Help calm me. house buying and selling stress. Part 5

You are clever craftyone, I'd end up stuck to the shower wall never to be seen again …. !

I'm not enjoying this weather and actually felt a bit light headed when I changed the bed. We don't often have very warm weather here I think it's a shock to my system. I do try not to drink pop because of the sugar, but had a lovely cold bitter lemon just now

I know I am one of those who does not drink enough, I have a large thermos sports bottle which I fill with water first thing and I have a couple of mugs of something in the day but by evening I still have not finished the water in the bottle, like today. I am going to get a uti if I am not more mindful of drinking. Finished it! now to also drink a glass of water

btw, tv watchers. Youtube has some excellent stuff on it and this time I am binge watching Berkeley square, about 3 different nannies in posh houses. Good old fashioned relaxation. Next episode is number 4

Just had my last dinner with my daughter and son in law for a while. Finished off with a large slice of Thornton's sticky toffee cake yummy. Back to earth tomorrow. Bungalow all cleaned and looking beautiful. My living room curtains will be put up tomorrow. No point in hanging them until the dusty work completed. Asked my home improvements guy if he knew of a good garden gate manufacture who installs said they could do that . Decided against having a tall cupboard built in the shower room it's to beautiful and would have covered up some of the tiles. My daughter put my shower caddy on the wall for me. Perfectly place for whether I shower standing up or sitting down. Loved being here but looking forward to going home.

Very tired tonight but at least I can see why. Very hot after the rain and cleaned like a Trojan.

Hope you all had a good day.

The perfect nest for you whiff. It all sounds wonderful. Have you got used to Liverpool humour?

I am on battle stations, me and blackbirds. I didn`t nurture my blueberries all year just to have the berries taken, there is plenty of food around for the blackbirds but they are cheeky blighters. I have worked out that the berries continue to ripen in a bowl indoors, so now I am picking them dark red and before the blackbirds snaffle them, they do ripen in a bowl in a day, so now I pick morning and evening. I have 6 large healthy bushes, glossy green and in big half barrel plastic look-alikes, they edge my patio, between that and the garden. They are organic berries

A nice bit of rain today

Since my couple of months of almost continuous serious UTI's last year - ending finally with the operation to remove a growth in my bladder - I have been more careful. even than previously. about taking in loads of fluid. As I am also an ostomist, what is left of my digestive system is not able to take the fluid from food that I eat, so have for the past thirty years, needed to drink more than normal people.

Most days I probably have between 3 - 4 litres of fluid each day, starting with my cereal in the morning with a lot of milk and my very large breakfast mug which takes nearly a whole litre.

Interestingly, I received THIS WEEK a letter from my London hospital regarding follow up tests for this - the letter clearly stated on it that it had been dictated by the Consultant on 21st April, and typed on 24th April. It was addressed to me here at the correct address - so no idea why it took TWO MONTHS to get here - Would have been much quicker in the days of Pony Express!!!

Some welcome rain early this morning, clearing up now. We have decided not to try to go out tomorrow. Daughter plus one teenager and the 10 year old will come round to put up my new wallpaper border (ready for my new curtains), and, if dry, we will wander down to the beach for a time, and then I will treat them to a takeaway of their choice.

Today I will make a batch of Belgium Buns, still have half a jar of home-made lemon curd to use in them.

I am looking for ONE ceramic tile (8" square). One covers my drain on the balcony, just sits there loose, and when the man came to paint the underneath of the balcony above he put a dust cover down on tat end of the balcony to protect the tiles, and then must have put his ladder on this loose tile and broke it. I have put out an appeal on local fb page to see if someone has one in their garage they could give to me (annoyingly, I did have a goodly number of these before I moved, and gave them to a local charity shop). My daughter saw this, and re-posted it (helpfully) but adding to ask if someone can help this old lady (I was not amused!!).

Whiff, I am quite envious that your bathroom, etc is all done, I have mixed feelings about mine. Be glad when it is finally finished (should have been done in April originally) but that will now mean we will be into September, and I hate going towards winter. Enjoy your lovely place.

Shandy, hope you are really now in the middle of home hunting. Have to remember that anywhere with good beaches are going to get crowded in summer months - just goes with the territory. Advantage of living close by is that you can pick the times to go to the beach, when it is not too crowded, early in the morning, evening and when the weather is changeable and people are not coming a long way in case it rains.

Sue (sorry forgot your new name) hope you are starting to feel a little better with less pain, and doing all the exercises. How is your home hunt going?

Craftyone - your garden and its produce does seem to be a very important part of your life. You could definitely be totally self-sufficient.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Morning all, a LOT cooler here today, and I was cold in the night with just my empty duvet cover. I need to find a net curtain so I can open the window, I opened it the other night and was reading with my kindle when the biggest moth you've ever seen hit the screen. The sash windows were painted shut at the station, opening a window is all new to me! I feel a lot better about having sold now, thanks to all of you for your support. It's still grief about my husband, really, and anger that he died too soon.

Interesting you talking about drinking enough fluid, my face becomes really wrinkled if I don't, especially my eyebrow area.

Blackbirds are very bold when they are feeding their young aren't they craftyone, I hope they have a nice berry selection to choose from elsewhere. I was devastated by my stupidity when the blackbird got stuck in the fat ball feeder, I'm glad I saved him in time. I thought of you and your crops yesterday when I was listening to Radio 4, they were talking about pickling.

Sorry about your tile Franbern, how annoying. 'Old lady' - how very dare she, ha ha! You are very young at heart. I wonder what I'll regret giving away when I move, I did have so much 'just in case' and it's all gone. I'm unable to actually house hunt just yet as I am still dithering between a few areas, and have to visit them first. At the moment I couldn't bear to ever go through a house sale again, wherever I choose I must 'bloom where I'm planted'. I think I might go to Swanage first, but still haven't heard from the kennels, I'll chase them up today. The neighbour has agreed to cat sit. I'm going to fly Newcastle/Southampton for speed, hopefully 'Loganair' doesn't give you a parachute when you board! - I've not heard of them before, but haven't flown since last May.

Whiff, enjoy being 'home' today, I hope you enjoy sleeping in your 'new' bedroom. Newly married I made a terrible mistake by choosing black wallpaper with a small white diamond pattern for our bedroom, it was dreadful and we had to live with it for years. I finally managed to make sense of the bedroom here yesterday, and almost know where everything is. It needs more work, but I can now tackle a small section at a time, it's not as overwhelming.

I hope everyone is well. I've had a letter asking if I would like to participate in the Covid test and am feeling anxious about the 'mild discomfort'. I'm not sure if I can push a qtip swab to the back of my nose, I've watched the faces of the people having it done at the test centres. The test shows if you have it, it can't detect if you have had it. I will do it and hope I live to tell the tale!

Enjoy your day

So much cooler this morning. Have been making fabric masks with left over bits of stuff and find it quite a challenge. My old sewing machine plays up and the shuttle slips . I might buy a new one. But how to choose!
DS and DIL coming over this afternoon!!! What excitement. DS is going to help in garden. This is a piece of abandoned land at the side of our flats that I am looking after. Masses of brambles and nettles but a beautiful old brick wall that needs restoring. We moved here last September so just getting used to the plot. We are going to have a mass of blackberries. One plan is to plant a Bramley apple tree then I can make endless pies.
Shandy, good wishes with your search. I think prices might drop after this initial bounce back when unemployment really hits. But who knows? I would like to be there, whoever it is before the winter.
Franbern. Keep drinking. Yes very much looking forward to seeing you at one of our meetups.
Crafty, all your enterprises are fascinating. Have four patio fruit trees that I am going to plant out as too high maintenance in pots. When the weather a bit cooler.
Have a good day, everyone.

yes, I was self-sufficiant while I had the allotment. I can`t quite do it here yet but am managing very well on my own veg and fruit already. All the veg I need for salads and for cooking

The veg and fruit I am harvesting now or growing for winter:
potatoes, carrots,shallots, beetroots, mini beans, french beans runner beans, borlotti. Lettuce, radishes, cucs, squash, courgettes, peas, dill, mint, rosemary, chives, thyme, oregano,strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, rhubarb. tomatoes, red cabbages, green cabbages, mini cabbages, caulies, kale, purple sprouting. Apples

I nearly forgot the apples, I brought a wooden apple store with me, lots of drawers in a neat unit, all beech and lovely. I will have apples galore next year, a few this year. The basis of all of it is the comfrey, non-fertile bocking 14. I use it for magnificent fast black gold compost made in my hotbins .and the bees love comfrey flowers. I have many many flowers, all around and mixed in with the produce,the stepping stones are hidden and the many lavender plugs, in and out of the stepping stones will disguise them permenently by next year

Oh dear I have wittered again. My actual soil area is relatively small but I grow upwards, raised beds, obelisks, apple trees (about 2m tall max), gooseberries on tall supported stems. It is very easy and quick to hoe but still full of a terrible lot of stones but the worms have come back!! I feed with foliar seaweed or diluted comfrey water, comfrey leaves which have matured in water for a long time

What to do today, maybe measure and mark the scarey rockitseal and cut it when the mitre guide arrives. I have already tested mastic nozzles, I need 3mm and 5mm beads. I need to do this stuff in stages, the worst will be using the mastic gun, it never comes out in a straight line, more like waves

cross posted, good idea to fly shandy. Will you hire a car for a few days?

Braver than me, I could not do that covid test on myself. I once had a very prolonged nosebleed and they pushed some cocaine in at the hospital, was the only thing that stopped it.

I love bramley apple trees, I once planted a big one and it grew and grew, lovely for climbing. I had one at the last house that was M26 rootstock and that stops by 2m, many many full size apples. Here I have howgate wonder and pigs snout for cooking, christmas pippin for eating and jelly king crabapples. All are M26

Loopyloo, Regent Fabrics in Ilford have a range of machines and hold sewing classes too but they haven’t reopened yet. I bought my machine from John Lewis many moons ago and I’m happy with it ( an Elna).
I love hearing how the gardens are coming along. My David Austin roses are beginning to flower now and I’m tempted to get some more and I’ve planted a bush cherry and a dwarf Victoria plum so my Grandson can pick the fruit next year but I leave the veg gardening to my husband. Keeps him busy!
I too hope you will be able to join us in Wanstead as we get the meet-ups going again Franbern. Something to look forward too!

I made the first cut earlier, I cut both side pieces of rockitseal and strike me down, it would not get close enough to the tiles to give a good permanent seal. I gulped and have started to cut out the curved mastic at the base of the tiles, done one side properly. In doing so, I can see how easy it would be for water ingress over time because mastic deteriorates. Thin, very thin, layer actually on the shower base, more up the tiles. Tiny gap at the base of the tiles, which sit over the shower base. The potential is there and the shower/mastic layer lifted up relatively easily. I have done the first clean on that side and a bit of sanding on that length of rseal and am happy, it is now a snug fit

More cutting away tomorrow and afterwards, when it is all ready, then I have to give the base area a very good clean with meths. I am pretty sure that I am making good progress. I suppose it is satisfying

My diy neighbour stuffed loads of mastic into the gap after cleaning all his mastic out, his gap may have been bigger. The Rseal solution is a better solution and will be far neater with 2 protective layers

I think I like doing these jobs if everything works

Got home about 12. Needed a couple of things so went into my first shop since lockdown. My daughter showed me the ropes. Have to remember to follow the arrows and distance markers.

My decorator painted the outside this morning looks lovely. Not in my bedroom yet need some curtains. My daughter is taking me to Dunelm soon. My son in law put up my living room curtains looks lovely. He put my chest of drawers in my bedroom. Only bed to go in once curtains are up.

I try to drink 8 drinks a day to make sure I don't dehydrate. But with the hot weather have upped it to 10.

Good luck with the house hunting Shandy57. Hope you find somewhere soon.

Love the Liverpool people. My lovely neighbour put my bins out for me while I wasn't here.

My home improvements guy is going to get a new garden gate and frame and fit it for me. My decorator recommended him excellent recommendation. My neighbour is having my decorator paint 2 rooms for her.

Craftyone brought my first ever electric screwdriver with attachments. I will need to put together my spare bed and bedside table once the spare room is decorated. That will be done as soon as I am in my bedroom. Hopefully my brother and sister in law will be able to stay soon.

Spice101 I hope your knee isn't hurting to much and you are able to do the physio.

My Gertrude Jekyll rose has 9 flowers open and plenty of buds. Hopefully the weather will be nice next week garden in badly need of weeding.

Well need to get back to finding where I put everything and getting the place back to order.

Have a good evening all.

Hello All,

A bright sunny cold day here after several dank grey cold days. At east the sunshine makes one feel better.

All going well with my recovery. The amount of pain I had over the first few days made me think all the warnings I had about how painful and difficult knee replacements are to heal seemed to be ringing true. However, since being home I have had very little pain that is anywhere near a bad as I expected and have been able to cut down on the heavy duty painkillers. The physiotherapist came last Thursday and gave me several exercises to add to those given me in hospital. I will have 2 sessions a week with her for 4 weeks and then 1 session a week for 2 weeks. I am also being encouraged to walk as much as possible without overdoing things. I'm managing to do pretty much everything on my own, shower, dress, cook etc. and can even take 3 or 4 steps unaided, although I'm not doing that too often just in case. I'm using a 4 wheeled frame rather than crutches and find it much more supportive. I've even worked out a way to get the dreaded compression stockings on by myself.

We are no further forward with finding our new home. There is just nothing suitable on the market. There has not been a surge of properties for sale and as most people have on average 3.5 years equity in their homes we are not likely to see any panic selling for a while. Coming into winter the market traditionally is much quieter so it really is just a matter of keeping on the ball and jumping in when something does crop up. Of course finding our dream home does of course not necessarily mean we will be the successful buyers.

Can someone please send me some of your hot weather. I know it will only be a short time before I'm complaining about the heat but just at the moment a hot day would be nice.

Hope you can find the tile you are looking for Franbern
Whiff it sounds as though the home improvements have gone well for you, now to sit back and enjoy them.

Take care everyone

Spice101 glad to hear your recovery is going well. No sunshine to send to you from where I live. Heavy rain for the last 3 days with short bursts of sunshine. It's lovely to be home. Christening my new shower room soon can't wait. No more rickety shower cubicle and having to stand at an angle to the shower and hitting my elbow on the handrail . Bliss. Was going to have a tall cupboard built floor to ceiling in the corner but decided against it . Love how it looks . Towels will have to find another home. Hope you find a new home soon.

Morning all. It's all weathers here today, windy and rainy then bright sunshine. Lots of rainbows.

Glad to hear your recovery is going well Spice101. A younger healthy friend of 53 needs both knees to be done as she overdid it at the gym years ago, poor woman.

Enjoy your new shower Whiff, I don't like the shower here much, only one door opens so you have to get in to turn the shower on.

Have a good day everyone

Busy day. Daughter, one of her teenagers, plus 10 year old came over this morning to put up the wallpaper border in my living room,. Even without the wall with the large patio door and windows onto the balcony not requiring this, there was 20 metres around the rest of the room.

My main concern was that we could not move the large furniture, my lovely golden oak units, so my daughter had to have the step ladder in front of these and lean over the top of them.

It took far less time than I expected. Half was done in the morning, and they had a rest whilst I made lunch for us all (scrambled egg on toast), then they gotq going again. I was not permitted to move anything at all. All finished by 2 pm. Excellently done, and will tone beautifully with my new curtains in that room.

We did go out then for some fresh air. But was a little too fresh. Indeed, as we started off the great clouds came over, so we spent some time in the small Mall off the High Street. Then we went on down to Promenade, but it was so windy down there, really gusty - we turned round and came back home.

I treated them all to a takeaway for this evening as thanks for a good day and an excellent job well done.

This weekend would have been the annual air show in Weston. Obviously, that has been cancelled this year. However, on Friday I was sitting on my balcony and could hear this airplane noise. A local man, with his own plane, decided to give the residents his own lone show. It was really great, he did all sorts of acrobatics with his flying machine, and wrote in the sky smiley faces to cheer us up.

A very satisfying day indeed Franbern. Sue, very good progress, a day at a time

I am not going to use rockitseal, I prepared everything, got rid of all the `old` sealant on the shower base, cleaned it up, cut the rockitseal mitred corners etc Then I went into the garage and had a practice with some grey sealant that I had and a small piece of rockitseal. What a sticky mess and what a difficult system, sliding one rockit part over the other just does not work when doing it with sticky goo between. I admitted defeat to myself and put it down to experience, almost having a nightmare at the what if situation, what if I had done the sytem and ended up with mastic smeared all over the place in my shower

I have found a very much easier system and bought some tools. The system is by Byretech and is ultra 10, there is a nice clear video and I only have to make 3 x 90 degree cuts, no mitres and I have to use one thick stream of mastic, instead of two. Then 2 thin tidying streams, neatened with a very special little tool. Honestly the first rockit mastic stream ws a 4mm stream of mastic at 3 mm from the tile edge Every time I practced, my hand wobbled

So I bought a new and much better mastic gun, it is a delight to use, I practiced today and filled in the small gap between tiles and shower base, then I scraped the excess off with a 90 degree tool, so now I am secure in that I filled that gap, which is a good start, belt and braces. I shall be ready to start as soon as the new seal arrives

I am glad I have found an easier seal, definitely don`t want a leak into the ceiling. We had such a leak from a shower in the family home, the drip drip had caused rot and wood had to be replaced. Silicone is good of course but usually a thin silicone seal needs to be cut out and replaced every couple of years. This seal will last at least 10 years and probably much longer

I have been gardening all day, still had a few showers so the weedlings popped up all over again. I filled hotbin 2 to the brim, hotbin 1 is also full and because compost is like black gold to me I have ordered a third and final hotbin. I have cut back lavenders and catmint, just a bit before the seeds I think and it will give the plants a bit of a chance to recover as they have been flowering intensely. I am certain that my garden has resulted in an explosioninf the bumblebee population

Great to read how you've spent your day today ladies, I've been excruciatingly bored. Just come in from hacking at the huge docks which have seeded, looks like the gardener only weed killed the back garden. Got stung to bits by the nettles too, will tackle them tomorrow.

Do you have to do them shandy? Its not your garden and seems such waste of time, mid summer is over and you should be actively purchasing a dwelling by now. Unfortunately I can see you still in the rental during this winter while house prices are going up. Don`t forget that we are more than likely to see an influx from hong kong and these are generally people who can afford to buy houses, house prices will rise for sure

craftyone you're right, house prices are rising because sellers are now expecting buyers to pay almost 95% of the asking price. Gone are the days of buyers beating the vendor down by large amounts, unless the property is from 2019 stock.
For example our DD put in an offer of £*25 on a house whose asking price was £*35. They have agreed in the middle on £*30. The same on the one she is selling.
Shandy you slightly have the edge here because you are a proper cash buyer, but you need to act now to make it work for you.

Morning all, sunny and warm again.

My tenancy says I have to keep the gardens in good order craftyone, and as the 'wild garden' next door runs the length of it, I've got nettles, dock, brambles and cleavers coming through

I feel really anxious about finding my 'forever home'. I feel I am going to miss the boat as I can't travel yet to stay in an area to have a look around. Kennels aren't answering my calls, I hope she is still in business. I wouldn't travel so far by train with my dog.

I might just have to choose an area from 300 miles away and hope for the best. It is really frustrating. My friend in Amersham likes a village called Elham in Kent, she's driving down there for a viewing today. Perhaps I should wait for her to buy somewhere, and try and buy near her.

I've just had a look at the Premier inn in Exmouth, fully booked until end August, £400 for four nights in September. I'm going to have to budget out this travelling carefully - I need to factor in the flight/train fare, as well as kennel fees. I wish I had a PA!

Amersham property sells at high prices shandy, if you and she happen to be on a level financial playing field, then go for it, at least you would have a friend to do things with. Do you like her well enough to be bosom buddies again? Take care with that thought.

I always thought that you were a free spirit shandy, maybe it is time to take that leap of faith and go somewhere completely different and I suggest that you would get far far more more for your money in a seaside area near Liverpool. Most have good train links to huge rail hubs in Liverpool and speke airport close by

There is a thing that has a big tick in that area, friendliness and another tick for things to do, U3A is all over there.A tick for the coastline and a big tick for value for money, a tick for access to shops and buses and the weather is nice and fresh and pretty clean there. If it wasn`t for my dd here, I would be up there like a shot and if my dd ever moved to the lakes, they did talk about it once, never say never

My brain isn't working. Should I book accommodation first, or flights?