Bathroom is finished

Phil, who has been doing our en-suite and bathroom refurbishment is juts packing up as the job is done...apart from any finishing touches we might want to add such as new bathroom cabinet or some 'bling' to finish it off.

The time has gone pretty quickly....mainly because Phil has been so easy to get along with and have in the house each day.  I now know I would never have a contractor in the house that I did not have a good rapport with as they are there every day for weeks.

Over the next few days we have a few neighbours that want to come and see the finished product.  I hope they are duly impressed!  Apart from that I intend to enjoy a few days of having the house back to myself and will do a lot of cleaning and tidying up.  Then I have some work (bah!) to do at the weekend....but hope that won't take too long as I have done as much preparation as I can.  Notice my reaction to work now that I have been semi-retired for a few months!

En-Suite is finished

Wow!  What a difference a refurbishment makes?  The room looks half as big again and we are delighted with the results.  Of course, all these things are down to personal taste, current trends etc etc but we have tried to choose styles we like and that will last a reasonable time. Three months ago I had never heard of click-clack plugs or fast flow wastes and had no idea how all this was going to be put together.  It has been fascinating seeing 'behind the scenes' to see what goes where and how it all connects together. Anyway, here is the result....

The bathroom is now well in progress and we are seeing huge changes each day.  If the results are anything like the en-suite we will be extremely happy people.  Here's the current state of play...

... and a close up of the mosaic...

Now this project is coming to an end I will need to get myself another project to do.  I suspect that will start with me repainting a room or two in the house....we'll see.

En-suite refurbishment in progress

What a busy few weeks it has been?  We took delivery of the last few items ready for the refurbishment of the en-suite and bathroom just over a week ago and then Phil turned up to start work on Monday 25 Feb as planned.  He is now on the last few days of work in the en-suite so this week will be really exciting as it all comes together.  It will be nice to be able to have a shower again!!

Here's a few photos of work-in-progress so you get a sneak preview of what the final result will look like:


Phil has been absolutely brilliant and has worked like a trojan.  His attention to detail is just the job - I almost think he is more fussy than me....and that's saying something!!

The walls have been painted with 3 coats of paint already but will need another as the ceiling was skimmed a few days ago and we have a little plaster where we don't want it!  Later this week, I hope to start work on painting the ceiling but will err on the side of caution as I have read of many people painting too soon and ruining the new plasterwork.
 

Saving gas

In an earlier post I said that we were going to experiment with our central heating as I would be at home much more than in the past.  We decided to put the central heating on permanently and then use the thermostat to control the temperature.

At night time, we turn the thermostat to about 14 degrees so that, if it was an extremely cold night the heating would kick in for a short time.  During the day, we set the thermostat to about 16 or 17 degrees when we are in the house and need some extra heat.  If we are doing a lot of physical work or go out we turn the thermostat back to about 14 degrees.  In the evening when we are sitting for longer periods of time, we may push the thermostat up to 18 or 19 degrees - particularly if it is very cold. Interestingly, we have rarely put the thermostat higher than that but would have done in the past when the heating was only set to come on twice a day for a few hours.  The outcome of all this is that we have used 264kWh LESS gas this winter than last winter (Nov to Feb period) - but it cost £24 more as the price of gas has increased since last year.

If any of you reading this try a similar experiment then there are some caveats.  One is that this is not a scientific experiment and I have no idea how last winter's temperatures compared to this winter's temperatures.  Another is that you need to be very disciplined about adjusting the thermostat or you will waste gas.

Based on this limited experiment, we intend to continue in the same way for the reminder of the year and  will then compare the overall usage with last year to see how we really fared.

Work? What's that?

It has been a shock to the system to have some work over the last few weeks.  I was just enjoying not having any to do too!  What an inconvenience it is to have to fit work in around all my other activities!  I guess it will help keep the wolf from the door as I don't get any pension until the end of the year.

It has been fairly chilly of late but at least the wind has died down.  This weekend is supposed to be wet, wet, wet.   At least we are not forecast to have 3 feet of snow like parts of N.E. America.

Peter, our friendly electrician, was in during the week to do the electrics for our bathroom and en-suite refurbishment.  I now realise how much we rely on electricity as, with the power going on and off all day, I could not do anything that required electricity that I could not stop fairly quickly.  So that meant no baking, no washing and no work (good excuse, eh?).  So, what was I to do with myself?  Well, I treated it as a day of leisure and got out a huge jigsaw that my mother-in-law gave me several years ago that I have never done.  It's fiendish but I like a challenge.

Today I am chuffed to bits as my weight has gone down a pound a week since 1 January.....exactly on target. I have mainly achieved this by cutting out a lot of snacks...not all though....and always asking myself  'do I really need this?' before I stuff something in my mouth.  Recording what I eat has been very easy to do with the app I am using and gives me a huge incentive to eat little enough that I hit my end of week target.  Will I keep it up?  Who knows.  Time will tell.

A weekend in the country

This weekend we visited our friends, Marian and Roy, who live in Tutts Clump,  a lovely village in the heart of the Berkshire countryside.  This is not far from where the Middletons lived until recently...apparently they recently moved to a manor a few miles away.  

After we arrived on Saturday we went for a walk from the house along the country lanes. 

I love this walk as the village contains a huge variety of interesting properties, the countryside is beautiful and there is always something new to see from the last time we did the walk.  The sun shone, the sky was blue and the sheep were enjoying the grass in the fields.   We were all enjoying the walk....and then, just after half way round the walk, we had to stop and turn around as the road was flooded.

On Sunday morning we walked around Greenham Common which Lucy loved.  It was rather colder than we expected as the wind whistled across the old airfield.  Interestingly, some of the old hangars that were once used to store missiles were closed.  We understood that they were supposed to be left open so everyone could see they were no longer being used.....but maybe that rule is no longer valid.

Back at Tutts Clump we all enjoyed watching Lucy trying to steal some of the bird food from the feeders.  She knew it was there but just could not reach it!

She was very determined though!

Busy, Busy, Busy

How can I be so busy?  I am supposed to be semi-retired!  The reason I have not updated this blog for a few weeks is that I just have not had the time.  Before I semi-retired last Novemeber I was quite worried that by now I would be getting bored and be wondering how to fill my days.  So what has been happening since then?  Well, firstly, I have had an unexpected influx of work from my one remaining client - that will give me work, on and off, over the next month or so. On top of that I have started to paint the en-suite ready for some electrical work that will be done next week.  I know that I may need to do another coat of paint after the full refurbishment is completed but, as we are changing from a mid green to an off white colour it will need a few coats to cover it all.  Then I have been busy ordering and taking delivery of various things for the refurbishment.  I have to admit to being a highly organised person (annoyingly so for some people) so want to make sure we have everything we need in good time for the fitter to start work.  There are so many other things I want to do and, at the moment, I just don't know how I am going to fit them in.  

I am still trying to lose some weight - but, intentionally very slowly. So far I have lost about 1.8kg and hope I will continue on a slow downward path.  It has been very interesting keeping a food diary as it really highlights where the problems are.  It has also been a surprise to me how many calories are in some things that I thought contained less.  My husband does not always help though.....for example, he came home from the supermarket with 10 donuts the other day.  I did not really need these but did not want to waste them.  So, my dilemma was to waste them or eat them.  Well,, we did the latter between us - but I made sure he ate more than me!