So we’re isolating (still). I can’t remember if we were doing our 14 days of isolation when I wrote my last post, but anyhoo, that’s what we’re doing. Seeing no-one. Leaving for nothing. The plan is that come day 14 we’ll be safe to see Sherry and Terry – so we will (unlike many people this year) have xmas with family. I feel very, very lucky to at least be able to safely see some of our family this year.
Even if I can’t get back to the UK to see my mum and my sister. That’s really tough. Particularly since the UK seems to be spiraling back down in the virus management with the advent of this new, more virulent strain. It’s almost like having some idiot running the country who doesn’t understand or believe in science, and can’t even keep his lies straight, is in some way a bad thing.
Of course, to be fair our mango mussolini does keep things just trundling worse and worse, so all in all….
Anyhow, that’s not a very cheery topic, so instead let’s move on to what we’ve been up to.
Which is, to a greater or lesser extent much less than you might expect. I’ve made a real effort not to turn this 2 weeks of being at home into some extreme-DIY-renovation event. I’ve really tried to… chill, somewhat.
So we’ve done stuff, but not loads. We’ve made some progress on smaller jobs. I mean, part of this is just that because we’re in isolation we have to work with what we have here.
We did plan for this, to some extent, so we bought Christmas lights ahead of isolation and, ta-da:
We have also laser-cut the numbers for our house and put them up.
We finally got around to tidying and sorting the office – which had got completely out of hand with various big-things that were taking up space unnecessarily. Sorting that has produced a much more usable room (again) and we’ve actually managed to get all the books in the house onto bookshelves. And almost unheard of event.
We also actually have door frame trim installed on our bathroom. Not the trim that goes up against the wall – at least some of that requires oiling. But we do have the door shut installed on the bathroom – which means that we’ve stepped up from merely having a door to having a door that closes.
Pretty fancy, huh.
And in other exciting news – we have a coat closet! It took a while but we laser cut supports and bought a chunk of oak dowel which allowed us to fix the dowel in place with something that means that our coat closet has details that speak to the rest of the house. No one else will care but us.
What else? Well… I spent an enjoyable cold day in the garage and got Rebecca’s diff flange changed. HellifIknow whether the preload is right anymore (probably not). The new flange, it turned out, was slightly different to the old flange. Well, I mean, it was very different, that was the point… but it was also different in a way that I didn’t expect. That meant that the ‘undo the nut X turns, then do it up again X turns’ didn’t work. Buuuuut – either I’m close enough for jazz, or I’m not. We’ll only know by driving it (or disassembling the back axle completely – which is the only way to properly set the preload – and also will be what’s required if I’ve got the preload set wrong).
This means that — in theory — Rebecca should start and drive.
I’m waiting to find out if the battery will hold enough of a charge for that even to be a possibility. It’s trickle charging right now – and has been for a couple of days. It started in the region of 1 volt, which is only 11 volts short of where it should have been…
Then today, we tried to install our pantry. Unfortunately it turns out that back in May – when we ordered the pantry shelving they sent the wrong unit. We didn’t check at the time (I know, I know, we should have). So now we’re waiting to hear if they’re willing to exchange it. I’m not sure where we stand on the ebay refund policy if they don’t…
But that’s left me feeling pretty miffed. I was quite excited about the prospect of us finally having our tins and things like our flour in a cupboard where we could actually see them; and as Kathryn pointed out it will mean that we can free up the small green shelves to go and be in the corridor (because now we don’t need the coatrack, but do need the shelves that are attached to the coatrack, but if we could use the green shelves for that purpose….)
I mean, it’s partly that and partly that I accidentally put the bits of wood in the wrong way up and that means they don’t fit nearly as well as they did. I mean, I put the first bit in, thought it was a bit tight so swapped it for the other bit – and – that got stuck. So then I concluded discretion was the better part of valour and just fixed it where it sat.
So they’re upside down. Which is fiiine. Except the edges are now gappy. Which probably means I should attack it with some clear caulk just to make it less obviously gappy. But then it’s also in the back of a cupboard that will – one day – have shelving in it*.
*Along with lemon soaked paper napkins.
