20th June
The chalet finally arrived on June’s birthday. The guy and gal left Bolton at 02:15 and got to us at 07:20. They started immediately and were done by 11:00 and on their way back North, after leaving everything clean and tidy. Very pleased with the quality and installation. Now comes the insulate, wire, clad and paint before we can fill. The great thing with the fill is that any surplus furniture that remains in the garage and house goes, as there is nowhere else for it to reside.
As can be seen from above, June is on the mend with her new hip. The staples came out a week ago and we are off to see the physio department tomorrow for a post operation follow-up session. Movement is improving every day, but some days are slower than others, as expected. The main thing is the debilitating hip pain has gone.
General DIY goes on in addition to bits and bobs in the garden. I made a small seat for the woods which the squirrels love to sit on and eat their recovered acorns, kindly leaving holes in the lawn. I’ve put down some weed suppressant sheeting on the bank where we planted the shrubs and covered it with the wood chip from the ash trees.
Having seen an idea for damp reduction, I have built the prototype controller. The principal is to bring filtered fresh air from loft into the house, providing the loft is above 10C and preferably warmer than the house. The professional units also have a heater to warm the cool air. I will try it in the garage first as I’ve noticed some items had a slight mould on them after the winter. It also gives some free heating on warm days, when the main garage stays cool.
Noticed the other day that the second hand mower I purchased last year had the wrong plug on the mains side of the lead, which leaves live pins exposed when the connector is unplugged. Call myself an engineer, that’s one I missed.
6th June
Don’t you hate it when some annoying noise wakes you from deep sleep at 4 in the morning. This one turned out to be the search and rescue helicopter less than 1km from the house, visiting from St Athan near Cardiff. Not sure if it was on an exercise or what, but it took the longest and slowest path to get here via sea and Kidwelly, buzzed the area for about 15 mins and returned the same way. So obviously not mission critical.
June’s operation went well and after a few nights in hospital, Emma and I collected her. They supplied her with a Zimmer frame, a raised toilet seat, a grab arm, a staple removing tool and various dressings. The dressing had a vacuum pump attached to prevent anything entering the wound and keeping it dry. When the dressing was changed a week later, it was clean and healthy. So the wash procedure prior to the op, seems to have worked well. The vacuum pump was a disposable item, so naturally got the Nigel treatment. It is based on an ST 32-bit microprocessor with a pressure sensor, diaphragm pump, a fair selection of other SMD components and has a pre-programmed 7-day life. Trying to think of a use at the moment, but perhaps a winter project! After a week, June is moving about quite well with operation pain rather than hip and knee spasms. Todays job is for me to put a grab handle in the shower and build up a swivel topped seat so she can have a shower, obviously with a bin bag gaffa-taped over the dressing. I will have to have a word with the surgeon about his workmanship, staples not evenly spaced, some crooked – not good enough, I will have to point him to the Sewing Bee series on TV.
The chalet base is finished – hooray! Perfect timing as a call from the manufacturer gave us 18th June as the install date. A nice birthday present for June. I realised how close one of the soil pipe manholes is to the rear corner of the chalet base. About 6 the following morning, I had the thought about putting in a toilet into that corner of the chalet – idea approved. I had recently picked up a pair of doors from Marketplace to make a storage area anyway, so what’s another partition wall and a bit of pipework.
Emma came for the week to look after June and I while also working remotely with her 9-5:30 job. One of my outside jobs was to plant up a bank full of about 20 shrubs and a load of others scattered around. So armed with gloves, ear defender, the petrol auger and 8″ bit, we set to work. Hard going with the boulders, stones and lumps of coal, but well worth the end result. Emma tried out the mower and did a good job, though a bit overdressed for a John Deere! We finally got to see my mother and sister again after June’s mini lockdown/recovery for a pleasant catchup.
