Fixed heating

I'm tempted to claim that I fixed the heating, but I didn't do anything other than poke around in the wiring centre to see what was going on. Having had no pump running and no apparent reason for said lack of action, I left the programmer running and yesterday morning I suddenly realised I could hear the pump running! We've had a few noises in the system this boring, but it seems to be firing up and working after a fashion.

Curtains are up in the bedroom, so we can sleep in the dark now! My next job is to get on with some studying for my courses, but practically speaking, I need to sort out a damaged stair riser and start planning how to level the floor in the kitchen diner. Plywood and self-levelling compound are the order of the day. Getting the cooker out of its rather tight gap will be a challenge. If I had the time and inclination, I'd adjust the gap, but it's only a matter of 2 millimetres and I don''t think it's quite worth the effort.

After that, it's tiling and retouching the paintwork that got damaged during the moving process. Sad to say we have yet to encounter a removal company that actually take as much care of our possessions as they say they will. Maybe we just get assigned to the fact that things will get damaged, but it's frustrating to not be told and to discover it for your self. Does an apology really cost that much?

As if there were't enough jobs to do!

The chaos of moving is slowly giving way to the chaos of settling in. We're waiting to hear form the capet company about when they are coming to door the floor coverings, so we're not unpacking too many boxes at the moment. We have also begun to think abut a plan for moving stuff around while they fit the carpets and vinyls too! Yes, it would have been easier to have the carpets fitted before we moved in, but that wasn't possible.

We spent yesterday boring hauling boxes into the loft. literally hauling them. I rigged up a hoist with some rope a over a beam and lifted the boxes while Anne was in the loft on the receiving end. She did a grand job with some heavy boxes.

Today the builders finished, so we can now set about the jobs that are down to me to do. I ned to level the kitchen floor before the vinyl arrives and fix a damaged stair riser when I find my wood glue (or buy some more!)

I think the next photo's will be of completed jobs and the carpets down.

And the unwanted job? Well that's the heating system. I got it working at the weekend, but when I put it on the other day it didn't work. I think I've traced the fault to the 3-way value, which looks unpromising for a quick fix. Some valves have replacement heads, but this one looks like a whole value job, which in turn might  means raining the whole system down. Might be a job for a plumber, I'll see how I feel.

Moving Day

Everything is in a box somewhere, and if it's not in a box yet, it will be in the next few hours! It's just before 6:00am and moving day has finally arrived. In 32 years of being married, this will be our 9th move, and for me it will be number 13 overall if you don't count university, 15 if you do! That's an average of just less than 4 years between moves.

I don't like moving!

This time I hope we will be settled for a reasonable length of time, but how long is that? 4, 5 10 years? Who knows! The problem with moving is all the hassle of finding a new home and organising everything. It's quite exciting to go and explore a new place, but the pain of packing up and unpacking can far outweigh the excitement of what's new.

So, in a few hours we will be in our new, not quite finished home a few miles away. Not quite the cross-country move that has been the feature of our lives as we've criss-crossed the Eastern half of Southern and Middle England over these past 32 years. There's still much to do at the house, but it's certainly liveable and the builders should be finished by the end of the week, maybe next week.

Time now for a shower and breakfast, then it's dismantle the book case and wardrobes, take down the network and internet and get over to the new house to clean and prepare for the arrival of the furniture later this afternoon.

A Kitchen Begins to Take Shape

The plastering is complete and is drying out slowly. It's really frustrating not being able to paint, but the slower the better when it comes to drying out plaster. But the good news is that the units have arrived and some have been set in place.

It actually is beginning to look like a kitchen now, and the lights are nice too.

I busied myself giving the bathroom another coat of paint on the walls and ceiling. The shower is in, but not wired up.

We went for an electric shower because having a mixer tap shower over the bath would have required raising the height of the tank in the loft. A job too far when an electric shower will do the job nicely and without the need to fire up the immersion heater or the boiler.

Jobs left to do in the bathroom include the floor, the skirting-board, the light, the woodwork, the bath panel, and sealing around the bath, washbasin and anywhere else that needs a squirt of silicone!

So it can't be declared the one room finished yet.

I also put a coat of paint on the ceiling in the study. Mixed some PVA into the paint to get it to stick to the new plaster. Quicker than mixing it with water, applying it with a brush and getting it all down my sleeve while doing it.

I also wasted some time painting a wall that I forgot I was going to paper. Maybe one day someone will buy the house, strip the paper and wonder why only half of it is painted.

I'll probably do some more painting, or maybe even get some wallpaper up tomorrow, but I have to go off in the afternoon for something, so it will probably be a morning and some part of the evening. Friday is a busy day with two funerals to do and then the weekend is a college weekend, so it looks like next week will be when more gets done.

Style in the bathroom!

How's this for a stylish towel rail in our new bathroom!

The tiling is done and grouted, just one repair needed around the shower. Sadly a tile has been damaged as a result of the shower going in, but that's repairable and will hardly be noticeable when it's done.

We've started painting and the toilet and washbasin have been fitted, so once I rehang the door and the electrics have been done, the bathroom will just need the floor covering done.

One room almost finished, eight more to go!!

The good news is that the kitchen has arrived, the new radiators are on the walls and the plumber is coming back today to work on those things.

The new plaster is drying out nice and slowly, although that's a bit frustrating because we want to get painting, but it simply won't stick to wet plaster. Some areas are dry, so we can set to work on some of the ceilings. The main bedroom is ready to be lined and painted, as is the spare room when I think about it. The landing, stairs and hall need sanding down, lining and then painting.

Plenty for me to get on with over the next couple of weeks before we move.

House Update

Well we're moving along with the house, although it doesn't necessarily look like it! There's still some plastering to be done, but the kitchen is more or less plastered out and drying slowly!

The kitchen is being delivered next Wednesday, so by the end of the week it should look quite a lot different. It might not get tiled before we move in, but it should be painted at the very least.

The plumber is coming on Monday to fit the rest of the bathroom, so I need to get the tiles done. I've made a start, and more is done than in the picture. The goal is to finish it tomorrow.

The first fix for the electrics is all done and some of the second fix is in. The consumer unit is quite large! I think we have something like 13 circuits in total.

As you can see it looks a bit like spaghetti at the moment but again I think we should be well on the way by the end of next week.

The study is ready for painting just as soon as the plaster dries out. we've got the paint and brushes at the ready!

So, all in all I think we can say that we are definitely getting there. I've run the coax into one corner of the bedroom and want to run a second one to the other side so that we can chose which way round the bed goes and decide if we want the small TV in there or not.

I also need to chase some boxes into the walls in various rooms for the data network and TV distribution system.

Look what we've done with the place!

So, we've had the keys for a week and we've made a few changes! We thought we'd go for the rustic, minimalist look in the kitchen!

The rather odd shaped thing leaning against the wall was hidden behind a false wall. It looks like and old flue of some sort to me.

The ceiling was covered in fibreboard tiles, stapled to the old lathe and plaster work. So that's all come down ready for a new ceiling with down-lights.

In the lounge we've removed an old chimney and"feature" fireplace. We know someone loved it, but it wasn't our taste.

The opening just visible in the left of the lecture is going to be made bigger to give us a feeling of space throughout the downstairs.


The tricky thing in the lounge is that the ceiling is very good, apart from the big hole we've made! It would be nice to match the paper that's been put on it, but we're not sure we can.

Moving upstairs, we have the room that will be the study. That was an old built0in cupboard in the left corner, but it will probably be where the desk will go. There will be a light above so you're not sitting in the dark.

We've discovered that most rooms have at least two layers of wallpaper on them. This one had a rather fetching 1960's or 1950's cowboy theme under the top layer. Perhaps it was Maverick wallpaper for those who remember the original TV series.  Whatever it was, it was well stuck down and looked washable, which made it very hard to remove.

The main bedroom now features easy access to the lounge. All we need to fit is a bat-pole and we're all set for fast access to breakfast.

THe last few days has been all about stripping wallpaper. Only one room left to do a few places to tidy up. Not sure what the builders plans are for this week. The electrician in doing the first fix, and there's quite a lot of plastering to do once they get started.

More pictures as we progress!

House & Home

Disclaimer: We are not in the business of criticising other people's choices when it comes to decorations and style. The picture are just to let you see what we've bought and then eventually what we have done with it!


So, we got the keys to the house we have bought and the builders moved in one Monday to start work. There's quite a lot to do, but it should all get done this month and we will be in for the start of May! To give you an idea of what we have inherited here's a picture or two of the present kitchen:

 These glass-doored cupboards have access from both sides. Very nice in their day, but not for us. The dark wood is a bot overpowering too, so they are all coming out and a nice new kitchen will be fitted.

We won't be having this style of cupboard either, it just closes off what will be a really nice big kitchen/diner. So we are opening it all up as much as possible. In fact we're making the downstairs as open-plan as we can by creating a wide opening into the lounge from the far end of the kitchen. If you go to the left of these galls cabinets, and turn to your left, there are a pair of sliding doors into the lounge. We're taking them out and making the opening bigger too.

But the kitchen isn't the only room getting the treatment. In the lounge there is a feature fireplace that was once someone's pride and joy, but again not our taste. So the chimney is coming out all the way up through the house.

While all of that is being done, the house needs to be rewired and there's a bit of structural repair work to do in the extension. Oh, and a new bathroom to be fitted, two or three ceiling to come down and be re-done and then decorated throughout and new floor coverings.

Thinking about it, that's quite a list for April!