POTTERING AROUND TODAY

Everyone says it... but Far OUT.  It will be October tomorrow. Time is just flying by.  In 13 days it will be the ONE YEAR Anniversary of my Mum's passing away.  How has that been for me?

To be honest, I've been so preoccupied with other things (A nasty Court Case, other family dying, redecorating etc), it has just been a blur.  I've literally not been able to just sit and grieve.  Maybe that has been a good thing?

I miss Mum every day, I miss not being able to just ring and tell her what's going on, who's doing what and just YAK.  It really is a huge adjustment to make, one that I wasn't ready for.

But then, when are you ever ready to lose a loved one?  NEVER.  

So... while it's still fairly busy here with painting, carpeting, bathrooms etc... I will just tuck Mum back into my heart, and think about her when she prods me. 😊💙💜💚

Lacy and Bex and coming over this morning to give me a hand with putting some stuff back where it belongs.

I've decided to put most of the paintings back  up.  And some of the ornaments.

I need to get the spare single bedroom ready too... we have Miss Muppet from this Friday until the following Friday.  

I hope we can do some dusting/polishing and cleaning today.  While I've done my best to keep on top of all the dust, there's places I simply have not got to.

There might be a chance to get out and find a couple of things that we need later on today as well.

New curtain tracks for the lounge for one.  A couple of hanging plants for the kitchen and bathroom... surely I can keep a couple of plants alive???

ABOVE:  Lacy got her eyebrows tattooed yesterday.  They look great!

It's something I have thought of having done on/off for a few years.

YES?  NO?  

ABOVE:  Boys and bubbles.  Nice combo.

ABOVE:  This could be MY LIST... cos I do every single one of them!   Especially #1... I forget my OWN KIDS names often enough too.  It's much easier to just call everyone Darling... my Maternal Grandmother did that.

She had 10 kids, around 32 Grandchildren, and heaps and heaps of Great Grandkids and Great Great Grandkids!  Everyone was DARLING!  I now know why. 😊😍😌

 

Ok, weird start to the day, lots of waffling. 

I better get a move on I suppose.  I've been 'sleeping in'.  

'P' the painter is due here after 8 to fix the last patch in the lounge.

It will be awesome to feel comfortable in me own home again, with no strange blokes in the house.

Pottering around?  OMG, it's been GO GO GO here.

The painter bloke arrived, did his thing then left.

The girls arrived, and helped move major furniture and so on.

ABOVE:  They moved ALL the brown lounge furniture into the sunroom, once we'd taken everything out of it.

ABOVE:  It now looks really neat in there!  Three pieces of brown lounge furniture, all in the same place.

ABOVE:  I spent a lot of time this morning positioning painting.  I left this one for the girls, as it's a right shit to hang!

They had quite a job getting it up there.  

But, it's there now and it should tone in with the new lounge suite, when it arrives early next year.

ABOVE:  We then took off for Spotlight (curtain rods etc), and Bunnings (the cute plant).

Then we picked up Steve and dropped him home to collect his work ute.

SO MUCH FUN having him and Lacy be complete and utter BACK SEAT DRIVERS, and make me all flustered. The arseholes.  Said ever so lovingly OF COURSE.

Remind me to take a big stick next time, so I can hit them over the friggin head.

ABOVE:  Although it will have to come out sometime in the next week or two, I got the girls to put the bathroom cabinet in our ensuite.

Cos it was cluttering up the sunroom, which looks so good!

I woke up with the right side of me face all swollen and a bit sore.  I have no idea what caused it to swell.   It was a bit sore yesterday, but I took no notice of it.

Maybe some spider bit me overnight?  

If it's no better by tomorrow I will go to the Doctors.  

I don't want to end up there on the weekend.

Most of the paintings are back on the walls.  Some curtains are back up.

Some curtains still need to go back up.

I'm absolutely knackered.

My face lost some of it's puffiness during the day, but it's still puffy.

As I said before, if it's the same in the morning, I will go to the Dr.

Stew and I had Chicken pieces and rice for dinner.

I'm going to try and do NOTHING else tonight.

Feet up, blankie on.  Relaxing.

FINISHED TODAY?

 When the painters left yesterday, they said today would be their last day here!

I'm like ... WOW!  That would be bloody wonderful.

I am going to be able to put SOME of our stuff back where it belongs.

Not all of it, as when the carpet is replaced, that's gunna make a bit of dust.  So yeah, probably won't put too much back.

It will be awesome, after today,  NOT having to get outta bed at 6 - 6.15 am, to be decent for the painters!  

And it will be neat not having to strip our bed, and put things like toaster/jug/coffee & computer tables/etc into the sun room to protect them from dust every day.

At the end of next week (all going well) we will have Carpet Court in to lay down the new hard flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms.

That's when the new vanities and toilets will go in too.

Gosh it will be wonderful to have two fully functioning bathrooms again.  Sharing a very small 3rd bathroom (the wet room), with Stew and visitors is a right pain in the bum.

We are both finding it stressful living in a home that is in a state of disarray. I don't know how people do major renovations while still living in their house.

ABOVE: The garage, which isn't quite as full as I thought it would be.

Give it time!  When we have to get all the major furniture out for the carpet to be laid... it's gunna be FULL!

ABOVE:  The sunroom... no much room in here for anything else, and certainly no room to swing a cat. 

ABOVE:  Ha ha ha!   Like I'm ever gunna have a cat in me house!

So, today I will continue doing some sewing, housework, maybe pop out to do some shopping?

Dunno.  

Catch ya later.

9.10 am:  And I have finally finished cutting up and re-arranging those chair covers I bought.  With the amount of work it's taken, I should have just made them from scratch myself.

ABOVE:  I put pockets on the side of two arm covers.  Might be handy for ya phone?  Note pad and pen?  Meh.  Just did it cos I had extra fabric.

'P'  just told me he'd have to come back another day (didn't say what day) to finish off a corner in the lounge.  It's taking longer than expected to dry.  He's filled the wonky bumps and dents with filler... and that takes a while to set.  I'm perfectly happy with that, as it means they are doing a good job.

I'm now just sitting in me sewing room, twiddling my thumbs.

I dreamed all night of putting pictures back on the walls!  And fluffing around with ornaments.

I just want it to be back to normal.

1.53 pm:  The painters finished today at about 11.20!  They are coming back tomorrow to finish up one small area.  Otherwise, it's done.

Two of my cousins arrived at 11.20, just as the painters were leaving in fact.  They stayed until 1 pm.  It was lovely to sit and chat with them, I'd not seen either of them since our family funerals earlier this year, and last year.

I've just had me lunch, and now I'm going to relax for a little while, put me feet up.  My left leg has been swelling up quite a bit this past week.  Not putting me feet up enough obviously.

Well, it's now 6.54 pm.  Stew is home.  I've been fluffing around, putting just a few things back in their normal place.

Tomorrow I shall place pictures around the house, ready for Stew to hang on Friday.

He's taken Friday off work so he can have a bit of a sleep in and wind down.

He's bloody tired.  

Crazy man, thinking he will get a rest staying at home!  Ha ha ha.

So, the rest of this evening will be spent doing some more 'fluffing around' I think.  Then obviously ... bed.  Which I'm really looking forward to.

COULD BE AWKWARD

 Painters are due at 7 am.

Sometime today I expect the 'boss' to arrive.

And we will talk.

NOT looking forward to that.

But, it's best to get it over with and try and achieve what we all want, a good job.

ABOVE:  Last night's sunset.  It was utterly gorgeous, for about 5 minutes, then it was over.

I've got sewing on me 'to do' list today.  And bugger all else.

Catch ya later.

7.31 am:  So far, so good.

The painters arrived at 6.45 and we talked.  I wish now (hindsight is a shit), that we had just talked to them instead of 'the boss'.

They are lovely guys and have already started fixing up the more obvious problem areas.

I will be telling their boss how lovely they are, and how they have addressed the issues immediately.

I'm about to paint that fish painting's frame!  Finally getting around to it.

I'm going to paint it blue.  Funny that.

ABOVE:  It's now done, something else to cross off the list.

Because there was none of that particular shade of blue in the actual painting, I added some.

Now there's a little blue fish inside the green fish (bottom right), and some blue detail on the fish top left. I also made the big bottom fish's top spikes a little bluer too.

That should do it.

Now, back to the sewing. 

I could spew.   And I should have known better...

ABOVE:  I didn't change out of my 'good' top before doing that painting.

Now it's only good for  home.  😠😞😢

I've had to do some unpicking this morning.  Not something I'm used to doing.  But, I stuffed up the first arm rest's binding.  

Back to the drawing board on that one.

On a more positive note, it's an utterly gorgeous day, I'm sewing in me happy place and the heaters on keeping me nice and warm.

Well... I stabbed my thumb a good one at around midday so thought... DONE!

And the dogs and I took off to Bex's for a couple of hours.

ABOVE: while at Bex's Marley rolled in something DISGUSTING. So in the bath she went. And she LOVED it! 

Clearly its just showers she doesn't enjoy.

ABOVE: The fabric barrier worked really well in my car. Coco wasn't that impressed but too bad. 

Gosh it's so nice just relaxing here. My house feels empty and unloved and not homely at all right now.

I came home around 3.30 this afternoon.  The painters were just finishing up for the day.

Once they left I pottered around doing some odd jobs, then prepared dinner for Stew and I.

We had sausages, potato and kumera wedges, mushrooms and onions.

Now... watching some TV before winding down for the day.  I'm freakin' tired!

I got up at 6 this morning, but it still felt like friggin 5 am!  Thanks Daylight Saving.

I can't wait until I can sleep in again.

Sorry, I totally forgot to mention this:  I rang the 'boss' of the painting company and asked him not to come over.  I decided the work was OK, good enough anyway.

The men are working with a closer eye on detail now, and have corrected a lot of the faults.

If anything is still not that good once the job is finished, they will come back and fix it, according to the Boss.

NOT THAT HAPPY

 Well.

While I can't fault the painters on their promptness, and speed of getting the job done... I have had some reservations about their quality of work,  from day one.

I feel like they ARE rushing the job, and cutting corners.  And the finishes?  Not too good at all.

This morning I am going to clarify with the painters exactly what walls are actually FINISHED.  If they say the ones I'm not happy with are 'finished', then I will be ringing their boss and saying how unhappy I am with the quality of work.

He really needs to come over and check it out.  I don't feel I can talk to the painters about it, as I really suck at face to face confrontations.  I find it incredibly uncomfortable.

Luckily, I've not been asked for a deposit on this job, so...  I can and will withhold the almost $10,000 till the job is done to our satisfaction.

*Though, since writing this, Steve has said the 'industry standard' would probably hold up, as from 2 meters away and at a 45 degree angle, most of the walls look FINE.

It's only on close inspection, and under a light that you can see so many of the flaws.

So now I don't know what to do.

Annoying.  Do I wait and see how the total finished job looks, then complain if there's too many noticeable flaws?  Or say something now, before they do the entire job?

I just don't bloody well know what to do.

I'm up bright and early as I have to get Miss Muppet to school.

Once she's there I am going to come home and do some much needed housework.  I'm trying to keep on top of the dusting as much as I can.

That way there is less to do at the end of the week.

I've got a pile of Stew's work shirts to iron.

Some sewing to get done.

And goodness knows what else.

Catch ya later.

ABOVE:  NO WORDS.  She's got her 2nd Covid jab this morning.  I shall be reminding her all morning.

Two things this morning.  

One:  Steve is going to deal with the painters, talking with the boss and so on.  

Two:  Addressing the FOOD BABY, cos there's been QUITE A FEW ANON COMMENTS... ALL DELETED on that score.

IT WAS A JOKE.  She is NOT pregnant.

It's a funny old day.  I don't feel like I'm achieving much, yet I am.

I've finished making the head rests for the 4 Lay-Z-Boy chairs.   I'll do the arm rests another day, cos I am getting really crabby with pins.

I keep stabbing myself. And that just pisses me off.

Only one painter arrived this morning, his colleague is sick.

'S" worked till 1.30 then left for another job.

Steve spoke to their boss.

And 'S' came and spoke to me, wanting to know what was 'wrong' with the job?  Where were the problems?

So we talked.  I showed him a few places of concern.  I felt bloody awful, but it's better out in the open I suppose.

When he left this afternoon he said he'd be back tomorrow at 7.

So will his boss, well sometime tomorrow.

Tonight we will put sticky notes on the walls, indicating where the finishes are a bit shoddy.

Seems there's different LEVELS of finish.  5 being 'top notch', and then ours, which is a 4.  'Residential', not perfect, but good enough?

For the price we are paying, I would have thought it should be damn near perfect!  And no one told me about levels, and what to expect.

It's this sort of thing that just makes me crabby, and ruins my day.  I don't like conflict.  I don't like complaining.  I don't like pissing people off.

I just want my walls to look beautiful.

9.26 pm:  Time to sign off for the day.  I'm falling asleep in me chair!  Talk about getting old.  *sigh*

GOODBYE FAMILY BATHROOM

Good morning!  Kids slept well last night! They even went to sleep fairly quickly, without too many shenanigans.  Bloody amazing.  I was expecting them to be little shits. 

ABOVE:  I shall not be confusing the Baking Powder with the Baking Soda ever again. 

So today... well Lacy and Keera are off to the farm for the day.

Steve is coming over to help with the family bathroom, taking out the vanity in there etc.

Then we can prep that room for the new flooring (about 2 weeks away), and the new vanities and toilets.

 

I mentioned that we were looking at a new lounge setting to replace the dark brown one in the family room yesterday?

So, thinking about it yesterday afternoon and evening, I've pretty much decided to also get two new recliners for the family room.

The two recliners we are using right now will go into the lounge.

That way we won't have two different sets of furniture in the family room like we do right now.

All that could take a bit of time, depending on how long it takes to get the new suite.

It could be months before they are ready for delivery.  (5-6 months, or more!)

But that's OK, I don't mind waiting (much).  It will be worth it.

ABOVE: This is the lounge suite we are contemplating for the family room.  It will fit in the corner perfectly.  It has a recliner on the right hand side.  Not 100% set on the colour yet, but it will most likely be a light tan if not that actual colour (above). 

ABOVE: That's a suite in blue.  What do you think?  Yeah?  Nah?  I'd love it in blue, but probably wouldn't 'go' in our home.  Sadly. 😂😊

Right, that's it from me, for now.  Time to feed the grandkids their breakfast, and get them ready for the day.

 10.05 am:  Daylight saving kicked in overnight.

We had kids awake at 6 am, so 7 am adjusted.  Not too bad.

Lacy has been and picked up Keera.  I'm sure they will have a neat day together. 

12.15 pm:  And Steve has been and gone! The vanity in the family bathroom is gone.  Now we can get the flooring and new vanity put in early October.  We shall be repairing and painting the walls in that bathroom ourselves.

The boys have left with their parents, so it's just Stew and I again.  QUIET!

So, the place that has the lounge suite we liked?  SALE ends today.   Typical.

So we went back in and sussed out recliners.

AND... bugger bugger bugger.  The recliners were not big enough for Stew to be comfortable in them.

So we reassessed our choice of suite. 

ABOVE: That's the three seater, BUT... we are not getting a three seater.  We are getting a corner setting, with recliners at each end, plus two recliner armchairs.

AND YES!!!   We bought a pale blue lounge suite!

It almost looks blue/grey in certain lighting, but it is blue.

We chose this suite as it is very comfortable, and the reclining armchairs were big enough for Stew.  So many are too small for him.

Delivery isn't for approximately 5 months, maybe a little sooner.  

That's ok, it gives us time to get everything else finished in the house. 

It's lunchtime.  Stew has gone to get us a pizza.  We will be having pizza left overs for dinner as well.  My job is done.  😂😄😆

Well... it's now 10.27 pm. Stew and I  had a quiet afternoon, did bugger all really.

We had a silly bugger dinner with Miss Muppet.

She's now asleep and it's almost bedtime for me too.

Catch ya tomorrow.

IT'S A GORGEOUS DAY!

I'm having issues with my computer keyboard.

So ... no post until later, when I have bought a new keyboard.

I had a post all ready to go, and the keyboard did a huge backspace all on it's own, and ate it all!

So, so annoying.

I'll be back later.

Right.  Let's see how this goes.

We went out and about.

Looking at something to PERHAPS replace the big brown lounge setting in the corner of the family room.

It's only an idea right this minute.

ABOVE:  Miss Muppet got tired traipsing around all the furniture stores.

ABOVE:  OMG!  Another incredibly hideous lounge suite.  Calf shit green.

Think it can stay there.

ABOVE:   Lunch at Chartwell Square today.  It wasn't too busy there, unlike The Base, which is crazy, and always is over the weekend.

A quick run down of this afternoon and evening (so far).

Home from the mall, and I had a nap.

Steve and Bex dropped the boys off for a sleep over at around 2 pm.

The afternoon has been NOISY.

ABOVE: The kids have enjoyed playing together, and spreading toys throughout the family room.

ABOVE:  Marley is just gorgeous.

ABOVE: The kids had a 'picnic' dinner, with Marley looking ever so hopeful they'd leave some tidbits on the rug for her.

In an hour or so they will be getting into their pj's and getting into bed.  

And I have no expectation that they will instantly fall asleep and be quiet.

Dammit.  Because my ears are BLEEDING.  Seriously, how the hell do three little kids make so much NOISE????

10.03 pm:  And I've never been happier to get kids off to bed.  Those three!!!!

I'm now sitting in the dark family room, making sure they stay in bed and don't annoy each other.

Off to bed shortly, it's bound to be another busy day tomorrow.

MINI SLEEP IN

  Awesome!

I don't have to jump out of bed as early today.

The men are not arriving until around 8 am this morning.

I can see us having the lounge and family/dining/kitchen rooms done by the end of today!

That is their aim anyway.  

While they work, I am going to cook some scones for Stew and his work colleagues, then take them into the office for morning tea.

It's 'BLUE SEPTEMBER'.  Aimed at bringing awareness to Prostrate Cancer, so I shall be colouring the cream BLUE.  

After morning tea I will be coming home to get on with my housework.

Then adjusting the chair covers I bought yesterday.

ABOVE:  That's how they look right now... need an iron badly!   I'm going to cut them up!  Wait and see... later.

ABOVE:  I made this 'thing' yesterday.  It's to stop the dogs coming from the back seat of my car into the front.

Coco nearly gave me a heart attack the other day, by jumping through the gap and onto my lap while I was driving through a busy intersection.  The 'barrier' should stop her doing that again.

I put pockets on it, front and back, which should prove handy.  Masks, hand sanitiser etc.

This afternoon I will be going out to pick up Keera from school, as it's an access weekend for Lacy (and us).  She will be sleeping on a mattress in the lounge this weekend, as the bedroom we usually have her in is full of the painter's gear, buckets of paint, ladders and so on.

Dante and Archer will be coming over tomorrow and staying the night, so all three kids can have a sleep over in the lounge.  They will enjoy that.

Right, I better get up and get moving.

Need to get dinner in the crock pot (Pulled Pork), then cook those scones.

9.17 am:  crazy busy!

Didn't have any milk to make the scones, so I had to rush out first thing and get some.

Then, because I was feeling rushed and a bit stressed, I made a mistake.

ABOVE:  I was JUST ABOUT to put the 4 trays of scones in the oven, and was tidying up the bench before I did that.

And OMG AND DAMMIT!

I had used BAKING SODA instead of BAKING POWDER.

See how alike those two containers are? 

Yeah.   I was furious with myself.

Those scones are now sitting in the garage fridge, I will cook them up this afternoon and see how they go?

I very quickly made another huge batch of scones, and they have just come out of the oven. 

They look great.

ABOVE:  Well morning tea went down well.  The staff loved me scones and blue cream.  So did Stewy.

After that I popped into Carpet Court, paid their astronomical deposit and booked them in to do the vinyl flooring in 2 weeks.

The carpet has to be manufactured before it can be put down.  Probably late October or even November now.

Steve arrived to check out the painting job.

Brylee has arrived to pick up a picnic rug.

Lacy arrived to... ANNOY me, she's coming back at 3.

ABOVE:  One chair down, 3 to go.

IF I can get the 4th one ordered from Spotlight, as they only had 3 yesterday.

The adjustment was cutting the piece that goes up behind your head off, and making it 'free' from the base bit.  It was too short and kept falling down.

I also bound it in me nautical fabrics.

ABOVE: WHY?  How can blue cream make you think of 'Blue Balls'?  She found herself highly amusing.  What a mini twat.

ABOVE: Cuddles with Marley.  Coco was going ballistic on the floor, trying to jump up on her lap too.

Well, it's been a fairly busy afternoon.  Before picking Miss Muppet up, I went into Spotlight to try and order a 4th chair cover.

No luck, they don't have any more in that particular colour, so I got two in a slightly darker brown.

They can go on the two recliners in the lounge.

Then I went and got the kid and we spent the afternoon with Steve, Bex, Lacy and the boys.

Now it's after dinner and all is quiet.  

The house painting is probably half done.

The painters think they will be finished around Wednesday next week.  I am looking forward to putting paintings back up!  Most of the other things in the garage and sun room will just have to stay in there, until the carpet is done.  

Right, time to sign off for the day.  I'm damn tired and REALLY looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow.