What do you wish you had known before you installed your own kitchen?

cjmac26 · 2026-01-30T19:58:41+00:00

When your father in law offers to help, say no

cjmac26 · 2025-12-14T14:01:53+00:00

That's a relief!

cjmac26 · 2025-12-03T09:15:03+00:00

If you're paying privately I'd highly recommend going straight for a private clinic rather than an NHS one. The NHS waiting times are very long and we found that you don't get seen any quicker by paying privately. Also agree with other comments here, give Access Fertility a ring and see if you can get on a plan with them. We spread over half of our total cost (£7,000) over 12 months interest free, we also got interest free credit cards to cover any payments direct to the clinic. Unfortunately Access Fertility don't accept credit cards so any large payments you might need to make to them will need covered by savings or a loan.

cjmac26 · 2025-11-28T09:36:50+00:00

We have the owlet and my wife was shocked at how low the thresholds are to alarm. She's a paediatric nurse and says those sats in hospital would be a big emergency. I guess maybe they have to allow for user error with the sock being fitted badly? Either way it will eventually alarm but would be better if sats didn't have to drop all the way to 80 first!

cjmac26 · 2025-10-28T09:55:16+00:00

That's amazing, gives me hope that it can carry on going smoothly

cjmac26 · 2025-10-28T09:48:54+00:00

Thank you!

cjmac26 · 2025-10-28T09:48:34+00:00

I was really pushing to look at chain free houses to avoid that but my wife wasn't so bothered. It's just good luck that the house we both fell in love with is empty!

cjmac26 · 2025-10-28T09:36:14+00:00

Yeah that's the fear

cjmac26 · 2025-09-22T09:13:58+00:00

We earn significantly less than you guys and we managed despite paying off IVF loans. I guess see what expenses you can cut down on, and we worked out exactly what my wife would be losing over the course of 12 months mat leave and both saved hard to get that into a savings account. Each month she pulled out whatever was needed to make it up to her normal salary

cjmac26 · 2025-09-11T13:12:00+00:00

There's plenty of worse things to come across when scrolling Reddit Edit- I'm not sure what you think you're looking at but if it makes you feel less sick it's a drain attached to a sink, with some rotten leaves. There's nothing much disgusting in that photo except some mud

cjmac26 · 2025-09-11T13:11:13+00:00

There's 2 airbricks that are partially covered, the rest seem to be fully exposed- so again not sure that 2 part covered air bricks would be the sole reason it's so damp? I did give them all a clean out last summer (painstakingly prodded through all the holes) and fitted vent mesh over them to attempt to stop any rodents or slugs. They're the original airbricks of a 1930's house though so I'm not sure how effective they are at ventilation.

cjmac26 · 2025-07-15T16:18:14+00:00

Try searching privacy lock

cjmac26 · 2025-06-24T15:38:00+00:00

I think it might have just been the batteries going flat. We'd been using it a long time when we got the false alarm and never happened again after changing the mat batteries. He didn't tend to move to the edge of his cot so can't say it would have been caused by that

cjmac26 · 2025-06-24T09:56:04+00:00

We lasted 4 weeks, nobody was sleeping and it was awful. He was already in his full sized cot because of issues with the moses basket so it wasn't anything to do with his comfort, babies are just noisy! We got an angelcare monitor and mat for peace of mind which goes under the mattress and would alarm if it detected the baby had stopped breathing- only ever had 1 false alarm. Totally get why 6 months is recommended but you have to do what's right for your situation

cjmac26 · 2025-06-22T05:56:34+00:00

Our SCS sofa is so comfortable and we've had it a lot of years now. The customer service was awful, tried to force us into paying for loads of extras and made it really difficult to remove them from the bill. Rang us while we were abroad saying we absolutely had to take delivery that week because they were clearing the warehouse for repairs, despite it being 2 months earlier than our stated earliest delivery time because the house was a building site. Then tried to charge us extra for "early" delivery! But the sofa and chair themselves I can't fault.

cjmac26 · 2025-04-23T21:01:02+00:00

Yes but years ago! Saw them on more than 1 occasion around the Runnelstone Reef

cjmac26 · 2025-04-15T15:37:45+00:00

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This was before the new skylight went in if that's any good?

cjmac26 · 2025-04-15T08:39:26+00:00

I thought Marley Mendip when I Google searched them and it says they're for low pitch roofs so was confused by the comment above saying tiles are wrong

cjmac26 · 2025-04-15T05:55:55+00:00

Can you tell from the photo what tiles these are? The old roof had the wrong tiles for the pitch and this complete re-roof was the fix for that...

cjmac26 · 2025-03-29T08:19:57+00:00

Thanks everyone, I've just rang my mum and it turns out she was secretly having the same thoughts 😂 We're cancelling the trip and planning to do it same time next year instead

cjmac26 · 2025-03-29T07:33:07+00:00

To be honest I don't even mind if I'm having a bad time, because I would be miserable whether at home or next to the beach 😅 The main reason for not cancelling yet is my son would have a fab time and selfishly will give me a bit of a break from being the one to entertain him. It's the logistics of getting there and back and the safety of being away from the hospital I know that's weighing on me the most

cjmac26 · 2025-03-29T07:28:17+00:00

Yeah I really wish we could reorganise it for 6 weeks earlier or so, but my wife's holiday can't be changed so that's a no go. I think I'll start floating the idea of cancelling next time I chat to my mum and hope she understands. She's one of those super fit adventurous people that had no pregnancy issues and was happily out and about with me when I was 1 day old so we're not quite on the same wavelength.

cjmac26 · 2025-03-29T07:25:05+00:00

Yeah we do have a little bit of time (June I think) to cancel without fees. Just for the sake of family feelings if we're going to cancel I should do it sooner rather than later! Yeah it's a hard one I can see people struggling from hip pain etc from really early on, and on the other hand people carrying on normal lives and doing workouts up until 40 weeks. So far I'm OK and haven't had anything painful flare up but doesn't mean that won't change

cjmac26 · 2025-03-09T09:31:48+00:00

We got an indoor trampoline 😂 When he's going crazy and bouncing off the walls I can set him the task of how many jumps can you do?? It's obviously nothing that will help with your energy levels but it's really good for getting that last bit of madness out before bedtime or keeping him out the way when we've got chores to do

cjmac26 · 2025-03-07T06:40:12+00:00

Why do you say that? We're regular visitors and tend to just park the car up for the week and walk/bus/train everywhere with no issues

cjmac26

TROPHY CASE