Crepeys do Christmas...

[oldqueenie]

Will this fit the bill. Dull but seasonal?

Grinch/Strops - that is EXACTLY what everybody says. And that is also exactly what I think. It had better buggering well be lovely when it's finished, because it's aged me by about 10 years. My jowls are another couple of inches lower and more pendulous from all my grimacing.

AND ANOTHER THING. Despite me asking from mid-November onwards to fit the cat flap in the wall, nothing has been done, barring making a massive hole that lets in a howling arctic gale. I even sourced a couple of pound shop buckets to act as a tunnel. I have tried to impress upon them that while the cat can't go out he spends his life tormenting me, day and night, and shitting in a litter tray in the hallway, something that is ideal for no-one.

On the plus side, there are splashes of water in the sink, so it looks like we could have running water downstairs in the next couple of days. A true luxury.

Sorry. I'll stop going on now.

And the other thing is (sorry, am now on a roll of horrible memories ) that if you are a freelance, you just keep thinking "If I gave my customers this kind of appalling service, I would never work again - so how come you lot are still in business?" Ah yes, the boundless joy of shit builders - NOT.

One more: it really is best never to leave the house when the fuckwits are there. I once went out for the afternoon and came back to find that they had decided to put the loo in a place other than that specified (why??) and it was then impossible to get in or out of the bath without treading in/on the loo. True story.

And the people we employed couldn't even hide behind a lack of knowledge of English.

Ladies all these stories of crap builders is not helping...we HAVE to do our bathroom at some point (it's a case of it goes, or I do)....
I am on day one of short break with mate, I am hungover and off to shop god help me...

At the moment I feel I never want to do any building work ever again. But I reckon it must be like childbirth - within a year I'll have forgotten the pain and be itching for another project.

Ruby - your post made me well up too! He'll always be your little boy...

Awww, Ruby.... young love.

DS keeps his love life very close to his chest, although he was caught out recently after a 240-message text marathon with "Kelly" one evening that blasted through his monthly allowance and drew the unwelcome attention of his phone-bill-paying parents.

Nice boots, BTM. I have a very similar pair that are my oldest surviving long boots. Not quite pre-kids, but almost. Nice sturdy Clarks pair.

I have to say, I got off very lightly home-improvement-wise, but largely because we have a very good builder/chippy friend who project-managed everything and found us reliable people. He can read instruction leaflets too. We also have a good plasterer (a school dad) and an electrician who we have used several times and trust implicitly; honestly, it makes all the difference. I'm still hunting for the perfect plumber, though.

But don't worry, Herbs, it will be lovely when it's finished.

Oh ruby

You will have to get up-to-scratch with skype, etc. And go for visits/maybe pay for their tickets home?

We are all done with big building projects, but the garden needs doing and virtually the whole house needs redecorating. And I would like a new kitchen cabinets and worksurfaces in the not too distant future. How often should one renew a kitchen?

We have the perfect plumber

My childminder's dad is a builder and he's fab (but always booked up) and I have the most wonderful cabinet maker who is going to do my window seat. I need a plasterer to deal with my damp issue...

Good grief, dh has just upped the ante in the "being useless at Christmas" stakes: I forced him to write some Christmas cards to some customers and he sits there pathetically with the pen in his hand, saying "What do you write in a Christmas card?" FFS. Oh, let's see, shall we? How about "To X, from X and X". And maybe you could write 2013 after the bit about 'Happy New Year'? He says "Is that what people do? I've never really noticed." FFS x 1000.

OTOH, this does rather indicate that I might be right in my secret belief that that most Christmas-card-writing is a total waste of time, effort and money. I rather doubt that dh is the only person who takes no notice of them whatsoever. Ds made a Christmas poster for his class this year instead of solemnly writing out 30 cards. And I am pruning back my Christmas card list drastically. I have decided that the reason I have not seen quite a few of the people on the list for 20 years is because we probably didn't like each other much in the first place anyway and I will not in the least bit miss their boring shite round robin.

I have a good carpenter, plasterer and plumber. But none of them were on this job.

It's all beginning to look good down there. Plinths are in, water is on, dishwasher and washing machine are plumbed in. Not everything is entirely straight, but I'm hoping that's down to tightening up some hinges, etc...

Ruby, I was going to make a quip about you getting close to entering grandmother territory, but then I remembered the girl in dd's year who brought her baby to the Y10 parents' evening last week and my blood ran a bit cold. So I'm sayin' nuffink.
Except I hope the course of true lurve will run smooth in your ds1's case.

I thought I was dying last night (hypochondriac alert) as I "came over all funny" and was drifting in and out of consciousness. Found out this morning that I had taken double the dose of one lot of tablets, and had eaten another lot on an empty stomach (which accounts for all the puking) and I should be taking another lot of tablets before that lot. Are you still with me? I have different tablets to take before I go to bed, but cannot take these within x number of hours of one of the other types. I am almost inclined to just suffer, but Kind Friend Who Is Nurse has written it all down for me In Case I Get Confused Again.

Strops - we appear to be married to the same man too. I get "Have we sent a card to ?" I always reply, if they are in my address book, they will have been sent a card. If not, you should send them one, and add them to the address book so that I can send a card next year. Then we get the Which Card? dilemma, and the What Should I say? dilemma, which is followed by Have We (yes, the famous "we" again) Got Any Stamps?

I am now waiting for the question "What have we bought my mother/father/brother/SIL/Random Person?"

Ladies 'what have we bought my mother?' Should be resounded to with 'I don't know, what have you bought your mother?' Years of training and dp knows not to ask this one, although he will run any ideas past me just to double check I.e. 'I was thinking blah' 'no light of my darkness, they have several blah' (open your eyes for gods sake).

Likewise Christmas cards I write mine he (doesn't) write his.

Listen, Crepeys, at least your DH's ask - my DH couldn't care less if we send/don't send, buy/don't buy. It doesn't even remotely hit his radar. Luckily we only buy one present for his side of the family - for his brother, but as he didn't even answer me when I asked what he thought "we" should get, he won't be getting a present this year

Oh on mini break update, did loads of shopping, lots of nice little gifts for people and an angry bird hat for ds (he requested it) then crashed out in front of mates log burner and read cookery books was in bed by nine and have a fab nights sleep. More shopping/poodling today and out to dinner with friends tonight. It has been just what the doctor ordered!

Oooh, and I got those boots - was thinking of you, Strops, as I staggered from work to the shop - I definitely have earned them

BD, it sounds fab!

Oooh, ruby, the free Sanctuary facial I had c/o MI was lovely! And Jo Brand is a local - love her!

To paraphrase Monty Python, ruby, 'you lucky, lucky bastard'. And you, BD.

I am working, again. The kitchen isn't finished, and the builder has 'hurt his back' so won't be in again. He's flying to Poland on Sunday. However, boss builder is going to sort it.

Boss builder tried to blame some of the two-week delay on changes I'd made.
Me: 'OK, I did order those new drawers, but they only took a couple of hours to assemble. What other changes did I make?'
Him: 'Er... none'.

Ding ding, round one to me I think.

Anyway, we now have a functioning sink and washing machine. Though the dishwasher seems to be dead.

DS's play passed without me blubbing. He was near the back, apart from for his song - 'reindeer, reindeer', to the tune of 'horsey, horsey' - which naturally he did with great skill. Then dutifully trotted off again to the back.