Staff

[JoceAndChris]

How some of the regulars on here manage with jobs and kids I can't imagine. I have neither, and yet there are rooms I don't visit, parts of the garden I haven't been to in months. The fruit falls and rots on the ground, the potatoes are unharvested, the dust gathers, the old fixtures and surfaces I spent ages cleaning and restoring return to their former grimy state.

Everything takes so long. Despite buying a ride-on lawn-mower, Stihl hedge-trimmer and chainsaw and chainsaw attachments it still takes 7 hours to cut the grass and trim the hedges. That wipes out every Sunday for Chris. (on Saturdays he catches up on sleep and does his paperwork)

Every bit of the inside and outside needs repairing and repainting, that seems to fall on my shoulders. I really, really need a gardener for 3 days a week, and someone who'd turn a hand to the chicks and the bottling of fruit. I need a laundress, just to take it all away and do it as there isn't sufficient water here. And I need someone to keep on top of the wood-harvesting and relieve Chris of that.

How can period properties be run without staff? Sometimes I wonder how long we'll manage here. I wonder how we can adjust our spending to create more wages for more staff, but I get nowhere with that.

I have a cleaner starting on Wednesday though, for four hours a week. It's a drop in the ocean but she sounds bright and youthful so I'm hoping to be able to train her in energetic tasks like the waxing of floors, polishing of brass, sweeping of vaulted ceilings and scrubbing of stone steps.

I seem to remember it's all a bit easier in the winter when you just forget the garden's there?

 

[Moo]

Take a leaf out of my book, gal, and just lower your standards.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: Oh, I did that ages ago!

Mother-in-law thinks I should simplify the garden by grassing over all the complex borders and removing all messy trees. I was, initially, horrified by those suggestions but now think she has a point. Her garden (1/3 acre) is supremely neat, making use of paving, simply shaped lawns, and bark chipped borders planted with hardy shrubs. However, I know father-in-law still spends around 20 hours a week on it.

Maybe a town house with a stone patio is the best solution.

 

[Penners]

Is it really necessary to cut all of the grass every week? We've designated half of our garden (somewhat pretentiously) as "the orchard". We've spread loads of wild flower seeds around (in the vain hope...) and we just mow paths through the ever-lengthening grass. And we've planted some fruit trees.

It'll be cut back with a strimmer once a year, but other than that a quick mow up and down the paths takes about 20 mins.

If I apply for a job as gardener/butler/chauffeur, do I get a uniform like this one?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Ooh yes most certainly. Can you bring that car too?

We've designated half of our garden (somewhat pretentiously) as "the orchard". We've spread loads of wild flower seeds around (in the vain hope...) and we just mow paths through the ever-lengthening grass. And we've planted some fruit trees.

Great idea! Half of our garden is like that too. The 7 hours a week mowing, strimming and hedge-trimming gets round just a fraction of it all. The field side is a vast, circular hedgerow - not our land, but no-one else looks after it. It's full of sycamore saplings, around 10 feet tall now.

But you know I'm happiest moaning - it's beautiful living in such a wilderness and I'm being very spoilt and complaining.

 

[Feltwell]

It seems to boil down to 2 options if money doesn't allow for lots of outside help:-

- Go slowly mad with exhaustion and frustration trying to keep up with unattainable standards

- Lower standards, chill out and do as much as you really have to do.

Mrs F isn't employed at the moment, but unsurprisingly with 3 young kids to look after to say that she doesn't work would be grossly unfair! She spends quite a bit of what little spare time she does have on charity work, that gives her much-needed adult conversation and a respite from being "mum".

I must be going very middle-class in my old age, I'd love to have a cleaner come round regularly but funds don't allow. Very occasionally I get the cleaners from my work to come round and do a "blitz", but generally we do it ourselves as and when we have time & energy and just put up with the fact that with 3 kids the house will never be tidy for more than 2 minutes. It's our home, not a show home - so frankly if anyone else is so desperately houseproud that they object then that is their problem.

 

[worms]

Despite buying a ride-on lawn-mower, Stihl hedge-trimmer and chainsaw and chainsaw attachments

I wonder how we can adjust our spending...

:idea:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Feltwell - Mrs F sounds like a saint! It will get easier as the children get older - well, maybe. It will get easier when the children leave home!

Despite buying a ride-on lawn-mower, Stihl hedge-trimmer and chainsaw and chainsaw attachments

I wonder how we can adjust our spending...

:idea:

:lol: :lol: :lol: But we needed those things. We've also had to buy furniture for 11 rooms, a car to cope with the track and completely different clothing to cope with country life. Maybe as we won't need to buy so much in future there will be more cash for wages for tradesmen and gardeners?

- Lower standards, chill out and do as much as you really have to do.

You don't really have to do anything, but why buy a house that could be beautiful, if decorated, and an acre of land if you intend to do nothing with it? I now understand why people wnat to buy houses that are all finished and done up.

 

[Feltwell]

You don't really have to do anything, but why buy a house that could be beautiful, if decorated, and an acre of land if you intend to do nothing with it? I now understand why people want to buy houses that are all finished and done up.

True - but haven't you heard of Shabby Chic darling??? :wink:

What I mean is, a bit of dust never killed anyone (unless asbestos of course). Brass looks nice when it's tarnished as well as when it's polished (in fact I prefer it tarnished - just as well really.) Vacuum once a week or once a day, it's not going to do any great harm (I aspire to once a week).

Gardens totally neglected look just that, but a bit of work and a bit of neglect can still look nice (and the wildlife will prefer it to a manicured formal garden anyway).

I look at the state of my house sometimes, especially the garden after all the building work last year - it's easy to let it get you down. But we don't intend to move out in a hurry, if it gets done this year or next doesn't really matter.

Come Autumn I find myself stuffing kitchen roll into the gaps round the sashes I have yet to restore, to keep the winter draughts under at least a vague kind of control - and remind myself that I said last year they'd be done by next winter. But I then think that they've been there for over 100 years, and most likely in need of repair for about the last 30. They'll survive another year.

So long as you can look back and see that you have made progress - even if not as much as you'd ideally want - then that's still a good thing isn't it?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Well said Feltwell! It's too easy to get despondent when you look at all the jobs waiting for you - and hard to focus on what you have done, and are pleased with. You have to keep telling yourself that progress is being made, although it seems painfully slow, and sometimes invisible.

Top tip about the sashes as well. I had socks stuffed in the holes in the back door last year! :lol:

 

[Flyfisher]

You have to keep telling yourself that progress is being made, although it seems painfully slow, and sometimes invisible.

Looking back over old photos can be quite therapeutic when things seem to be getting on top of you, but even then a lot of work remains invisible - at our place anyway. A roof that no longer leaks, gutters than no longer spill over, downpipes that don't leak, drains that actually carry the rainwater away instead of just overflowing into the foundations, windows repaired/replaced so that the glass isn't about to fall out . . . . none of these things are particularly visible, especially in old photographs, but they have absorbed a great deal of my time over the past couple of years.

What will really make a big difference here is to actually do some decoration instead of always repairing things - although then we might feel more of an urge to keep the place clean and tidy. Some hopes!

So cheer up Joce and just put it all down to Monday morning blues. What you need is a big party with lots of PPUKers telling you what a marvellous job you've made of your home. :wink:

 

[essexbearhunter]

Having watched far too many Antiques programmes, I would suggest switching away from copper and brass (if that had been your inclination) and going for bronze & pewter. Apart from any aesthetic consideration, people are invariably told off if they have tried to clean anything in bronze or pewter because it destroys the valuable patina. A definite Result for housekeeping there!

 

[Pford75]

You could always get a job and use the funds to employ people :wink:

Children (over the ages of 8ish) can be surprisingly useful. My 11 year old cuts the big lawns with the ride-on and thinks this is a treat.

So in summary, it's a job or pregnancy......do let us know which you decide on.

 

[Moo]

Vacuum once a week or once a day, it's not going to do any great harm (I aspire to once a week).

Once a week? That's going it a bit!

Quentin Crisp's the one to follow, in my book.

 

[JoceAndChris]

You could always get a job and use the funds to employ people :wink:

Children (over the ages of 8ish) can be surprisingly useful. My 11 year old cuts the big lawns with the ride-on and thinks this is a treat.

So in summary, it's a job or pregnancy......do let us know which you decide on.

:lol: I suppose a miracle might happen - but I'd probably need to remarry, (won't go through ICSI with no guarantees of success or cooperation) which I don't want to do, and as I've been sacked from nearly all my previous jobs, and come with various warnings, I'm not that easy to employ.

, I would suggest switching away from copper and brass

Good idea, no more brass collecting for me! Quite a lot of the brass here is original though, so there's no escaping it, and I love it anyway.

A roof that no longer leaks, gutters than no longer spill over, downpipes that don't leak, drains that actually carry the rainwater away instead of just overflowing into the foundations, windows repaired/replaced so that the glass isn't about to fall out . . . . none of these things are particularly visible, especially in old photographs, but they have absorbed a great deal of my time over the past couple of years.

Well done, FF. Your house is in very safe hands. I often think about your house and how it adjusts the scale of what I'm doing here. I really admire how you know what to do; there are a lot of things here that I'm still not sure if we should be replacing or not. (for instance the roof) Hopefully time, and visiting PPukers, will tell.

 

[Feltwell]

Vacuum once a week or once a day, it's not going to do any great harm (I aspire to once a week).

Once a week? That's going it a bit!

Quentin Crisp's the one to follow, in my book.

I did say I aspire to once a week, I didn't say I actually achieved that!

 

[robgil]

i am waiting for my staff to grow up , i am keeping a list for her though.

 

[Feltwell]

Trust me Rob, she'll create more mess before she grows up than she will ever clear up after she grows up!

 

[Penners]

Vacuum once a week or once a day, it's not going to do any great harm (I aspire to once a week).

I don't know whether that polyglot pun was intended, Feltwell, but it's an extraordinarily erudite one. Top marks!

 

[Feltwell]

Penners, I would love to pretend to be Stephen Fry for a moment and say that was deliberate, but alas that would be a sham. The polyglot qualifications in this house all belong to Mrs F, who is a languages teacher by trade. English and German is as far as I get, with terribly bad French if I **really** have to.