Help calm me, house buying and selling stress. Part 3

I still have a churning stomach when I think of all those curtains that I made for our town house 2 houses ago, all that fabric spread over the lounge floor, then pinned up hems while hanging and doing proper hems after they dropped. Yuk. I am a good seamstress have been sewing on a machine for 64 years but I turned the children down when they asked me to make curtains. Never again after that mighty session

The last house had massive windows and I sewed long dunelm curtains together to make one curtain for our bedroom. I did love the new linen fabric, really splashed out on that and in the end it was money wasted, or maybe not because it was a cheery curtain and added to the ambience

The garden was hard muscle-building work again. 12 bags of mushroom compost mulched some plants and wall edges. The obelisk hole was the worst, 1/2 a m diameter and I got 6" down and banged the pry bar down hard and heard that horrible clunk when it hit rocks. 5 big buckets of builders mank came out and 1 bag of horse compost went in as well as backfill, plenty of mank left but I think I did enough for a small area. The soil below is not only manky but horribly compressed. You gotto laugh, the 2 male owners have done no digging, one has a `wild` natural grass area and the other uses a mower at the back but his front is turning to weeds again. They will both have nasty yellow grass in a couple of years as the soil underneath turns sour

Interestingly, the remaining houses on this development have increased in value. I think mine is already worth about 20k more than I paid for it

I have never had blinds perviously but they suit this house best of all, my 2 male neighbours have blinds on all windows and one has shutters on the lower half of his 2 bay windows. My windows are not bay. I like that I can tilt them to get light but be invisible if I am sitting doing booger all like now

Good luck tomorrow Shandy. Do keep us poste, as I am sure you will.

The fleece is called ‘bump’ I have some left over from a door curtain I made for DD1 . I must try to find another use for it.

Curtains are so good for keeping out droughts and we have such a dusty house , blinds would be permanently dirty I think.

I'm a curtain fan! I haven't made any for years though. The flat that we moved to is a 60s built one so is large but one downside is that insulation wasn't a priority then. For that reason we have floor to ceiling, fleece lined curtains to keep the heat in and the draughts out in winter. With such big windows we also need roller blinds to pull down when the the sun dazzles us. The main rooms face due south. I must say that I went to town on the fabrics.
We have plain pale green carpets throughout and primrose yellow walls in every room. The fabrics for the curtains are the main feature giving character to each room. I must say that we're very pleased with them. It was expensive but after the major refurbishment we had to do they really repay the effort.
I chose the fabrics in a fabric warehouse and a seamstress made them up and arranged a joiner to fit the special tracks needed.

I hate altering things too. If the fact that I’ve got a sewing machine crops up, I always get in early the fact that I hate using it! I made some runners for our daughter’s wedding which couldn’t be simpler but even they wouldn’t stand up to too much scrutiny, they did the job though!

Sorry Glorybee I misunderstood and thought that they were used curtains, yes if they are lovely and new, much easier to alter from the top.

I hate altering things , especially taking up trousers.
DD1 recently bought a summer skirt for £1.00 but it needed a new zip, off I go to the nearest fabric shop £6.85 for a 7 inch zip! In retrospect I should have found another skirt in a charity shop in a similar colour and used that zip.

Off now to do some drawings of our intended ‘new’ bathroom, all of the tiles are falling from the walls, I really thought that tile adhesive would last longer than 22 years.

Just popping on to wish you luck for tomorrow, Shandy, and echo everyone's advice to let the house speak for itself. I, and all your friends on here will be thinking about you and willing you on. Hope your toe is getting better, and the squirt of WD40 helped.....oh yes, that was for the sticking door not your toe, wasn't it!

Another gran who would LOVE to see photos of your garden, Crafty, if you feel comfortable sharing. I too love gardening but am pretty rubbish at it, very adhoc and not very skilled, but oh, the happy hours I spend on hands and knees, close to the earth in summer, it really is bliss, isn't it?

My daughter has wooden blinds in her house as her windows are large. Look lovely. I recently brought some ready made curtains from Dunelm for my living room. Had to buy longer drop than needed. Had a price from an alteration shop but having them done by Dunelm as they where £20 cheaper. Curtains were £99 having 7.5" taken off cost £60 to have that done. I have a sewing machine but not very skilled at using it. Straight lines only.

Franbern you are a whirl wind of activity. Glad you have had a lovely time with your family. Hope the weather eases for your London trip.

Craftyone don't over do it in the garden . No dropping rocks on fingers or toes. Love to see a photo of your garden once it's done. It will be full of colour in the summer.

Shandy57 hope you foot is feeling better. And the viewings go well. As someone else has said if you do the viewing s only answer any questions asked and not add any additional information. You can always omit things they don't need to know everything.

Hope everyone else is ok and no one gets flooded. We have very high winds and heavy rain here.

I took lessons some years ago on curtain making. One of the first things we were told: alter from the top.

I still like to have drapes on my windows. They are part of my interior design. At present I have the ones that were here in the flat, but will eventually get round to replacing them. The Sitting room large window going on to the balcony does also have vertical blinds which are great, but also drapes which I have only drawn twice since I have been here - when it was very, very windy.
Back in the distant past my MiL used to make all my curtains, then at my house had a wonderful local shop that did them for me. Very large bay windows there. I have sourced a local shop here which has lots of recommendations and will eventually get down to have a chat to them.
Dunelm are fine for small windows - maybe bedrooms. If you have them make your curtains, these days they only seem to want to do pinch pleating, which takes more material, do not seem to use the ordinary gather curtain tape at all.
Yesterday I went to Longleat - we met up with my daughter, her hubbie and little girl visiting for half-term. The morning it really poured down with rain, but the sun came out in the afternoon (and the temperature dropped). We did manage to have a good time, and lots of the animals came out in the afternoon sunshine - seemed so strange to be there and no queues anywhere. My daughter who took me said it was a little frightening driving round the Safari area without having any car in front to follow.
Felt a little low when I was dropped back home last night - had been looking forward to this half term so much, it has all been very successful (despite the weather). However, only have a week before I go up to London for a few days as I have a follow-on hospital appointment there and will use the opportunity of also going along to a couple of my former groups to see people. Purchased some lovely tins of biscuits yesterday to take with me.
Did you all see the news about wood burners this morning? I have never really understood the current craze for these. Glad that there will be legislation to prevent the burning of green wood which is so very damaging for the environment and for health.
Hope all the viewings go well tomorrow, Shandy, I am not surprised that you were told to light the fire, etc. If you look at Escape to the Country, they always seem to have fires alight and lights on, even on the brightest days. Anything and everything that shows of the property in the best possible way. Will you be doing these viewings? or does the agent from the Auction house carry them out for you? If it is you, then I would recommend not saying to much, reply to any specific questions, but do not offer anything else.
Whereas it is sad for your solicitor at the death of his mother, but do wonder how many companies would give people two months off for this. Either he is a working solicitor or not.

Oopsadaisy, these curtains hadn’t been used so it was easier, she really liked them but couldn’t get the right drop so bought the nearest to which were quite long for the window. I took the header off and was going to put it back on but it was quite deep so I put on a smaller one I had already, to keep the gathering more in proportion to the shorter length. I was apprehensive as I’m not a confident sewer but they turned out ok ?

Ha Ha! I still have some curtains I made slightly too short so I had to add on a bit. I added it to the hem. Let that be a lesson -- measure measure measure.. Mind you, I don't think anyone notices now.

glorybee I can’t think that cutting the tops off, trying to reuse the crumpled heading tape and reattaching it would be easier, can you? I would have done it your way.
Maybe we are both wrong.

I agree Oopsadaisy about buying ready mades, I do have a sewing machine but it’s strictly for straight line tasks on curtains etc until I find time to learn more skilled manoeuvres. My daughter recently asked me to shorten some long curtains to about half their length, I said I’d take ‘this much’ off the bottom but she said no, a seamstress she was talking to told her to cut them from the top and re sew the heading tape back on. That maybe an obvious easier way to do it but it was a revelation to me!

No it doesn’t save money, that’s why I stopped!

Fabric is so expensive and it’s hard to find a store that supplies decent, reasonably priced curtain material, then there is black out lining, curtain heading tape plus time spent doing it.

Mind you if I see some nice fabric in a charity shop I still buy it, but usually there isn’t enough to make decent size curtains.

So I have waited until the sales are on and have bought them far cheaper than I could have made them. TBH it became a chore as we have large windows and fabric is heavy and unwieldy.

Sorry I posted before reading your post oopsiedaisy
I will certainly think about readymade!

I wonder if it saves much to make your own curtains?

I’m a recent convert to buying curtains craftyone . I’ve made all of my and most of the families curtains since I was given my first sewing machine when I was 21. 2 years ago I compared the price of fabric, linings etc. with Dunelm and even John Lewis (clearance ) curtains and it was so much cheaper to buy them ready made, so I did! It was such a relief not to have to struggle with huge amounts of fabric and linings on the dining room table and then the floor .
When they fall apart I might give the wooden shutters a go, but our bungalow is old and draughty and DH loves his curtains.

Is if for stairs and sofas shandy? Then it should be one with a rotating roller, could also use it in the car. You can feel the power with dyson and same with shark, I use the shark hand held end of the shark cordless stick vacuum IF200UK it comes with a rotating brush etc. these new vacs are amazing compared to the old vacs, take up hardly any space. Depends on budget as well as wrist strength of course as well as personal likes

No shoulder aches today, the last perfect fit blind is to be fitted in a bedroom this morning, I still have that bill to pay. These blinds and shutters are a world away from curtains, I always made curtains. Last house I bought them from dunelm and 2 years before I moved, with no intention of moving, I bought purpose- made beautiful heavy linen blackout curtains for massive floor to ceiling windows in my bedroom. For logistics, it had to be one huge curtain, was incredibly heavy to put up, draped over my shoulder up a ladder. Cost me £600. I decided to keep the clean lines here and not have curtains, excellent decision, the wooden light coloured shutters will only ever need a dust now and then and look so much nicer, suit my house better. All my windows have shutters, the patio boors have perfect fit blackout insulating blinds and the upstairs bedrooms have both on each window. You can feel the cold when I open the shutters

Water bill yesterday, only <£101, what a bargain. Good to have a meter

I am going to have a perfectly normal nice day today, no rain so will be outside all day, digging for rocks, settling one obelisk and mulching over baby weeds around some plants. I am thinking about soaking sweet pea seeds, ready to sprout, so I can get them ready to plant as soon as. I love pottering outside

When I was looking for a cordless vac my daughter took me to PC world to try them out. Glad she did as I found at lot of them to heavy for me. Got a Bosch which is ideal for me and very good . I did want a Shark or Dyson but couldn't move them. Is there somewhere you can go to have a play with different brands?

I'm wondering if the huge pack he sent me before for the mortgage buyer will be useful for the 'legal pack'. I'm going to find it tomorrow and start doing it before he returns. Whiff, I was so taken aback, I didn't ask to speak to his secretary, but the person that answered the phone did say his secretary is forwarding his emails. I think I told you his mother died suddenly over christmas, I doubt he wants to look at work at the moment.

Going to try and watch something on Netflix on my daughter's old laptop tonight, so odd not having a tv. I've researched cordless hoovers and might go for the Vax which is supposed to be very good with pet hair, my long haired tabby needs daily brushing.

Stay safe in the high winds tomorrow everyone

Shandy57 glad your toe has stopped bleeding. You need to get onto your solicitor as soon as he's back and keep on at him. It's not as if you aren't paying him. When my solicitor wasn't there her assistant sorted a lot of things for me including sending out paperwork for me to do. Perhaps his secretary could send you the pack. Have you asked?

Don't hesitate to phone people like that. They're not doing you a favour. You'll be paying them handsomely!
The cottage must feel small after living in such a large house. I'd be scared in the station house on my own. I am a wuss!

I'm always so nervous of being seen as a nuisance, but have now been waiting a week for a response to my email to see if my solicitor will do my legal pack for the auction. I told a friend I hadn't heard, and need to know by the end of next week, and she said to ring. I have just phoned - he's actually on holiday until 2 March but his secretary is forwarding his emails. I'm going to hang on for him as I trust him completely, I hope he doesn't say no at the end of his holiday!

Hello everyone, I had a very wet and windy 'tour' with the lovely young lady this morning. Rain was actually pooling on the kitchen windowsill, I've never seen that before, keep your fingers crossed one out of the four 'viewers' on Saturday makes a bid at the auction!

My toe has finally stopped bleeding, thank heavens, but I still can't walk properly as it is so painful. I'm going down to the house tomorrow to hoover and polish, and will go early on Saturday morning to put the heating on, she also recommended I light the woodburner and coal fire. She loved it and said there had been a lot of interest. She guessed my reserve and said it was worth every penny. If it does sell in March it will be odd to still be here and see what the new people are doing.

A friend has offered to pop round to help me with the heating control, it's awful, my reaction to people helping me is always negative. She's gluten intolerant so I've been out to buy some free from biscuits, and she can't do caffeine, so I've got some decaff coffee. Hope she can get her car around the tiny drive. I met another neighbour today, unfortunately she has an unneutered tom, could be fireworks. My cat is quite relaxed in her basket upstairs, unfortunately as it is so small here her cat litter tray is very noisy when she visits it!

Have a good day, I'm off to research cordless hoovers for people with hairy pets!