Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Sallyforth

You will never know how much you @Cheery_Daff, @redofromstart and @KajiKita have inspired me with your outdoor pursuits this past few months. I’ve been so lazy but so far this year I’ve made huge inroads into my little patio garden on my own. Today I discovered the pleasure of jet washing which I used to pay someone else to do! You’re all amazing ladies and thank you for motivating me.

redofromstart

That made me laugh @Sallyforth, I was looking at the jet washer thingamajig earlier and wondering if I can work out how to use it. It can't be that hard surely?

Brewerspride

Sallyforth said:

You will never know how much you @Cheery_Daff, @redofromstart and @KajiKita have inspired me with your outdoor pursuits this past few months. I’ve been so lazy but so far this year I’ve made huge inroads into my little patio garden on my own. Today I discovered the pleasure of jet washing which I used to pay someone else to do! You’re all amazing ladies and thank you for motivating me.

I've been jet washing today too - must be something in the air  

greenbee

redofromstart said:

That made me laugh @Sallyforth, I was looking at the jet washer thingamajig earlier and wondering if I can work out how to use it. It can't be that hard surely?

Bring your jet washer over to me, and I'll give you some lessons. I have plenty of patio for you to practice on...

teapot2

I also had a cuppa sitting outside on the garden bench in the sun yesterday afternoon.  Has to be the afternoon at this time of year as yesterday and today there was a hard frost first thing.  Managed to get washing line dried as well and did a bit of weed pulling as they have busy establishing themselves 🙄

Cheery_Daff

Sallyforth said:

You will never know how much you @Cheery_Daff, @redofromstart and @KajiKita have inspired me with your outdoor pursuits this past few months. I’ve been so lazy but so far this year I’ve made huge inroads into my little patio garden on my own. Today I discovered the pleasure of jet washing which I used to pay someone else to do! You’re all amazing ladies and thank you for motivating me.

Aw, well thank you! I always feel like I do nothing but complain about my garden 🙈 I vowed to do less complaining last year, and I think I managed it, but I need to aim for even less this year! 

Well, the sun is shining again 😊😊😊 I was planning to go to Parkrun but woke with a gripey stomach and so have had a nice long bath instead. 

Not sure of the plan today. Mr C is in need of some looking after, between his dad and his back he's had a rough few weeks so I think shortly I'll wake him with coffee and we'll do whatever he'd like to for the day.

I would like to sneak some washing out on the line though. If there's time later, I'll do some batch cooking (but that can wait for the morning).

And I need to take a proper look at the finances. Need to pay the plumber, and ask if he'll come back because the hot water is still cutting out while trying to run a bath, very annoying. 

Also need to take a deep breath and open the renewal for the house insurance. 

Mr C's pension paid an extra almost £700 this month - apparently a mistake when working out the lump sum a few years ago. Timing is good - it will cover the care home fees and some of the extra costs associated with his dad (takeaways, diesel etc). We should get money back from his dad for materials etc, but won't be asking for sundry other costs so this will help. 

Banks are looking squeaky as they often do at this time of year - car insurance, house insurance, LPG top up before Christmas and another one just now, plus this care home business, and now we've agreed to have the LPG pipes replaced (they're coming next Monday, so that bill will arrive soon).

Will have to do some shuffling today, and it will decimate some of the savings pots 😭 Car and house insurance are budgeted for, of course, as is LPG, and the LPG pipes will come from the 'household emergency' pot - not ideal but it's not a planned expense, and that pot is for if stuff goes wrong with eg the septic tank etc so this feels like it fits.

Anyway, I don't like having so much cash leaving at once, even if it's planned 😬 But it is what it is. And now we're home our takeaway and diesel spend will slow down, and we can hopefully start to build things back up.

Right, best wake Mr C and see what our plans are for the day.

Greying_Pilgrim

Cheery - is your hot water cutting out to do with the boiler?  It's just that we have that issue, with running a sink for washing up, and we were told (by 2 separate plumbers, so I believe it to be true), that our taps are the issue.  They are old - and certainly in this house, weren't previously linked to a boiler, but an immersion system.  As I'm not sure if new taps wouldn't have to necessitate a new sink etc (everything is stuck in the 1980's here), at the moment we have to hover over the taps when trying to fill the sink.  And whilst I would love to revamp the kitchen (it sorely needs it), it is languishing towards the bottom of our list of things to change/finance etc.  

Greying X

badmemory

I was wondering if it could be to do with your water pressure as I know boilers do cut out if the water is slow & in danger of overheating or there not being any water in it at all.  I know my plumber years ago wouldn't do an ordinary shower for that reason & said we needed a power shower.  A couple of years later they put a pumping station (well something like that) higher up the hill & now the water pressure is fine.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks both 😊

I assumed it was because the hot water knob had snapped off, and in the process of waggling it we'd turned it up too high. But that's replaced, and the water temp is set at 48, but when running a bath it heads up and up and up to 82 for a bit, then cuts and just drops down to 30 🙄 The other day I sat and watched the boiler while it ran (it's a thrill a minute in my house) and the pressure was pretty high so I thought it might be that, but today it was actually really low, and it still did it. 

Mr C has managed to run a couple of baths without incident so maybe it's just me 🤔 I noticed he didn't have the tap open as much as me, so I only opened it a bit today but it still did it. I've come to the conclusion that he doesn't put as much water in as me, so gets a 'full' bath before the water cuts out.

Anyway, it was perfectly functional before, and now isn't, so I think it's best if the plumber has a look!

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums 😊

Mr C and I had a nice sunshiney day out in a nearby Market town that for no good reason we don't go to very often. Not exactly MSE as we did have a couple of cafe trips... but we also got some useful charity shop bargains

* a shelving unit with baskets for my craft room, to replace a bulky bit of furniture that never really fit for £30 (I'll need to paint the wooden bits)

* a flat sheet for £2 which will line the curtains I'm making for the craft room (making them out of a charity shop duvet cover so very MSE)

* two small insulated cup things so we can take a cuppa out and about - 99p each and shiny gold 😂

* a red lightbulb for 25p 😂

* a Monty Don gardening book for £2 - I was lingering over the magazines in the supermarket but there was no way I was going to pay £6.50 for a magazine so this was my alternative

Very pleased with shelves and sheet. I've been enjoying pottering about up here making curtains (although so far they're still just bits of fabric - hopefully sewing on curtain tape tomorrow though!) We've been carting round yards of curtain tape for years so it'll be nice to finally do something with it 😂

Cooked tea, and there's a portion left for tomorrow, but I've still not done any batch cooking yet, that's a job for tomorrow....

Also not done finances yet, so tomorrow's jobs are stacking up... But I feel like we're both still slowly recuperating so anything that gets done is better than nothing...