Tag: The House

Very nearly have three rooms upstairs finally!

Dee Leave a comment

There’s still a lot of bits and pieces to do upstairs, but I’m getting there. 95% of the stuff is now living where it’s going to be living over the weekend while we have visitors.  I also made a good start on downstairs today, and things are starting to look a lot better.

Candelabrum
Including this candelabrum, for which I have finally found a good place after carting it round several houses. It would look even better if that tiny blue flame on the front candle would perk up a bit.

I’ve got a bit of time tomorrow and then most of Friday to finish off.  It’s just small jobs left to do now so I feel a lot better about the house in general.  Slimming World weigh-in tomorrow is another matter – after the (necessary but heavy) carbathon at the weekend I’m kind of dreading it!

OOTD 12th September 2018
OOTD: Geth’s comment was ‘I’m sure there’s a picture of my mother looking like that in the ’80s’. Jumper Faber (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), leggings Primark (2018), boots Carefree (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

The Reynolds Girls – I’d Rather Jack
Genesis – Land Of Confusion
Five Star – System Addict
Duran Duran – New Moon On Monday

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Elton John – Kiss The Bride

Playing house Tetris again

Dee Leave a comment

The study is finally all unpacked!  However, the rest of upstairs is now a bomb site, because I’ve had to use it for organising everything that came out of the study.  Luckily, it should be a fairly straightforward process this evening to get everything into its place – it just requires a bit more shuffling stuff about.

Other than a few bits and pieces here and there, work is being fairly quiet this week so far, so I should have another full day tomorrow to break the back of the house project ready for Geth’s family coming to stay at the weekend.  After their visit, I’ll be able to work on the scanning and shredding at my own pace (which is for the best, because judging by the amount of stuff I’ve unearthed today, it could take years!).

OOTD 11th September 2018
OOTD: house-sorting outfit! Jumper Prima (thrifted from family friend in the mid-1990s, probably originally late 1980s or early 1990s), jeans Zara (2018), trainers Reebok (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Tina Turner – What’s Love Got To Do With It
Will Powers – Kissing With Confidence
Ricky Martin – María
Soft Cell – Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
Mark Knopfler – Local Hero

Waiting for that full row to disappear

Dee Leave a comment

As hoped, I managed to get a good day’s worth of house stuff done today.  This mainly involved unpacking boxes and Tetrising the contents about, so it sort of feels like I’ve not made much headway, but I know I have really.  It will be more apparent after I unpack the other half of the boxes on Monday (assuming I don’t have work) and am able to start getting some things into their finalised places.  Exciting!

Geth is watching triathlon TV at the moment to mark the start of Great North Weekend, which will take up the rest of our time until Sunday evening.  I’ve got a bit of work and a bit of admin to get on with, before an early night in preparation for parkrun volunteering tomorrow.

Pasta and pesto
I’m still eating ALL THE PASTA. One more day of carb-loading to go!

Really looking forward to the CityGames tomorrow!

OOTD 7th September 2018
OOTD: ghostface selfie featuring comfy house-sorting outfit. Jumper Faber (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), jeans Vivid (2018).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Rod Stewart – Baby Jane
The Wanted – Walks Like Rihanna
Nik Kershaw – I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Brother Beyond – The Harder I Try
Charli XCX – Boys
George Michael – Careless Whisper
Eurythmics – Here Comes The Rain Again
Howard Jones – New Song

Reclaiming floor

Dee Leave a comment

I was able to do another chunk of house stuff today, which involved a lot of emptying boxes, putting away our excessive spare hanger collection (something I may rethink keeping once I’ve finalised the wardrobes), and as a result clearing a lot of floor space in the dressing room.  It was nice to see floor that we’ve not seen for months, although of course I’ll soon be covering it again through Tetrising when I finally unpack the study (starting Friday if work stays quiet!).

I also caught up on a month’s worth of blog reading and a couple of radio chart shows.  Nice productive evening.

OOTD 5th September 2018
OOTD: it was super cold this morning so I went for the giant jumper. Jumper Carlo Colucci (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2017), jeans H&M (thrifted from Steff 2016), boots Carefree (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – Hold Back The Rain
LSD – Thunderclouds
Steve Earle – Galway Girl
Nik Kershaw – I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Ashford & Simpson – Solid

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Korobeiniki (the Tetris theme music)

A place for everything

Dee Leave a comment

Success!  I went to Asda again this morning and someone was actually on the Asda Money counter!  It was a much nicer walk too without the rain, especially as the trees have already started changing and it’s looking very autumnal out there.

After a bit of admin, I was finally able to get on with some house stuff today:

Bookcase
Almost all of our spinoff novels and comics. Some of them have gone walkies, but will presumably turn up by the time I finish unearthing the study.

It required a lot of Tetrising from garage to landing and back, but both the TV/film spinoff novels and the comics, as well as all the bedding and towels, are now in their correct and final places.  Another job done!

Still catching up with unwatched Marvel Universe films.  Tonight it was Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, which was really funny and a good watch.  In some ways it’s nicer to be watching them in the comfort of home, but I expect we will start going to see the films at the cinema again once we’ve caught up.

OOTD 4th September 2018
OOTD: making the most of the natural light before it disappears. Jumper unknown brand (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2017), jeans Levi (2018), trainers Reebok (2013).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Bucks Fizz – Piece Of The Action
Spice Girls – Mama
Duran Duran – The Chauffeur
Duran Duran – A View To A Kill
Jonas Blue and JP Cooper – Perfect Strangers
Billy Ocean – Suddenly

Days spent in the house

Dee Leave a comment

Two days in a row without leaving the house!  I can’t remember the last time that happened.

To be fair, I was meant to go for a run this morning, but I’ve decided to push that to Friday, largely because the jetlag is still ongoing and I had a lot of other things to do today.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve got a lot of work on for the next month.  It includes projects for about five different clients, which keeps it nice and interesting.  I’m also still trying to work on the house – today I at least got it tidied up, which makes it a much more comfortable space for working in.

SP day today to try and shift that holiday weight before Slimming World weigh-in on Thursday!  Doing another one tomorrow.  I had all-day breakfast for tea tonight, but I actually found it to be a bit heavy, so I might try something more salad-y tomorrow night.

OOTD 31st July 2018
OOTD: hoodie Sonar (2006), t-shirt Katharine Hamnett for Help Refugees (2017), trousers Christian Siriano Runway Style (2018), shoes 1st Position (2018).

Missing my wall decorations

Dee Leave a comment

Intensive transcription projects at work always do strange things to me.  The last transcription period, in autumn 2017, involved a couple of projects, the larger of which was for a study about an experimental coffee machine.  I had actually given up caffeine in 2013 and hadn’t touched it since, but the combination of a lack of sleep and hours and hours every day spent listening to people talk about coffee had fairly predictable consequences, and I fell off that particular wagon.  I’ve been drinking a couple of coffees every day since then.

This time round, the transcription project I’m working on is for a study about public artworks.  I’m not really ‘into art’ in the traditional sense – I don’t tend to visit galleries unless dragged by someone else, I couldn’t care less what the ‘meanings’ of artworks are, and I’ve never done much reading about the subject – but I like things that are nice to look at, and that’s what I have on my walls.  Or it’s what I would have on my walls under normal circumstances.

The thing is, pictures are always the very last thing I put up when I’m sorting out a new house, as I think of them as the ‘finishing touch’.  This is why, unfortunately, the walls have always been a bit bare in my last few rented properties – because by the time I’ve got to that stage of the house sorting, I’m thoroughly sick of the whole thing and I’ve really slowed down with it, and so I never get round to doing the pictures properly before we realise that we’ll be moving again soon and so there’s no point putting anything else up.

This time around will be different – I may have already mentioned once or twice that I am OMG NEVER MOVING AGAIN, because this house move has been so stressful, and so I will definitely have the time and motivation to get the picture collection actually finished.  Sadly, the house is still some way off being sorted – all of our pictures and other wall decorations are currently stuck in the study, which I will be spending May going through.  As such, the walls have to remain bare for a while longer.  I do have a couple of posters up on the upstairs landing, as I needed to keep them out of the way and uncrumpled while I was sorting things out, but everything else will have to wait.

Which is a shame, as it would be nice to have some pretty artwork on the walls to look at while I’m spending hours listening to people talking about art.  I guess the artwork on our boardgame boxes will have to suffice.

Busy work periods…and how to cope with them

Dee Leave a comment

I’m one week into an extremely busy work period at the moment, with one major project plus multiple smaller ones meaning I’m working twelve-hour days, seven days a week.  I have these every so often – it’s just the nature of freelancing – and thankfully it’s never more than a few weeks at a time.  Still, a period like this requires some fairly big coping strategies, and these are the ones I’ve developed:

1. Schedule every last minute

The first thing I always do with a major project is sit down and plot out a schedule for the work up to the deadline, so that I know exactly what will get done when – if I don’t have an idea of this, I find it very stressful.  Sometimes this means that if things take longer than expected, I have to work a bit longer on that particular day, but having plotted everything out means that this is kept to a minimum.

2. Book in some non-negotiable non-work time

By ‘non-negotiable’, I mean things that I can’t back out of.  For this particular project, the busy period happens to coincide with my ongoing mission on this blog to review one Now! compilation a day leading up to 20th July; each review takes me a couple of hours, due to the length of the compilations, so that’s time that I absolutely have to spend doing non-work stuff.  During my last busy work period, which was in October to November, I had NaNoWriMo going on during the latter part, so I had a commitment every day to spend a couple of hours writing fiction.  Writing is nice and relaxing for me, but a less ‘thinky’ non-negotiable thing might be meeting up with friends, such as for the birthday afternoon tea I’m going to in a couple of weeks’ time, or some ‘me time’, such as the vintage fair I’m going to on Sunday (my first vintage fair trip since the house move!  I can’t wait!), or a scheduled class that I pay for every week, such as Slimming World or my Pilates class.  I’m also having to make running a non-negotiable during this particular busy work period, otherwise I’ll struggle with the Sunderland 10k in a few weeks’ time!

3. Postpone all non-essentials

When I’m working twelve-hour work days, other than sleeping, eating and keeping myself clean and presentable, I only have time for work and the scheduled non-negotiables I described above.  Everything else gets shunted to ‘afterwards’.  This generally includes cleaning the house, catching up with TV and the music charts, and, for this particular period, the ongoing project of sorting out the new house.  It just means I will be doing all that stuff with a renewed appreciation when the work period is over!

4. Book in cooking and sleeping time

During a busy work period, looking after myself often takes a back seat.  It’s simply not possible to get as much sleep as I usually would, as I have to be up at the crack of dawn every day to start work, but I make sure I’m at least getting six hours a night.  Similarly, I need to schedule my food preparation time, otherwise I’ll end up just grabbing something unhealthy and feeling worse for it.

These periods are always a bit of a slog, but they are manageable.  Obviously it would be nice if they’d balance out a bit better with the weeks where I don’t have any work at all, but the benefits of being a freelancer are absolutely worth it for me!

Original features of my ’80s house

Dee Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while, but in the post-move chaos the house has been a bit too messy for pictures!

I mentioned previously that our new house was built in 1987/1988, which I was obviously thrilled about when I found out.  While things like the kitchen and bathroom have been remodelled more recently, there are still a lot of lovely original ’80s features in the house, which are a huge bonus in my view.

Let’s take a look at a few of them.

'80s deco hearth
The deco-style hearth in the living room.

I love this art deco style hearth – it’s a real feature in the room.  It needs a bit of cleaning, and the fire doesn’t actually work at the moment (we need to have a look into that, but now that the winter’s over it’s not an urgent thing), but I think the design of it is gorgeous.

'80s brass light switches
The brass light switches…

 

'80s brass plug socket
…and the matching plug sockets.

Geth doesn’t like these brass fittings at all, but I love them – I’ve lived with standard white ones my whole life, and these are a lot more interesting!

'80s art deco stained glass windows
More art deco stylings – stained glass windows in the doorway from the hall into the living room.

These stained glass windows are probably my favourite feature in the house – they provide such a brightness to the living room.

'80s brass light fitting
One of the brass light fittings in the hallway.

Finally, there’s these brass light fittings – another thing that I love and Geth dislikes!  There are two of them, one in the downstairs hallway and one in the upstairs landing.  Most of the light fittings in the house do seem to be original, but these are my favourites.

It’s really nice that so many features have survived since the house was first built.  As a shameless ’80s throwback, it makes me feel much more at home.

 

Another packing update

Dee Leave a comment

Six days till moving day!  And we still have a lot to pack.  And I have a lot of work getting in the way this week, grgh.

Geth did the bulk of the kitchen stuff today, and I was on track to get all of the living room ornaments done…until I ran out of bubble wrap.  We have no time to go into town to get more, so we’ll be buying a lot of newspapers over the next few days.

It doesn’t feel real yet that in two weeks time we’ll have finished the move and will no longer be living here.  We’ve been in this house for three years exactly – longer than any place since our flat in Edinburgh where we lived for nearly four years – and it’s been a lovely, spacious place to live, even if it’s never exactly felt finished.  This is largely because I’ve been a terrible procrastinator in terms of a) putting stuff up on the walls and b) unpacking all the boxes of my stuff that I’ve had my parents bring down from Edinburgh in order to give them some more space.  This is a habit I’m going to be very strict about changing when we’re in the new place, because we’re going to be there for the rest of however long we end up living in Newcastle (I hate moving.  I may have mentioned this once or twice) and I want it to look nice.  It’s probably going to be an ongoing project (an expensive ongoing project) but I’m fed up of living among boxes of stuff, so this year I at least want to find a place for everything I’m keeping and get rid of the stuff I’m not.

The last part will be easier said than done.  Hoarding tendencies are a bitch.