Purely Bungalow Renovation News ... and Floorplan

This meme really strikes home. 

We really are downsizing our home for the final time.  While I will have more square footage than the lodge, Alan will have a lot less than his current house and we will be sharing.  Hence this final move being quite possibly the last one we make together.

So it's important that we get it right.

After weeks of no floor, then a gradual infill of rubble floor, this week has seen Alan and the builders getting ready for the concrete to be laid.  The bricks from the walls being taken down were mostly used to bring the level to the right height.  Alan sunk the main pipes that will come from each bathroom into the floor and then all the gaps were filled with a top layer of sand, to protect the damp-proof membrane from puncture.

 On top of all these layers the thick insulation boards were laid in place in the dining/kitchen/living room ready for the concrete to be poured.  Our chief builder Paul could not resist a little tap dance to celebrate, now Alan just has to break it to him that this photo is going all around the world.  😄

It's all starting to come together nicely.

Nearly all the windows are now at their new sizes and with new concrete lintels.  This will be my en-suite shower-room window.

Country Cook asked in the comment section the other day for floorplans, so she could visualise how we are changing the layout of the bungalow.  Alan has all the 'proper' ones at the bungalow.  But here are two of the basic ones I worked on while I was originally changing the layout.  The original layout is on the left and our new one on the right.

I am a very visual person so I always look at floorplans of a property before understanding it or buying it.  Hopefully these make sense to you.  

I think that the best thing about this simplification, apart from it about to be the bungalow design that we have always wanted, is getting rid of the excess of doors that used to be there ... at least we managed to sell them all.  😄 

Sue xx

Washing Symbols, Snow ... and Choccy Balls

 

It's a slow news day today, hence the washing symbol chart that really made me laugh yesterday when it popped up in my Facebook Memories.

 I'm sat here with the heating having just come back on, it clicked on itself even though it's set at just 14 degrees so it must be chilly.  We had torrential rain, howling winds, flooding and snow yesterday ... so much for me thinking it's about time to unpack my Summer clothes.

How Alan and the builders are working in these temperatures at the bungalow I have no idea, but Alan comes home every afternoon and either heads straight back out to the gym to sit in the steam room and the hot tub, or he goes upstairs to fall asleep in a hot bath.

We called to Asda last weekend to pick up something that Alan needed, we don't have an Asda particularly close to us so it's somewhere we visit quite rarely.  They do have a brilliant selection of dairy-free chocolate goodies there, so I always enjoy a browse.  I was very lucky Alan decided that whatever I chose would be my 'Easter Egg'.

Now I just have to try and save them for nearer to Easter ... I  have to admit the Choccy Balls did not even last the day.  😁

Sue xx

Indoor Gardening, and Winding Down

 

Over the last few days I have been doing a few little jobs in the garden and I really thought I was on a roll, then yesterday morning I woke up to really heavy rain and temperatures that had plummeted ... as promised by the previous nights weather person.

So I decided to find an indoor something or other that I could do to try and keep me motivated.

A little trawl through my seed tin and I found two different kinds of courgette seeds, a pack of cucumber seeds and some rocket.  So I sowed them all in little pots with labels.

And now they live on the bedroom windowsill, alongside the chitting potatoes.

The potatoes that we have had from Riverford for the past few deliveries have been delicious, so I had decided to sacrifice three of them to see if I can grow some for myself this Summer.  Fingers crossed. 🤞

I'm not growing too much this year, for two reasons, firstly, my health.  Gardening is becoming increasingly difficult for me and I can only manage a few minutes at a time without a long rest, and secondly because of our imminent move we want to wind the garden here down to make it truly easily manageable, but at the same time we want to keep it photogenic enough for when we put this house on the market later this year.

So just a few vegetables, and our regular fruit from the apple tree and the blueberry bushes will be more than enough.

Sue xx

Food, Family and Footings

 

My mission ... and I have chosen to accept it ... is to use up as much of my outdated spaghetti as I can over the coming few weeks.

I tend to eat between 80g and 100g for a simple spaghetti meal, so every time I cook any sort of pasta I cook up twice as much as I need.  Cooling the half to be saved under running cold water in a colander before storing it in the fridge.

The first day with this batch was with a simple pesto from the fridge.

Two days later I thawed out one of the tubs of my homemade pasta sauce, it was very good, and to save on washing up I ate it out of the storage box after zapping it in the microwave. 😁 

A couple of days ago I did exactly the same, but this time I decided to use a jar of bought pasta sauce from the cupboard.  In a fit of time saving enthusiasm I emptied the whole jar of sauce into the whole double portion of spaghetti in the pan, and put half of it to cool while I ate my tea.

Big mistake, the sauce was awful, anyway I persevered and ate the portion in my bowl, but then thinking about it later, still with a nasty taste in my mouth, I decided to throw the rest away. 

What a waste of good spaghetti, I mean I know I have lots but I still do not like wasting food.  I will not be buying that particular Marks and Spencer pasta sauce again for sure.

In other news ... my middle grandson Kyle, had a milestone birthday on Saturday, reaching 21 on the 21st.  He partied with family and friends before hitting the town with more friends to keep the celebrations going into the wee small hours, oh the stamina of youth.  He spent a good proportion of his family party teaching his younger brother Oscar, on the far right of this photo, how to dance.

In renovation news, the gaping holes that were the two gable ends of the bungalow, have now been bricked up securely and all the windows of the bungalow now have proper concrete lintels, ready for new windows to be fitted in a couple of weeks.  So no more drooping and cracking of the brickwork below.

If you are interested here is the latest walk-through, it's just a quick one this time.

https://youtu.be/851gKzufm7I?si=H5ZVM-PWsT90yGf5

This shows the newly laid footings for the wall that should hopefully be going up this week, which will separate the bedrooms.  This is a supporting wall that we needed to move over by about three foot to equalise the bedroom sizes a bit, thus the Acro props and standing pieces of wood that you can see in the video that are temporarily supporting the joist in the loft above.  The bathroom walls are non-supporting so do not need their own little 'foundations'.

Alan has been really impressed with the progress this week, he is still loving it ... luckily. 😄

Sue xx

  

A Shopping Catch Up - Sorry Sue!!

I have fallen so far behind with my shopping posts, that this one is a quick round up of everything that has come into the house since the last one.

Last weeks Riverford box was a medium box for 2-3 people, and we also choose a couple of extras.

Choosing those extras was dangerous ... those Chocolate Chip and Orange Hot Cross buns were delicious, and lasted barely two days.  We both loved them, I might have added them to next weeks order too!  😁

14th Aldi - total of £34.90

Normal shopping in the order it was done and with prices.

This shop was in two parts.  

The items above were my normal weeks shopping at £13.15.

These items were a stock up at £21.75.  Although when I got home I realised that the Weetabix tin was just about empty, so these will have to be dipped into quite soon.

I went wild in the aisles at Booths on the 18th, spending a total of £54.40.  It included treats for each of us and some store cupboard items to stock up.  The sun was out, the store was lovely and quiet and I had earned myself some extra cash.

Definitely for the store cupboard were the tins of beans on offer at £7 for 8 cans.  A lot more expensive than my usual Aldi's own, but I do like Heinz when they're not £2 a can!!

The Booths receipt.

The finally, and to bring you bang up to date I went to Aldi yesterday morning.  I spent £19.68 on a mixture of store cupboard items and a couple of things that I actually needed

The things for the store cupboard were dated and stashed away, although I will have to dip into one of the peanut butters next month as my current jar is almost empty.

So, that's us all up to date.

The reason for the extra available cash this month has been some really good Facebook Marketplace sales, which me and Alan both agreed would be good to use for stocking up before any coming price rises.  Seemingly the things that are pretty much guaranteed to rise in price first are cooking oils, chocolate and coffee, but I get my coffee from Sainsbury's were I can usually get the best price, so that's possibly something for next week.

So with apologies to Sue in Suffolk who in this posts comments let slip that she finds shopping photos boring ... hey Sue at least I didn't video it all and talk you through it.  😉

Sue xx