And on the house front!

We have most of the prep work done on the house now.  I sanded down the woodwork in the living room at the weekend, and both me and Becky have done some painting.  The airing cupboard, under stairs cupboard and back porch are now brilliant white, making them a lot brighter than they were.  None of which were high priority jobs but much needed relief after all the wallpaper removal. 

We're close to appointing an electrician and have taken the decision to have the whole house rewired. I think this is wise on two fronts, firstly the house still has its original wiring and the house is as old as me  so that's an no brainer really. Secondly if we leave it a year down the line (which was an idea) we're causing ourselves more decorating work on top of what we will have just done.  Which will be disruptive for Becky and Rob if they stay there longer term.  If they decide they want to move on in a year or two and we decide to rent it out then by law we need a Part P Certificate and we might as well get that now rather than wait when we don't know what the situation will be in a couple of years time.  Financially we need to bite the bullet and just get it done.

We've also been talking to a guy about the rendering at the front of the house which has a gaping hole in it.  His unofficial quote is a lot less than we expected it to be but we will see what he comes back with when he's actually looked at the pictures we sent.

So there isn't too much that we can be doing at the moment until the re-wiring is done, hopefully that will be done and dusted in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile we get a wee bit of time off from renovation work before we head into full scale decorating mode.  Which I'm really looking forward to. Seeing the house transformed into something livable will be really rewarding.

As an aside but kind of related, I've been thinking a lot about coincidences and synchronicity the past month or so.  On the day that we picked up the keys for the house, I bumped into my old landlady and friend Janet who I hadn't seen for  couple of years.  Turns out they had done exactly the same as us, bought a house to decorate and for their son in Leeds to rent, and picked their keys up the day before.  I need to start a book of these events.  Timing really is a strange and wonderful thing.

 

Between the heart and the head

Got my assignment mark and comments back this morning.   A middling 63% which is two points more than my previous assignment which is something I guess and another pass (pass is 40%).  I'm happy enough with that.  On this module I open the comments with one eye half closed and my body language screaming 'do I really have to read this?'.   This one was more positive insofar as I finally understand where I could be doing better.  I love the case studies that we are looking at and find them fascinating, and I will never view heritage sites in the same way again.   It's the theory behind it all that I'm struggling with.  The values attributed to why a particular monument, site, or community are considered worthy of heritage.  There are so many layers to it all!   I 'get it' on an instinctive level, but trying to translate that into a workable essay is where I find it really difficult.  Hopefully now that I realise that, it's something I can focus on for my last assignment and, more importantly, the revision for my exam.

Two more weeks left of reading to do, one assignment and then revision time.  One step closer to finishing this year though ... hurrah!

Freedom!

So I've have finally come to the end of my working week and I start my work week off. I can't remember the last time my time off didn't involve studying for assignments.  Whilst I have one week's reading to do for Uni, my next assignment isn't due in until the beginning of May and with the end of this course in sight, I have an increasing sense of freedom!!   That said, I have a list as long as my arm of things I need to/want to/could be doing.  

Must do's are sorting out the craft cupboard downstairs and finding another home for the bits I keep. Long overdue and will make Simon very, very happy!!

We'll be spending the weekend at Crispin Drive, moving onto the next stage, which is sanding down the ceiling and woodwork.  I hope to spend a bit of time there before then if possible to strip the wallpaper off the walls in the  hall, we will see. One whole side of the wall is artexed, and after reading up on the best way to remove it discovered that pre-1980's artex was made with asbestos.  As we have no idea how long the artex has been there (it looks pretty old though), we've decided the best option is to get a plasterer in to skim the lot.  A few of the ceilings in the house are artexed too, not my choice of covering I must say, but Becky doesn't mind it, so we will just paint them. The asbestos is harmless so long as it's not disturbed by scraping so a lick of paint should suffice.

On Monday night we acquired another piece of furniture for the house, or rather three!!  Freecycle came up trumps this time and Becky found a nest of tables, free to a good home, in Chesterfield so I dutifully picked them up for her on the way home from work.  The chap who gave them to us said his father had brought them over from India many, many years ago. It's nice to know they have a little bit of history.  They need a little bit of attention and I suspect they will end up painted over some trendy colour, but I love the shape of them, especially the legs.

Bodgy the Builder

Simon and Becky went to do a couple of hours work at Crispin Drive tonight.  One of the fittings on the towel radiator in the bathroom was loose so Simon decided to investigate why.  Like in many semi-detached houses of its age, it turns out that the toilet and bathroom had once been separate rooms and someone, somewhere along the line had knocked them into one.  Except this is how they tackled the hole where the toilet door use to be.

Yes, they left the door in situ, tiled over it  on one side, the stuck some blocks  on it to attach the radiator screws to on the other.  They boarded the whole thing up with a sheet of plyboard and wallpapered over it. Typical of the DIY efforts that we keep finding in the house.  Looks like Simon's wall building skills will be put to use again soon.  We're gonna have to source some tiles the same as those already in the bathroom, which was one of the rooms we weren't intending doing much too, but I guess we could have found worse DIY disasters.  We still might!

Arctic Chills

I expected to wake up full of aches and pains after the walk we did yesterday, and after intending to have a long lie in, actually woke up at 7.30.

Left Becky and Rob to sleep whilst I did a bit of housework, which I'd been neglecting due to all the other stuff that has gone off this week.

Spent the afternoon at the new house. Took the paint steamer this time wow, it make much lighter work of getting rid of all that wallpaper.  So now we have 3 bedrooms and a living room stripped and ready to sand down and poly-filler.

When we finished, I was just about to get into the car when I noticed this unusual daisy on the grass verge. Never seen anything like it before and none of the other daisies around it had the same marking on it. At first I thought it was a little ladybird snuggling into the flower, so took this pic.  It was only when I zoomed in on it later on that I realised that it was part of the flower.

Went for some tea with Becky and Rob before dropping them off home - delicious pizzas with really unusual toppings. Highly recommended:

There we were, sat minding our own business when Becky spied an Arctic Monkey out of the window.  There he was!  Casually going to the corner shop for a pint of milk!  Well, we just had to didn't we? Rob and me legged it out of the restaurant and laid in wait for him to come out.  Rob (and Becky) are HUGE Arctic Monkey fans, and whilst Becky has met some of them already, Rob hadn't so we couldn't let the opportunity pass.  Not sure what Nick thought about being accosted outside of his local convenience store but he was very gracious about it all.

Brilliant end to a really great weekend.

Super Saturday

Had  fab day out walking with friends.  The weather was glorious - sunny but not too warm - perfect walking weather.

We did just short of 7 miles of easy terrain as one of the lads had a bad knees, so we didn't want too many inclines.

 We saw some lovely Derbyshire scenery

And Monty came too!!

We stopped for a pint at The Grouse at Froggatt and sat in their lovely beer garden

Then finished the walk and drove to The Travellers Rest at Bradwell for a well earned lunch/tea. I'd definitely recommend it for somewhere to eat if you are out in the Peak District.  Great food and great value.  And lots of wine :-)

How crazy is our English weather though?  After that wonderful sunshine we'd had all day, it started to hail on the way home!  Madness.


Another great day out with our walking, talking, drinking pals.

Fooked Friday

Another day at work and I was knackered by the time I got home.  Friday night consisted of binge watching Nashville (I am so far behind) and drinking wine.  In bed.

I have to say, I can totally see what Raynor sees in Deacon.

Shocked at the complete cliff hanger ending to Series 3 though.

Thrifty Thursday

Was intending going for my run once I got home from work but we had an appointment with a roofer at the new house at 5.30 so that didn't happen. I consoled myself that doing a couple more hours of wallpaper stripping still counted as exercise so that'll do for today.

Roofer gave us a good quote for sorting the ridge tiles, some of which you can see daylight through, and he should be able to do it in the next couple of weeks so that's a goer.

Finished stripping the front room whilst Rob tackled the spare bedroom and Simon and Becky went off to pick up a second hand IKEA bed frame from Hillsborough for £20.

Its similar to this one, only the slats on the bedhead are higher up and it's white. It needs a coat of white spray paint, but is sound as a pound otherwise.

Wobbly Wednesday

So this morning I decided to leave the referencing of my assignment until tonight after work, so had a lie in. Not due into work until 1.15 so had a lazy morning pottering about.

Checking back in with my assignment when I got home and panic stations!  Reading it back I decided it was a load of old twaddle. Spent a few hours trying to salvage it before giving it up as a bad job, sorting out the referencing and submitting it anyway.  It can't be any worse than the one I did last month. Can it?

At least I don't have to think about assignments or studying for a whole week

Sunday

Well after our very hectic day yesterday we all laid in til lunchtime!

I'd been awake since about 9 but just lazed in bed catching up on some reading until about 11.30 when I thought I had better put the chicken in the oven if we were to have a proper Sunday dinner anywhere near lunch time!

Had a lovely meal then caught up on Jenny and Rob's photos from skiing in France, and Becky and Rob's Paris photos.  

Simon took Becky and Rob back to Sheffield via Crispin Drive where he cut the grass which he'd intended doing on Saturday but couldn't due to the rain.  

I decided to use the opportunity to go for a run. It was a lovely sunny day with nothing spoiling.  When I started, I thought I wouldn't make it as far as the Co-op but I kept slow and persevered and ran a few meters further than I had last time I went out.  Was really pleased with myself and gave myself a good talking to about what we can do when we put our mind to it instead of giving up before we start.  I had two short stops on my circuit  and my goal for next time is to get it down to just the one stop.  I have a few more longer term goals but am just going to focus on one at a time at the moment.  I'm going to try to get out every other day if I can.  

Two down ...

Once Simon was home we headed back to Sheffield to take Jenny and Rob to the train station. We were ages early so stopped at Beauchief Abbey for a half an hour walk (more exercise - go me!!) and got some nice photos of the woods and Abbey.

We headed to Becky's for a quick sandwich tea and then to the station. Becky went off to meet Rob to go see The Last Shadow Puppets at Sheffield City Hall - there was a possibility of a late ticket for me but by the time Rob got to the front of the queue they had all gone. Probably for the best being that I was still dressed in me sweat pants and trainers from my run earlier :-). By all accounts it was a great gig.  I'll look forward to seeing them in July at Castlefields in Manchester with Becky though.

I was very happy to come home and took to my bed once again whilst I watched The Durrells on telly. I remember reading My Family and Other Animals years ago and really enjoying it so have been looking forward to catching the series and enjoyed the first episode very much.

Saturday

We've bought a house in Sheffield to renovate  for Becky and Rob (1) to rent off us while they are at Uni.  We got the keys on Thursday and so went over with a load of tools, decorating and cleaning equipment today to make a start on pulling it all to bits.  Simon and Rob took off all the old doors, pulled up the bits of mis-matched carpets and a grotty built-in bed that had been in the small bedroom and took them to the tip whilst Becky and I set to scraping of various layers of wallpaper in the living room.

We were joined in the afternoon by Jenny and Rob (2) who were visiting from London for the weekend. They helped with the scraping and we just about got the front room finished before we decided to call it a day.

 

I think I can call that a good day's exercise!

Our soundtrack to the day was the new album by The Last Shadow Puppets, and Radio X whose playlist appeared to consist of songs circa 2000.  Good to hear some oldies that I'd forgotten about.

Becky appears to be spending most of her spare time on ebay and Gumtree sourcing second hand furniture as cheaply as possible.  The first item bought is a lovely beech table with a frosted glass top, a huge bargain at only £30. More so when the sellers decided to throw in the 3 powder blue dining chairs for nowt too.  Best bit though was when Simon and Rob (1) went to pick them up and got stuck in the lift :-)  

We decided to go for the easy option and get a Chinese takeaway for tea. It was lovely, and even better having a full table of people to share it all with.  We had a right laugh afterwards playing 'Never Mind the Buzzcocks' and Rob (2) (who says he doesn't 'do' music!) proved to be particularly adept when it came to tunes from the 60's and 70's.  See how influential music is!

Brilliant feel good day all round.  Retired to bed tired and happy.

She runs!

Well.  Over the past ten years I've had many attempts at C25K, most of which have ended after about the third run because, well, it was just too difficult*

So this morning I woke up thinking I really fancied going for a run.  My self talk went something like:

"I think I'll go for a run.

Oh but you know if you exercise first thing in the morning you'll throw up!

Yeah, that's true, I don't really fancy feeling so shit. On the other hand, if I manage a bit of running I'll feel better mentally.

Yeah, but what if you throw up, just think how gross you will feel.

Hmmm.  Worst case scenario, I run, I throw up, and lose weight either way and feel more perky. Win, win. Let's do this" :-)

After a 10 minute throwing of clothes out of the wardrobe I finally found where I'd tidied away my sports bra (essential believe me!), put on the running gear and set off.

I decided not to take any music with me, as it makes me run faster, which at the moment is self-defeating as I end up crawling the last half of my course.   The goal is to just get out there consistently enough that it becomes a habit for me.  So I plodded along, and when I found I was getting too breathless I slowed down a bit.

My route is only one and half mile, but for the first time ever I managed it with only 2 short stops.  It was the best run I've done in the past 10 years.   I think I ran a mile and a quarter, and walked a quarter, and for a beginner, I'm really pleased with that.

And in case you're wondering!!! I didn't throw up :-)

I've decided to keep a record of my runs on here, but I'm not going to publish them until I feel I'm consistent enough to keep going. I'm really good at crowing about what I do, and then give up the next week, and I don't want that to happen this time.  If you are reading this then it means that I succeeded otherwise this post is gathering dust unpublished at the back of me blog.  Fingers crossed eh :-)

* I'm a woose and give up far too easily.