The all new Chatbox!

[Gemini]

Good morning everyone.

OH has gone on a 2 day golf outing, back tomorrow evening. I am meeting A, the girl whose wedding we went to in August, for coffee later. It's ages since we had a good catch up. I may just have a lazy day for the rest of the day!

We need 2 new sofas, and new carpets for living room and stairs and landing OH feels we shouldn't get them until we have no cats I say this is because she has no children. If well all waited until we had no children before replacing anything as they may spoil it, what state would things be in!?

Zizi, our friends have 2 of those recliner sofas. I love it when we go to their house, and when we are there for a meal I want it to be over quickly so I can recline

Enjoy your Sunday everyone.

[Plantaholic]

Off to DS and DIL's for sandwich lunch, next doo family have gone for a long walk, it is such a lovely day. They need another dog, I sense they are thinking about it although after the incident with the cat, they said no more pets.

Hope you are all having this lovely weather, have a good day.

[Nanto2girls]

Weather here is lovely.Changed the bedding, washed and out on the line.
Cleaned our bedroom, and just been in the shower.

[Qwerty]

Afternoon all, just back from coffee with DS and family J is still spotty and a bit of a mummy's boy today, back now to get roast pots in the oven seems ages since we had a roast dinner looking forward to it and a drop of wine 🍷
Don't talk about suites we have 6 settees and 2 recliners not in the same room of course and I dread to think what we would do with them when we downsize, we had a ride to the next village to look at a 3 storey mews house but when we read more detail and I am aware it's no smaller it didn't have a downstairs loo, the kitchen was on the ground floor but the lounge was on the first floor we would have to get a teasmade otherwise cart cups of tea upstairs so not practical for us, it it was gorgeous 🙂

[Oma]

Qwerty a lot of stairs to climb in those 3 story mews , we have always had a downstairs loo so I think I would miss not having one , it was good when the children were potty training and now we are getting older and I'm peeing a lot I'm glad I don't have to rush up stairs all day hahaha.

B made Focaccia bread this morning so we had that with Olive oil & Balsamic dips for lunch , the Focaccia was still warm it was lovely , I then fell asleep on the sofa and was there almost 1 hour I don't feel like doing anything at all cant be bothered to move

[ZIZI]

Q we moved from a larger house with three bathrooms and a kitchen bigger than my current sitting room and moved into our maisonette we brought with us a futon, double bed, bedroom sideboard, bedside tables and a few other bits. The next day we had to buy a cheap fridge freezer to keep us going and a few extras. Took a while to get used to. Remember walking into the wall one night when I got up to use the bathroom and going to where I thought the ensuing door was but of course it wasn't. It was a wall! We gave our big house furniture away and a lot to my brother and I remember feeling quite upset about six months later to visit him and find some of the 10 dining chairs which were beautifully polished and upholstered, thrown in bits in the garden and then going inside seeing the beautiful French polished extending table with cup marks and scratches all over it. Husband pointed out I should not be upset as the we theirs to do with what they wanted but I felt a bit betrayed.

another story which I think I have said on here before, middle son (the one from whom we are estranged and who has of the years given us a lot of grief, he was a boomerang) carried a box upstairs and said loudly "oh we only have one bathroom". Husband said "no D WE as in MUMMY and DADDY only have one bathroom......)

We are happy here now having done a lot of work and had a lot of faults rectified which cost a lot of money, living he also means that husband can get to work on his own which is important to him. Just embarking on a round of refurbishment shortly. I smiled at the teasmade remark Q. I don't remember ever having a cup of tea in bed. Am I a deprived wife?

[Qwerty]

The teasmade isn't for bed Zizi it's because we wouldn't be bothered making a cuppa and then carrying it a flight of stairs to sit in the lounge buns to that, but a teasmade on the coffee table would suffice in the lounge lol,

[ZIZI]

AH Q now I see. Personally I would ensure a well stocked cocktail cabinet ......

Took some ironing to the fairy this morning then went to see Joe and Sadie. Chaotic house as usual. Joe was going to rugby, mummy had a "cold". Methinks it was a hangover personally, Sadie wanted to bake a pudding for dinner so was looking through cookbooks. "I know I am going to do spicky pears" me "Spicy pears Sadie" Spicky grandma look". I spelt spicy to her and she retorted "look it has a CUH in it so it is SPICKY". OK give in gracefully grandma. Then it was going to be "Wayfells" me "Waffles Sadie darling" S with a big sigh "grandma didn't you do any homework at school it is WAYfells, look WA (Way) ffles (fells). I conceded defeat.

Then I popped to see Ben who started wearing glasses last week and v handsome he looks too. Then went to Tesco to pick up Ben's birthday present and some odd bits. Noodles for my dinner tonight, biscuits because I have eaten them all and cooking apples. Came home and made apple and blackberry crumble, did some of that stuff with the hot spitty thing OMG first time for two years. = 4 x wash clothes, 12 x tea towels, large white tablecloth and four napkins, duvet cover, eight pillow cases and two gigantic microfibre towels. Phew that is not going to happen every week I can tell you. Just remembered to take the crumble out of the oven, meant to only half cook it. Oh well, never mind, at least it is not burnt.

[Oma]

Zizi we did the same when we downsized , we brought the bare essentials and bought new , as its a smaller house our old furniture wouldn't have fitted ,, thought I would have missed the space in the big house but I love this one so much and settled quickly you learn to live without as much stuff don't you , mind I have had to be inventive with storage , like behind my kitchen door there is a small gap before the larder cupboard starts , just the right gap to put 5 Ikea shoe storage boxes stacked up and screwed to the side of the larder cupboard where all my baking trays , frying pans, Dishes baking stuff etc are kept , its amazing how much they hold

[Daisy]

Off to DS and DIL's for sandwich lunch, next doo family have gone for a long walk, it is such a lovely day. They need another dog, I sense they are thinking about it although after the incident with the cat, they said no more pets.

Hope you are all having this lovely weather, have a good day.

Plant - I think most of us say 'no more pets', but then you miss not having a furry friend.

My DS2 and family who lost their lovely Midge-dog in March are thinking about getting a puppy. They have more or less decided on breed, but are going to wait until after that December event. This is their busiest time of the year and they want to make the house and shop puppy-friendly first, and In January things are a bit quieter so they can spend more time on basic training etc.

[Plantaholic]

GD2 really misses the cats, she used to cuddle up with them.

I wonder about getting a dog, not sure, it would have to be small. I don't think a puppy and my new carpet would be a good idea.

Got back from DS and DIL's to find my GS1 and his partner, plus the gorgeous one in next door, they had just got back from Cornwall but the family were at our local pub eating so I had the gorgeous one to myself, he kept trying to put my necklace in his mouth, he is so strong and determined to get things, not quite crawling. They contacted the family who were still eating so they left to go and see them.

[Gemini]

Qwerty, a friend of ours was recently seriously considering buying one of those houses. When I pointed out that she would soon get tired of going downstairs every time she wanted a cuppa, she soon changed her mind!

Plant, that unexpected time with GGS must have been wonderful

A and I changed our minds about meeting for coffee. I picked her up and we went out for a lovely Sunday roast ) It was lovely to spend time with her. They will be off on their travels again in January,so I have to make the most of her, as it could be years before they are back.

Lovely sunny day, I'm sure OH will be enjoying her golf!

[Plantaholic]

I can't imagine having a kitchen on the GF and the sitting room on the next floor.

GS1 and his partner have a 3 storey house, they have a kitchen dining, sitting open plan and a clockroom on the ground floor and the 4 bedrooms on two floors with bathrooms. That works well but the sitting area is very small.

[ZIZI]

When I was first married 44 years ago we had a room in the attic of a house with a curtain across one end to make the bedroom. We shared the loo and the bath had to be dragged out of the cupboard into the middle flat kitchen and husband stood guard. Took an age to fill as it was done with galvanised buckets on their gas cooker (which we had to pay for). Our kitchen was on a funny little landing at the bottom of one flight of stairs down from our "sitting room" and the top of another flight of stairs. There was a curtain at the bottom of the stairs as a demarcation line. I say the kitchen, it was a metal bowl with a cold tap over it and two gas burners which were a) worse than useless and b) probably ready to explode the whole place into smithereens! At least the was a drain of sorts we could tip the waste water into it it did make a mess if you missed. Thank God we did not stay there long and moved into a bedsit with a proper kitchen (still no hot water but a proper cooker at least, but we had to share the bathroom and the toilet was through the downstairs flat. It was a good job we got on well with them.

[Nanto2girls]

Plant, how lovely to have the gorgeous one to yourself.
Reading about some of you that have downsized, i couldn't imagine us ever wanting to do that.