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

Cheery_Daff

Thank you both! Yes. the cows did come over to investigate and started to have a bit of a scratch - I had stern words!  

PermacultureGirl said:

The cows will thank you for rebuilding their handy scratching places  . Just chiming in to say I like option 7 too and I like even more the idea of paying off the mortgage by age 55!

Pesky cows. I would LOVE to be done by 55. We can only do it because at that point Mr Cheery will be 73! Although to be fair the mortgage was done on the last house (which he'd bought many years before he'd met me) by the time he was in his early 50s (no early repayments though - he just bought early and paid it continually for 25 years).

Started putting the top row on now, but some of it is lost down a steep bank so I'm wheelbarrowing other bits in from elsewhere (some of it used to be the chimney ) Hit by a wave of fatigue, and Mr Cheery will be back in an hour and it'll be nice if I'm awake enough for a conversation so I've come back in to wield the IPL machine for a bit in front of a film

Cheery_Daff

So, a productive evening, kind of 😂 

Washing hasn't fully dried today - it's not actually rained but there's been no wind, and I think the air has just been full of moisture, as there was some dew on the grass by the house that just never dried. 

In other damp-related news, I knocked over a lap earlier (undramatic) and as a result have spotted a pile of white furry mould under a chair in the living room 😱 Clearly it's not just happened today, so it can wait until the daylight for further investigation 🙄😂 Related to the water that came through the wall in the winter, no doubt - clearly didn't leave the dehumidifier on for long enough 🙄

That project has already been moved up the priority list - want to get it sealed up properly before the winter arrives again. 

YAWN. 

Anyway, on a more cheerful note, we have made a decision about the mortgage (the option we all selected above), had a long chat with my sister (eldest nephew gets A level results tomorrow 😱), done some decluttering of shoes in the craft room, and arranged some social events for next week. 

Mr Cheery is going to help with the final bits of wall tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a picture of progress so far, and an interfering cow 😂



Not perfect by any stretch, but it'll do 😊

Cheery_Daff

One last thing - free electricity session from the octopods tomorrow, 1-2pm (Thursday). Like the savings sessions but in reverse - anything you use over and above normal useage for that time is free. 

Not entirely sure what we'll do but I might wash a couple of blankets and maybe get the oven on and do a bit of batch cooking if I get my timing right. Don't think we've got anything else that uses much electricity.  Might make sure the dehumidifier is on too and may even break out the dehydrator for some herbs (although that will need to stay on for several hours).

Just evicted about twelve cellar spiders from the bedroom 🙄 honestly,  I don't mind them at all (they're the spindly ones with the long legs and tiny bodies) and leave them alone most of the time but when I came up to bed tonight I had to draw a line 😂 threw a couple of of the window with a glass,  along with a daddy long legs (which is the main thing to get rid of) but the rest got wafted up with a feather duster and,  I confess,  just thrown down the stairs to be dealt with another day 🙄😂

dawnybabes

We’ve the saving session too, once I’d seen it I unplugged my car ready to charge it in the session, my washing is sat in the washer and I’ve prepared a shepherds pie ready to finish in the oven.  Might also switch the heating on for an hour (air source heat pump - it’s slow to heat up but will help with drying the washing !) if I’m feeling it will make a cake at the same time 😀😀

scandimore

Good work with the wall! Looks good.
Same with the spindly spiders here. One in each and every corner. I usually live and let live but sometimes they just take the mick. 
Hope you sort out the white mould. We've got a growing patch of it on a wall that we've already had damp proofed and it's cracking all the paint off...sigh. 

rtandon27

It must be the season for discovering mystery mold! 

OH moved some items in our dining room, only to discover that the wall under the window had developed a furry black mold patch.  He's cleaned it off, but we have no clue why that portion of wall suddenly feels damp.  This weekend first thing will be devoted to checking the gutters for undetected leaks as there is absolutely no other water source near that area! Oh the joys of a house with 'character'

Baileys_Babe

We did Thursdays free electricity hour, to make the most of it we, had the dehumidifier on to help dry the first load of laundry (it rained on and off all day), baked a loaf of bread, wash a second load of laundry, 2 showers which prompted the ASHP to run, recharged a few things, ran the dishwasher as well as our usual things. Most things would of happened at some point today we just tried to fit as many into the hour as possible.

Watty1

The wall looks great and I must admit to a lot of affection for the cow!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks all

Watty, yes, the cows are very curious and I am quite fond of them We only have them for a few months while they're pregnant, then they go back into the main milking herd. This lot are a cheerful bunch. I'm not a big fan of being in the same field as them, they are very big! But given I had a wall I could hide behind, I did give one a little stroke on the nose She wasn't impressed

You're all very good with the saving session. I remembered at 12.55pm when we were in the car driving into town, so consequently I made no use of it at all! Plonker. 

Glad I'm not the only one with a mould issue... (which we've still not sorted out). It's on the list for today, along with a million other things, of course... Including signing up for the mortgage fix, which also didn't get done yesterday. 

Yesterday was quite a wash out, it rained a LOT and we popped to town to pick up a prescription and other bits, and got rather wet. Still, we did get some exercise - me in a spin class and Mr Cheery in the gym. I'm keeping track of how much of our monthly membership we're saving in pay-as-you-go fees - so far we've spent around £30 of the £66 we've paid. Not bad considering we were away for almost a week. 

Right, best get on! Lots to do. Mr Cheery rang for a dentist check up yesterday afternoon thinking it would be weeks away but they'd had a cancellation this morning so he's gone there - it's an hour away, so he'll likely go and visit some pals while he's out. In the meantime, on my list... 

* finish the wall
* sort out mortgage fix
* ring hairdresser
* 2 lots of washing (first is in)
* 15 mins in craft room
* general tidy round
* get the strimmer out
* scythe a couple of rows
* sort out the mould!
* get started on the tiles

My mum's coming tomorrow, and we have two other lots of visitors next week so while it doesn't need to be pristine, I do want to be generally on top of things - and I'm trying to take advantage of my time off to make progress on  some of the DIY and bigger garden jobs. 

Desperately want those windowsills in before I go back to work too - that's next week's job... 

KajiKita

Ooooh …. Windowsills! Squee!! 😊❤️🤩

Yes, cows are huge and a bit lacking in spatial awareness. They wobble about and tend to budge you or stand on you, without malice, but it’s like being budged or trodden on by a bulldozer! 😂😂😂
Glad you petted one, even if it did offend her! 😂😊😉

The wall is looking good 😊👏

KK