Homes under the Hammer

It’s true that I have been feeling a bit sorry for myself of late and this is obviously coming across in my blogs because a couple of friends have emailed me to comment that I sound ‘down in the dumps’. There are other people in this world who have far more serious problems than me with just a dirty house and a leak and I promise from now on in, to be more positive! I am okay now, I think I just worked myself to the ground and need to takes thing a little easier. I had a good day on Friday, Ray & James got the bathroom and kitchen plastered; Betty turned up as promised and helped me do the things on my list. and Ken, my neighbours plumber found the key for downstairs and we got in and I could see for myself that the water wasn’t pouring through my neighbour’s ceiling any more. All in all a good day but I wanted to scrub the plaster off the walls before I left so got home much later than I had planned. Just had time to have a shower and dry my hair and cook a big pot of chilli just in case Phil was hungry when he got home.

Poor Phil didn’t get home until quarter past eight, the traffic was bad and he was absolutely shattered. Unfortunately though, so was I; we caught up over a few glasses of wine but I was fast asleep in bed by 10pm. Not very much fun for Phil especially as I was wide awake at 6am on Saturday morning. This wasn’t so bad even though Phil wanted more sleep he had to leave at 8.30 to be at Oxford University for his first tutorial at 10 o’clock. He wanted me to go with him but I decided to so his washing and ironing and catch up on household jobs. Whilst he was away I also managed to get to the health-club for a swim in the outside pool which is the first time, in I don’t know how long. Phil phoned me on the way back to say that the traffic was bad and that he would be late back. He didn’t get home until nearly 2pm and after a quick bowl of chilli and rice it was round to the flat for Phil to inspect works in progress.

I think Phil thought that I’d made good progress in the flat but I’m not sure as he didn’t say much. After a quick look up and down he got out a hammer and a screwdriver and set up about taking things off walls and ripping off the kitchen tiles. We hadn’t intended to work in the flat, just prepare for a full days work on Sunday and when I said to Phil he was getting his best work trousers dirty he decided to down tools immediately. We had the kitchen designer printout in the car so decided to go to B&Q to order. With our past experiences of kitchen ordering, we knew we would be there for a long time. Fortunately we managed to get Grass, one of the better B&Q employees and the whole order took just under an hour and a half. We decided to take away half of the kitchen and have the rest of the stuff delivered. Whilst we were there we also picked up all the floor tiles for kitchen bathroom and hallway. We hadn’t planned to do this but B&Q had 15% discount off all tiles so we thought we may as well take advantage. Once we paid for all the stuff and been checked out by the security guard, we then went back to the flat to drop all the stuff off. Phil was panting and puffing and complaining that all the trips up the steps were making his legs ache. This was our last job of the day before heading home for wine and putting our feet up in front of the telly.

Sunday, as planned, was a day of doing but before we could get started on the flat we had to spend a couple of hours doing end of the month paperwork; PAYE, invoices, VAT etc, etc. Phil does most of the lions share and once he does his bit, he hands me the paperwork and I update the accounts and then file away all the bits and pieces. We didn’t get to the flat until 9.30pm and Phil soon set about bashing all the skirting boards off in the hallway and bathroom. This wasn’t easy and he broke the wrench he was using and had to go and borrow one from Derek, one of the neighbours. The skirting boards were stuck like glue and Phil was swearing and cursing an awful lot. I meanwhile, set about painting a third coat of paint on the lounge walls. I thought I’d get away with 2 coats and a touch up but I knew deep down in my heart of hearts, that it would need the third coat to look like a professional job. We stopped at lunchtime and decided to go the Happy Horse pub in Broughton for a steak.

We had just set down with a drink and who should walk into the pub but Bet from Cranfield with her husband Adrian and little daughter Rachel. Bet is desperate to come help me again at the flat this week but although she was a great help in the cleaning department last week her painting skills aren’t the best and I’d prefer to work alone. She was helpful to me last week but on Friday her crazy conversation was getting to me and I was looking forward to her going home. It's difficult to describe her without being bitchy, but she is a bit like the blonde in the 'Vicar from Dibley' but not so sweet. Trouble is though, she now knows where I live!

After lunch we zoomed to Tesco’s at Kingston to get Phil some shopping to take away. He has moved accommodation but I’m not allowed to blog about this because he wants to do his own blog from Somerset sometime this week. It felt a little bit weird getting ‘his’ and ‘hers’ shopping and Phil laughed when we were at the checkout when he saw that my shopping was all things to drink while he had all the healthy stuff. I will say that at this stage, that I only got the wine so that we could spend 50 quid so Phil could get a 5p off petrol voucher and the beer is for my sister Julia, who is coming to stay on Thursday. That said, I will be drinking the wine of course!

We finished off at the flat around 3’ish and then went home to get Phil packed and ready to go back to Somerset. After we packed his bags, we put on our pjyamas and sat and watched a whole load of 'Homes Under the Hammer' programmes which Phil had recorded. Poor Phil, it was all go for him this weekend and he was absolutely shattered. I felt really sorry for him when the alarm went off at 4am this morning. He is going to be really tired after the drive and then working all day. Still it won’t be forever and next week I am thinking about going to Somerset and spending the week with him. Depends how I get on this week. I am running late this morning so will publish this without an edit and run. I have to be at the flat for 8.30 to let Ray in to finish off the plastering and he won’t be a happy bunny if I keep him waiting; he’s not a morning person. In fact not only he is not a morning person, he just doesn't like work, FULL STOP!