What Have I Done?

It's nearly 5pm on a Saturday afternoon, and I am having a breather as I am halfway through a very tiring job.

And I was already tired as this morning I did Parkrun for the first time in over two years this morning. But during Lockdown we have been doing up the house, and minimising at the same time. We still have too much stuff, and I have flipping made it worse, haven't I?

Having saved up a bunch of money, last week we went armed with a list of wants to a warehouse clearance auction. We got loads of bargains of things we need to do the house up. Some of the things we got were for peanuts, others for just good prices. 

Sometimes there were lots of things on a pallet, so if they could be separated at all, we would ask, and then the gathered crowd would bid on the items separately, but it wasn't possible with one of the things.

What was the thing?

What did we need?

Well, having had new windows, we will need to redecorate every room. Some of the rooms need re-plastering, so paint will do on those walls, but other rooms will need to be wallpapered. 

Now, wallpaper can be expensive, can't it? And it can also be a bit fuddy-duddy if you don't choose carefully. What looks great on one wall might induce migraines if you have it everywhere. What looked good on the roll might look awful when spread across a big space. It can be a minefield!

Anyway, we came to a big, sagging, overloaded pallet of wallpaper. I could see lots of different colours. Who knew what was there, or whether there would be enough of one sort to do a room?

"Who wants to start a bid for this with a fiver?" said the auctioneer.

I laughed and said, "A pound."

"A pound? A POUND?!" he exclaimed. "Do I hear any offers for £2 then? Anyone...?" But no one else wanted to bid. I'm sure they would have if there weren't so flipping many rolls! "A pound it is then... this is... this is criminal!"

Another chap leaned towards me and said, "I bet some of them rolls are about £25, look them up and see."

Anyway, they got picked up on Tuesday and my husband posted them through the window. 

Yikes!

I estimate about 100 rolls. We sorted them out and paired them up, and there are definitely enough to do different rooms with.

And I did look them up, and some of them are not worth £25 a roll. No. You can buy them for flipping £42 a roll at John Lewis.  No, I don't think we have Carrie Symonds' cast offs. But we definitely have a rich person's rejects.

So, yeah, I'm halfway through lugging these upstairs. Wish me luck!

Dream Country

Well hello everyone... and surprise!

It's a few years later, and I'm in a much different place. Not geographically, yet. But this is where the next stage of this blog is headed.

I've been through some tough things since I was last the Wench. I grew a massive uterine tumour, and survived, following a huge operation. My whole body is scarred, and I wish I could say I'm fine with that, but... not quite yet. I can at least laugh about it though, which you will find out if you listen here. Yep, doing all right with that Apple-charting podcast.

My dad's dementia got worse. He survived so much that could have done for him from falling off buildings, being electrocuted and crushed by massive factory ovens,  but eventually it was COVID that got him. It got me and my husband a bit too, and we fought it off, but my body kept fighting and I'm one of the many that picked up hypothyroidism as a result. One of the easier aspects of Long COVID to identify, perhaps. Free prescriptions though now, woo.

This blog is not so much anonymous, as just an alter ego. I'm kind of getting my name a bit too much out there with writing and performing, and there's barely any digging involved to recognise me. But this was started when I wasn't as comfortable as I am now. Trials and tribulations aside, that's just the truth of it. 

My crumbling house is now a lot less crumbly as the roof and windows are fixed, and we are most of the way through transforming the Victorian outhouse dunny to a rather nice downstairs loo. Rather handily, my husband's retraining for a new career has given him some skills, and I too am picking up things like tile-cutting and soldering. YouTube is brilliant for that. There's also a lot of decluttering going on, which is just such a lift!

I'm hoping we can get this place looking brilliant - on a budget, and in a reasonable timeframe. As Jane the Frugal Queen said on one of her recent YouTube videos, there are many different types of frugal. This is the one that has come through debt and is now not badly off. When I think about how things were when I first moved to Northampton, it's incredible! Hopefully that's inspirational, but I'm not writing this from the same place as when I started. It does feel a bit weird sometimes, but then I have to remind myself I'm older and childless, so it's kind of normal. I just feel very lucky. 

But as I have faced not-quite-death-but-definitely-very-poorly a few times, I recognise that I do have to start facing life as if the working bit of it is on the downward slope towards not being able to work any more and get myself ready for that. Plus I must try not to hasten my demise by working at my current rates constantly. 

My ambition is to get this house tip top, then I would like to move somewhere I can start to live very happily indeed. Somewhere in the country! I'm never happier than when walking somewhere green and beautiful, so I want somewhere on my doorstep like that. Lucky as I feel though the only millionaire lifestyle I've got is access to millionaire shortbread, so I will have to budget. Today then, I must look at my plans... got gigs and work travel to factor back in this coming month. I have been socialising mainly outdoors since the restrictions were lifted so I still have to get my head used to buses and air-conditioned offices. I still fear getting sick, despite the double jab. Mainly because my luck is terrible! But also, now I know how my immune system overreacts to viral infections, I don't know if it will go crazy again and just start shutting things down if I'm sick. Easing back to a social life has been hard. I've had panic attacks at gigs - but at least I've started.

The brain is suffering at the mo too because of the hypo, and I keep forgetting things, so I'm hoping writing will reinforce some of the neural pathways required to remember to do stuff in order, and help me budget.

Priorities:

• Plan for every pound.
• Declutter and get cash for it where possible.
• Make time for basic cooking and meal-prep.
• Save for next DIY project.

Hopefully this will make an interesting journey. 

Transformation photos below from the downstairs loo.