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

PermacultureGirl

Phew, those rose thorns look nasty! Is there a spot in a hedge the roots could be relocated to, or is it just more trouble than it's worth? Have fun holiday planning 😊. 

KajiKita

You are tipping me to making my mind up about a rose we inherited when we moved here on the front of the house. It is scraggy and runs away rather than bushing nicely (pruned it the same as all the rest), is a dull, deep red (doesn’t look good with the pink tone of the house stone) and is unscented …. I think I want it out and something a bit more structured there ….

KK

LadyWithAPlan

I love roses but ouch! I visit Queen Mary's rose garden at Regents park a few times each summer without fail as it is beautiful and I am not the one pruning

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊

Gosh, what a glorious day! I've had the day off - I've worked FOUR Fridays over the last few weeks 😮 so am making sure I take them all back before the end of the year. Tomorrow is meant to be nice too, and if I didn't only have 3 working days left before having the whole of August off, I might take tomorrow off too 🤭 Sadly that won't happen though - lots to do before I properly finish.

Today has been nice though 😊 A row of scything, and Mr Cheery and I went out for coffee earlier. I've spent much of the rest of the day in the garden, migrating between swing seat and patio, and reading and plotting and scheming 😊

I've been reading Rhonda Hetzel's Down To Earth book about simple living again - I adore her blog, and have most of her books now I think, and read them over and over. Anyway, it spurred me on to FINALLY get started with a small DIY job that is holding up some bigger ones - fitting some floor tiles under the kitchen radiator where the sink used to be. 

We have the tiles (found them in the garden when we moved in 😂) - they're green and shiny and don't match the terrazzo ones that Mr C loves so much,but they do bring out the colour in those. We have grout, and a tile cutter, and really nothing is stopping me other than mild laziness 😂

So I've washed all the tiles and they're drying in the sunshine. Reading about mopping in the book I decided we needed a proper mop - we have a stupid spray one but it's broken and just dribbles rather than spraying, so I usually end up on my hands and knees anyway. My mission is to make housework easier and therefore more fun! 😂

Booked on to Zumba at the gym tonight - I'm regretting it but a stern email to all gym members about the number of on-the-day cancellations means I'm going anyway (which also means I'll make use of all of my gym membership for the month). Planned to nip to B&Q for a proper mop & bucket, and a soft brush (we only have a stiff one - useless in the kitchen). 

But - I found a mop head still in its packaging under the sink, and rummaging in the garage for a handle I found... an actual cotton mop 😂 And a soft brush 😂 Both of which must have belonged to previous owner, and both of which have been bashed against the side of the house to remove critters, and are now soaking in a tub of oxy bleach. 

I have been unable to locate a mop bucket though, so I will still pop in for one of those. 

Still, excellent shopping from home - I hope @foxgloves would approve! 😂

beanielou

Love the shopping from home. 

themadvix

Excellent shopping from home, I’m sure Foxgloves would approve!

rtandon27

Haha - @foxgloves is such an icon! - I found myself on the weekend thinking that she would be telling me to shop from home before ordering a red pen from the big river site! - It wasn't quite from home, but today I found I had a spare one at work that had been sitting in a drawer for years. In fact I think it is mine anyway, as it is too nice to be one of our cheap work stationary supplies! - On that note, I'm off to cancel my order which is not due until the weekend!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, well done! 😂

Just had the electricity bill, and, as always, went through the balance forecast tool. Last month I adjusted from £57.xx to £50.67 (although the amount won't change til DD on 1st Aug). This time it recommended reducing from £50.67 to £50.54 😂 I've done that, and will add 13p to the monthly savings pot 😂

Remembered yesterday I'll be due an increment increase in August's pay packet. Not sure how much as the whole scale goes up a bit too, but it's usually somewhere between £70 and £100 a month. Not to be sniffed at.

I've remembered that the mortgage fix is up soon though 🙄 October, I think. This is the end of a 5 year fix at 2.24% so any change is likely to swallow my pay rise. At least it's there to be swallowed. Very likely we'll go with an option from current provider - lots of acres plus Mr Cheery lending til he's 80, doesn't give us many options. Not had a list of options yet though - I assume that will arrive in August, to give us 3 months notice.

greenbee

Mine is up in October and I’ve just had the notice. I won’t be picking my next fix until the last minute as right now it isn’t worth it. I also need to find out how to do a large OP before I renew!

Cheery_Daff

We won't be making an OP sadly. Trying to decide whether to get another 5 year fix - that would take us til Mr Cheery gets his state pension and after that we'll (hopefully!) be in a good position to throw most of that at it and tackle it relatively quickly (it'll officially have 13 years still left at that point but we don't intend to let it run that long!)

Looks from a quick go on the MSE calculator like we'll probably be looking at 4.2-4.6% ish, and a rise of about £60-100 a month. 

Also looks like a 5 year fix will be slightly cheaper than 2 years. Will make a decision once we've had all the paperwork - from memory last time we had about 17 different options to choose from!

Been swimming this morning, and switched my gym membership to a couples membership. Paid a £4 pro rata payment for the rest of this month, so I'm going to suggest we go tonight or tomorrow night to make use of that. Then it's £66 a month for the two of us - I was paying £37 myself so an additional £29 for Mr C, and we have separate cards and don't have to go at the same time 😂