Err, sorry, I was overcome by the title, just for a moment.
So, I seem to have managed to locate a bit of enthusiasm for working on the house again, thankfully. I think it was the thinking-about-heating post I did for Shades, but that prompted me to go and locate a radiator for the kitchen*, which as I mentioned was somewhat underwhelmingly heated last winter.
I need to also order the under floor insulation stuff, which I shall look forward to with the customary deep joy that grovelling under the house gives me. I think I’ve decided on a plan now, though:
– Insulate ‘properly’ under the kitchen and the hallway.
– Rugs for the lounge. Many of them. Just for the winter.
My hope is that this will mean that we can have a nice warm winter, since there’s enough heat coming in, it’s just that the cold was following it.
Anyhow, that seemed to coax me into a little productivity – so I’d bought some posts to support the deck:
Which have been sat, propped against the deck for a little while.
Today I took my fear in hand and attacked the crazy paving that sits under where the extended deck will run to***. I measured roughly, calculated, and made four large holes in the ground. I have to say, I’d often thought our ground was fairly clay-ey but the stuff that I dug out of two of the holes was just insane. It looked like I should start my own pottery, right there and then. I didn’t though. I just dumped it at the other end of the garden under what will be a very soggy patch of grass one day.
I now need some gravel and then some concrete to fill the holes. This requires a trip to a DIY place to get some (because I’m feeling lazy) postcrete. I could get concrete and sand and gravel and mix it. And maybe, when faced with the extortionate expense of postcrete I might, but lazy is as lazy does, and lazy thinks that postcrete would be easier.
I’ve then got to get the posts all lined up (bit of string in the shed already, lots of scrap timber kicking around to fix them vertically and in-line), find the trowel (‘in the garage’) and I shall fix’em into the ground. Then it’s just a case of ripping the wood cladding off the concrete plinth and laying my hands on as many pallets as I can get FOC. Which shouldn’t be too hard, although I am wondering if they’ll fit in the iMiEV****. And doing a mixture of things with those pallets. Some will be required intact. Others will be stripped down for their timber. Mwuahahaha.
Anyhow, that done, I also did a bit more pond digging, before my body started to gently suggest that maybe I’d like to stop that now, please.
Then I wandered back inside and recommenced the filling job I’d left half done a while ago – that is – the side panelling on the stairs. I’ve slapped another layer of filler over some of it, and hopefully one more layer of that and I should be ready to start sanding it down. Once that’s done we can commence a new festival of painting. This time it’s the trim that I’m gunning for – but once that is done, and the door’s planed down a bit (so it actually fits in the door frame) that will be a major item off the giganto-list. Although one of the biggies is the garage lighting, which I really should do as a summer job. That and under the house. Oh ah, time to get busy again I guess.
* I found a company that does ‘b-grade’ cosmetically marked designer radiators. Since we have a ‘designer’ radiator in the bathroom, I though we should match it with one in the kitchen. Also, it’s nearly 2kW of heat – which makes me happy**.
** Yes, I do wish that I’d put under floor heating in the kitchen, thanks.
*** Basically, if you combined the surface area of the 1m up in the air concrete slab and the crazy paving we’d have a pretty much perfect sitting area. However, given that there’s about 1m difference in height between them, it’s always been a bit of a bugger sitting out there.
**** Which is, somewhat, resisting naming. We tried Puck, but it didn’t really stick. Pondering Imey (pronounced a bit like Amy),
