So, the insanity’s stopped me posting for a while. It’s been insanely hard going here recently, as we fly towards an optimistic completion date. Both Kathryn and I have been really quite busy, and between it and the MSc I’ve been a bit too busy to post.
So, anyhow. Kathryn’s been sanding the trim in the spare bedroom library – and has popped the first coat of paint on there; the skirting’s looking like it’s going to be very nice – indeed, the whole room is looking gorgeous. I’ve freecycled some scaffold poles and bought some scaffold joints to make the desk. Since finding how pretty scaffold board is, I’ve been really rather keen to have a scaffold plank desk – and what’s the obvious thing to support a scaffold plank desk? Scaffolding :)
Of course it needs a bit of cleaning up before installation and we need to decide if just ‘clean’ or painted is what we need in terms of look.
In the bedroom we’ve made the almost final bit of progress:
We just need a wardrobe and it’s done. Although I’ll come to that.
In the Kitchen, we’re waiting for delivery, I’m not sure if we’re waiting because I wasn’t expecting the request for an interim payment and didn’t have the money in my account ready – which meant that I couldn’t make payment until the Friday. Anyhow, it *should* be here soon and thus:
What you can’t tell is that it’s all painted, and the floor’s finished, and the sockets are on the wall ready. There’s just the sockets under the counters for the dishwasher, heaters, macerator pump* and extractor fan to be added on Thursday when our electrician gets here – he’s got two jobs, well, three. One is to wire up the garage, one is to put in these sockets and the other is to add an outside supply for the alarm box.
Yes, we now sport an alarm. I suddenly realised that we were the only house on our side of the street (i.e. the side with access at the rear and not overlooked) with no alarm. That has changed now, and a quick test yeilded proof that yes, it will ring us if it’s left to ring for more than a few seconds. Which is what it’s meant to do.
It then announces ‘Alarm Activated’, because that’s what I said to it. It’s weird being rung by yourself.
Anyhow, as I said, Kathryn’s been mainly working upstairs, and I’ve been working downstairs.
We’ve painted the ceiling in the dining space (it’s just taken a mere 5 coats) – and I’ve basecoated two of the walls.
There’s still some repairs to the pointing, and lord knows how many coats of white on the brick. The brick has, so far, only got the dilute primer coat on it, but I’m thinking that needs to be painted before we start on the walls. I think the pointing repairs’ll have to wait until we mix the mortar for the sink, which means I’ll probably end up painting the patch where the mortar’s missing twice. Well, twice in how ever many coats it needs.
Of course, once it’s painted, there’s the bench to make… *le sigh*. We didn’t chose to make any job easy, which was foolish. And have committed ourselves to a stardard of quality that, well, is hard bloody work.
Anyhow, the other big progress is in the lounge. The lounge, as you will no doubt recall, was painted and just waiting for shelves. Well, yesterday I broke out the chop saw:
And after a chunk of cheery time with the sander we have this:
I’ve now attacked them with Nikki and Kate’s router – and they sit better :)
The one thing that I’m struggling with is a desire to completely furnish the house. I know, in my head, that I don’t need to – but this idea of it just being done and not having to look for more stuff is appealing. It’s hard to avoid the urge to get more things…
Side point: Watching The Matrix on the new telly – (1) some of the CGI’s dated a bit, but some of it still looks really good. (2) It really needs the hi-fi down here, but I’ve not made the final shelf that goes at the bottom – ‘cos it’s double width and involves joining two planks together. (3) I have come to realise that my chance to dress up like Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity is, well, lets say I need to do it soon or I’m just going to look ridiculous. Clearly I need to loose a bit of weight rapidly. Also, a helicopter pilot’s licence would be ideal; I may just have to settle for sitting on the bike. Or borrowing a black F650 Dakar.
* It’s a pump, it’s also a macerator, but it’s not a food-waste macerator. Just ‘cos the sink is too far from the drain.
