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Showing posts from November, 2022

It’s Christmas, Hello December

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I can't quite believe it's the last month of the year. This year has been full of ups and downs, but I promise, December is going to be the month for me. I want it to be filled with peace and joy and focus on family. I have so many plans and incredibly, all my December off duty requests were approved, which makes me so excited for the Christmas season.  This week I have a couple of night shifts left and then I am heading to my mum's for the first Christmas celebrations. We have a family buffet planned at her house on Sunday and it will be nice to catch up with everyone. It will also be the first time my grandma meets her first great grandchild which will be so cute. I can't wait for hopefully some more baby snuggles, but I'm sure everyone will want a squeeze too.  The week after I have my first two day shifts in over a month, which feels quite odd, but I'm grateful that I will hopefully be able to regulate sleep a little better. On Friday, I'm heading to Her

Opening Up to Love Again

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If you’d have told me 3 months ago , I would be where I am today, I would have laughed in your face. 3 months ago, I was utterly heartbroken and didn’t know how I was going to continue living in a world where “Luke and Hannah” didn’t exist anymore. I sobbed most nights, pushed away family and friends and had no motivation to do anything. It of course, didn’t help that buying my first house had been a stressful ordeal in an already emotional time and the life I'd planned for in that home, had disappeared.  I am pleased to say, I’m out the other side, or at least close. Reading a couple of posts I wrote back then now, makes me feel so dramatic and in way, to some it may have been laughable. In reality, that’s exactly where I was in life and I was at a point where it was either going to break me and I was going to let it, or I had to fight like hell to get through it.  I booked an appointment at my GP and ended up seeing a mental health nurse specialist. I think I was already probabl

Demolition, Progress and Nightmare Plumber Situation

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With the electrics being almost completed, my dad and his girlfriend came over for a weekend to help with some renovations and demolition. We completely ripped out the old wall units and cupboard in the corner, removed the wall panelling around the outside and took up half the flooring, which will be having tiling going down for the toilet. It definitely looks a little like a building site right now.  We also added some beading around the fireplace. I honestly don't love it because it's not perfectly cut and painted, but it means there isn't a huge gap anymore. Sadly, there is a lot of damage from glue getting on the wall that I can't get off. I did end up later adding beading to the inner border of the fireplace as well, which I am now happier with.  We also finished the work, by adding skirting board around either side of the fireplace. One side looked a mess as had plaster on show that was uneven and not painted. The other had none and looked fine, just wasn't sy

Sorting the Electrics in the House

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Continuing with the utility room project, once the meters and supply for the electricity was moved outside. I was left without any electricity. I arranged for an electrician to come in shortly after the work was completed, to reconnect the supply. When he came to quote, I said that that was the priority but if able to complete other work on the same, I also needed and wanted that to be completed.  In the utility room, I wanted my RCD board updating to a modern one, as the one I had was ancient, moving out of the cupboard. I also wanted the single drop light, switching to 5 spotlight lights. I had considered switching them to two separate power sources for what will eventually be the downstairs toilet and utility room, but decided it wouldn't make much difference overall and added quite a significant amount of additional work. I also got a plug socket moved, a plug socket replacing, the power supple to the boiler moving and additional wires removed in both my hallway and for an old,

My New iPhone 13 Mini and Best Screen Protector

I've shared a lot of house posts over the last few months and they're slowly coming to an end as jobs have almost been finished, but I feel like I've lost a passion to write about anything else. I did get a new phone a few weeks before the iPhone 14 was released and I wanted to share a couple of products I've bought because of that, that I have fell in love with.  Previously, I had an iPhone 7 and so it was getting quite old and dated, and that was a second hand phone from my dad already that I got when it was a year old. I decided to buy the iPhone 13 over the 14 because it was much smaller in size, yet the camera quality was great, which was a huge priority for me. I also got it for a lot cheaper. Had I had realised the later model was coming out, I probably would have waited a few weeks so that I could have got it for cheaper but other than that, I was really happy.  I ordered through EE and used my Student Discount to get it at a cheaper rate, although I also have m

Bonfire Night, Baby Day and Feeling Emotional!

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It was a bit of an emotional week between welcoming a new baby and realising the reality of adulthood. I also headed back to Wakefield to celebrate Bonfire Night too.  Click here to watch the vlog or see below.  I went back to my childhood home to see my mum. I haven't been back for over a month because more recently, family had been coming to see me in Nottingham instead. We had a chilled couple days before taking the dogs for a walk one morning. They were both fascinated with the birds. Lots of snuggles on the couch and I finally started catching up on the last two years of Grey's Anatomy and Station 19.  For Bonfire Night, we ended up staying in and actually celebrated with a Bonfire at the farm the next day. Grandma and the family played dominoes, before we headed out. There was food trucks, a bar, a bonfire and lots of fireworks. It ended up being a really lovely evening.  I remained on call for my cousin and her going into labour. Whilst I waited, I did some uni work base

Moving my Electricity and Gas Supply

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If you've followed my house journey for the last few months, you'll have seen I was met with utter shock and heartbreak at the state of the utility room. It's ended up becoming a big renovation project, converting it into a downstairs toilet and smaller utility room. I shared the full plans here, but the first project to get completed was a supply adjustment for both the electricity and gas.  I switched my electricity supply from E-On to British Gas, quite quickly after moving in, so all my services would be under one company. I thought from there it would be a simple case of them coming to move the connections and meters outside, as it was just to the other side of the wall. I needed them to be moved, in order to create the space in the room to have enough room for the downstairs toilet. Sadly, as with everything in a house, it's not quite that simple, but they were able to point me in the right direction.  Starting with the gas supply, I had to contact Cadent Gas. Cad

Outside Bin Storage Solution

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One thing I knew I wanted when I bought a house was a bin storage unit. It's something I wanted many years ago when I very first considered buying a house. I thought I had the perfect spot in between my two sets of of steps into the house, but it wasn't until I started measuring that I realised it wasn't quite the general size of the units. I ended up paying a little more to get one custom made to fit the space, but it's pretty perfect.  It’s a little bigger than I expected and this may be a little sad, but I’m genuinely in love. Goodbye ugly, mismatched broken bins. Hello stylish and sophisticated storage system.  I did end up paying a little more but ended up purchasing a Triple Wheelie Bin Store through SJS Woodcraft Store on Etsy. The service includes being made to measure, built, delivered and installed to perfection. It is a natural wood product so they aren't all the exact same, but the standard is high, service great and although was quite late to deliver,

Being a Birth Partner and Baby Shower Gifts

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As I shared last week, I've just had nearly 2 weeks annual leave . I pre-booked to have Halloween and Bonfire Night off, because I like the celebrations and it wasn't half term in Nottingham. It ended up working quite well, because it also happened to be the week that my cousin was due and she had said she probably wanted me there as a birth partner. In the end, baby came 5 days late, following a long induction process but super speedy labour.  Not going to lie, being a birth partner is nothing like being a midwife and it was honestly, the most stressful few weeks I've had. I didn't want to miss the call or text, so I would leave my phone on loud on a night, and go through and manually turn off notifications for every other app and mute all other contacts on Whatsapp, except for my cousin. I slept so poorly because I would wake up every couple of hours and check my phone.  In the actual labour room, is also very different and I totally understand why people say they fee

Date Debrief, Minor Halloween and Sofa Delivery!

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A couple of dates, house progress and work updates!  Click here to watch the vlog or see below.  The dating life continues and I had two dates, one of which I was really unsure about. I talked all about it in the vlog, but ultimately, that relationship is now over and it didn't end on the best terms to be honest. I think I am going to share some dating life insights in a post in the future so I won't go into too much detail, but yeah, defintely not always the funnest time.  Despite having annual leave, because of other events in life, I didn't really celebrate Halloween as much as usual. I did decorate, but because of waiting for my second sofa to arrive, it was a little later, so they were only up just over a week before. The sofa was all a bit of a nightmare, but it finally arrived safe and sound and the lounge is officially finished. The other big house update was that the bin storage unit came too.  I ended up dressing up as a devil (basically a black dress with accesso

Annual Leave Again!

Just like with my last annual leave break for my "day job", I'm taking a break from social media/blogging at the same time. It's become more important than ever to have self-compassion and practice self-care. I'll be back next week! 

Room Tour: Living Room (Buying my First Home)

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The living room was the final room (bar the big utility renovation) to be finished, not because it wasn’t liveable but because of the massive delay in getting my second sofa. I previously bought my sofa from SCS and I wanted a matching one so that I had a pair. It was initially meant to come in September, then it was delayed until 14th October, 21st October and finally it got delivered on 25th October!  I had this room painted for the majority in the same shade as the rest of the house, however I also decided to wallpaper either side of the chimney breast. I have to say I completely love the wallpaper and how perfectly it matches the colour scheme, sadly, not so much the finish.  The chimney breast itself caused a few issues. I hated the old fireplace so it got quickly ripped out and then I struggled to find a replacement. I couldn’t find the exact one I wanted in the right size, but I got close with with this simple white one from Fireplace World. When it came in just a couple days it