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

Cheery_Daff

Well I'm getting there, although needless to say not quite caught up with myself 😂
Upstairs is done though, and I even attacked the cobwebs with the hoover, and did the same in the craft room. Second load of washing has just finished so I'll leg that out now although the sun's gone in and it's a bit more chilly.

LPG geezers have gone - turns out the pipes underground were already plastic! They've replaced the above ground ones but this should knock a bit of the bill which makes a nice change!

Stairs are hammered and old carpet removed, just need a bit of sanding.  Not going to be perfect,  I'm not getting the heat gun on the old paint, this is a temporary fix to use up the paint (although temporary in our house often means about 10 years 🙄😂)

themadvix

That's good news about the pipes!

Nothing wrong with a 10-year temporary fix.... I always think of the 'temporary' pre-fab school canteen building at my primary school - erected after WWII and still there in the 1990s!

Cheery_Daff

That's a good point- I actually grew up in a temporary prefab house built to house people bombed out in WW2 - they're still there now 😂 (hope my stairs won't have to last quite so long 😂)

ladyholly

The costs don't necessarily end after they have passed away. My  bils empty house was broken into last week.2 broken windows, one of which is a round one, a broken back door, an old alarm panel ripped of the wall and an attempt to kick in the front door. I have already paid out for my dh to go down and stay for a few days and of course the alternator died on the way there so he will need a train to get home as the flat bed driver isn't allowed to take him so a £56 train fare. I have paid £80 for the boarding up and it could be two weeks until the windows are done. No estimate yet but it won't be cheap
We are also paying out for a couple of CCTV that will connect to the neighbours phone if anything else happens. He is a police officer and is brilliant. They will come home when the house is finally sold as we don't have any but could do with so not a waste but still more money paid out. 
Thank goodness for an emergency fund.

Cheery_Daff

Oh goodness me @ladyholly how awful, I'm so sorry, what a thing to have to deal with xxx

Cheery_Daff

Ok, the final round up of the day

10.30-11 UPSTAIRS
* change bedding
* clear bedside tables
* put clothes away
* hoover

Nice cup of tea outside with a book

11.30-12.30 STAIRS
* hammer and sand
* hoover
* clean
* 1st coat of paint

Lunch

1.30-2.30 OFFSHOT
* big tidy up 🙈
* hoover
* create space for my new shelves and fill them up! 😃

2.30-3 FINISH UP
* whatever still needs doing out of that lot, and if none of it, then
* hoover downstairs (well, the kitchen anyway)
* whizz round with the duster
* water plants etc

3-5 OUT
* counselling appointment (not been for a while but could do with a couple of sessions at the minute
* pick up a few bits for batch cooking

EVENING
* Batch cook 3 meals for freezer
* flute practice
* blog post

Actually managed to get both coats of paint on the stairs - only just, because there was such a small amount of paint, but I did it. 

Very tired now. 

Checked the house insurance, obviously I've left it far too late for a decent quote... Even had a picture of Martin Lewis looking stern and saying 'you've left it too late this year!'  There's actually only ONE place cheaper than our current quote, somewhere I'd not heard of - I clicked it and it started asking me lots of specific questions about outbuildings, so I'm reluctant to go down that route again (after last year when I took a cheap policy and they asked extra questions once the policy had started (!) and then cancelled it because we were within xx metres of a public footpath). 

So - sigh - I think I'm going to stay with the current one. Feeling very risk averse at the minute. Both this and the car insurance auto-renewing! Aarrgghh! And both with an increase of almost £200 over last year. This is just a casualty of all the other things going on at the minute, and I think I just need to accept that right this second and be kind to myself. 

Does smart a bit letting the insurance autorenew though - and at £938 for the year 

Still, hopefully the LPG invoice will be cheaper than expected. 

Going to bed to sulk a bit, I think.   

Greying_Pilgrim

So - sigh - I think I'm going to stay with the current one. Feeling very risk averse at the minute. Both this and the car insurance auto-renewing! Aarrgghh! And both with an increase of almost £200 over last year. This is just a casualty of all the other things going on at the minute, and I think I just need to accept that right this second and be kind to myself. 

Does smart a bit letting the insurance autorenew though - and at £938 for the year 

Still, hopefully the LPG invoice will be cheaper than expected. 

Going to bed to sulk a bit, I think.   

Dearest Cheery I hope you got a good and restful nights sleep.  You have absolutely been pulled one way and another just recently, with work, with in-laws, your career, your family, the weather and "life" - ad nauseum, ad infinitum.  Please don't sulk.  You'd need to be a miracle worker, capable of time travel, able to split yourself into 6 functioning beings and have the patience of Mother Teresa to have coped any better than what you've had to cope with for quite some time.  

I agree about the financial hit, and irrespective of affordability, yes, it might smart a bit.  BUT you've had your focus pulled elsewhere in multiple directions and dimensions.  Something had to give.  Better some damn paperwork was overlooked and a bit of cash has been spent, than a human life or someone's home has been lost.  You've prioritised family.  This set of circumstances may not arise again (fingers crossed they don't), but the insurance company will always be there to beat in a quote next year 😉

Take care you - and I'm glad you made the appointment yesterday afternoon 👍

Greying X

LadyWithAPlan

Very wise from Greying 

Its inevitable some things slide when life gets busy - 

Cheery_Daff

😭🥰🥰 thank you lovely people, you are right, of course xxx

More financial nonsense today. Plumber popped back in to look at the bath water - we'll need a new heat exchanger 🙄 for the time being we can continue, as we have been, by running the bath v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y so it doesn't overheat and cut itself out, but if we want to fix it, it'll be about £500 🙄 Or we could have a new boiler, which we won't - on the whole we prefer to limp things along til we can't fix them any more.

Hey ho, at least it's not an urgent problem, and we might just limp it for a few months and be done with it.

Got rather a headache this afternoon, unsurprisingly. But work is surprisingly productive so that's something!

Cheery_Daff

Evening lovely chums (well, middle-of-the-night now, I suppose)

Not much to report. Yesterday was in the office (I didn't spend anything other than diesel and milk on the way homr). Today I was at home, althoughthrough a silly combination of circumstances I ended up having a sandwich and coffee out for my tea, before going to a spin class and then swimming in a fit of overenthusiasm for exercise, which has left me rather tired (but not yet asleep...)

We're going to reassess gym membership at the end of April. We haven't used it enough to make it worthwhile at all I don't think, and there were a couple of months where we didn't use it at all!! I'm attempting to use it enough this month, but we'll see. Gym emailed saying it's going up to £68 for couples membership next month (it's almost £67 at the minute so not too bad an increase)

Had another email from the LPG people. I was waiting for an invoice for the work they did the other day, but in fact they've sent me another quote 🙄 just £38 cheaper than the last one - less for the 'civil works' element, but more for materials, which is interesting, given that they didn't replace anything underground, so I'm not sure why that wasn't less too! Anyway, I'll query it but not holding my breath. Currently £866 rather than £904 😭 

And one of the cars needs new tyres - YAWN. gosh, it never ends, does it?? Booked in with a local place tomorrow - certainly won't be getting Halfords/Tyres on the Drive back in 😱 In fact they still haven't even refunded the paltry "goodwill payment" they offered before Christmas so I think it's about time I got back on the phone 🙄

As I said, YAWN.

Still, I've had a nice evening of exercise tonight, and a good bout of late night flute playing while Mr C was at a band practice. We're off out tomorrow, staying with friends 😊 my bed is comfy cosy, I am not worried about where tomorrow's food is coming from, and we are relatively healthy, so I am counting my blessings.