This morning we made a job list and allocated days of the week to it – it’s easy to either feel overwhelmed and get nothing achieved or to spend time scurrying around getting obvious tasks done without really touching everything. We now have the house surface clean so have written a list of what definitely needs to be done before the weekend and what would be great if we get round to it. Emptying the loft space was high on the list, as is sorting out the garage. We will have a heap of stuff for sale – things like our chiller and two chest freezers won’t be worth the storage space and moving costs but might raise a few quid, stuff like a lawnmower is never going to be used by us no matter where we end up living, and a heap of stuff to take with us when we move but may as well stay here for now as it won’t offend any potential viewing buyers. We do need to clear all the crap – assorted rubbish from the tenants and the chicken area that is currently piled up around the back of the house. Now I have scraped the flaking paint off the lounge walls repainting in here is rather a priority but if we don’t get around to giving the carpets yet another go over with the Ady machine I suspect that won’t make or break a sale.
We have arranged a small amount of getting together with friends / family this week but I think even that has been ambitious as it feels like it’s sapping our attention from getting stuff done.
So this morning’s task was to clear another loft space – we have done both the ones in our old room, and been through one in Davies’ room although some stuff has been replaced in there and needs pulling out again. The last space in Davies’ room held baby stuff mostly, along with a few books. The books have all been piled up to give to Lorna / Jack / Maisie and the Dr Seuss books have been bagged up to keep by popular request. A large bag of baby stuff like cot blankets and some clothing along with a couple of items of maternity wear I have no inkling of the mentality of keeping were added to the charity shop pile and a much smaller bag of baby clothes – first outfit, first snowsuit, first shoes etc were put in the to keep pile. Holding up the tiny pink babygrow I so clearly remember sticking on the radiator to warm up when we rang the midwife to come to the house to deliver Scarlett next to the lumbering nine year old she is now seems amazing and looking at Davies while stroking a little basbeball suit from New York we bought while 6 months pregnant with him is equally mind blowing. Scarlett’s moses basket had been moused so that had to go.
We whizzed along to the dip and a charity shop to unload the car-ful. I reckon another two or maybe three loads will have all rubbish gone from the place, that is tomorrow’s job.
Back home for lunch – we are doing so well at eating leftovers and making food eke out. We’d gotten used to old habits again of eating too much and although we were good at giving scraps and leftovers to the goats and pigs at Jill’s now we are deliberately over-making dinners to ensure we have spare for lunch the next day, or even dinner. Tonight Ady and the kids had tuna fishcakes made with mash from yesterday and I had leftover pizza from Saturday night. I also made a couple of loaves of bread, proved in the grill which was still warm from cooking crumpets for lunch and cooked in the oven with the fish cakes :).
Then off to Mike & Rose’s. Rose asked us before Christmas if we’d be interested in some fencing work in her back garden. She wanted it done anyway and said she’d rather pay us to do it than get someone else in if we’d be happy to take it on. It’s very straightforward as the fence posts are still perfectly secure and stable from the previous job, it’s literally just the panels and a gate which need replacing. We measured up and then came in to have a cup of tea and price it up. After ringing around and checking websites a very local supplier was not much more expensive than B&Q and Wickes and could deliver cheaper so Ady ordered the stuff to be delivered on Wednesday and we arranged to go and do the work on Thursday. Rose said she’d earmarked £200 for labour and the kids get to come too and make full use of the cable TV in the house, play with their dogs and spend time in the garden with us for the day. It will pay our petrol for the interview and I think we can justify the day away from the house although it does mean we’ll have to cancel plans to meet Julie on Thursday 🙁
We had a chat with Rose and Mike came home from work so joined us for a coffee too and we arranged an evening with them in March and caught up a little on our plans. I’m sure they think we’re perfectly mental for our current ideas but they humoured us just the same 😆
Back home we put the chickens away and exchanged emails and phonecalls with Mike about the deposit for the tenants. It’s all so tedious and I just want a line drawn under the whole thing really. On principle I do think they should pay every penny of what it would cost for a professional rubbish clearance, kitchen / oven clean, carpet clean etc. In practise if we are only arguing over £100 or so and the delay could drag on for weeks and weeks I’d really rather just take off them an amount that makes it worth our while cleaning up this last weekend and sends them off. It is not personal and we shouldn’t try to take it that way. They were shit tenants in paying late every month, moving in late and leaving the house in a not great state. But I have heard so many horror stories about houses being totally trashed, rent not being paid at all and people not leaving at the end of their tenancy that frankly I feel pleased to have had £11k out of them and got them out on time. If that means they get off too easily then so be it, I don’t have the time or mental energy to waste on them when I have so many other, bigger, more positive things to be doing with my life instead. £400 pays our mortgage for another 6 weeks and might just get us to the point where someone makes an offer on the house, which incidentally can be viewed here!
At 6pm Ady did the kids tea and I nipped along to the CoOp to check out their reduced to clear section. I got some pork for £2 down from £5 (so I get my roast pork tomorrow 🙂 ), some breakfast pastries for 35p each and that was all. I checked Asda too which is just along the road and later Ady went out to Sainsburys for fuel and checked in there but there were no bargains.
Tomorrow the patches come off and fingers firmly crossed the itching is more than just psychological or a reaction to the surgical tape and stickiness and I have a positive allergy diagnosis to something I actually start avoiding.