Day 15!

omg I'm so shattered today!!

Spent the morning packing etc, which was NOT fun as the kids were determined to play wherever I packed :P and I was getting very stressed!!! My parents came 'round at 11ish after my dad had finished patching our livingroom floor (where there was a hole under the hearth!) which took him ages and got him quite frustrated too as it wasn't an easy job!!!

We went over anyway and unloaded the van, just some boxes that I'd packed and a bookshelf and a shelf thing for putting the TV on.

I painted around the edging on top of Kathryn's room and our bedroom; decided to do it in white after all so that wasn't too hard although our room will need another coat to cover that horrid brown tea-ish colour.

My dad cut and fitted shelves in Kathryn & Alexander's rooms, the upstairs hall, and the downstairs hall, and one shelf for the bottom of our bedroom wardrobe too.

I'm not entirely sure what I did with the rest of my time there... my mum tidied up and played with the kids too, as well as building a bookshelf this morning and helping dad with some of his bits & pieces!

Anyway they left at 3.30 :( although they are coming back again next month for Alexander's birthday party so me & the kids walked home, took about 40 minutes for what should be a 20 minute walk lol, we were (or at least I was!) so tired!

Not sure if Adam's in tonight or not, he usually goes to a friend's on Monday night but he said it might be a different night this week. Regardless, I'm not goign to be doing much tonight!
Tomorrow I think I will stay home for most of the day and pack as much as I can.

My car is still in the garage which is not fun at all but oh well.

Alexander & Kathryn's birthday party stuff arrived today though!!! :) He is having MR Men and we bough Hungry Caterpillar stuff for Kathryn's birthday party too, to save paying postage twice! Haven't had a proper look at it all but had a quick look through and looks great!! :)

Anyhoo should probably go and do something with the kids now as they've not had a terribly fun weekend, with all of us being so busy!

Will lose phone line sometime tomorrow :( so not sure if I'm going to be able to update much but I'll do what I can!!! :)

Day 14

Happy Valentine's Day!

My parents surprised us and didnt' go home today - they're staying 'til TOMORROW afternoon instead!! :) They told Alexander and said it was a secret and the wee monster actually KEPT it secret too!

My daddy finished the carpet today, and I finished the gloss in Kathryn's room and in our bedroom. Adam & my dad also moved the phone socket, and Adam sanded all of the woodwork downstairs in the hall, ready for painting tomorrow.

I'm sure other people did other things too. But my brain is frazzled and I can't think properly tonight!!

We moved some more boxes over, and will take some furniture tomorrow, just shelves & stuff.

My parents are going out for dinner tonight, Adam & I have steaks which we're going to have after the kids are in bed... then having a lazy evening. :)

Day 13 :)

I don't even know if I can remember everything that has been done today but my parents arrived late last night and we emptied the van last night; it was SO full up hahaha!

My dad installed my washer & drier this morning before they came 'round to see us at 9ish and as soon as we'd had a cup of tea and the kids had had some time to play with and talk to Gran & Grandad we headed over to the house... my dad installed the cooker (which involved cutting part of the countertop, removing some tiles, and moving the cabinet too! ) and I did a second coat of gloss in the livingroom. THe livingroom was the one that we opened the second tin to find it was completely the wrong colour.... well the third tin, that my parents brought, was a different colour again!! All variants of each other but still, not what I was call 'minor differences' but it wasn't as ugly as the second tin so I just used it and repainted the window frame & the skirtings.

Adam built a couple of chests of drawers for our room while I was painting the livingroom, and my mum attempted to build Alexander's new bed but she had Alexander & Kathryn 'helping' so that didn't go very well!! Eventually Alexander went off to a birthday party and my mum & Kathryn cleaned the bathroom & kitchen cabinets too... then my dad helped my mum (and Kathryn!) build Alexander's new bed too.

Meanwhile, I did the gloss in Kathryn's room, Adam did a second coat of paint in Kathryn's room, and in the downstairs hall, and then my dad started carpetting the stairs/landing as well. As it turns out the carpet they bought looks really lovely with the gloss colour that we had for the hall, which is a total coincidence but it's really nice!!!


We came back here for dinner and put the kids to bed then headed back over to the house at about 8.30; I finished the first coat of gloss in Kathryn's room and Adam did the gloss in our room too. My mum built a bookshelf and my dad fitted a temporary shower for us! (He'll put in a proper one later in the year when he has more time, but it was just a temporary solution as we only had a bath and no shower nozzle!!)


So am pretty tired but another busy day tomorrow; my parents are leaving just after 3 though so it won't be a long day, just lots to do before they leave! I'm hoping to finish the gloss in Kathryn's room (will need a second coat tomorrow!) and put the wallpaper border up and I need my dad to show me the best way to put the beading down around the floors....

We're hoping to move a bunch of furniture in on Wednesday, including our computer as the phoneline is getting disconnected on Tuesday anyway. And then the plan is to sleep there on Friday night for the first time; I'm away all day on Saturday for a choir thing unfortunately but at least Adam will be in the house and able to do some unpacking then!!!

Anyhoo, off to beddybyes now; night night!

Day 11

Today I was at the house from 9.30 to 3pm again, and much more productive than yesterday felt!!! I painted the walls in the hallway upstairs and sanded and painted the woodwork at the edges of the stairs, which was a big job!!!!

It's very nearly done now - at least as much as I can do 'til my parents come! Tomorrow I will have to do cleaning up more than painting but once it's all clean if I have some time then I'll maybe start some more in the hallway downstairs... and I was thinking maybe Adam & I could go up tomorrow night after the kids are asleep since my parents won't arrive 'til 11 anyway and they're sleeping in that house, we could just stay there and paint/clean until they come. :)

I'm not sure how long my childcare lasts tomorrow but she'll be picking them up at about 10.30 (or maybe I'm to take them to her?? I dunno!) and probably will only have them 'til 3 at the latest as babykin will need a nap.... but I should be able to get the cleaning done then (mostly cleaning paint off of floors etc!! and cleaning out kitchen cupboards!) so maybe Adam & I could get the hall done that evening!! Don't see why not, with both of us - in which case, all of the painting will be done except what paint my parents are bringing!!

Anyhoo, not much excitement today!!!

Day 9 :)

Today was a very productive day! :)

An unfortunate start though - I got to the house at 9.40ish and Cheryl had been there since just past 9 (she'd asked if she could go in before me! :) ) and was doing Kathryn's room as I'd said to her.... but the paint wasn't going very far. :( We had that problem when doing the undercoat in Kathryn's room too - the walls just sucked in the paint and it took ages to cover it. Well the pink paint had the same problem and as it turned out we didn't have enough :( which means I can't finish her room now until my parents come on the weekend. :( I'm so bummed, I was really excited about it! But nobody that I know of is going to Oban this week so no one to buy it for me, and I can't spare a whole day to go to Oban for one tin of paint! :(

Anyway, we did what we could with the pink and we also did the bottom of her room with the green, then Cheryl left about 11 and I did the rest of Alexander's room (painted the bottom green as well as the grass lines, and did the 'ceiling skirting' in his room too) so his room is completely done now except for the beading around the edge of the floor!!! :D

Oh! And my fridge arrived this morning - I wasn't expecting it to come to the house as it was £30 more to have it delivered to my house than it was to have it delivered to the shop down the street even though it was coming from Glasgow anyway! So I'd arranged for it to go to the shop but the delivery men decided just to bring it to me as it made no difference to them - and said I shouldn't get charged as their packing slip said to deliver to the store anyway, but if I did get a bill then just to bin it haha!

I also did another coat on our bedroom ceiling (which I think is FINALLY covered!!!) and did the second coat on the woodwork in the bathroom too so that's done now too!

Thought my car was going to be ready today but called them up and apparently the part they ordered doesn't fit so they'll have to order a new one so I'll be lucky if i get it this week!! :-P

Tonight after the kids were in bed Adam & I went back to the house to do some more - we did the sanding in the upstairs hall - he used the power sander and did all around the skirtings & doorframes, and I did the banisters etc with sandpaper but omg my hands are raw with it! I actually have cuts in my hands from the sandpaper!!

However, it does mean that we can do the hallway tomorrow which is great! We've actually finished all of the rooms that we can do now, until my parents come which is very exciting! Alexander's room, the bathroom, and the kitchen are completely done.... the livingroom & our room just need gloss for skirtings, and Kathryn's room will need another coat of paint (although after seeing it tonight once paint is dry it's SO much better, but it will still need more for touching bits up - and if the paint isn't a perfect match then will have to do the whole room anyway) and the wallpaper border put on, and the skirtings/windowframe done too. But it's getting there! The hall is going to be a big job but I have 2 days from 9.30-3pm-ish to work on it so we do have a good chance of getting it done - or at least nearly!

Was meaning to take pics of munchkin's room and the progress in the other rooms today but totally forgot, will try and remember tomorrow!! :)

Off to bed now, am exhausted! :)

Day 8 Part TWO! :)

Woohooooo well tonight we managed to do the skirtings etc in the bathroom (which will need another coat tomorrow), Adam did the THIRD coat of the ceiling in our room, looks like it's finally covered :P, he also did the rest of the decorators filler/caulk stuff in Alexander's room, and I drew a line around Kathryn's room to paint above & below for the wallpaper border to go along. :) Can't WAIT to paint Kathryn's room now!! :) Think that's tomorrow's plan - paint Kathryn's room and finish painting Alexander's room (although they both may need second coats of course - kathryn's definately will!)

Then all that's left other than some random bits of skirting (still need to finish livingroom, most of our bedroom and Kathryn's room too - but my parents are bringing the paint for them!) is the hallway!!!! Which is, in itself, a very big job, (upstairs and downstairs, as well as all of the wood - skirtings, window frames, doorframes, banisters etc!) but at least that's the last of it! :)

Plus lots of wee odd jobs here & there but not so worried about them!!! :)

Day 8!

Short day today! Kathryn went to a 'friends' house... it's actually one of Alexander's friends, but of course his friend was at playgroup with him, and his mum took Kathryn home to play with her little girl who is just about 6 months older than Kathryn. She was apparently very good too and didn't seem upset about the lack of me which is great news!

Anyway I walked over to the house this morning and painted the second layer of skirting in Alexander's room and sanded the woodwork in the bathroom ready for gloss... and that's all I really did... took a couple of hours and then had to walk back for munchkin at 12.30.

Had intentions to pack a bit this afternoon but after hanging up a bunch of laundry on my clothes horse (5 days 'til my tumble drier ) and tidying the living room it was time for a cuppa so haven't done any packing yet!!! Gonna pack some of the kitchen appliances that we rarely use (like waffle irons etc) so at least I've done SOMETHING this afternoon!!!

Adam's not going out tonight as he'd planned - he's going out on Wednesday instead. so I think we'll go and paint the bathroom skirting and the ceiling in our bedroom which needs another coat... so that's them out of the way at least! Tomorrow I have a full day in the house, with Cheryl coming in the morning for a few hours too, so hoping to finish Alexander's room and start Kathryn's!!! Can't wait!!

Day 7!

Today I went over at about 11 and spent ages searching for the measuring tape (which, it turns out, was at home!) then finally borrowed one from Cheryl who lives nearby and measured a few things for my dad.

Adam came about noon-ish and I'd just started painting in the bathroom, and Deedra (who was there yesterday from choir) came again today too, about half an hour later.

Anyway throughout the day we managed to finish painting the bathroom (haven't done the woodwork yet), painted Alexander's ceiling and the top half of his walls (his bottom half will be adifferent colour) and finished the first coat of gloss in his room too. Adam sanded all of the woodwork in Kathryn's room (which we can't paint 'til my dad comes as they're bringing the paint, but at least it's prepared now!) and I did a second coat in our bedroom too. It still needs the woodwork done but that's the one with the stupid paint being the wrong colour so my parents are bringing a replacement tin of that too. I sitll intend to complain to dulux though!!!

So now we have finished the kitchen, completely, have finished the walls & ceilings in livingroom, bathroom and our room (all of those rooms still need something done to the woodwork though) and Alexander's room is half done. So we're getting there!!!

Not sure what our plans are this week. I'm gonna try and get in a few days during the day but otherwise I think I'll be staying home and packing during the day as much as I can, and Adam & I will go up on Tuesday & Wednesday evenings to paint as much as we can then. And Adam's hoping to get his friends to go up with him one evening, hopefully Thursday, to paint the hall together too.

So anyway that's me pooped for today!! :) Although I did get a long lie this morning so feel quite happy about that! :D

Day 6

I had a lovely lazy morning as Alexander was still at a friend's house for a sleepover, and me & Kathryn stayed in our jammies 'til 11am.
This morning I ordered all of Alexander's birthday stuff - he's having a Mr Men theme for his birthday this year so I ordered that, and while I was there I also ordered Kathryns - even though it's still a while away I thought I might as well, rather than pay the postage twice! Also if I order it now I'll have to keep the guest list low lol, as only bought 8 of each for her party! Haha! Alexander had already written his so he's actually going to have 12 if everyone comes, including little siblings. We will hire out the church hall again though as it's only £10 and it keeps the mess and chaos away from the house!!
My parents have gone to Ikea today for me to buy that blue mid-sleeper bed that I wanted for Alexander for the new house. And they bought a red door for Kathryn's wardrobe, and one of those mosquito net bed canopy things for Kathryn's bed too :) and new bathroom fittings for loo roll and hand towel too.

Anyway; Eilidh, who had Alexander overnight last night, called about 12.30 and said she'd be there in half an hour so said she should stay for lunch so we had a fry up for lunch which was super yummy but very unmotivating! :)

But then she had time to spare so said she'd come paint with me, so we left Adam with her daughter (who is a year younger than Alexander) and with our two, and we went to do some painting. We didn't actually go over 'til about 2.30 cos we were so full :) but we did a base coat in the bathroom and then a girl from my choir arrived to help out too just as we were nearly finished the bathroom, so her and I went upstairs to start Alexander's room - we sanded the skirting and the window in there and she painted the skirting while I was finishing sanding and taping up the window. We left at about 5 as we thought we'd left Adam with the kids for long enough!

Eilidh was getting an indian takeaway for dinner so Adam went down with her and got one for us too so had that for dinner and put the kiddies to bed afterwards.

My dad called tonight too, and we've decided to carpet the stairs and the landing rather than the stairs and our bedroom - he needs the flooring from somewhere to repair the livingroom floor, and was going to take up our bedroom floor but decided the landing would be easier (and cheaper to carpet!) so they're going to buy the carpet tomorrow.

He's also said that later in the year, once we're moved in and settled, he'll replace our sink and countertops in the kitchen at trade prices for us. :) And he's also gonna put in a power shower at some point; right now we only have a bath so he's going to come up with a short term solution for us getting a shower, but then later install a proper shower for us too. My daddy's great!!!


Just watched Lost that we recorded last night, wow it's confusing!

Off to read a chapter or two of my book before sleeps..... hoping to be painting most of tomorrow!

Day 5 part 2 :)

Despite feeling very deflated and unmotivated, Adam and I went over to the house last night at about 8 - his dad gave us a lift over since I'm still car-less, and we moaned a bit about the gloss paint being the wrong colour etc, and hummed and hawed about what to do, then finally decided to do the kitchen. I hadn't even started on the kitchen yet but between us, from about 8.30 to 10.45, we did it all!! :) As it turned out, the colours we had chosen were almost identical to the colours that were there, so it was really just to freshen it up a bit, but it meant we didn't have to do two coats at all, and it went really well! Looks lovely too, much brighter and cleaner than it was.

So I'm feeling MUCH better now than I was yesterday afternoon!

:)

Day 5 :(

Today has not been a good or productive day.

Stayed home with kids in the morning and a friend picked Alexander up for his first sleepover at about 11, then headed off to the house. SPD playing up today I think cos of all of the sitting cross-legged yesterday while sanding and painting the skirtings.

Cheryl came to help too but she wasn't in the right mood either so we didn't motivate each other much.

We opened the second tin of gloss and it's the wrong colour :( they say on the tin to allow for slight variations of colour but to me it looks totally different and I can't use it unless I repaint ALL of the skirting boards and the window frame in the living room - and that colour also has to do my bedroom. And I don't like it as much as I like the previous tin. It's more of a mustard brown. And I can't just take it back and complain because well, I'd have to take it back to OBAN which just isn't going to happen.

Meanwhile Kathryn was across the road with someone from toddler group who has a daughter the same age as Kathryn but within about half an hour or so she brought her back as she'd been crying and looking for me and very upset. So then I had a little helper too. She WAS very good, just not very motivating!

Cheryl left at about 12.30 so me & Kathryn had a cuppasoup and some crackers for our lunch then sanded down a door and tried to make the first tin last to do the doorframe but ran out. at which point I completely gave up. Just feeling generally overwhelmed.

So we walked home and had to go beg some milk off of adam's mum (who is busy doing paperwork stuff today so couldn't have kathryn) as we have none and I've put Kathryn for a nap although I'm not even sure if she's gonna sleep. I really hope she does I need some peace & quiet. :(

Hopefully Adam & I'll get some more done tonight. :(

Day 2 of painting etc! :)

I say Day 2 only because we got our keys on 'Day 1' but I didn't actually DO much on Day1, just some measuring and putting stuff in the house etc! But anyway...

I had a lovely day painting today, very productive! I painted the ceiling in my bedroom, which needed two coats as they'd painted it a milky tea colour and I did the living room and Kathryn's bedroom's ceilings too. I did the window frames and window sills in my bedroom (hehe I suppose it's 'our' bedroom but oh well! ) too which have turned out lovely - the colour is 'coffee liquer' and it's brown but ooh it's really nice! And I painted Kathryn's room's base coat too, and my friend Cheryl came over and she did the living room walls' base coat while I was doing the ceiling in there... and she stayed painting it while I went for my midwife appointment too so by the time I got back the livingroom was all painted!!

(All went well at the midwife appointment; STILL no sugar in my pee! SO Pleased, that's me 18 weeks and normally I have sugar in pee by 12 weeks if not sooner!!! Fingers crossed it stays out and maybe it'll result in me having a slightly smaller baby this time! haha! Blood pressure good, bumpie where it should be, heard heartbeat again so very happy!!)

My thighs are still aching from whatever it was that I did yesterday - must have just been running up and down the stairs that did it but owwww!!! but otherwise I'm not too bad today - tired out, but not nearly as exhausted as I was yesterday!!! Think my arms will be sore tomorrow, after all of the ceilings I painted today!

Tomorrow I will be painting the walls in my bedroom and the livingroom though as they're both the same colours - I'll be very happy if I can actually get both of them painted, but Cheryl is planning on coming again tomorrow afternoon, and Adam finishes work at 3 so he might come over by 3.30/4ish too to help for a while!
I have a few errands to run tomorrow mornign though so I'll be a bit late starting; have to open up toddler group, and pick up some boxes, and buy some potatos, and buy a fridge for our new house too!

Today's mishap was that I broke my extension pole for my paint roller which is a shame cos I really liked the long pole both for ceilings and for walls - made it go faster!! Might see if I have a mop or something that has a detachable pole I can steal!
(Yesterday's mishap: I wasn't actually planning on painting at all yesterday as the house was so cold with the heaters having been off all month... but anyway I was having a cuppa so I thought in the meantime I'd go up and try the paint in kathryn's room and see if it would need two coats, so I painted a wee bit with the brush and went to re-dip my paintbrush in the paint and dipped it in my tea instead! oooooops!!! )

I've almost run out of the white ceiling/wall paint that I bought a MASSIVE tub of, but I hadn't taken into consideration that I'd use it for the base paint for the livingroom and Kathryn's room... I still have Alexander's room, the kitchen and the hall ceilings to paint... my parents do have some but I'm really really really hoping to be finished painting by the time they come! So might have to fork out and buy some more ceiling paint locally which WILL cost a fortune! but will use the rest of my paint first and see what I've got!! Maybe will paint Alexander's ceiling blue as it's supposed to be the sky anyway!

Last night just as I was going to bed my dad called to say they were in the process of ordering my appliances :) Although I'd hoped he'd be able to get one or two of them from his kitchen fitting people (at a very reduced price) but no luck there... but then again it's very nice to have new appliances for my new house! So he has bought (well, with my credit card, but still!) a washing machine, a tumble drier, and a cooker, and as I said I'm going to buy my fridge tomorrow.


It's all so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New House!

We got to see our new house tonight!! (We were offered a council house this weekend, SO excited as it's very much needed with baby on the way!!) Most exciting indeed - it does need a fair bit more work than I was hoping, but it's all doable and it does have flooring downstairs and upstairs, just needs the stairs themselves done!
There are some pictures here: Link to album They aren't great as a lot of rooms didn't have lights! But you get the general idea! Can't really see the shapes of the rooms upstairs but oh well The two windows in the front of the house are the kids' ones, and the downstairs one is the living room. Kitchen goes onto back garden, (and has a back door!!) which is long and triangular and FENCED so I can actually let the kids out without worrying too much!!! Front door opens into a hall that looks up the stairs and living room is to the left, and through livingroom to kitchen. hall from front door goes forwards to a huge understair cupboard and the bathroom. (Unfortunately only one bathroom and it's downstairs... which I'm sure Alexander will take full advantage of at night, needing to pee a million times so he has to keep coming downstairs!! And maybe not so fun in late pregnancy either lol!!!) Up the stairs to landing with big HUGE cupboard with sliding doors, and first room is master then the kids' rooms are back at the front of the house as I said.
There are LOADS of cupboards and wardrobe (well, compared to my current situation!); there is a built in wardrobe in each bedroom, not huge but still!! We will probably shelve these as they look better for 'stuff' storage thanc lothes, and kids don't have much to hang up anyway (well, kathryn does but we already have a little wardrobe for her!) and we probably have TOO much for the wardrobe so might just shelve all three! Then there's the huge understair one (sooo much bigger than my current one!) and a little tiny cupboard at the front door which looks like it's maybe used to have mops or brushes or somethign?! lol it's really tall and skinny but if we put shelves in it too then we might be able to use it for towels etc! And the big cupboard on the upstairs landing will probably be for jackets etc but it's so big that we'll probably be ableto use it for storage of other stuff too, maybe games or something?! I dunno but I'm so excited!!!
And the kitchen!!!! Not only is it MUCH bigger than my current kitchen (doesn't take much!) but it has LOADS of storage and spce for a washer, a drier (), a cooker (duH!) and even a dishwasher!!!! Not sure if we'll actually GO that route or if we'll convert it to another cupboard (probably more likely!!) but still!!! Ahhhh the choices!! Anda huge big space for a fridge too!
I'm hoping my dad can source me a relatively new appliance or two; he said he might be able to, it'd save a wee bit of money, but tbh I don't REALLY grudge the money for them if we buy new ones that are good and should last a long time!
I'm trying hard to grasp that we're goign to be in this house for a very long time and that it's a good idea to 'do it right' as much as the thought of extra waiting is driving me bonkers I have to remember than an extra week or two now will save us so much trouble in the long run and make it so much nicer!

I think my parents MIGHT be able to come on the 2nd weekend in February, so I think maybe if we aim to move in that weekendish that'll be perfect - they could help finish the last jobs that need done, and install appliances as necessary (whether they bring them or not!) and also hopefuly bring Alexander's new bed ... that gives us 2 weeks to get the house painted..... it'd be hard going (I think realistically we do need to do the whole house!) but I think it could work!


Anyway, sorry for the insanely long ramble, can you tell I'm excited?!