Sofa saga and refurbishing old furniture.

Home ed group today.We actually managed to get to it this week!! It has been AGES since we made it to a meet up with the group - various reasons have meant we just haven't managed to get there.

A new to home ed family were there and it was nice to continue the chat over more tea at M's house after group ;-)

Milly was tired - group starts at ten thirty and as she likes a long time to 'wake up' she asked to be woken at eight forty five. I know, not early by some standards, but in our house that is a very early start :-0
We made it home about two thirty and she headed upstairs cheerfully exclaiming she was "going to daydream" :-)

Whilst she did that I set about waxing a piece of furniture I have been painting.

It was pine and was very scuffed and chipped and had been crying out for some paint for a couple of years. Finally got round to it ;-)

Before..

After...

I then started a marathon cooking session. I was making oven roasted Mediterranean Lasagna for tea tonight. As I had been unable to get Aubergine I doubled up the peppers and added some sun dried tomatoes in. Very tasty indeed....

I also wanted to get tomorrow nights meal cooked. My sister and her husband are coming to eat and I always find it stressful cooking and socialising. Since my brain function has diminished significantly ( Menopause!! ) and I tire so easily, it is not a good mix to be distracted, trying to be the hostess with the mostess and attempting to create something edible to put on the table ;-))

I had a cuppa with Al when he came in before starting on it.

Milly wanted to go to the park in Cockernouth and Al was going to take her whilst I cooked.They went off with instructions to call me when they were leaving so I could have Milly's tea ready - I knew she would be starving by the time they go back.

An hour and half later they returned and she was indeed ravenous :-)

She wanted to watch TV and eat. We sat in the Sun Room and chatted.

It was so enjoyable to have the door open with a slight breeze and savour the evening sun - could have been a summers evening...

We then ate and I washed up - again! They walked Beauty and we are now settled for the evening.I'm on here til Masterchef comes on, they are watching Midsomer Murders.

The painting is all finished in the sun room and I just have one more piece of furniture to paint up.I bought it yesterday from Impact housing.

Bargain at £3.

Bit scratched and bashed but non the less a sturdy piece. A coat of white satin wood paint will make all the difference.

We have needed a coffee table in here for ages.

I managed to get some baskets from Dunelm that fit perfectly on the shelf to hold the Wii bits and bobs and a basket of pens and paper to keep handy for Milly.

When we started the big declutter nearly two years ago I really wanted a sofa from Ikea but we just didn't have the funds, so we dyed the covers on our old sofa and it has done fine in there since.

. We came into some money a couple of weeks ago - courtesy of Premium bonds - and decided to get a three seater sofa to give more seating in this room.

We could have had it delivered for £35 by ordering it on line. I wasn't sure about the style of the sofa or the colour of the covers and really wanted to see it in the flesh. The other thing that was encouraging was that Emily ( remember her anxiety and aversion to travelling ) had said she was keen to go if we hired a van, one like we had last time we went ( it has three seats in the front. She didn't come with us last time and has wanted to travel in one since then ) So - thinking this would be another opportunity to have a really positive travel experience for her - I persuaded Al it would be a good idea ....

The day dawned bright and sunny and we set off early in good spirits. Milly was very, very excited and the journey went really well. When we got to Ikea I had expected Al to park away from other vehicles ( the transit was a long wheelbase one and not the easiest to maneuver ) to make it easy for himself. I was incredibly surprised when he turned in almost immediately, to a space near the trolley park ( a tight angle even in a smaller vehicle ). We heard an almighty scraping noise and the van wouldn't move forward - it took us some moments before we realised what had happened - the metal pole of the trolley park and the van had come into contact and the pole had won :-(

Alan then panicked and kept trying to put the van into fifth instead of reverse.

It was awful - Milly sat with her hands over her face and eventually Al stopped trying to move the van and got out to have a look. I was very conscious of the big red sticker on the dashboard saying £500 EXCESS!! He got back in and managed to find the gear and we moved far, far away into an empty bay.....

By this time I had had chance to talk to Milly - she wasn't upset it had just been the shock of the noise and not knowing what had happened that had worried her. She was marvelous and we both worked hard to make Alan feel better. He said all the way down he had been thinking he wouldn't park near any vehicles but he saw the space - realised he could go straight through to an empty bay in front of it and be facing the way we needed to go without having to reverse the van and decided in that split second to park there.

After a big cuddle went to have lunch and again Milly was marvelous at talking to Alan trying to make him feel better and being very philosophical about it.

We light heartedly decided we would accept collective responsibility. Me - because I had wanted to to to see the sofa and wouldn't order off the Internet - Milly, because she said it was her fault because she wanted to travel in a van and didn't want to do the journey in our car and Alan - well his part was obvious really :-))

We didn't really have the heart to shop much. Milly had taken a clipboard and pen and spent a while going round all the room sets and planning her furniture for her house and recording the names of the pieces she liked. I decided the sofa I had seen online was perfect, as was the cover I had liked and we ordered for us to collect later at the pick up point. A brief look round and we all decided we had had enough and wanted to pick up the sofa and head home :-(

The journey home was uneventful and after unloading the sofa Al took the van back and filled the tank up.

The good thing to come out of this was ( drama aside ) Milly had a positive journey and we didn't actually have to stop at services at all on the way home and she now has that two and a half hour journey to look back on, if and when, she feels anxious again about travelling - just another tool in her box of coping tricks...

The damage is likely to cost in excess of two hundred pounds ( still haven't had the call to confirm the amount ) and a tank of diesel cost £62 on top of the hire cost! 

So a financial disaster of epic proportions. But - as Emily quite rightly said "it could have been worse" . It would be very easy to get into blaming or constantly re-living it and what if's, non of which is going to change anything or help at all. We could waste more energy regretting and wishing things were different - but they aren't and we now have to move on and do what needs to be done to put it right.

We will have to tighten our belts significantly to cover costs, but it is not the end of the world and we do have a rather lovely sofa.

The fact we could have bought two with the money we have had to spend is irrelevant!!

The thing we say to each other to lighten things is " it would have been cheap at half the price" :-)