Visitors!!

Would anyone ever fully sort a new house out if it were not for the threat of impending visitors? We did quite well when we initially moved in (2 months ago now!) – sorted out the kitchen, dining room and living room. The bathroom is fine and our bedroom very pleasant and organised. And there it stopped.


The spare bedroom is a repository for clothes, some in suitcases, some hanging on rails. Old costume jewelry and cosmetics, sorted but without a proper home. The small spare bedroom/office is full of laundry and a computer desk and boxes of files etc. And I don’t like to even think about the stack of boxes and worse awaiting us in the 3 room basement! There is not a picture hung in the entire house.


Only our bedroom and the living room are curtained although the bathroom has nice blinds. In short we did enough to make the house comfortable for us to live in and able to welcome daytime guests. But not overnight guests. Even less, visitors for 3 nights! Which is why I’m panicking a bit now that my cousin Sue and my sister Hilary are due to visit for 3 days this very week….Thursday in fact. Yikes!


But, I’m really pleased that they’re coming up. My sister hasn’t met Richard yet and neither has my cousin, which is not strictly surprising considering that she lives in Nova Scotia, Canada!! It has been beneficial in more ways than one in that we have been forced to buy a bed for the spare room; make a start on the sorting of clothes and wardrobes and, today (with just 2 days spare) to buy curtains for the rest of the house!!


I spotted a sale on in Rotherham’s Dunelm Mill this lunchtime and thought I’d pick up emergency curtains for the 2 bedrooms but was so impressed by the size of the reductions that I went a bit mad and splurged on all sorts of accessories too and bought 2 sets of curtains for the dining room. All for under £90! 75% off in most cases – I love bargains.

Mind you, I did have to spend a happy half hour rooting around the bargain bin looking for the right sizes…I got so carried away that I attracted attention from the other shoppers and, by the time I finished there were about 5 or 6 of us happily sorting away, helping each other out and chatting like old pals. Very multi-cultural too – there was a Chinese lady looking for Here’s Kitty (?!) duvet covers for her daughters; a west Indian woman seeking a selection of plain flat sheets and pillow cases in strictly neutral colours (although she did stretch to a pale dusty rose eventually); a couple of white women in me and another looking for curtains (thankfully not in the same sizes as we ended up buying the same design); and an Indian or Pakistani woman looking for (frankly hideous) cushion covers – they really were – white background with gold and yellow pom poms and a sort of gold, swirly design but each to their own and she found about 6 eventually for a full set…. We all worked together so we weren’t looking at the same stuff over and over and it was very amusing. Good-natured female chat. When I alighted on the bins they had been deserted so I reckon Dunelm Mill should have given me an extra discount for drumming up trade!


Providing they look alright when they’re hung, photos will be posted to prove that my £4.50 bedroom curtains were a good buy!!

Okay - these weren't the £4.50 bargains but the curtains (floor length and fully lined) were only £13.80 (down from £55!) and the runner and cushions only a few quid each - not a bad result for less than £25!

So that’s the plan for this evening. Rich is playing golf so I will be cleaning, hanging curtains, hanging pictures where I can do so without assistance and shifting furniture as much as possible. Tomorrow evening we can finish it off together. Rich has already proved very handy at hanging multiple coat hooks, making up flatpack furniture and stuff, especially on a rainy Bank Holiday Monday so things are officially “moving on”. Then on Thursday I’ll do the final dust round, flowers in vases, ribbons in the dogs’ ears (kidding….) and a bottle of wine opened and all will be well.


I have perused my stack of foodie mags and recipe books and selected easy, flexible meal options – chicken and chorizo with new potatoes one night; Greek baked lamb chops another and eating out for another. I needed dishes which can be easily cooked while socialising and which be prepared and then can hang around.


I’m very excited. Can you tell??


And, it’s the Week 2 weigh in for the P2P challenge tomorrow. I’m down but not by much today so will go for a short run with the dogs this evening as well. Don’t want to fall at the first hurdle

I typed the post above yesterday but didn't post it until today (Wednesday) so can update you fully on P2P week 2 - I lost exactly 1lb. This is good. It means I have lost 3.8lbs in 2 weeks. I'm on track for my half stone.

Also, after a long hilly walk on Bradwell Edge yesterday evening I spent several hours working on the house (see above) and can happily report that it is now nowhere near as bad as it sounds.

Also - thanks for your lovely posts Peri, I'm slightly surprised to find myself unconcerned about the nastiness of the former friends, it must mean I really didn't care much for them anyway. And - I KNEW you'd know what sort of cows they were...!! Longhorns, longhorns, longhorns....must remember.