Crikey can't believe it is so long since I posted. We're still moving in on the 27th; the kitchen is 99% finished and the tilers are starting tomorrow. When we went over last night (to drop more boxes off) two baths were in place (the whirlpool bath has a leak though) but no showers or new loos yet. The range has been unwrapped though and looks superb. I have also ordered a fantastically retro looking toaster but it has not yet arrived.
I went to order carpet for the upstairs bedrooms today but got a bit carried away I decided, when the bill came to £1600 for two rooms!! I think I will go in and choose something a bit cheaper tomorrow, after all it is only for bedrooms, and if I spend £1600 K will expect it to stay down for about the next 30 years!!
I picked H up from school today and he had that look on his face, as if he was about to burst into tears; I gave him a hug and he started..........my first instinct was to worry that he was being bullied. However it turned out the school had just held a memorial in the church for Mr Jim, the school lollypop man who died just before the summer holidays. Anyway apparently H was asked to hold Mr Jim's lollypop during the service, and it was all too much for him; poor little fella - he is so sensitive. I was just relieved he wasn't being bullied.
I am very disappointed with my gardening efforts this year - I have harvested one tomato, and I have been carefully watering what I thought were miniature aubergine plants, only to be informed that I have been nurturing weeds - how did that happen, when I grew the bloody things from seed? - and I thought they were growing so well!!
I have decided that I want to get a British shorthair kitten when we move - I have been cuddling Mr Fatty, the local specimen this afternoon - he is just so lovely and cuddly - almost teddy bear-like. I will try and take a picture of him to show you.
I am being very lazy and have arranged to have someone in to clean the oven next Friday - I just can't get down there - that's my excuse, and I am sticking to it!! I must admit I am also quite tempted to get someone in to clean once we have moved our stuff out too!!
In a way it will be sad to leave the beach house, but I am looking forward to having our own house again. Our landlord rang during the week to check when we were moving out, which I initially thought was a bit cheeky since the rent is paid until the 2nd - and then he said that we were very welcome to stay on a couple of weeks longer rent free if we wanted to - wow, how unbelievably kind of him - I was really touched.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Work in Progress 2
Well I have gone blogger mad today; probably due to the fact that I overdid things on Saturday and I am in a lot of pain today - it's my own fault and I have totally negated the soothing affect of the acupuncture I had on Friday!!
Some updated photos from this morning.
http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee25/eatwell_album/WORK%20IN%20PROGRESS%202/
Things are starting to look a bit more civilised! The kids chose their own room colours - Hayden is colour blind - Sian doesn't really have an excuse!! I did however put my foot down when H asked if he could have his ceiling painted in squares of all the left over paint from the house!
The funny looking wall in our room is much nicer in real life - a kind of aubergine colour - quite spectacular.
Must go now and get back to packing for H - off on school trip for a week tomorrow.
Some updated photos from this morning.
http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee25/eatwell_album/WORK%20IN%20PROGRESS%202/
Things are starting to look a bit more civilised! The kids chose their own room colours - Hayden is colour blind - Sian doesn't really have an excuse!! I did however put my foot down when H asked if he could have his ceiling painted in squares of all the left over paint from the house!
The funny looking wall in our room is much nicer in real life - a kind of aubergine colour - quite spectacular.
Must go now and get back to packing for H - off on school trip for a week tomorrow.
The Aga Saga
- well the Rangemaster Saga at any rate - and they are now owned by Aga.
The Range
Delivery 1- 18th August
Cooker arrives, delivery people can't get it through kitchen/hall door without unwrapping it. Don't want to unwrap due to building work going on.
Back door is wide enough but they can't get through back gate due to skips in the way. Skips due to be emptied later in the week so they say they will redeliver the following Friday.
'Delivery' 2 - the following Friday
Get a call from builders at 4pm saying cooker hasn't arrived. Ring and am told that the delivery guys never rescheduled the delivery.
Delivery is rescheduled for the 27th.
'Delivery' 3 - August 27th
Get a call the evening before saying that the delivery will be between 10.30 and 2.30 the following day.
Get a call from the builder at 4pm saying that the cooker has not arrived. Ring delivery centre and am told that the cooker has been delivered. I assure them that it hasn't and they promise to get someone to ring me the following day.
At around 6pm when my visitors have just arrived, I get a call from the delivery drivers saying that they are running a little late and will be with me in about half an hour I tell them that it is too late, and that I am not living at the delivery address and I cannot get there due to visitors.
I ring the delivery centre the next day and they tell me that I have to go back into the branch where I bought the cooker, get a refund and rebuy it - a little difficult seeing as I bought it online!! Eventually get the delivery rescheduled for the following Saturday.
''Delivery' 4 - the following Saturday
No phone call the night before about delivery so after 9pm I ring the automated system in order to get a delivery slot. The system cannot give me a time and I know that the office is not manned until 9am so I get up on the Saturday and leave here at 7.30am to make sure that I get to the house by 8am just in case. Picture the scene - me sat in the kitchen on a camp chair in the freezing cold kitchen, rain coming through the roof in several places and no working lights!! At least the pouring rain gave me the opportunity to check out which bits of guttering were leaking!!
9am arrives so I ring the delivery centre to ask about my delivery slot, only to be told that 'your delivery has been changed to Tuesday because we are not coming to your area today'!! Nice of them to tell me!!
Delivery is rearrange for the following Tuesday.
Sunday night - get a phone call from the delivery centre asking me if I am aware that my delivery has been changed from Saturday to Tuesday!!! The irony was not wasted on me!!!
Monday night - receive a phone call from the delivery centre informing me that my Tuesday delivery will be coming between 7am and 11am, but advising us that we are the first delivery so they could be as early as 6.45!!!!!!!
'Delivery' 5 - The best one
Leave Mudeford at 6.15 to ensure that I am at the house by 6.45. Get a call at 7.15 saying they delivery guys will be with me within half an hour. The guys arrive at 7.45, and walk into the kitchen. They look at the obvious hole for the cooker and say 'We can see where the cooker is going, but where is it?' Good joke!!!
Alas they jested not - they had been sent on a service call to fit the cooker (we had never asked for it to be fitted) and thought it had already been delivered!!! Oh you've got to laugh!!! They rang the delivery centre and were told it could be delivered the following day - same time slot.
Delivery 6 - 3 September
Hooray - it has arrived, but still not unwrapped so hope it's ok!!!
I emailed customer services and had a little bit of a rant, and they clearly didn't appreciated how pissed off I was, as their response was to refund my £19.99 delivery charge!!!!!!! Personally I think I need a bloody medal for my patience!
The Range
Delivery 1- 18th August
Cooker arrives, delivery people can't get it through kitchen/hall door without unwrapping it. Don't want to unwrap due to building work going on.
Back door is wide enough but they can't get through back gate due to skips in the way. Skips due to be emptied later in the week so they say they will redeliver the following Friday.
'Delivery' 2 - the following Friday
Get a call from builders at 4pm saying cooker hasn't arrived. Ring and am told that the delivery guys never rescheduled the delivery.
Delivery is rescheduled for the 27th.
'Delivery' 3 - August 27th
Get a call the evening before saying that the delivery will be between 10.30 and 2.30 the following day.
Get a call from the builder at 4pm saying that the cooker has not arrived. Ring delivery centre and am told that the cooker has been delivered. I assure them that it hasn't and they promise to get someone to ring me the following day.
At around 6pm when my visitors have just arrived, I get a call from the delivery drivers saying that they are running a little late and will be with me in about half an hour I tell them that it is too late, and that I am not living at the delivery address and I cannot get there due to visitors.
I ring the delivery centre the next day and they tell me that I have to go back into the branch where I bought the cooker, get a refund and rebuy it - a little difficult seeing as I bought it online!! Eventually get the delivery rescheduled for the following Saturday.
''Delivery' 4 - the following Saturday
No phone call the night before about delivery so after 9pm I ring the automated system in order to get a delivery slot. The system cannot give me a time and I know that the office is not manned until 9am so I get up on the Saturday and leave here at 7.30am to make sure that I get to the house by 8am just in case. Picture the scene - me sat in the kitchen on a camp chair in the freezing cold kitchen, rain coming through the roof in several places and no working lights!! At least the pouring rain gave me the opportunity to check out which bits of guttering were leaking!!
9am arrives so I ring the delivery centre to ask about my delivery slot, only to be told that 'your delivery has been changed to Tuesday because we are not coming to your area today'!! Nice of them to tell me!!
Delivery is rearrange for the following Tuesday.
Sunday night - get a phone call from the delivery centre asking me if I am aware that my delivery has been changed from Saturday to Tuesday!!! The irony was not wasted on me!!!
Monday night - receive a phone call from the delivery centre informing me that my Tuesday delivery will be coming between 7am and 11am, but advising us that we are the first delivery so they could be as early as 6.45!!!!!!!
'Delivery' 5 - The best one
Leave Mudeford at 6.15 to ensure that I am at the house by 6.45. Get a call at 7.15 saying they delivery guys will be with me within half an hour. The guys arrive at 7.45, and walk into the kitchen. They look at the obvious hole for the cooker and say 'We can see where the cooker is going, but where is it?' Good joke!!!
Alas they jested not - they had been sent on a service call to fit the cooker (we had never asked for it to be fitted) and thought it had already been delivered!!! Oh you've got to laugh!!! They rang the delivery centre and were told it could be delivered the following day - same time slot.
Delivery 6 - 3 September
Hooray - it has arrived, but still not unwrapped so hope it's ok!!!
I emailed customer services and had a little bit of a rant, and they clearly didn't appreciated how pissed off I was, as their response was to refund my £19.99 delivery charge!!!!!!! Personally I think I need a bloody medal for my patience!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Work In Progress 1
Due to popular demand, an update on the house. We are definitely moving on on September 27th. This is the living room this week, although one of the baths has been moved into the conservatory. (could add a little something to social occasions!!)
The hall - shouldn't look too bad once the decorating stuff has been cleared up.
Utility room & fridge - there are some units in it now. In fact the whole kitchen is probably about 70% done now.
The living room looks as though a bomb has hit it!! I just can't picture myself sitting in here of an evening!
http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee25/eatwell_album/wORK%20iN%20PROGRESS%201/WORK%20IN%20PROGRESS%201/
http://s231.photobucket.com/albums/ee25/eatwell_album/wORK%20iN%20PROGRESS%201/WORK%20IN%20PROGRESS%201/
I will go over today and take some more photos as I am sure some progress has been made this week; hopefully the roof leaks have been fixed so the bloody place is a little more watertight!!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Where is my bloody range?
First meant to be delivered on the 18th but they couldn't get it through the kitchen door in its packaging and didn't want to unwrap it with all the building work going on. They said they would deliver it on the Friday instead, by which time the skip would have been emptied and moved. The poor guys had been driving around for ages because their printed delivery note was pointing them to number 5 and not number 57.
Friday came and went, as did the skip - but no cooker. When I rang the redelivery had never been scheduled, so they rescheduled for today. Being a helpful sort of person I rang the delivery centre to tell them about the address but they said they couldn't change it and I needed to ring another number; I rang the number and they told me I needed to contact the delivery centre - at which point (having been kept waiting for so long) I semi exploded, so they offered to inform the delivery centre for me. It all looked quite hopeful when we had a call yesterday, promising said delivery for between 10 and 2 today. I hold out little hope for the superfridge actually turning up as promised on Thursday!
The builder rang at 4 to say the cooker hadn't arrived and he was going home. I rang the Company I had bought the cooker from to relay my sorry tale - but it's ok, they say it has been delivered!!! Mmmm I will just have to tell the builder that he is mistaken and they slipped it into the house without him noticing!!
A quiet weekend this last one - which is good but I am suffering today having walked too far yesterday. I am starting physiotherapy tomorrow which should be interesting. The house is still horribly quiet with no H, but I had his foot damage repaired today - what a beautiful new clean windscreen! I am really missing the olympics now it has finished - no gushing of patriotic pride to wake up to anymore. it seems hard to believe that it is really three years since we were awarded the 2010 gig.
Friday came and went, as did the skip - but no cooker. When I rang the redelivery had never been scheduled, so they rescheduled for today. Being a helpful sort of person I rang the delivery centre to tell them about the address but they said they couldn't change it and I needed to ring another number; I rang the number and they told me I needed to contact the delivery centre - at which point (having been kept waiting for so long) I semi exploded, so they offered to inform the delivery centre for me. It all looked quite hopeful when we had a call yesterday, promising said delivery for between 10 and 2 today. I hold out little hope for the superfridge actually turning up as promised on Thursday!
The builder rang at 4 to say the cooker hadn't arrived and he was going home. I rang the Company I had bought the cooker from to relay my sorry tale - but it's ok, they say it has been delivered!!! Mmmm I will just have to tell the builder that he is mistaken and they slipped it into the house without him noticing!!
A quiet weekend this last one - which is good but I am suffering today having walked too far yesterday. I am starting physiotherapy tomorrow which should be interesting. The house is still horribly quiet with no H, but I had his foot damage repaired today - what a beautiful new clean windscreen! I am really missing the olympics now it has finished - no gushing of patriotic pride to wake up to anymore. it seems hard to believe that it is really three years since we were awarded the 2010 gig.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Kiss of Death on the Weather
Please will everyone accept my heartfelt apology for putting the kiss of death on the weather this summer, due to being off work! I can't believe it is so grotty! Saying that I can still hear kids playing on the beach and there is one windsurfer out, so I suppose the weather can't be that bad today. At least it is dry.
The house is still going through a destructive as opposed to constructive stage; the kitchen fitter has been delayed yet again but is meant to be starting this Friday now. I must admit I am a bit bored with being asked to choose things like tiles and paint colours - it is just so boring, and because we have so many rooms to do I constantly have to be budget conscious. We currently have decorators in and they are beavering away stripping wallpaper at the moment. It's quite sweet in the kitchen because there is some graffiti on the walls dating back to the 1950s, so I have told the builders that they should add their own 2008 additions - I am going to. The builders have also uncovered a screwed up sheet of newspaper dated April 14th 1914, reporting all kinds of interesting news, including a court case regarding the theft of 20 chickens valued at £5 - this seems an awful lot of money!
H has been in the kitchen making scones this morning, making lots of strange noises and lots of mess too - but at least it tears him away from the TV! I am trying not to look at the scones because they look bloody gorgeous, and I am trying not to go back down the slippery slope of eating that kind of thing! I may have to break out the cream and jam and encourage the kids to eat the whole lot! Oh as a beside, how funny is this - I was out with H once and he doesn't like dried fruit so he selected a cheese scone on M & S and then tried to pick up cream and jam to go with it!!!! LOL! I had to explain that they don't really go!! - a bit like my purple Crocs that the poor child has taken to wearing - they don't look very masculine so I did tell the poor colour blind child that they are bright purple but he didn't care - says he just wears them to save having to put on socks!!
We haven't been doing an awful lot as I am still meant to be taking it easy, so the kids have been glued to the Olympics. S the Slug is full of baloney about her sporting ability; one minute she is going to start cycling to school (about 8 miles each way) the next minute she is going to start swimming before school every day!! I am very good at taking it as seriously as she says it but privately find it pretty hilarious, coming from a child who doesn't get up until gone midday if she gets the chance!!
I have now got a physiotherapy appointment for next week which I am pleased about; it is at the Harbour Hospital in Poole, which is not as nice plush as the Nuffield in Poole, but nicer than some other places!!
It was lovely to see Lynda on Monday, but yet again the weather was terrible, and we got soaked whilst out for a walk, but at least she had brought her coat, as I knew she would as she likes walking in that kind of weather.
Not much planned for the rest of the week; the time is flying by and I do tend to forget what day of the week it is. I made an appointment this morning to see the doctor as I need some new painkillers - the first appointment available with any doctor was the 28th of August!!
The house is still going through a destructive as opposed to constructive stage; the kitchen fitter has been delayed yet again but is meant to be starting this Friday now. I must admit I am a bit bored with being asked to choose things like tiles and paint colours - it is just so boring, and because we have so many rooms to do I constantly have to be budget conscious. We currently have decorators in and they are beavering away stripping wallpaper at the moment. It's quite sweet in the kitchen because there is some graffiti on the walls dating back to the 1950s, so I have told the builders that they should add their own 2008 additions - I am going to. The builders have also uncovered a screwed up sheet of newspaper dated April 14th 1914, reporting all kinds of interesting news, including a court case regarding the theft of 20 chickens valued at £5 - this seems an awful lot of money!
H has been in the kitchen making scones this morning, making lots of strange noises and lots of mess too - but at least it tears him away from the TV! I am trying not to look at the scones because they look bloody gorgeous, and I am trying not to go back down the slippery slope of eating that kind of thing! I may have to break out the cream and jam and encourage the kids to eat the whole lot! Oh as a beside, how funny is this - I was out with H once and he doesn't like dried fruit so he selected a cheese scone on M & S and then tried to pick up cream and jam to go with it!!!! LOL! I had to explain that they don't really go!! - a bit like my purple Crocs that the poor child has taken to wearing - they don't look very masculine so I did tell the poor colour blind child that they are bright purple but he didn't care - says he just wears them to save having to put on socks!!
We haven't been doing an awful lot as I am still meant to be taking it easy, so the kids have been glued to the Olympics. S the Slug is full of baloney about her sporting ability; one minute she is going to start cycling to school (about 8 miles each way) the next minute she is going to start swimming before school every day!! I am very good at taking it as seriously as she says it but privately find it pretty hilarious, coming from a child who doesn't get up until gone midday if she gets the chance!!
I have now got a physiotherapy appointment for next week which I am pleased about; it is at the Harbour Hospital in Poole, which is not as nice plush as the Nuffield in Poole, but nicer than some other places!!
It was lovely to see Lynda on Monday, but yet again the weather was terrible, and we got soaked whilst out for a walk, but at least she had brought her coat, as I knew she would as she likes walking in that kind of weather.
Not much planned for the rest of the week; the time is flying by and I do tend to forget what day of the week it is. I made an appointment this morning to see the doctor as I need some new painkillers - the first appointment available with any doctor was the 28th of August!!
OOH I WANT A SCONE!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Cake Travesty
I went to the local fete today for (for the new house) for a short while but tired very easily. They appeared to take it all very seriously with a standard recipe and cake tin size and shape, so I made a real effort to get a cake tin the right size. I was a little bit pissed off when I got to the fete and there were cakes of all shapes and sizes on display so I asked (tongue in cheek) if all the round ones were going to be disqualified, only to be told that no one could find an 8 inch cake tin so they were allowing all shapes and sizes, and by the way, the metric ingredients list was wrong!! My cake tasted fine (as did the two practice ones :-) but it didn't look as big as some of the others.
We have been living in Mudeford for nearly a year now and for the first time this week I saw the lifeboat returning to base (I have since seen it for a second time this week). The first time I had my camera so took some photos. I didn't realise that the little tractor went so far into the water.
Tonight is the end of Christchurch Carnival week so we should get a good view of the fireworks tonight. I am not sure whether or not we will see anything of the Bournemouth air show over the bank holiday weekend. i have to admit to being slightly paranoid about the coastguard helicopter; it goes so close to the house it feels as though they can see into my bedroom although I'm sure they can't!
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