The Craft / Guitar Room Before Photos (AKA Our Current Kitchen)

Okay, so today I took some photos of the kitchen for posterity. It will eventually become our office/craft/guitar room once it's been done out.

So, this is the view towards what used to be our back door. Now it's an interesting feature wall thanks to the extension wall. :o)


This is the view from the "back door" into the back of the kitchen. This part is actually going to be separated to form a kind of en suite shower room. The shower will go where the fridge is now.


And this is me standing in the doorway looking in. We will need to move the boiler to the right a little to get the shower room wall in so it will be smaller than this. Still a decent size though!


I can just imagine how much you're admiring our gorgeous original 1970's kitchen units. My word, I can't wait to get rid of them!!

There are photos of the extension in progress, but they're on my own laptop, which is still out of action. I reeeeaaaally hope that the IT guys at work can get my stuff off it cause there are photos of the baby on there that I really want! :(

And so it begins

Yesterday I submitted our plans for our shiny new kitchen extension to the local council. The original plus 3 copies of the planning application, the original plus 3 copies of the Land Registry area map and the originals plus 3 copies of the plans and specification.

On Friday we applied for a remortgage to cover the additional £££ we need to borrow for the build. We have some money in savings too. We actually got a great interest rate just from staying with Halifax.

I am looking forward to this with the excitement that you feel when faced with getting something you've wanted for a while. At the same time, I am not looking forward to the mess and the hassle and just the general upset that is "having some work done".

We got our bathroom refurbished at the end of 2008 and that was nightmare enough. Lord only knows how we will cope with this extent of disruption, but it's all very temporary and all in a good cause.

Keep envisioning your shiny new kitchen extension, Sarah! :)

So far we have spent £15.40 on downloading information about our house from the Land Registry, £34.00 on photocopying the plans and £150.00 on the planning application. Plus £599 on remortgage fees, although technically we haven't spent that yet, and it's going onto the mortgage anyway. Total spend so far: £798.40. Yikes!

On a brighter note, it's sunny outside today!! YEY!! I have put baby's nappies out on the line to dry and I'm hoping they don't freeze up instead. The sunshine always makes me feel sooooooo much better! I've even reshuffled things in the kitchen to try to get some clutter off the worktops. I can't WAIT until there is enough room for everything to go away tidily! EEP!

Baby is going for her top up jabs today. :o( I always feel so sorry for her. She will be all lovely and smiley and completely unaware of what I'm about to put her through. Poor baby! She's sleeping now. I'm just going to let her sleep as long as she wants, but she needs less and less sleep in the day now, so I reckon I've maybe only got another 15 minutes left of naptime peace.

Ooo! I bought some Ribena yesterday. The proper stuff - actual Ribena - and not low sugar or anything. It is yum! Hubby and I used to go through loads of cartons of the stuff. It's ace! We hardly ever get it now though. It's too expensive. Ha! I also splashed out on some Jazz apples. They're supposed to be the dog's pods. They are okay like. Pretty tasty. Don't know whether they're worth the £2.50 I paid for 8 of them though...

Lame

You know when you say something that's just so incredibly lame? I do it all the time.

For starters, I am terrible at small talk. I. just. can't. do. it. I'm starting to get better about dropping in the weather, but I'm still no pro. Also, I'm one of those people who is never quite sure when to walk away from a conversation - are they finished? Are they going to say something else? Do they expect me to continue the conversation? That kind of thing.

Well, on this particular occasion I was loitering near the printer at work, having sent a lengthy document. As I was pulling pages from the machine someone said they liked my cardigan. Smalltalk about cardigans ensued. After a while, my printing had all come through and I was wondering whether I should leave the conversation, which had waned a little anyway. After a bit of dilly-dallying, I made a bad judgment call and uttered the lamest sentence that has ever escaped my mouth.

"I've gone cardigan mad this month."

I'll just let you take that in...

Update coming soon

Find me some time, please? Where's The Doctor when you need him?! I could really do with another 12 hours in my day. Either that or to suddenly thrive on only 3 hours of sleep or something.

Here's today's list:

Pay card bill - DONE
Ironing - Massive pile taking over dining end of living room
Clean guinea pigs out - They're fed up of paddling around in their own poop
Edit baby pics - Yeah, mum is moaning about not having any recent ones
Send pics to mum - see above
Phone Sky - Why are they charging us a million pounds every month?
Arrange estate agents - to value our home
Catch up with emails and PMs - Because people will wonder if I still exist
Take Xmas pic of the baby - to cheat when making cards
Make Xmas cards - all 100 of them
Make birthday invites - to save on postage and send with Xmas cards
Book baby's 8-12 month check-up - preferably before she turns 2
Book hair appointment - otherwise I won't be able to see all the stuff I'm supposed to be doing as my fringe is so long
Do banking - DONE

I'll let you know how I get on.

Oh and that's not including the list of things I have to do every day, usually:

Hoover - so baby doesn't eat the fluff, contact lenses and toenails that accumulate every day
Dishwasher - because we go through as many pots as a small restaurant
Cook healthy meals for baby - while I live on bourbons
Wash, dress, clothe small person - and me!
Entertain small person - while trying to get away with watching an episode of True Blood/Smallville/Stargate Universe at the same time.
Walk to town/Tesco/mini Tesco - for something that you need, but don't have a car to nip and get.

Then I will sit down tonight and wonder why the heck I've been busy all day and got nothing done.

OH MY WORD I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO AND NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH TIME TO DO IT ALL IN!!!

I need a list. I like lists.

Be The Change!

With help from some of my online friends on the UK board I'm going to kick this nasty procrastination habit to the curb! I've got some great suggestions from them and starting tonight I'm a new woman!

So what have I done already... I did get up and do all the ironing when I said I would and we've just got Lyric in bed and I've booked our holiday to Centre Parcs, which I've been putting off doing for ages.

Before I go to bed tonight I'm going to fill the dishwasher, bring the washing in off the line, clear the dining table and take the big cardboard box up into the nursery (for the baby boy clothes and Lyrics newborn and 0-3 month clothes).

Tomorrow I'm going to Matalan with mum in the morning and then I have a good friend and her children (Anna, Jude, and Serena) coming round for a bit after school. So tomorrow I'll just do a load of washing or something and maybe sling the hoover round the living room. Oh, and the piggies need cleaning out too...

I'm sorry I'm being boring. The last thing you probably want to read about is my bloomin' housework, but that's what I'm all about at the minute - housewife and mother. I'll make it up to you by sharing some pics I took of Lyric yesterday. She's wearing a CUTE knitted cardi that buttons up at the bottom.

No Procrastination!

You know when someone asks "if there was one thing you could change about yourself what would it be?" Well my answer would be that i wish to bloody hell i could stop procrastinating as much. It does my head in! Even this blog entry is a cleverly disguised procrastination attempt because i don't want to get up and do my ironing!

So, from now on i pledge to stop procrastination cold turkey.

There are jobs i need to do and i can't do them all at once, granted. But what i can do is stop and think about whether i am not doing said job right now because i have something else to do first, or have already been busy and deserve a rest. OR am i just being a lazy numpty that needs to get off her fat arse and stop putting things off?!