October 24th
Well that was another action packed week gone, well the week at least. I am still waiting for some door handles to be delivered. They have been in and out of the Royal Mail, Atherstone, sorting office for a week, but today I noted they got to Swindon at 02:49. The question now is will they be turned back at the border now Wales is in lockdown, not that you’d know it from the traffic outside this morning! On the saga of the first set of door handles ordered, I eventually got a refund and the promised gift – a wonderful set of 10 laser-cut, self adhesive, plastic, BUTTERFLIES. Now I ask you why does a retired electronics engineer need such a gift? They will be now consigned to the “help yourself to anything in that box” for that time in the future when my great nieces visit.
On Wednesday, with the Welsh lockdown pending, I donned full PPE and crossed the border into Swansea to sort out a faulty TV wall socket and telephone socket issue for my mum and sister. I did this legally as I am also a carer for my mum. I then returned again on Friday to a) drop my car off for its annual service, as it kept reminding me how many days remained and b) to put up some outside lights at the front door so mum can see where she’s falling. Steve and I undertook the job in the pouring rain and just as we put the bulbs in, the sun came out!
This weekend looks like a no-go for anything garden related, so its on with the decorating, unpacking and sorting. Unfortunately, we still have all the “gifts” for the charity shops in an ever increasing pile of boxes. Perhaps a simple visit to the recycling centre would be easier, when they re-open.
Ah well, off to make some plain cookies.
October 18th
What a week, from freezing to toasty warm. We had no gas for a week, including the hob, so I ended up boiling eggs on the top of the wood burner for a Kedgeree. We have gone through quite a pile of logs to keep ourselves warmish. It’s a times like this you realise that an electric shower might be a good backup option. The boiler was eventually installed on Friday morning. I got a call on Thursday evening asking if they could start at 06:00 the following morning and as I’m usually awake and moving about at that time, there would be no problem. But to be safe, I set the alarm to ensure I didn’t oversleep. So at 05:15, before sparrow fart, I stood in the garden with a coffee listening to a pair of owls discussing their nighttime activities. Spot on 06:00 Andy and Alex arrived as promised and commenced the installation. By 11:00 they were done with little disruption or mess and the house had moved steadily away from an overnight temperature of 14C in my bedroom – I kid you not! June celebrated the event by having a long hot shower and I spent 45mins soaking by weary bones and imitating a prune in the bath.
The previous Monday, I had received a delivery of some more OSB boards and rough sawn timber to finish off the garage partitioning. All went exactly to plan, which impressed me no end. I have to put it down to planning it out in Visio, using a spirit level and not following my Dad’s DIY examples. And just to finish things off, all the electrical work was completed this morning.
The two surplus OSB sheets will now be temporarily used to make a 1.2m high platform above the mower to store some bamboo furniture that’s blocking up the conservatory. This has been necessary as the summerhouse delivery could not be confirmed by the manufacturer, so we cancelled the order. Now all the items that were due to be moved into said summerhouse will have been re-located to the store room in the garage so we can have a conservatory again.
This morning, I have been watching the birds in the garden as they congregate around the fallen apple tree slowly getting tipsy on the fallen apples. I counted 7 blackbirds, 5 great tits, a robin and a pair of squirrels. Our lawn is covered with puffball and fairy ring fungi, neither of which are edible.
October 10th
Well, here I sit with an industrial space heater warming the sitting room. Why? Our boiler was condemned yesterday. The original problem of it locking out was “fixed” by the previously used heating engineer company, but when he left, he pointed out the noise which had appeared during his visit, required additional investigation (££££).
I contacted a local company who offer a no fix-no fee callout. The engineer recorded the noise the boiler was making and a consensus from about 30 engineers was the gas/air mixing flap needed changing. This was done yesterday and the noise did not go away. The air/gas ratio is getting screwed up and somewhere along the way, gas is now escaping from the combustion chamber, which might have been done during the service. In addition, a viewing window on the burner should have been replaced years ago during a service was a potential fire hazard!
Hence the condemned boiler. We now await an urgent installation of a new boiler this week with a price tag of £2500 (including vat). So boil kettle, pop to bathroom and strip wash before skin turns blue.
Meanwhile, the garage conversion is progressing well with the clean area almost finished and half the walls clad with thermal boards. The ceiling needs a few area’s to be polyfilla’d, but that can wait. The wiring needs to be completed when the remaining partition wall is erected next week. All the racking is organised for tools and stuff.
It looks like 10 whole or partial ash trees need attention adjacent to the single track road alongside the boundary. A number overhang the road and will need professional felling, the others can be dropped onto our land. I just need to allocate an area to store the wood to dry out for the wood burner.
June and I have been emptying boxes from our respective piles and the dining room. We’ve also started putting bags of unwanted cloths in the local recycling bin.
The summerhouse was still in production as of Friday after being ordered in August, so we’ve cancelled the order as they were unable to give a projected delivery date or week! As my brother-in-law is locked down in Swansea, he would have been unable to assist in the construction even if it turned up today. In addition, the weather is also turning against us and investigation of the supplier produced some very worrying results and contrary to their website, they do not manufacture the products, they just resell.
Ah well, off to immerse my fingers into a hot cup of coffee.
