Thank you Nan!!

Today we got a parcel…well Caitlin and Noah did…  So we opened it and inside was a present each for them….

Caitlin got a Dora t-shirt and jumper which she’s very pleased with…

Noah unfortunately is still sick and so didn’t really appreciate his Thomas t-shirt but he did manage to mutter Thomas at it…. before starting to cry again!!  I assume since he’s just cried or slept all day..muttering Thomas means he likes it!!

Hopefully he’ll be better tomorrow or at least less bunged up because I am really struggling to understand him when he can’t speak properly!!!

So thank you for our presents Nan they all fit and everyone likes them.

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I am so so so stooopid!

…to the point we were nearly calling our renovations off and giving in..well I was!  Today Richard had asked me to get a quote for new floor joists that we have discovered we need…so I called for 5″ x 3″ joists…about 40 metres in length!  The man told me it would be “three, oh, five a metre plus vat”  So I said thank you and times’d £305 by 40 and then by 1.15 and got £14,000!!!!!!!!!  The joists are something we hadn’t budgeted for as we had no idea they were bad.  So a £14K overspend is a really really bad thing and pretty much all of our very generous (or so we thought) contingency fund!  We’re hoping our contingency fund can buy us each a nice pressy at the end and also pay a chunk of our new debts off as we both liked being mortgage free….no chance now you think??  Cue Richard waking up and asking me how my day was…so I launched into…awful…we’ll just have to be cowboys and pretend we haven’t seen the bad joists, either that or we are in trouble………..

Richard just looked at me really confusedly when I told him the price.  He then said we’ll have to phone round and see what others are charging etc…  (Bear in mind Richard had been awake about 10 minutes so its no surprise he was being dim!!)  I then went off and got our trade catalogue where floor joists are £1.90 + vat…… Yep you’ve got it….when the man said “three, oh, five” he meant three POUNDS and five pence!!!!!!!!  NOT £305.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I still maintain the man should have been clearer and its not normal to say three, oh,  five when you’re talking £3.05…….  So yes re-do the maths and the total is £140 which is totally manageable and we are back to doing our renovation properly!!!!  I still can’t believe I didn’t realise £14K was way too much!!!!!!!  In my defence I was just thinking 3″ x 5″ is a big chunk of wood and so its pretty much a whole tree??!!  ….which may well cost £300???

A viewing…

Today we had a viewing on ourhouse, this time this is good because we are far enough along to have moved into our new house and to find storage for anything we can’t cram in there.  So much to Noah’s dismay we tidied and cleaned while he cried and screamed!!!  He’s not very well…a sore throat and cough and so he wasn’t in a great mood from the start and being ignored while I cleared up didn’t help!  Caitlin is also not 100%…she had the same thing at the weekend and I thought she was better but she doesn’t seem it any more!  Very whingy and generally crying at the slightest thing!

So the viewers were 3 students with one of their parents who must be buying it for them….  It was so much better than the last viewer who didn’t even look at the whole house!  The 3 girls seemed really nice and were obviously genuinely looking for a house.   Maybe not our house but at least they weren’t complete time wasters like “Mr Lee” was!!!!!!  So we shall see if they like it enough to offer….  Also fingers crossed Caitlin and Noah are better or at least more cheery soon!

20 week scan…

OK…just three and a half weeks late but my 20 week scan is now complete!!!!  Everything is fine and I even remembered to ask for a picture today!!  Its a fairly rubbish scan picture …all blurry around the face but she did give it to me for free which is good (they should charge £3.50!!!!)

He or she is lying in their back with their head turned to face us…..and that round bit above the head is it’s hand!!!!!!!  In every scan I had with Caitlin she had her hand on her head and she was born that way!!  I’m sure number 3 had their hand on their head a few weeks back too…I really hope it doesn’t stay there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yet again it was asleep and refused point blank to move despite her prodding it!!  He/She was positioned to give a good view of the spine though so she managed to see everything she needed to…just one lazy baby!!!

I still have no symptoms other than an achy back and hips but I’m beginning to think I only get those when I wear my maternity jeans which is really odd and makes no sense!!!!!!  If I wear my regular jeans (which are way more comfy at the mo!!) I don’t ache at all…..  I do have a bump though…but that’s it!

First party!!

This afternoon we had our first party at the new house!!  I’m sure the man doing the damp proof work thought we were truly insane!!  But tomorrow is Nanny’s birthday and Grandad was working at the house so we called in with birthday cake to sing and have a little party!!!!!!!!

It was a bit dusty and probably a bit mad as 50% of the downstairs floorboards are up, but Caitlin and Noah are used to the mad life we inflict on them and they loved eating cake while sat on paint tins!!!!!!!

Talking of the house!  We had always planned to get our double glazing last, which sounds a bit backward but basically if the project ran to budget we would be able to afford to encapsulate the stained glass in the double glazing, but if we went over budget we’d have to sell the stained glass and settle for plain double glazing…  But when we got our quote to encapsulate the stained glass we were stunned at how reasonable it is (and with a highly recommended local company) and so we realised we could get it now before we decorate and still have our contingency !  So we booked our encapsulated double glazing but have now been informed we “might” need planning permission which “might” take 8 weeks…so it looks like we might still be getting the glazing done last…  The damp proofing is virtually done though, and once the plumbing is in place we can start putting the house back together!

Protected: Full size presents!! (password our fabric shop – just in case we make the same thing for other relatives!!!)

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Day off!!

Richard has either been at work or at the house since New Year so today we had a day off!!  We went to Bingley Hall for a mini show.  It was ok but I only really saw one thing I thought was really exciting…a Paul Smith trailer that had been turned into an amazing picnic machine!!  The lid on the trailer became the table and under the lid was a sink and one hob, on the other side was a Paul Smith stripey hot plate/griddle and another hob!  Inside the trailer was a tele, plate rack, cutlery and stereo!!!!!  It was all really well done!!  This picture is rubbish because I forgot my camera and so I had to take it on my very dusty phone!!

Caitlin and Noah have had a great time at Nanny and Grandad’s!!

Work work work!!

Caitlin and Noah have gone to stay with Nanny and Grandad for the weekend so me and Richard went to the new house today to do a bit of work!  Nothing new for Richard but its really the first time I’ve done anything except go and buy supplies or arrange quotes!

I started off with this fireplace….

….as with the rest of the house it was covered in sticky yellow dirt!  The old owners were heavy smokers we think!!  So after I had stripped some strange insulation wall paper from the wall around it I set to work cleaning it… I scrubbed it for ages and then wipe it down a few times.  My hands were killing afterwards as we have no warm water only freezing cold from the outside tap!!!  I then did the same to the fireplace in Caitlin and Noahs room.  Then I sanded and re-washed them both and painted the first coat.   The tiles have come up really nicely, they’re not in perfect condition but certainly good enough to keep and they look really nice with the fireplace black.  Photo’s after the 2nd coat as they look a bit streaky at the mo!!!

Richard finished off all the prep for the damp proof work which hopefully should happen next week, and he made a start on taking up the old concrete floor in the kitchen with my Dad.

Poor baby K!!!

…today we went to visit baby K who we haven’t seen for a while.  He has grown sooo much!  And Noah true to form was very keen to cuddle, kiss and play with him!!  Of course Noah wanting to help feed him also made Caitlin want to help too…..poor baby K was very obliging and didn’t cry when this happened to him….

Lets just hope Noah is as keen on his new brother or sister when it arrives…and that his brother or sister is as happy to be fed, squashed and kissed as much as K was!!!!!!!!!!  Luckily for K we couldn’t stay too long as we had to get off to school and play group!

Tomorrow Caitlin and Noah are off to Nanny’s for the weekend and its time for me to paint those fireplaces…updates to follow!!!!

Homework!!

Caitlin gets homework from her pre-school, she gets to chose a book and then we read it (about a million times!!!!) then she draws about it in her diary.  We are now on our 3rd book (I wish they would swap them more often as the whole excitement that the book is from nursery means that we have to read it over and over – we’ve already done this one 4 times this morning and we’ve only been up for 45 mins!!!!)  Anyway the 3rd book is “what makes a rainbow” which is a book we already have so she’s already familiar with it, and here is her picture……

I know the picture isn’t that great, but I’m so impressed with her interpretation of a rainbow I had to share it!!  In case you can’t see it, she has drawn lines in all different colours and a sun at the top of it!!  She also has to draw a smiley (or sad) face to show if she liked or disliked the book….  I’m just praying for a new book today………..