New windows in Diary

I've spent the last two days ensconsed in a single room in our house, with no heating save from a small oil filled electric radiator with me covered in blankets. Seeing as though there are workmen traipsing in and out of the house, up and down the stairs with the front door wide open and all the windows taken out, there's no point putting the central heating on and, if I venture out of the room, I would only get in their way. But we now have brand new triple glazed uPVC windows! Gone are the extortionate gas bills, the condensation and being woken up every time someone walks past the house, all of which are caused by 100 year old single glazed windows.

I've been posting photos on Facebook and everyone keeps saying "Oh but your old windows are so pretty, they really add character to the house." Yeah, we know. But if you lived in this house for a year, paying almost £170 a month for your fuel bill, not being able to get warm due to lack of insulation and having to wear all of your warmest clothes and blankets just to sit in your own living room, I'm pretty sure you'd be ripping them out too! Not to mention the fact that none of them open so it's a massive fire risk and we get woken up by every single tiny noise from outside. So sorry, vintage fans, but they're gone! Have some progress photos :)

Old bedroom window.


New bedroom window!


Old dining room window.


The hole where it was.


New dining room window! (bar the finishing on the inside)


This is our old living room bay window, which is the nicest of the lot. But, sadly, when you become a grown up, practicality sometimes has to take precendence over aesthetics.


I don't have a photo of the new one yet, they're still here fitting it. But I'm pretty sure we're getting to keep the decorative bit along the top, so that's something at least.

While all the curtains were down I took the opportunity to wash them. Massive thick velvet things, some of them eight feet tall which can only go in the washing machine one at a time. So it's taken a full two days to wash them and most of them are still wetm draped all over the house. (We don't have a tumble dryer, they're not as common in the UK as the USA) They were left here when we moved in and I'm pretty sure they had about 20 years worth of dust ingrained in them. They're now about three shades lighter and much better for Jay's allergies!

Next on the agenda; new living room carpet! (Cue calls from everyone "Oh but your original floor boards are so pretty, they really add character to the house." Yep, but there's also a massive empty space underneath them into which cold air creeps, so we'd like to keep that out!)

None of this would have been possible without my lovely dad, who loaned us the money interest free, saving us over £800 which we would have paid in interest had we taken out a personal loan.

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I got the feedback from my latest Domestic Pet Care essay and scored another distinction with no negative feedback at all :o) That's four down, two to go. The fifth one is a real thinker, it's all about the legalities and legislation involved with care of animals. And I really don't want to do the last one; it's all about when our pets get old and die :o(

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I'm really excited about my savings this month. With the extra money I made from my photography (the corporate conference I did plus a bit from WireImage, even though I haven't shot for them for almost a year), plus the things I sold on eBay and money from pet sitting, I should be able to put away about £600, and that's including paying for the Amsterdam trip! That takes me to almost halfway to my "going self employed" target fund :o)

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Well it sounds like the window fitters are vacuuming and tidying up so they should be almost finished, I'd better go and investigate.