Hello to normal life!

[Hashette]

Got my life back! For the past five years, me and hubby have been house bashing. We took on a doer upper that had been owned by what the estate agents worryingly called a "DIY enthusiast" and..... well you can imagine. It's not finished yet, but the latest phase should come to an end today, assuming the carpet fitters turn up. We're not doing any more of it until at least next autumn, we need a break.

Just think, I can wake up on a Saturday and not have to put my scruffies on to be Bob the Builder's assistant. I can...... shop or.... start reading my way the tottering pile of books on the bedside cabinet or....

Erm..... I feel like one of my chooks having been let out of her run to go free range for the first time, I'm not actually sure what to do now that I've finally got the time I've been longing for!

[piskieinboots]

....I'm not actually sure what to do now that I've finally got the time I've been longing for!

go into the garden and just sit, with a cup of tea and watch the birds - it is true 'soul-food'...
....and well done on your new found freedom

[maytreefrannie]

Not sure what to do?

Enjoy.

[zazen999]

Or coffee...but what Piskie said - just spend some time watching the world go by.

[MaureenHall]

Sit and talk to your chickens They're great listeners

[Flummery]

We moved here 9 years ago. We called it Bodge Lodge! Spent about a year knocking ourselves out re-doing lots of the DIY, then sat back to enjoy it. The stuff we didn't do - and just emulsioned over! - is coming back to bite us on the bum now. We decided to have a big push to finish the place before Himself retires, (next summer we hope) so we are now in the state of stripped stairway, stripped spare room (waiting for plasterer to pull down and re-make ceiling which had a botched repair and papered over after a roof leak). We did know about this and the roof was repaired in the first round but that lumpy papered ceileing has annoyed me ever since. Then the floor can be re-done (ripped up and badly screwed down floorboards), then I can decorate and THEN it will become my sewing room! (With a decent sofa bed for the 2 or 3 nights a year the room is used as a bedroom.) The recently removed horrible old 1970s fireplace is also now gone and the plasterer will sort that out for us.

Only after we finish this can I get to work on my hen-house and join you in Hen Whispering! Enjoy it Hashette. 5 years is a long time!

[SlugLobber]

I have a big hole where the fire should be and my kitchen still isn't finished 6 months after starting (or should I say Bodge the Builder, started it, who I fired after the last straw of many!). I am in a state of apathy, now, so am watching the world go by in advance, so to speak!

Enjoy the time, go for walkies, browse the charity shops, eat cake. If you still have time, make more cake.

[Flummery]

Oooh there's a though SL. I haven't made a cake in DAYS!

[Nicos]

Be typical if you wake up Saturday morning with man flu

[Hashette]

It started well..... I had already booked today off work, so had a lovely long run in the autumn sunshine, did a bit of shopping, then had a phone call from hubby to say that the coast was clear and I could go home without fear of making tea for the masses all day on my day off.

The chooks were over the moon to see me (nothing to do with the fact that I gave them a handful of mealworms and they've been able to scratch around the garden all day, obviously) and I'm now settling down having a very therapeutic sort out and unpacking the books into newly dusted bookcases. Bliss....

And I'm not looking at the 7 doors including the cupboard doors which are unscrewed and piled up in the hallway as they all need half an inch taking off now we've got carpet instead of bare concrete. I'm not I'm not I'm NOT *stamps feet*

[SlugLobber]

Ah yes, cupboard doors. Taking them off is easy. Getting the sods to hang again isn't! I know, as I hung every door in the kitchen, as Bodge the Builder didn't think it was necessary to tell me when he wasn't turning up!!

So no, don't look!

[Hashette]

Bodge the Builder didn't think it was necessary to tell me when he wasn't turning up!!

Ooooh I know that feeling!!!! Day after day of leaving out tea/coffee/biscuits and getting home to find them untouched and nothing done, it brings back hideous memories. Here's the low point:

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/n...6432_67181.jpg

[tootles]

Ooohh I envy you Hashette,
We have been building for 18 months now and have a sitting room (ish) a bedroom and a bathroom (untiled), there are 5 of us!!
We put in a proper staircase this week (no more ladder to the loo in the night) and finished the roof a couple of weeks ago. Still another year or so to go though!
Still need to rebuild the walls at the front of the house, put in a first and second floor at the front and then roof......... (followed by bathrooms, real kitchen, heating, electrics, plumbing, flooring, and windows. Will be good when it is done though!

[Hashette]

Hang in there Tootles, it will be worth it in the end.

If I had a pound for everyone who asked if we're going to sell the place when we've finished. As if we haven't had enough stress already. I'm going out of here for the last time in a box

[kirsty b]

I honestly think that all I would do with a fixer upper is have a nervous breakdown!!
I'm a nightmare to live with when we are just decorating
Envy you your stamina Hashette, it will be so worth it when it's all done. Enjoy the break and just take time.