Monday 30 April 2018

Monday morning.....Andy left for London just before 6am this morning and is not back until Wednesday evening.  He works so hard - I am so proud of him.  His job is so demanding.  Andy is the only person I know who works as hard as he does, is so dedicated and is intelligent and driven enough to do it!  I miss him when he is not here.  Just knowing he is in the house is better - knowing he is close....

So....today, I need to get on all my asbestos safety equipment on and get rid of this stuff once and for all!! I'm not sure I can do it in one go, but I need to try as I don't want to have to be getting in and out of the safety gear and possibly spreading asbestos dust around.  so...wellies, overalls, mask, gloves and goggles...special bags....get in there get it off the walls and bagged up and to the tip with it all (after paying over £12 a bag to get rid of it).

I also want to run 10km as I didn't run on Friday - only did 5km on Saturday and didn't run yesterday.

Weight loss back down to 8lb after the weekend.  Seems to be a theme - get to 10lb loss during the week and end up back down to 8lb after the weekend.  So...I need to try harder! and stop ruining it at the weekend!!

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So - I got kitted up and got most of the asbestos off and bagged up (although not sealed yet) apart from a piece under where the sinks were because it is full of screws I can't get out.  Better to come back to it fresh, rather than try when I've just had enough.....

I had lunch, then took ages to get myself out for a run.  I wondered how I would get on because I wasn't really feeling it....

Straight away I was walking more often and didn't do as well as last time on the hills.  By 4km I was debating turning around and coming back - as it would be a shorter 8km run - but it meant coming back on the busy road - rather than the nice paths and country lanes I was almost at.  I could feel a blister on my foot (always the same place)....I kept going knowing I'd have more down-hill runs now rather than up-hill.  It was not easy....at about 8km, my other foot started hurting.  This happens when my feet get too hot - the ball of my foot/toes start to burn and it's really painful.  At 9km, I paused my watch and sat down on the grass and took my trainer off, massaged my foot and let it cool off.  When I stood up to carry on that foot was okay, but my blister on the other foot really hurt!. I managed because I was almost home.  Glad to be back - and still glad I did it!  28km ahead on my challenge and hopefully burnt some fat off from the weekend lol.

Might not be able to run on this for a few days....and my hip is hurting a bit too.....going to go and get in the bath me thinks.....

Saturday 28th April 2018

Morning,

Last night we managed to get the cat (Bitsy) off a little bird she had brought in - it was breathing heavily and looked broken - after a while it calmed down and seemed to straighten up a bit - so we took it outside - and it seemed to run off....

Later we managed to get a tiny tiny mouse off Bitsy - and we released that too!  When we got up this morning - it seemed they must have found the bird and brought it back in again - it was very dead this time - its feathers were everywhere.  It is such a shame and me and Andy are so soft fussing and worrying about these little creatures - trying to feed them before we let them go,  but Bitsy is just too good at catching them.  The kittens love it when she brings them in too - I just hope they are not as good as Bitsy at catching them when they start going out!

Anyway....I woke up at 7am...my alarm was set for 8am so I could get up and do the parkrun - and I didn't go to bed until 1am.  As I woke up early - I got up - Andy was already up.  I felt a little icky, but got ready and went and did the run.  It felt really hard starting off and I thought I was running slowly - and I must have read my watch wrong as it also seemed to say I was behind my normal time.  I managed to run all of it apart from stopping for about 3-4 seconds once.  As usual it all feels awful as I was going around but feels better the closer you get to the end.  Unlike last week I was able to speed up a little near the end - overtaking a girl that had been ahead of me the whole way.  As soon as I finish, instead of thinking this is awful - I think - That was Awesome! hehehe

I am waiting for my official time but according to my watch, it should be just under 33 minutes!  I did the Bushy Park 5km a few years ago and that was my fastest 5km ever at 32.32.  Still slow for most people - but that is now what I am aiming to beat.

Hope I'm not disappointed when the results come in....

So - time was 32.44 - so beat my time again - last week it was 33.22 - and later changed to 33.25. I thought after last week I'd struggle to beat it!  Lets hope I can do it again next week.  Ultimate goal is 30 minutes or under!

This is the half-way point....



This one is coming in at the end!

relief.........

Helen and Paul came around at about 6pm....and we had a great night as usual, catching up, playing pool and generally laughing!  Helen is on a downer about running - thinking she actually doesn't like it and might not run again.  This is because she went out and had a rubbish run that left her feeling pissed off at the end.  I'm trying to persuade her not to give up on it - she hasn't done it much and I think she is expecting too much too soon.  I don't want to lose my running buddy!!!

Renovation - two offices to a bathroom!

So, I thought I'd return to writing a little bit about some of the work we have done on the house. The bathroom, was a big job and brought with it many problems!!

A room in this house had been made into two small offices, and as it was partition walls we thought it perfect for knocking back into one room and having it as a bathroom. It was a good location - upstairs in the middle of the house....here is the floor plan showing how it was before...





So, as you can see we needed to take out the walls in the middle of the room. Which also happened to have a radiator on each side - so first we had to get those off the walls!

Below are the two offices - and the doors between them that we also had to remove...

We removed these walls with a week of moving in! Adam and Paul came and helped, and it was a lot more difficult than we had anticipated! The wood holding up the walls, which the plasterboard was attached to - did not want to come out!! and the mess from the plasterboard was awful! The waste we had to get rid of too - seemed to triple in size as we took it out! Plus we couldn't put plasterboard in the tip - we needed special bags which we had to pay for - they were huge and I thought 2 would be enough. It wasn't!

You can see below how awful and dusty it was! This is my crazy husband Andy and my son Adam.

This was the first real look we got of it as one big room rather than two offices!

Tidied up it looked good!

I still had all the woodchip to get off the walls - and it needed plastering - it still had office lights and plug sockets...

So, the plumbers were already about - they saw it as two offices on the Friday when they went home and they came back to it looking like the pic above on the Monday!

I had designed how I wanted the bathroom - it looked something like this: (pic to go in)

So...the plumbers started lifting floorboards etc. and then they hit me with it - we can't do the bathroom in here! They said that there was a massive steel running right across the middle of the floor meaning that they could not run pipes across. Furthermore - because the house is extended further out on the floor below - all the waste pipes had to leave the room in the far corner and they would not be able to get the pipes at an angle so that the water/waste would run down it. Panic, disappointment, worry about the planning permission we'd need to change room...and what other room would it go in?? We scoped the house for other options - pulling up floor boards etc. Eventually they said - if we raised the floor, we could get over the steel thing, and get the angles they needed. So I searched for somebody who could do this for us - and £1,000 and a week later - we had a raised floor!

During this time I also stripped off a ton of woodchip wallpaper (the plasterer had provided me with a young lad - cheap labour to help, as at the time I was also stripping wallpaper off our bedroom wall), and I had all the walls plastered. When I tried to get the wallpaper off the ceiling - it started to come apart, so we had to put in a new ceiling and get that plastered too!! All of which was more expense we didn't expect. Before the bathroom could go in - I needed to tile too. I had done a tiling course whilst we were waiting to buy the house and I was very nervous about tiling it myself - my first attempt!!

I tiled an area where the sinks were going - and I really struggled because the wall was not flat - despite having been plastered.

Then I realised that there was no way I could tile around where the shower would be, because it was going up higher and the wall was so bendy!! I ended up getting the plasterer back to straighten the wall. They did not do a perfect job. I was stressing so much that Paul agreed to come and help me - and between us - I think we did a good job!!

Then...I had to paint, and get the flooring in - before we could finish getting the bathroom fitted. I think it was already October and we'd started this in June! I was desperate for this bathroom! I was so excited because I knew it would be awesome when finished!!

Here it is painted...you can also see the raised floor and the taps ready for the bath...

I cannot seem to find any pics of the floor going in - but I must have some - so will add them if I ever find them!! But it is Amtico, and is a pale grey wood type....thing...very nice!

The next thing that happened is that the whole bathroom went in - apart from the shower because we had so many problems with missing parts. Victoria Plum - have a lot to answer for - that and they sent me two sink pedestals that were all bendy and they looked nothing alike when stood together. The replacements they sent were all smashed - and eventually they checked everything and sent them specially packed etc. Took a LOT of time and stress to get this sorted and even more so with the shower!

So - the end result (I cant show the whole thing in one pic unfortunately - too many weird angles), and you get to see the new floor here too.....drum roll......



































If you go back and compare these to the two offices, or the wall coming down, it makes you (me) realise just what we achieved. These pics don't actually do it justice. It definitely has the wow factor!

FriYAY - nicked that off my daughter!

Hi!

Well....yesterday, the guy came to fit the smart meter and took one look at out 3 phase electricity feed, and declared himself not qualified...

I tried to steam the wallpaper off the walls and it would last about 8 minutes before cutting out, then took an hour before I could turn it back on again!  I cut the grass (the mower worked!) but had to stop before I finished because of rain.  Grass looks like its had half a hair cut!

I ran 5km on the running machine and tried out my new trainers.  They were fine.  I am now 24.5km head on my YVSTY challenge (1018 km in a year).  I think my total is 346km so far...

Weight loss is back at 9.5lb loss.  I can live with that.  Just need to keep it going in that direction - I have another 22lb to lose! I think I'll start feeling better after another 10lb or so...I should start fitting in my clothes again by then!

So today - I can pick up my asbestos safety equipment from about midday...overalls, goggles and mask.  So - I'll do some more wallpaper stripping until then.  I was dreaming last night that our plasterer (Ray) had fitted amazing bathrooms in a our house (not this house, but an amazing big house!) and I was really pleased, but was very worried as we had not agreed a price and he'd just gone ahead and done it.  In my dream I was complaining to Lissa that it may have blown all the money we had left and he should have agreed it first - he heard me and so I was telling him to his face...its AMAZING but.....

This obviously shows that I am worried about the work we have left to do and the lack of money!  We are a few grand short to finish the annex....and I really want to finish it! Paul has offered to help us fit the bathroom ourselves to save some money - and I think we could do it.  That will save some money - but until I get rid of this asbestos and strip the walls we can't move on.

Did I mention yesterday that we got the permission we need to fit the new external door? Well, we have and that's another expense - getting a door made and the doorway put in....having to arrange that would have frightened the life out of me before we moved here, but I've arranged and completed so many projects in this house, i know that everything can get done - you just need money!!

Thursday 26 April 2018

I'm starving! Don't know why I woke up feeling so hungry! Probably because I didn't eat a massive unhealthy take-out last night!

Weight loss is back up to 9.2lb this morning - was 7.5lb yesterday - so feel a bit better that it was a blip.  I knew running 10km would have a good effect.  If anybody reads this and thinks that I am obsessed (about diet and running).  Then you'd be correct.  I don't think I do anything that I don't get obsessed about! I feel sorry for the people around me - I bore them to death, and as much as I try - I can't help myself.  I think to myself - I am not going to tell Andy all about my run today because he won't find it interesting - but then....I tell him all about it!

So - asbestos bags turned up this morning and they are huge - which is what I was hoping for, as it is in big pieces on the wall and I don't want to have to break it up anymore than I have to.  So - I need to go out and buy a protective mask and get on with getting rid of it.  It is going to cost me £12.20 per bag - and that is for a normal rubble bag - and these are twice the size - so I'll probably have to pay x2 for each bag.  :-(

Somebody should be turning up today to fit a smart meter.  No idea if there will be a problem when they see that we have a 3 par thingy rather than 1 par.  I have no idea about the terminology - we just have a bigger feed of electricity coming into the house because we have such a big house. #mansionproblems.

The grass needs cutting again - and I have no idea if the mower is going to start, as it cut out last time and I couldn't get it going again.  If I do get it going, I'm going to have to make sure I do it all in one go and don't turn it off, mid-way around like last time.  That was interesting wasn't it.  Okay, I don't claim to be interesting!!

I found this route on walkjogrun.com - here is the link:

https://www.walkjogrun.net/functions/shareRouteBlog.cfm?rid=F9F53171-E355-1BCB-A758E4949B2E2B32&layout=false



It would be about 12.7km from our house.  I want to try it....although the advice is - only add 1km to your longest run every two weeks.  Actually it is about two weeks since I went up to 10km - but this is an extra 2.7km, so I might have to wait a while....it ends on a big hill too.....and I'd probably get quite a few rests whilst I check my map to see if I am going the right way.  something to aim for....

Wednesday 25th April 2018

Morning.

I woke up really early this morning - and Andy must have too because he left for work at 5.15am and I know he set his alarm for 6am.

Adam and Erika have left now - and I'm sat here feeling rather depressed after weighing myself.  At one point last week I had lost 11.5lb - and after a weekend with Helen and Paul and a few days with Adam and Erika - all involving eating and drinking - I am have now only lost 7.5lb.  How I can put that much on in less than a week is beyond me - especially as that takes weeks to lose!

Another reason that I am not feeling very happy is because of this:  We booked a holiday to Jamaica for next year.  So when we booked it we had over a year to wait.  It was expensive and involved an upgraded amazing room with a butler and premium flights.  However, I had to wait to April this year to attempt to use my air-miles to upgrade to first class.  I called them yesterday and could only upgrade the flight there as the return flight had sold out.  Okay - not bad - first class there would still be awesome!!  As we were coming to the end of the process of upgrading (after 43 minutes on the phone) the woman said - oh....you need to have paid the holiday off in full and have had your tickets issued, otherwise you cant use your points to upgrade.  Now the problem here is that we were going to cash in shares to pay for it - and when I spoke to Andy - we don't quite have enough.  The whole thing made us realise that this is a lot of money that we don't really have.  So instead of having a first class flight to an amazing holiday in Jamaica - it looks like we might just cancel the holiday.

Cancelling is probably the most sensible thing to do - especially if we want to finish the work on the house.  We could use that share money towards the work.

Anyway....was planning on a 10km run - try out my new trainers and burn off some of my fatty fatty blob blob self.  But it has started to throw it down outside - and I can't do 10km on the running machine it is too boring and it's too easy to quit.

Oh well.....decisions decisions.  I'm going to look on line for a part time job.....

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Well the search for a part time job was over quickly....so as Lissa and Andy both said to me - just go for the run in the rain -  I did! I ran 10.1km in 1hr 10m...in the rain for the first half - and wishing it was raining in the second half! Kept my old trainers on because I didn't want to risk them rubbing on a longer run - and I didn't want to get them muddy lol.

I felt much better after having been for a run - and I tidied up and did some washing etc. and went and had a bath.  Kitten May kept me company - making me nervous that she was going to fall in!!

May sticking her leg into the bubbles...

May for some reason seemed to want to bite the bath tub!

So - now I am waiting for Andy to come home - I'm cooking chicken with chorizo baked potatoes.  Looking forward to eating quite well tonight and chilling out, and not drinking alcohol (even though some red wine would go down nicely!)

Tuesday 24th April 2018

Hi,

So Adam and Erika were here today...we started off with bacon butties...and eventually got ourselves into Taunton. I took my trainers back and exchanged them for other Nike trainers.  Then Erika bought Adam a Barbour coat...he gets spoilt off Erika - and Luckily for him she has good taste...expensive good taste!

We came back home and decided that we would not go out - we'd get take-out.  We played pool and waited for Andy to emerge from the basement where he was working.  That didn't happen until gone 7pm - which us usual lately with his new role.  He works so hard and such long hours...

So then me and Andy beat them at pool 6-0 or did they win one? Cant remember now!  We ordered really unhealthy kebab and chips...which I didn't enjoy very much...and then Adam and Erika beat us both at cards! lol

Andy had to get up about 6am....and we were all quite tired so I think we went off to bed at 11pm!!  I never go to bed that early!