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

greenbee

I should have design soon Cheery. I'm a bit concerned that despite being clear that the house is warm enough at the current temperatures, he's going to say we need new radiators. I don't want new radiators in any of the 'finished' rooms. Because they're finished and I don't want the mess and disruption. And the rooms are warm enough at the current temperature - they don't need to be warmer (in fact, if the kitchen has heating, then the rest of the house won't be trying to heat that!

This is the reason I've said I'll pay for the design, so I won't feel compelled to go ahead if I don't like the design. I'm hoping it'll arrive today and I can then review it with a neighbour who knows what he's talking about and challenge anything I don't like with proper information. Or go and get a second design done elsewhere.

peb

Just one point, rebuild cover is usual. It's the cost of demolition, clearance and rebuild. Frequently more than the actual value of the house /outbuildings .

Cheery_Daff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81882146#Comment_81882146

Indeed - but most of the quotes seemed to cover £1.2m (more than the cost of rebuild that I estimated through the RICS site, but not wildly outlandish since the house cost £425k about 8 years ago). No idea why that one had a £10m rebuild cost attached to it!

But, as ever, these things are sent to try us, and confuse us 😬😂

Thanks for chipping in though @peb 😊 There's plenty i don't know about this type of stuff!

Interesting about paying for the design @greenbee - I confess I won't be offering that to the octopods! 😂

Baileys_Babe

@Cheery_Daff said

Indeed - but most of the quotes seemed to cover £1.2m (more than the cost of rebuild that I estimated through the RICS site, but not wildly outlandish since the house cost £425k about 8 years ago). No idea why that one had a £10m rebuild cost attached to it!

Some companies offer off the peg cover at different levels of cover and your circumstances possibly because of amount of land, tall trees etc means the you need the gold level which automatically has £10m rebuild included. You could try building a bespoke quote with the provider which maybe cheaper.

Baileys_Babe

@greenbee said: He prefers to us Mitubishi kit - which I'm fine with, particularly as he'll be the one looking after it…

We have a Mitsubishi ASHP

Cheery_Daff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81882503#Comment_81882503

I'll likely just go with a cheaper one from a different provider on the comparison site (assuming the small print is right of course). Bizarrely, that was the AA Gold at £917 and a different comparison site had AA platinum for £550 so that might end up being the choice! But we'll see what the current renewal price is first before I do any more shenanigans.

Banking done and cash book updated. Banking ap was offline last week when I tried so it needed a bit of updating. Everything's added now, but I've not totted up totals yet - a job for later.

Little bit of snow on the ground here, and we just saw a white stoat run along the wall behind the living room. Beautiful, but I've not forgiven stoats after one killed two of our chickens several years ago, so despite my general love for all living creatures, with stoats my instinct is towards imagining a nice ermine hat 👿

Cheery_Daff

Parked near the waste not want not scheme today so popped in. They had a LOT of bread, but after our recent bread fiasco we just went with fruit and veg. Not sure exactly what we got - definitepy carrots, parsnips, red onions, pak choi, celery, lettuce, mushrooms, bananas, apples, pears, and some tulips and daffodils. Very jolly. Bunged a donation in their pot but I didn't have loads of change - will double up next time.

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, excitement this afternoon - I opened a bank account for each of us back in November I think, and our promised gift cards have arrived. £100 each for the big river site. We don't actually buy much from there… but £200 is £200 and they don't expire for 10 years. Won't be rushing to buy unnecessary things though.

Mr C has been on the lookout for a second hand microwave for the last few weeks - ours won't turn OFF when it pings, so you can't leave it unattended as it's a fire risk, and given how old and rusty it's getting, it's time for a replacement. Not too bad as it originally came from the tip, where Mr C intercepted someone who was chucking it out 😂Anyway, if he can't find a second hand one this week, we'll use some of the voucher dosh.

I'd thought I might have used TCB (I think some other people did) but there's no evidence of it. Hey ho.

@edinburgher has informed us there's £2 cashback on a £10 spend on TCB today if you want to go and top up a supermarket gift card something. Thanks ed!

We are back from our travels, and it's been snowing on and off all day so it's definitely not a gardening day, it's soggy and windy and grim out there. I decided to bite the bullet and make a dent in my Boots points - I had £32 worth and no plan of what to spend them on 😯Bought some new foundation (mine's nearly run out) and treated myself to a couple of nail varnishes from the discount box. Also got some glamorous verruca treatment - not had a flipping verruca since I was at school, and goodness knows where I've got one from now as I've not been swimming or had my shoes off in public for months!

Off to the city tonight - an artist friend has an exhibition opening. We're staying with her, but we're also going to see some other friends (who live round the corner from the exhibition) who have kindly offered to make us some tea ☺️Need to leave in an hour so I think it'll be a gentle one until then - I've painted my nails, and sorted out some photographs, but might try and get a blog post or two done.

Cup of tea first though!

rtandon27

wow Cheery - that is a fabulous haul - I'm well impressed - produce is usually what takes up most of our grocery budget so I'd be very happy with that - and flowers too! very exciting - I usually have a bunch or two (yellow-stickered) a couple of times a month during the winter and it does make it rather cheery in the house!

Cheery_Daff

I love having flowers in the house, but I don't like buying them 😂I often manage various posies from the garden, but I'm going to make a proper attempt at a cutting garden this year. In the meantime, that's two lots I've had from the food waste place now (and you've reminded me these ones are still sat in the shopping bag - must unpack!)