Floored!

 

I finally got the utility room and kitchen floored with laminate flooring.  It took 2 and a half months for it to be delivered!  When I ordered (and paid for) it I was told it would take up to 4 weeks.  Pffttt!! Although in retrospect I'm glad it wasn't down for the party 🙄 Removing the ancient linoleum was bloody hard work.  It was well stuck down!!!!

Before and after in the utility room

And the kitchen

I'm about 90% happy with it.  There are a few rough edges and a bit where the fitter was lazy and should have taken some more time.  Plus he left sawdust absolutely everywhere 🙄 But it's done and finished so now I need to get a move on with the rest of the decorating.

I did manage to get the painting in this room finished on time for the new carpet to be fitted. Just magnolia on the walls and Brilliant White on the woodwork.  I already had it leftover from other projects.  My son and DIL bought an IKEA chair and some curtains, both in dark green.  Once their navy sofa comes, they'll have their own sitting room at last!

Finally

It's finally finished!! I love it and can't wait to get it deep cleaned over the weekend.  Then comes the good bit deciding what colour to paint the walls and choose the flooring.  Should I match with the kitchen or go completely different?

We heard yesterday at 12pm precisely that we're getting our "special visitors" in 2 weeks.  Yep, His Majesty's Inspectors of Education are finally descending on us after waiting several years.  When I got the job in my school 7 years ago  I was told their visit was imminent.  So for the next 2 weeks in school  it's all go making sure our paperwork is flawless, our displays are immaculate and our kids are well briefed on behaviour.  I think only 1 out of these 3 is humanly possible in my classroom!!

Progress

 

It's slow progress on the utility room/mini kitchen.  Reeeeeeeally slow!!!  This is 3 days work 🙄 The joiner pulled out 2 wall cupboards and 2 base units.  He's replacing them with 2 wall cupboards, 2 base units and a fridge.  And oh my goodness, what a mess!!  Plus B&Q forgot to order the cupboard doors.  Which means I didn't pay for the cupboard doors.  Which means my mini kitchen won't be finished until next week *sighs*

But progress on my cardigan is quick!!  Colours are more vivid in real life!  I've now divided the stitches into 2 fronts and the back.  It's quite heavy already so it's going to be a warm cosy cardi especially are there's a lot of 100% pure wool in the yarns!! 

Plans, pah!

 

Long term readers will know I've had to adjust and change my plans many many times over the years.  That's ok, it makes life interesting!! I heard yesterday that I didn't get a place on the celebrant course.  It was a generic email that basically said they had too many applicants but I could apply again in the future.  There are other training courses I could do so that door isn't closed.  I'll have a ponder over the holidays and see how I feel.  And make a new plan!

My B&Q delivery arrived on time with 2 very cheery guys who both had black labs so Emma was getting a lot of attention.  I'd cleared the 'craft' room so the boxes could be stored inside and not in the cold garage.  I'm hoping to get more 'stuff' sorted out during these holidays so the mini kitchen/utility room and craft room could be completed by the end of January if I get a move on.

Our Christmas dinner tomorrow will be low key.  I've taken food out of the freezer this morning to defrost and I'm so pleased to see all the yellow stickers.  I did splash out on the main meat and fish bit but all the trimmings are definitely done cheaply.  Can't wait! 😋

How ever you're spending your Christmas, have a lovely day! 🎄🎅🍲🍴🍸

Tough Week

 

I'm not gonna lie, it's been a tough week thanks to the effects of school Halloween events on my 4 and 5 yos 👻 and the total changes at home.  I love my son and DIL dearly but ooft, it's going to take a lot more work than I thought to get some kind of order and routines established.

Despite doing 2 tip runs myself and paying a small fortune to my 'man with a van' (who had a FULL stuffed to the doors vanload) I'm still overflowing with STUFF!!!  My craft room was pretty much cleared but this is how it looks again this morning 🙄  I know we'll get there eventually but it feels a bit never ending.  

They both have chronic health conditions so their sleep patterns are opposite to mine.  My alarm goes off at 6.30am for work so I'm in bed by 10pm.  They stay in bed until about lunch time so don't go to bed until after midnight.  And meal times are just not in sync at all.   Aaaaaargh!!!!

Ok, sorry for the wee rant.  It's only been a week so far.  I've learned that maybe I'm not as easy going as I thought I was!! 😂  I've learned that I really like my solitude and own space at night after a crappy day at work.  So I'm prioritising getting the family room (first photo) cleared and set up as a sitting room space for them.  I've also gone ahead with turning my utility room into a mini kitchen.  Work starts on 9th January. 

I'm hoping that by documenting it here we can look back one day and 'fondly' remember the start of this way of living 😱😂

Another speedy weekend!

Maybe it's because I'm trying to pack in lots of stuff but weekends speed by so quickly!!

As well as painting the final coat of white satinwood (HOORAY!!!) in my utility room I had a wee bit of retail therapy too. I discovered that my local TK Maxx has an upstairs with tons more home items!! No idea how I missed that!  They do have some things downstairs but more than half the floor space upstairs is home stuff!  Luckily I only had loose change in my purse or I could have spent so much more.  I've been on the lookout for a white fruit bowl and they had a choice of 4 different ones.  This one was £7.99.  I also picked up a purple candle for my bedroom reduced to £2.  So less than a tenner was spent!

I collected a wee embroidered bee cushion from M&S for my living room I had on order.  

I managed to spend some more time tidying up the garden.  On Gardeners World Monty Don recommended pruning pumpkin/squash vines to encourage them to put their energy into growing fruits instead of more flowers.  My butternut squash is now the size of a pear.

And I found another one hidden under all the leaves! I doubt it has time to mature now but we'll see.

The mystery green squash is now the size and shape of a rugby ball.  Despite this week's high winds it's survived.  Now that I've successfully (albeit accidentally!) grown some pumpkin/squashes I'll put more effort into them next year.  And remember the varieties!!

Another lovely colleague at school gave me some apples.  Over 13lbs to be precise plus some windfalls.  She doesn't know what varieties they are but they were a mixture of cooking and eating.

I've cooked some of them into chunky applesauce.  Then I froze them in 1 cup portions for making baked apple oat cups (if they're good I'll share photos and recipe) and made an apple sponge pudding.

I've also made 6lbs of apple and beetroot chutney.  Lidl had loads of reduced bunches of beetroot.  It's a lovely red colour although you can't see it in this photo.  And there are still more apples to use!!  I'm planning to make some spiced apple jelly.

And so it's back to work tomorrow.  There are 3 weeks of term left until the October break.  I have big plans for my week's break so must get all the wee niggly jobs in the utility room and living room finished off by then. 

It always takes longer...

I really did think that I'd be finished by tonight but painting always takes longer than I think it will.  I won't know until the morning (depends how it dries) but I'm pretty sure I'll need to do another coat of satinwood on all the woodwork.  Painting Brilliant White emulsion on top of Brilliant White was really hard on my eyesight!  As much as I loved the matt emulsion I used 2 (yes, TWO!!!) years ago it wasn't doing well on the heavy traffic areas around the doors. I'm hoping the bathroom paint I had stashed in the garage is easier to wipe clean!!

Talking of paint I already had... 

This tin of primer came with me from my previous house so it's at least 5 years old and has been well used!!

There's still about 1 cm left right at the bottom!!

For another almost but not quite finished room (the living room 😳) I splurged on some bee fabric to make cushions to match my bee canvas.  So that's another wee job on my to do list before the October break in 3 weeks. (ETA it's actually 4 weeks!  I was getting a bit excited!)   I want the utility room and living room completely done so I can start on  my bedroom during half term.

I might also have splurged £15 on some sparkly trainers for work!!

That leaves me with £61.34 in my clothes budget to last until the end of the year.  I might need some new opaque tights for work but I don't think I need anything else. 

So that was my very quick (again!) weekend.  Hope yours was productive too!

Fastest weekend ever!!

And all of a sudden it's Sunday night and the weekend is over! 😔 But I have tried to be busy and productive.  I tidied up my back garden and pulled out lots of weeds.  My wee garden is still producing edible things.  I planted some Aldi raspberries earlier this year (gift from my lovely mum), variety All Gold.  To my surprise they're an Autumn fruiting raspberry and there's lots of them just about ready to eat.

I checked the wandering pumpkin vines (they're out of control!!!) and discovered a teeny butternut squash and a mystery green squash.  It's definitely not a courgette but I have no idea what it is.  When the seeds didn't sprout after 2 weeks (I thought they weren't viable as they were a few years past the sow by date) I emptied the pots into the garden and just left the compost on the surface.    And threw away the packets too!  We'll wait and see if they grow big enough to harvest.

I used a small leek and some parsley in a big pot of Chicken and Rice soup.  That's my 5 lunches for the week sorted.

I made Chipotle Plum Chutney with the free plums and apples. I didn't have normal chilli flakes so used Chipotle ones.  It packs a punch!! Recipe HERE.  I forgot to add the onions.  Duh! I realised at the end so cooked them in the microwave then added them to the pan for 10 minutes before potting.  Tasted fine so hopefully it'll be ok.  It made 5 x 1lb jars and 2 x 1/2lb ones.  It'll be matured and ready to eat by Christmas. 😋🎄

I painted a door purple 💜 and primed all the stripped and sanded orange pine skirting and door frames.  What a difference the white primer makes already.  Might paint it tomorrow after work, depends on how tired I am!!

Speaking of tired... Both OH and I completely forgot that we had tickets to go see Janey Godley here in Stirling on Friday night.  She's a Scottish comedian who has had an 'interesting' life!  Very funny, swears a lot! Best known outside Scotland for her 2016 viral sign letting Trump know he wasn't welcome in Scotland!!  Really annoyed we let that slip as we deliberately didn't see her at The Fringe in the Summer as we had these tickets.  Ah well.

Back to work tomorrow and already planning next weekend's DIY jobs! 🔨

That September feeling

I'm pretty sure if I looked back at the last 5 Septembers I'd be writing about how tired I am.  All of us at work are just plain exhausted already. I have the largest class in the school (again!), luckily I have no major behaviour issues like some of my poor colleagues.  But that means I get very little SLA (Support for Learning Assistants) support.  I'm trying be positive and supportive in the staff room but OMG it's hard!

 Me after a long shower and full hair and make up done for a night out and I still look knackered!!

The promised berries never appeared but I did get a big bag of cooking apples this week so chutney making is definitely on the cards tomorrow.

Today is yet another painting day in the never ending task that is finishing off my utility room.  And OH is painting outside if the weather holds.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

First week back at school

I'm exhausted!!  I have 28 challenging wee monsters with a lot of needs.  Luckily I have a support assistant with me most of the day (which is fantastic) but I'm not used to having another adult in the room with me.  So that's presenting a few challenges as well!

I spent the last week of my holiday trying to arrange the room into a lovely learning environment.  It's a tight squeeze but one week in and I think it's going to work. You can't tell from the pics but I have the school garden including the polytunnel just outside my room and I have the only classroom with an outside door.  So there will be lots of opportunities for outdoor learning.

This is my desk area at the end of the day!!

The meal prep I did a few weeks ago has proved to be a big success.  Coming home exhausted from work meant I already had a nutritious meal waiting for me.  So far everything has reheated well.  Last Sunday I made a big batch of turkey meatloaf using 1.5kg of turkey breast mince I got reduced.  I made some little burger patties and meatloaf muffins as well as the usual loaf.  I've still got lots in the freezer.

They reheat very quickly in the microwave!

Back door before shot

On Monday night my joiner phoned to say the doors I had ordered had arrived and could he could come and fit them the next day ie the first day of school for the kids!!  He's a very busy guy as he's so good so of course I said yes even though I wasn't ready for him.

 

But what a difference they make!   

Side entrance door, seen from the street (before)

And here it is after

I'm not a huge fan of the white uPVC look but they now match the windows.  They're energy efficient and have better security locks.  I'm also thinking ahead about when it comes to sell this house so making it buyer friendly too is important.  I decided to have a very plain look of half glass and I chose brushed chrome handles as I'm replacing the many colours of handles/switches etc with brushed chrome throughout the house.  There's still some plastering to be done as removing all the disabled entrance stuff from the previous owner has left big holes but it already looks heaps better.

While he was here, the joiner also finally put a door on my integrated dishwasher and made me 4 new cupboard doors for my utility room.  They just need to be painted white now.  DIY and decorating is a very slow process but I'm learning to be patient (ish) ;-)

I had a day off yesterday from thinking about/doing school work but I have to spend some time today prepping work for next week.  Every day last week I was in school from 8am to 5pm and also did a few more hours at home too. I know I can't keep this pace up but for the first term in a new place it's kinda essential to hit the ground running and make a good impression.  I think I'm going to be happy in this school :-)

This week's round up

It's been a busy week!  As you can see my hair is now a short bob and blonde.  Definitely a luxury but I felt with a new job I needed a new look.  It's taking a bit of getting used to but I think I like it.  I can still do my purple toner on it ;-)

We had a big family dinner for OH's daughter's 20th birthday.  I made a chicken lasagne where I used my white sauce to make the chicken sauce bit.

I layered it up with GF lasagne sheets and a home made tomato sauce (with a ton of 'hidden' veggies in it for the veggie phobes) 

Then topped off with grated goats cheese to make a totally delicious and gluten/dairy free lasagne.  No one noticed the difference!!

I've been successfully defrosting and heating the meals I made for the freezer.  Yeay!!

I finished upcycling the hook rack and painted the radiator purple (looks darker in this pic) and am pleased with result.  I've ordered a wee shoe rack to fit in the space between the radiator and the corner.  Just the woodwork now to finish off.

I picked a handful of peas.  TBH I've not had much success with them at all but I'll do an update on my poor vegetable crops this weekend.

I scored some reduced goats milk today with another 3 days before the use by date.  I'm planning to make some yoghurt and soft cheese with it.

I bought some lovely goats milk yogurt with live cultures as my starter so I'm hopeful it'll work the same way I used to make cows milk yogurt.

I also attended the funeral of my colleague's husband.  It was a humanist service and a fitting celebration of a genuinely good man.  It makes you stop to appreciate everything and reminds me to enjoy life to the fullest every day.

All white

I've finally started painting my utility room.  It is the worst room in the house and I knew it would be a big job.  OH and I spent last week filling and sanding all the botched DIY stuff from the previous owner.  All the sockets had been plastered in!  Instead of loosening or removing them they'd plastered right up to the edges.  If I'd been keeping them it wouldn't have been a problem but I'm replacing them with the same black/brushed chrome ones  I have in my kitchen.

The walls, ceiling and door to the downstairs toilet/wetroom are yellow and the woodwork is varnished pine.  The glass door is actually my side entrance and the main door everyone uses to come in.  So really the utility room is my entrance hall.  I'd like it to look welcoming but it needs to be practical as well.

That big white stripe down the wall was from a partition.  Remember this?  Although it's taken me nearly 3 years to get round to decorating the whole room! Again the wall had been plastered up to the partition!! So it's taken a bit of work to get it all smooth.  Plastering isn't one of our skills but with a bit of patience it's turned out ok.

Before (this wall has a large coat rack)

 After the first coat 

Doesn't look too bad so far! In this photo you can see the dreadful state of my back door.  I'm replacing it and the side glass door with simple white ones.

I'm painting all the walls and woodwork in white.  The whole house will be white with splashes of colour here and there.  This is not my forever house so I want it to look clean and neutral for when the time comes.  I don't want to be in the position of trying to decorate just to sell. Been there, done that!

I've upcycled this wee hook rack that I use to hang the dog leads.  It had 4 brass hooks, 2 broken off and 1 bent.  I bought 4 aluminium hooks at 99p each and painted the wooden back purple to match the kitchen door.  Looks much better and has a practical use.

I've still 2 coats of white to do on the walls and then I'll start the woodwork. That should keep me busy for the rest of the week!