Having new carpets / furniture

I admit I am at the stage where I am over it.. The carpet layer didn't turn up yesterday so I got busy and painted doors and a cupboard in SIL's huge shed. He had gone to play his weekly match of football and the song on his radio was bad, ♫ if yewww saay yurr soreeeee ♫ over and over . I like music preferably 60's while I paint and this was quickly getting on my nerves. Unfortunately the radio is up high on a shelf, so I got a chair and climbed up on the freezer and attempted to change the channel and couldn't find anything decent. This is 21st Century rural Australia and most people appear to listen to Aussie Rules footbal, yuk. One of the doors was flaky, I hadn't sanded it properly, then I had no where to prop the small cupboard doors while I painted them. Bits of dirt kept getting in the paint...urrggghhh.

Oh for a life of ease......

matson and Charleygirl

Can I be next please after matson? Accommodation would not be a problem.

glamm agree about Bournemouth! The conference centre is good, and there are some pleasant hotels, but I wouldn't choose to go there! Each to his/ her own, I suppose.

lgillybob and glammanana please come to my house next, I hate change and decorating! x

Faye you can be the "down under" CEO of the Company you certainly have gained the expertise doing your cottage well done you,I love to do jobs like that and like to see the finished product it sounds as though it is going to be a first class job.

I can be the Australian branch glam, I certainly have the experience.

I am also having new carpet laid tomorrow in the two front bedrooms and passage. I am having the living room and third bedroom laid with the same carpet when I have finished the rest of the painting. All the walls and carpets will be the same throughout the house.

The two front bedrooms now have new walls and ceilings, the living room has a new ceiling, the bathroom has new walls and ceiling plus the tiling is nearly finished. The kitchen has had the ceiling repaired and a new kitchen is being installed. All new floor coverings and painted throughout. My SIL has found old doors for me and I have sanded them and am half way through painting them. I want the cottage to have an old look.

This cottage was in danger of becoming a wreck, but it had new electrical throughout and was worth saving.

I used to have to go to Bournemouth for sales seminars with my company and I hated the place every time I went down it would rain the only thing decent was the hotel we stayed in it was called The Chine and was very welcoming with decent food it made a miserable week bearable.

glammanana

I had a few other bits done like having some of the radiators changed.
All the radiators are under 8 years old.
I could not arrange the workmen to follow each other straight away.
Also I had committed myself to going out some of the days. I was told by the shop that the suite was coming late May / early June so I had made arrangements on that basis for days out etc.

Frank

gillybob

I am getting all the other carpets done by September and I have selected the colours.
I have had a lot of work done recently and just fancy a few weeks peace with nothing being done to the house.
The bathroom / kitchen is only about 3 years old.
Andie and myself are going to Bournemouth soon.

Frank

Maybe we could start our own little cottage industry called grans glamourous interiors we could top up our pensions ?

I love just changing things around too Glammanana it's a amazing how different a room can look with just the simplest of changes. Living at the seaside, I have a bit of a seaside thing going on at the minute. Saw some amazing wallpaper called Brighton Pier that I simply had to have although much too busy for a main room, I have out it in the downstairs loo which looks fantastic. I love doing other people's decorating too (mainly just family) as it is amazing how a bit of wallpaper and a few cushions and accessories can dramatically change a room. Missed our vocations maybe Glamma.

Gilly you sound me in "where will I put that?" I have seen some LL Bowen wallpaper in Liverpool but it does not match with any of the soft furnishings that I have,I've got a box with differant coloured candles and silk flowers which I match up with new wallpaper, so every year or so things are changed and I buy cushion covers in all colours when the sales are on and they ring the changes as well as,I'm sorry I started reading this as now I want to get started and do some changes.

Oh I love decorating glammanana my DH cannot understand my logic when I see a fantastic wallpaper I work in reverse and think "now where could I put that?" I have just finished at my grandmas (on,y a tiny little back bedroom to do so no panic) I have the wallpaper ready to start my mam and dads lounge and have seen some fantastically bright modern paper for my daughter who needs cheering up.

My DH's mum and dad denied themselves every home comfort it was sad seeing how they lived. His dad was so tight fisted he wouldn't even let his mum have a colour television. We went out and bought her one took it down(they lived in Lincolnshire) and installed it. She loved it he refused to watch it.

gillybob Good on your gran for putting her own comforts first,my late FIL was so mean to himself it was embarrassing and I always said to mr.glamma if you ever take after your dad you will be in for a shock !! He does however have a meltdown when I watch programmes such as 60 min makeover he wonders what idea I will come up with next ? poor man,in fact I am out next week looking for wallpaper as the lounge colour needs changing it's not been done since July/Aug last year and duckegg blue/silver is not in vogue now

I am. It sure how old you are Frank early 60's??????

Why not make yourself comfortable in your own home with new carpets/sofas etc. my gran is 97 and pushed encouraged by me she has just spent a fair bit of money on new carpets, sofas etc. why deprive your own comfort if you have the money? I certainly don't want any of my grandmas money I would far rather she was warm and comfortable. The point I am making is that you could live another 30 plus years yet which would mean those new carpets were an absolute bargain.

I would want to know why it took so long to lay the carpets 10days seem's an awfully long time to me,a year before we sold our family home we had new carpets fitted through out and it was a day removing the old, a day painting the skirting boards and a day refitting the new,and we are talking a very very large square footage so 10days would not be suitable for me I'm sorry.I don't do ormaments either just a couple of good pieces and art work to compliment the room.

gillybob

You said ''After all "you can't take it with you".
As I have daughters and granddaughters I am not going over the top with expenditure but I am going to make myself comfortable.
Some people have said get equity release and go on round the world cruises but I shall not be taking that advice.
Two of the bedroom carpets need replacing and I have got the money ready.
As I will be having the chimney pointed soon I have decided I will have a break for a few weeks from having workmen coming in to the house and then get the carpets sorted.
One thing I have decided is in future I will have 1 carpet replaced at a time as the house was very disrupted and even though I had the photographs.

Frank

Ooh, Charley, do you have a London pension too?

Seriously, though, I know what you mean about the size of chairs etc. For our last move, some real measuring went on, and I think we have it right now. (I also welcomed the move as an opportunity to get rid of ornaments and so on that I'd never much liked, and to create something new.)

Personally I would have taken the opportunity to reorganize pictures and ornaments. I wouldn't feel the need to put everything back exactly the same. Mind you I don't do ornaments.

I totally agree re the size of chairs. My two armchairs did not look so big in the shop. I have had them for nearly 3 years and I think that I may spend some of my London pension to buy a pair of chairs that do not appear to take over the room. I agree, I must do some measuring next time.

Those chairs can be HUGE, can't they? We bought a sofa and two chairs when we moved into this house, and we could hardly move around them! That'll teach me to take proper measurements next time. (We sold the chairs after a few months, much to DH's disgust because he liked them!)

Wow HunterF you are really splashing out aren't you? Still with that London pension of yours why not?

I positively encourage my parents and my grandma to spend money on making themselves comfortable. After all "you can't take it with you" . My grandma has just recently had her little local authority bungalow modernised right through and I made encouraged her to splash out on new sofas, carpets, wide screen TV and a new unit. She just goes along with me (because its easier than protesting) yet I know she is absolutely thrilled when people comment how lovely her little place is. She then just shrugs and says "it's my granddaughter she just loves spending my money"

If you would like our advice,post a picture.Did your daughters help you pick the setee out?