchen in as soon as poss really because it's quite stressful with no storage and also barely any room on the side (have probably three metres of side but it's all broken up with sinks, hobs etc in the way and I now have food on top as no space in cupboards 😬. Hopefully the guy who measures tomorrow agrees with the measurements we took and the kitchen design is correct then, we can go ahead and order without delay if so. 
Right off to start my day (loving these late starts 😁). Hope everyone has a good day. 

daisy_1571

Lol I thought it was only me who lost their ironing board for months (well I hadn't looked for it for at least 2 years prior to that)  I was beginning to think I'd given it away 😆 

If you haven't bought a step ladder yet (and yes I understand sentimental attachment to a ladder 9r other inanimate objects) try to find this at a good price 

bergman slimline step ladder

I was sceptical before we got ours - possibly through Scotts of Stow - but I love it.  It folds so flat, is light to carry around but is strong, stable and good wide steps so you arent perched balancing on tippy toes.  They have a variety of sizes, we got a 3 step and loved it so much we bought a 4 step too

Dxx

debtfreewannabe321

Thanks Daisy! I haven't bought one yet. I was being too tight with my money. The one we were looking at was a yellow one in Wickes I think. It had space for a paint pot and brushes at the top which I thought was a great idea. I didn't part with any money yet though 😂.

I got on instead with the stripping of wallpaper on a step ladder on tip toes 😆. Found lots of little stories of people who once lived here from the 80/90/2000s and one from 2020 on one wall. So fun reading them all but they've faded a lot. Such a shame I'm tempted to go over them in pen 😂. I was going to paint the wall, but sentimentalist that I am said no way. I will now put in kitchen cupboards and wallpaper lining paper around the cupboards to preserve it all 🫣😆. Might add my own!
I also pulled up the laminate floor in one area (can't get to the rest) and the board under it, and we lifted a floor board as we need to run electrical wires and water drainage from this room to outside now (moving a kitchen is not easy I'm now gathering 🫣😂). Where we have the kitchen now is open plan with the dining room (where the new kitchen will go) they already took the wall down in the 80/90s. So we need to move the water pipes around 6ft to where I wanted the sink to go and the drainage has to also be moved and go out another external wall now because the drop is not good enough to go back out where it is now. I don't understand the complexities of this but have a basic understanding. The builder, the building control guy and DP were discussing it together and they've all come to the conclusion it needs to go out the other way.... meaning we need to either lift or cut about twenty floorboards to do this job. 🫠😬 I can see this job becoming very stressful very soon. I've asked DP if he can finish off the chimney breast then so we can fit the new cooker in the new kitchen that way he can lift what he wants. Currently the bit he needs to cut runs directly under the hob I'm using 🙈🫠.

Argh.

Anyway. That's me done on DIY for today. 
Now I'm going to go out and collect all garden waste up as our bin is due either tomorrow or day after (I have totally lost track of everything).

Oh and the drive is clear again, the skip was collected. No new one yet which we were hoping for so that we could put the old flooring in 😆. 

The MOT has been delayed a day because the guy doing it is off. But we will drop on Wednesday as planned they can do the service and keep it overnight. I will collect Thursday when it's done. I was planning on leaving it overnight anyway because it is the other side of the city. I was going to drop it and walk the two miles back into the city and get a bus home from there. Definitely not doing that twice in one day. 

Right will go do that garden then shower and get some dinner done. It's been a NSD because I stayed in earlier 👏🏻. Woop. 

daisy_1571

I thought of you last night when I was rummaging through papers that had previously been used for our plots and plans but now are in a folder beside airfryer timing.  I was looking for my notes on how long to airfry chicken and spotted a section where some years ago I'd planned some longer term plans.  One was 'January 2025 see the northern lights'.  I assume I was thinking of a trip to Iceland or somewhere like that in January 25 however my brother went on a trip like that and never saw a thing 😆 so I know it isn't guaranteed.   Anyway, I clearly wrote this down but then the specifics faded from my mind as the reality of getting money together for a big trip was not going to happen.   But... as it happened, unexpectedly, we saw the most amazing Northern lights from our back garden in oct 24 so I did fulfil a dream to see them, just not in the way expected (actually much more pleasurable than flying off somewhere) and before my planned jan 25.  

Just thought I'd share as it made me pause for a moment and be grateful 

Cheers

Dxxx

debtfreewannabe321

daisy_1571 said:

I thought of you last night when I was rummaging through papers that had previously been used for our plots and plans but now are in a folder beside airfryer timing.  I was looking for my notes on how long to airfry chicken and spotted a section where some years ago I'd planned some longer term plans.  One was 'January 2025 see the northern lights'.  I assume I was thinking of a trip to Iceland or somewhere like that in January 25 however my brother went on a trip like that and never saw a thing 😆 so I know it isn't guaranteed.   Anyway, I clearly wrote this down but then the specifics faded from my mind as the reality of getting money together for a big trip was not going to happen.   But... as it happened, unexpectedly, we saw the most amazing Northern lights from our back garden in oct 24 so I did fulfil a dream to see them, just not in the way expected (actually much more pleasurable than flying off somewhere) and before my planned jan 25.  

Just thought I'd share as it made me pause for a moment and be grateful 

Cheers

Dxxx

Ah the Northern lights is also on my bucket list! I missed it when it was in my area we had too much cloud - boooh0oo....! However we did get some really random clouds a couple of years back and we sat in the garden to look at those and I remember saying, this is as good as the northern lights and it's not cold and I get to sleep in my own bed 😆🤷🏻‍♀️. My DS1 went to Iceland and saw them and didn't seem half as impressed as I was...and was annoyed with me questioning him about it. 🤣 He was more impressed with the hot springs he got to go in on a snowy mountain 🥶.