auctions and kettles

So, those are the photos I should have taken the other day.  You'll notice we are carefully co-ordinated - not many people have colour co-ordinated router table and cooker you know!



Our auction purchases.  We bought the window
frame ages ago at another auction.  £10 for
an oak window frame, what a bargain - Bob'll
be having posh windows in his workshop!

 Yesterday and today have mostly been taken up with a timber auction.  Yesterday the viewing where we spent ages trying to work out which lots we were interested in and, just as importantly, how much we'd be happy to pay.  It's all quite awkward - for instance there was a lot of flooring and some of it would have been good for in the lounge.  There were several lots of about the right size, but the one we liked best was after the others, so do you risk not getting anything by bidding for the earlier lots or risk buying the second choice and missing out on the favourite?  As well as flooring, we were looking for timber to make the internal doors and oak for some window frames.  This morning there were laods of lots before the ones we were interested in, but we watched all of them to get a feel for the prices things were going for.  The solid oak boards went for a very reasonable price, there was very little interest in the smaller strip flooring boards and they didn't even bother to go through them all because no-one was bothered.  This all boded well for us getting a bargain, or so we thought.  When it came to the lots we were interested in, the engineered oak boards (oak backed with ply which is far more stable on top of underfloor heating), suddenly people decided to pay much more and we didn't even bother bidding.  Not to worry, we got more than enough chunky oak for the window frames at a very good price . . . . . and also some planks of beech, not sure what we will do with them, but at £20 if we make cupboard doors and paint it it's cheaper than pine!



Bob having another beer to celebrate the
liberation of another piece of our furniture!



Yesterday we unearthed our table - piled on top were hundreds of leaves, cobwebs and dust as well as numerous pictures which we'd wrapped in bubblewrap and plastic and which the mice have just about unwrapped for us.  Luckily, it looks as though they were only interested in popping the bubblewrap and not in nibbling the pictures.  I'd forgotten how heavy the table was, even with the top separate from the legs.  Bob and I made this table together in my dining room very early on in our 'together stage'.  Even back then we could picture it in our cottage - just the details of the cottage we couldn't picture.  It is actually a bit big for the space we have for it - someone's put a whacking great post in the middle of the floor!  We tried it in several positions, but it definitely looks best this way on, we'll try and get it so you can get down the wall side without having to pull it out, but if not we'll have it like this for everyday use and pull it out when we need to, but we really need it to be a bit smaller, so . . . .

. . . . Bob took the saw to it today!  How drastic is that?!  When we made it someone told us it was a good idea to attach a piece of wood across each end to tidy it up.  Trouble is, wood shrinks and in a centrally heated house the boards running lengthwise shrunk crosswise and the end pieces ended up sticking out (make sense?).  Several times Bob had to sut some off and he said several times he was going to cut them off completely.  Now, when we got the table out yesterday, the end pieces were way too short because the lengthwise boards had expanded in the damp atmosphere.  So that's what he's doing in this picture.  Now that the edges are rounded off, it looks fine.  He has had to do a bit of jiggery-pokery where the biscuits were.  Biscuits are little oval pieces of compressed beech - you cut a groove in both pieces to be joined and glue the biscuit in to strengthen the joint.  Of course half of each biscuit showed and so he has routed them out and replaced them with slivers of bog oak - all shows part of the history of the table.

And here's another addition to the kitchen - a whistling kettle.  We've been looking for one we liked for ages.  There are loads we liked the look of, black cast ones, but you just wouldn't be able to lift them with water in they are so heavy!  We need another cold snap so we can light the woodburner and try it out.  No, actually we don't want a cold snap because we really must get these solar panels working properly.  We're back to having showers in the caravan again.  The plumber came on Thursday and made some adjustments and they have only managed to get the water in the tank to 38 degrees since - well that's no good is it?  He also fixed another leak, you know the novelty is wearing off a bit - we've used a whole kitchen roll in our leak checking activities!  I'm still not convinced that we are leak-free and so I expect he'll be back.  This means that the washer can't go in it's slot in the utility which in turn means we can't get on with the work top on the other wall.

We took the copper shower rail to the powder coaters on Friday and they have a batch of mid-sheen black being done on Monday so they'll put it in with that for a tenner - not bad!  We've installed our water softener.  It is an electronic one, so no salt or filters to replace.  It plugs in and you wind two wires in opposite directions around the copper pipe near the rising main.  It creates an electronic field in the water which does something to the water which means the minerals don't build up as scale and stick to things.  It also gets rid of scale in an existing system, but I guess we shouldn't have that problem yet.

Since I last wrote we've been doing more little jobs.  Today we got our upright freezer down from the top barn.  It has been temperamental for a while and so we bought a chest freezer last year and have been using that.  Now, a chest freezer's OK for storing meat or excess fruit and veg, but it's difficult to get to everyday things.  I have to lift the basket of bread out, then the basket of sausages and chicken to get to the stuff at the bottom.  So, we're giving the upright freezer another chance.  It has now been well and truly cleaned and all the autumn leaves have been removed from the back of it (there's a gap between the roof and the wall in the top barn that leaves blow through).  It is in the utility room and we'll try switching it on tomorrow once its juices have settled - I hope it works because it's a really good size and very easy to get to everything. 

Another of today's jobs was to put Bob's new toy together.  He bought a router table last week - ready for making window frames.  I can only assume that the table was made in China or somewhere and then Axminster Tools put their stickers all over it because the instructions were absolute rubbish!  Why, oh why doesn't someone English go through the instructions and actually try putting the thing together following them?  It really would have been easier not to look at the booklet and just get on with it . . . . actually isn't that what blokes are supposed to do anyway - guess that explains why Axminster don't see the need to improve the instructions!

We also unpacked the cooker and put it in place (darn, should have taken a photo - suppose I should have taken one of the router table too?) and then started sealing the kitchen floor.  I say started because we ran out of sealer - how very, jolly annoying!  Bob has also cut all the beading to go round the joints between floor and walls (we're not having skirting board, just a 12mm quadrant bead to cover the joint), we oiled them and went to pin them down only to discover we didn't have the right size panel pins - how very, jolly annoying!  Think I feel a shopping trip coming on.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our more successful ventures of the last few days:

The shower tidy we got from . . . . guess where?
Yep, Ikea.  We have now also installed soap and shampoo
as we do try to use that shower instead of the caravan one
(so long as the sun's been shining to warm the water)

And here's another Ikea purchase.  This is also in the ensuite
and saves us blocking the window with a bit of cardboard when
using the shower.  It is also much easier to just tilt the blind closed a bit
than to try to pull your trousers up while half squatting to prevent giving a full view
of everything for dog-walkers and horse-riders after you've been to the loo!

Here's the new door knocker, so people don't have to yell to get
our attention.  This is from the same shop as the Iron Chicken.  It was
mounted on a scrappy piece of stained wood and painted with brown paint
for an authentic old iron look.  So, after removing it from the wood, wire-brushing
it and treating with the blacking stuff we used on the bread oven door, it looks
much better and gives a real loud, resounding knock.



Here's the new look 2nd fireplace in the kitchen.  It looks quite
startlingly different now it has been painted and the iron blacked.
A little too startling in fact - I think the paint needs to be more colourful.
Obviously it's not finished yet, we're still sorting out tiles.



And here's another fireplace - our bedroom.  Thought you'd like to
see the difference the linseed oil and turps mix makes - quite
striking isn't it?  The oiled bricks do lighten up a bit once they're dry,
but they do look a bit more lively.



And finally, we've covered up those darned drain pipes and very
glad to see the back of them we are too!  We took up some cobble stones from
the far end of this bit and we were going to try laying them back properly,
but changed our minds in the end and have just layed a few here and
there in the gravel, along with some bricks and limestone pavers - so
much quicker and easier!  It now reminds us of an archeological dig
 . . . we're just unearthing a Roman pavement. 



We have a new chicken!

We have a new chicken which we collected last week - a cockerel!  So far the girls haven't really taken much notice of him and he just sits around in the garden by himself while they go about their normal business.  He does remind me of the Iron Chicken in the Clangers . . . . . that's because he is an iron chicken (or cockerel) and not actually a real one!  He sits on his perch on a stick and nods backwards and forwards if the wind catches him or if you push him slightly (which I have to do every time I walk past him).

We went to see Ben for his birthday on Thursday/Friday which made a nice break.  On the way home we called in at Ikea in Birmingham - oh, we just love it there!  We went to look at settees - they are just so much cheaper than anywhere else.  We saw one we quite liked and it was sooo comfy (mind you, anything is after the caravan setees).  We couldn't find any leaflets about it though so we asked the operative who said 'It comes as a two seater, three seater or chair and that's the only colour it comes in' - so, I guess you don't really need a leaflet.  We thought we'd check on the internet when we got home for measurements, etc.  It isn't on their website at all!  So, I rang them to ask about it and the girl on the phone hadn't even heard of it.  The mystery sofa obviously!  Eventually she found it, confirmed the details we'd been told and also told me you can't order it online . . . . . or by phone.  You have to go into the store to order it and then they'll deliver it - aaaarrrrghhhh!  We'll have to go to Ikea AGAIN - that'll be three times in one year!  Not to worry, we spent £50 on other things we didn't go to get while we were there!

On Wednesday the plumber came to fix the latest leaks and - fingers crossed, touch wood, etc - we have been leak-free ever since.  While he was here he bent some copper pipe for us to fit the slope of the ceiling in the bathroom.  We are going to get it powder-coated (there's a firm in town that will do that for us) and use it for the shower curtain rail.  It should look quite good.  I got some curtain rings with little pegs on the bottom so I can cut a shower curtain to fit the slope and won't have to worry about how to attach the rings . . . .. they were from Ikea!  The plumber thought he might be able to make his fortune making bespoke shower rails - maybe we'll have to patent the idea.  He also had a go at tweaking the solar pump.  I know the weather hasn't been that brilliant for mid-summer, but we felt that the panels should be working better than they were.  They seemed to get the water in the tank up to about 47 degrees and then wouldn't get it any hotter.  He agreed they should do much better than that.  The pump switches on and off all the time as the temperature on the roof rises and falls.  The difference between the roof temperature and the tank temperature controls the switching on and off.  It was set to come on when the roof was 8 degrees hotter, as the heat is transferred to the tank the roof temerature falls and the pump switched off when the difference dropped to 5 degrees.  So he changed those settings to 10 and 3 degrees which means that the pump is working for longer.  We all stood in the lean-to for ages watching the display to see if it made a difference, but then the sun went in which wasn't very helpful.  Today has been a good sunny day and the tank got up to 57 degrees - much better, but we should be able to get a bit hotter.  He is coming back next week for another play.  You can also alter the flow rate which should make a difference, so fingers-crossed for a sunny day on Wednesday so he can sort it out properly.   57 degrees give plenty of hot for a nice long shower anyway.

Since we got back from Ben's we've been working on the drains which take the rainwater from half the house roof and the extension.  We've been waiting ages for some of the bits, but they were finally in yesterday, so no excuse not to get on with it.  We found an old clay drain which we thought we could use, but on closer inspection it didn't really go far enough and so the water would have been dumped too close to the house.  We then thought we could use part of it as a duct, put a plastic pipe though and then tee off it to join the other pipe that goes to a proper soakaway.  So, Bob has gradually dug all the trenches, located the old pipe and broken through it and we were all ready to go.  As we've been putting it together though we've gradually worked our way up the clay pipe, taking out a section, thinking we could use the rest, taking out another section and so on until we have no clay pipe left at all.  Well, it seemed a good idea at the time!  We had real trouble getting the right fall on the pipes so the water would flow the right way and the clay pipe was actually making things worse, so it had to go.  On the positive side though it did mean that that section was easier to dig as it had been dug before which was a real bonus.  Bob had to get through solid rock in some other bits - hard, hard work.



Our drain-spider!

 With so many pipes all connected, it took us ages to get all the levels right, but it is done now and we're jolly glad to see it covered over.  Just need a bit more gravel to finish covering it, but that's fairly staighforward to do another day.  Phew!  Back to nicer jobs tomorrow like grouting the kitchen tiles, painting, installing the shampoo/soap shelf in the shower (another Ikea buy - they are good for some things!), etc.

We now have a little spirit level to go on the new mantlepiece in the kitchen.  Bob's dad had his dad's (so Bob's grandad's) which is perfect, just needs a bit of a polish up.  Then the next day my mum and dad rang to say they'd hunted high and low in their workshop and found an old rosewood and brass spirit level which would be perfect.  Well now, spirit levels appear to be a bit like buses don't they?  Bob thinks its fantastic - in his book, you just can't have too many tools around and I'm sure there'll be another spot where we'll have to prove levelness on a regular basis.

We had to get up very early!

Yes, we had to be up before 7am today . . . and because I knew that I woke up every two hours through the night thinking it was time to get up and, of course, fell into a real deep sleep at about 6.15am!  It was a very exciting reason to have to get up early though.

Look . . .

Yeah, we have a cooker.  We ordered it yesterday lunchtime from Appliances Online and they offer a very efficient service, and it was one of the cheapest, I can highly recommend them!  Free next day delivery - they place the order and then during the evening you get an automated phone call telling you which 4 hour slot your delivery will be in.  So at 9.45pm last night the phone rang with a message saying the cooker would be with us between 7 and 11 am and at 8.30 this morning two very friendly and efficient delivery men arrived, unloaded and were off again within 10 minutes.  Poor things had left Bury, Lancashire at 5am so I shouldn't really complain about having to be up early should I?  I'm dying to unpack the cooker, but while we're still doing building things in the kitchen it makes sense to leave it safely wrapped and padded - we did sneak a look at the top though.  It is a modern cooker that gives a nod to cottage style by being cream and having curved bits here and there.  It has a double electric oven and gas top which we will have to convert to bottled gas, but the kit for that should be included so it shouldn't be a problem.

Today, as the day has been somewhat longer than usual, we have got on with loads of bits and pieces.  Mostly the sort of things that only we will notice like boxing in pipes here and there and painting in the alcove above the bread oven.  I also coated the bare bricks, which looked very dry and dusty, with a mixture of linseed oil and turps in an effort to liven them up a bit.  It has certainly brought the colour out, but they now look a bit dark - we'll have to wait and see what they're like once the oil has soaked right in although I'm not sure what we could do if we don't like them!.

This afternoon we did some skimming . . . . we nearly had to come and read this blog to remind ourselves what to do!  I skimmed all the bits of pipe boxing (quite fiddly) and Bob did the fire surround in the kitchen (we cement rendered it yeasterday) and it looks completely different.  We now need to find some new tiles for down the sides and then we can decide what colour to paint the plaster - in the meantime, a coat of magnolia like everywhere else I think.  I really don't like the highly decorated Victorian tiles that are supposed to go round fireplaces, so it'll have to be something different.  We did see some really lovely tiles in Fired Earth a while ago, but at £25 a pop for the picture tiles (line drawings of chickens) and over £5 each for the plain ones we had to leave them!

Tee hee - we've been playing house

Yep, we've been playing house for the last couple of days.  When we got up yesterday, it was absolutely tiddling down, chilly and dark so we thought it'd be a good day to give the Ironheart woodburner its second firing.  This time we loaded it up a bit more and got it burning really well . . . . . as we did, the sun came out!  So, we had the woodburner and the solar panels heating the water at the same time.  We did think the solar might not do much if the water in the tank was hotter, but it seems that they do.  The temperature reading on the roof got hotter than in the past, so it was still sending hot to the tank.  We can only assume that the heat doesn't get pulled into the tank as quickly which allows it to heat up more on the roof???  We also got the oven up to moderate.  There isn't a temperature guage as such, but a dial with Cool, Mod, Hot and Very Hot readings.  The first time we lit the woodburner we were Cool, yesterday we were Mod . . . . we're thinking of renaming the next setting Rocker!  So, there we were with a tank of nice hot water and it seemed a shame to waste it so we tried out the en-suite shower.  Oh, what bliss!  You can stretch your arms out, bend down to pick the soap up, even walk around a bit if you want to and the shower head delivers a good drenching - luvverly.  It did seem a bit odd padding down the drive with towel and shampoo under arm - just like being on a caravan holiday.  Let me tell you, this morning's shower in the caravan really was a disappointment after that.  By the way, I didn't take any photos of this milestone you'll be glad to know!

Today was another miserable day and, as we were going to be working in the kitchen, we lit the woodburner again this afternoon - you really shouldn't have to do this in July should you?  This time I put the washing to dry in front of it.  It all looked very homely and it got nice and cosy in there. 

The homely end of the room . . . . . .


 

. . . . and the building site end of the room!

Bob has been working on the fireplace at the other end of the room.  This won't be a working fireplace, but desparately needs tidying up.  We have re-pointed the top half of the bricks and they look quite nice, but the bottom half was covered in concrete (which is rock hard and almost impossible to get off) and looks a real mess.  There was one horrible brick among the nice ones which Bob managed to get out (hence the black hole in the picture) and replace with a similar brick to the rest.  So, we are going to plaster and paint the bottom half.  Bob has made an oak mantle-piece from offcuts from the doors.  We then need to find some nicer tiles for the sides and something to make-good the bottom half of the back, black the ironwork and , dah dah - it should look completely different.  It's not so obvious from this photo, but the chimney breast really leans over to the right and it completely throws your eye when you look at anything else next to it.  When we were putting the centre post in the kitchen we kept standing back to look at it and being convinced it wasn't upright, despite what the spirit level said.  Today, when Bob put the oak shelf in place it looked really wonky, but it wasn't.  I think we'll have to look out for a nice spirit level - you know, the old rosewood and brass type, just a little one - to put on the mantlepiece as an ornament so that when people say 'Surely that's not level!'  they can check for themselves!

While Bob was doing that, I did some more tiling - well, it's a while since I've done any you know!  So, I had to do some more carefully planned randomness with the colours.  Phil and Ann came round for a chat when I was in the middle of it and Ann pointed out a dark patch where there weren't any cream tiles darn it!  We all decided you wouldn't really notice later on.  When they'd gone though I thought, 'Yes, I will notice now' and so I did a bit of rearranging.  Good job the adhesive hadn't set, eh?

While we had the oven nice and hot, it seemed a waste not to use it and so we cooked our first ever meal on the woodburner.  Homemade chicken pie from the freezer, baby baked potatoes, carrots and brocolli.  I hadn't a clue how the oven settings relate to conventional settings - we had it just into Hot and I think it could have done with being a tad hotter, so that was probably Gas Mk 4 or 5.  As with the padding down the drive for a shower, it was a bit bizarre to trek back up to the caravan with a pan of veg, a tray of pie and potato and two warmed plates.  It was so nice and toasty in the house, it was a wrench to go back up to the caravan which hadn't even had the benefit of the oven being on to cook tea to warm it up.  Bob also had a shower in the house.  So, for free today we have dried the washing, been warm while we work, cooked tea and showered - not bad, eh?



First beer in the house by the fire - a taste of things to come!



Racing cars, food and floors

Well, the sun shone for us for the Food Festival - in fact, at one point it was a little too hot (never satisfied are we?).  The Smallholders' stall looked pretty good with home grown/made produce, a beehive, books, posters and leaflets and we had a lot of people to talk to who were interested in the group.  So, we'll see if they all turn up to the next meeting - goats is the next subject.

On Sunday we had a day out at Loton Park just a few miles away.  In its normal life it is a deer park and country estate I think, but for a few weekends a year they hold hill climbs.  This time it wasn't us climbing the hils though, it was cars and motorbikes.  They race (one at a time) up the course which is a little road that winds its way up the hill through trees and grassland for about a mile.  There were all sorts of vehicles there old and new.  Bob was particularly interested in the motorbikes (he has two himself).  There were quite a lot of Ferraris and they were rubbish - the little Peugeot 205 went as fast as did some of the little 3 wheel Morgans (maybe it's because the Ferraris cost so much that they were a bit shy of hammering them).  Anyway, it made a good day out with enough mishaps to keep the public happy without anyone actually getting hurt or really damaging their vehicle.  Bob also took me out for Sunday lunch - what a treat, a cheeseburger and chips from the van with a '99' for pudding (actually it was quite nice to eat rubbish for a change!).

Work-wise, Bob has dug some more holes for the drains from the extension gutters - pretty heavy going with some solid rock to get through (he did work up quite a sweat).  That's all ready for the pipes, we are just waiting for the builders merchant to get some of the bits we need.  We'll be glad when that's all filled in as there seem to have been holes all over the place for ages.  We have actually got a draw-bridge at the moment - Bob's always wanted one, but this should only be temporary so he'd better make the most of it.  I spent yesterday doing more Victorian housework, this time scrubbing the kitchen floor (with the chemical cleaner) then rinsing it and sealing it.  That done and dried, we spent this morning grouting it which is a long job I can tell you!  As you know, we have re-laid the original quarry tiles.  When new I think they would have been laid without gaps and that's the job done, but because they are worn and slightly different sizes we couldn't do that.  Some of the gaps are too small for ordinary grout though (and it wouldn't look right).  So, we have invented our own system (well, it may be used elsewhere, we don't know).  We mix some builders sand which is quite red (seived to get rid of the bigger grit) with some very fine kiln dried sand which is quite pale and some lime.  This makes a fine pinky-colour powder.

We then feed this into the gaps between the tiles making sure it fills them up as much as possible and at the same time making sure the rest of the tile isn't covered with lime by brushing it in with a paintbrush.  Some gaps just fill up really easily and others feel as though you're filling the cellar with sand and take ages!  Once all the gaps are filled we sprayed water along all the gaps so it can go off (that's builder's speak for going hard).  We should then be able to clean up the tiles and apply another coat of sealer.  Filling all the gaps in just makes such a difference to the look of the floor and I think we're quite pleased with it.

I'm off to Scotland on Thursday to visit Laura and the midges - looking forward to seeing Laura, but not the other little pests!  I think a trip to Tesco is planned for her to stock up on essentials and she did mention that some chip shop chips would be nice!  She has a Tibetan lesson on Thursday afternoon, so I may go along to that too and see what I can learn.  Tashi Delek is about all I know so far - that is a greeting.  Bob is staying behind to chicken-sit, but I think he may have a trip out on his motorbike to go to the Harley Davison shop for a part he needs and then to Axminster Tools to look at router tables (we'll need one of them for making window frames).

The plumber should be coming again tomorrow (although he hasn't rung to confirm, so watch this space) - another leaking joint on the solar pipes and to fit a flappy one-way valve so the solar panels don't carry on heating the radiator.  He is also going to bend some copper pipe for us to make a rail for the shower curtain downstairs.  It has to go up the sloping ceiling then straight for a bit and then round a corner, so this seems to be the simplest way to do it.  There is a company on the industrial estate that can powder-coat it for us fairly cheaply, so that should be that problem solved.



The chickens inspecting Bob's handywork on the kitchen floor. There's just a
little bit left to do in the corner under the stairs, but we need to sort out oak
newel posts and things before that, so a job for another day.  We should have about
three spare tiles and some broken bits left, so that was close!



Yesterday we put the shower screen in.  It was relatively easy once we'd got our
heads round all the parts and which way round they had to go.  I siliconed
around it straight away - get it over with! So, if it hadn't been tipping down all day
and the sun had come out, we could have had a solar heated shower today
 . . . . maybe tomorrow.



Yesterday afternoon we lit the Ironheart for the first time using the rest of the
little logs that had been drying in the bread oven for the last 40 years and a
couple of small 'new' logs.  You have to start with a couple of gentle burns to allow things inside to dry out and settle - it wasn't really cold enough for a roaring fire anyway. 



With just a small fire it did start to heat the water in the heatstore
(just a couple of degrees) and the oven got to the 'cool' setting, so I could
have made meringues!  We did use it to keep the teapot warm.  The chickens
seemed to like it and at one point were walking around underneath - do they
count as combustable material?  The manual is very specific about distances to
combustable material but it doesn't say anything about chickens!



Here's me doing my Victorian housework - blacking the bread oven.  I don't
suppose they used rubber gloves and a toothbrush though, did they?



And here it is in place.  We got the door from the reclaim yard and Bob just
had to do a bit of fettling today to get it to fit.  Jolly good it looks too.  Inside the
bread oven is quite big and arched from every direction to the centre - very clever.
I'm not sure the bricks are still solid enough to try heating it though which is a shame.



So, that's what we've been up to for the last few days.  We had home-grown potatoes for tea a couple of times.  They are so different to shop ones.  I did intend to leave the skins on, but just a gentle rub to clean the soil away peels the skin away too - none of this scraping away with a knife!  It is a very weird feeling to forage around in the soil with your hands and find potatoes.  Today it rained so hard that when I went to look at the builders bag plants, four potatoes had dug themselves up and even washed themselves - they were just sitting on the surface ready to gather!

This weekend is Oswestry Food Festival and the smallholders group has a stall there tomorrow.  We volunteered ourselves to set up, do the first hour, do the last hour and dismantle, so that is tomorrow pretty much taken care of.  Phil and Ann have invited us for dinner though, so that is a bonus - no tea to cook.  The food festival completely transfoms the town centre and it is buzzing with loads of stalls and thousands of people so it should be quite good - just hope the sun shines!

Silicone, moths and diggers.

Sorry, no pictures this time - well you did get plenty on the last few editions and we don't want to run out of film!

The plumber came back this morning and tweeked the leaks.  He re-did the joint in the glycol pipe and re-pressurised it and that seems to be working OK now with no drips so far.  He increased the pressure a bit this time to 3 bar (haven't got my head around what difference that makes yet, but I'm sure it must) - before he came it had dropped to .3, so quite a difference.  He was a bit surprised that the temperature in the tank hadn't got higher, I think 47 degrees was the highest we got to when it was hot and sunny.  That was explained though when we told him that we were surprised that the upstairs radiator had got quite warm - so that's where the heat was going to.  So now he's puzzled why heat was going to the radiator without the woodburner being lit because the pipe goes downhill so there shouldn't be any convection downwards, so he's gone away to think about it.  He can fit a one-way valve to the pipe to the heat store so that warm water can't flow back down it which will solve the problem.  It was lovely and toasty upstairs with the radiator on . . . . but it was lovely and toasty outside too, so it really would be better if the heat stayed in the water.  Phil and Ann came round today and, as an engineer (and he's done a fair bit of plumbing), Phil wasn't surprised at all - something to do with the water in the tank mixing up and moving round as the hot water rises and cold falls and making the rest of the water in the system move around.

For the last couple of days we have been getting on with finishing the kitchen and lean-to floors.  We had done a bit of both to stand the woodburner and heatstore on and have got fed up with seeing them half done.  So, Bob has got most of the kitchen quarry tiles laid (they need a chemical clean, seal and grout) and I have done the lean-to (they just need grouting) and that will be two good jobs done.  The tiles around the edge of both needed cutting, so we had boy and girl angle grinders on the go (I had the little one because the big one is a bit scary!).

I finally got around to sorting out the mess I'd made of the silicon in the shower - oh, I still hate doing it and had been putting it off I think.  I managed to get a reasonable finish and then thought I'd just tidy up one tiny bit . . . . why!!!!?  It had started to get a skin on it and I just kept making it worse.  So, I just stopped and went back to it the next day and again got a reasonable finish on it when a flippin' moth flew onto it and got its legs stuck!  Can you believe that?!!  Course, I had to get the moth out, but I did manage to smooth it over again and now I'm not touching it ever again!  After all that, I was dreading doing around the kitchen sink - this needed very precise and inconspicuous siliconing.  Thankfully I managed it without a problem and I'm actually quite pleased with the result - phew!

Going back to moths for a minute, I forgot to tell you about the very first washing machine run.  As I said, I put the cleaning cloths in and when we switched it on I was watching it go round (as you do) and saw a big moth fly out of the water!  Luckily, until the water reaches a certain level you can still open the door - to pop in the dropped sock I expect.  So we could get the very wet moth out and put it on the window sill in the sun to dry out.  It had gone a bit later, so it either fell off, got eaten by a bird or flew away.  I spent quite a while wondering how it had got into the brand new washer until I realised it had probably been asleep in one of the cloths . . . der, sometimes I wonder at how slow I can be!

Yesterday we were all set for an early start on the flooring when we heard a tremendous noise from the quarry - it sounded as though one of the trucks had come up the side and into our garden!  It was so noisy that we walked along our top path to see if we could see what was going on.  One of their huge tipper trucks (you know the ones where the tyres are higher than a man) had got stuck.  It was half way through dumping its load and must have somehow sunk (or buried itself) and was down to its axle and no amount of revving was going to shift it.  Strangely, even though he had his foot right down, there was no wheel spinning or muck flying, just a lot of noise.  He then got out and had a look at the problem - he really looked as though he was about to kick the tyres!  He radioed for assistance and two diggers turned up - everyone got out and had a look at the problem.  We were too far away to see, but you could almost tell they were sucking their teeth and saying 'Yer stuck mate'.  They then tried clearing some of the muck from around, then one tried pushing from behind, then they got a chain attached to the front and the other tried pulling, but it wasn't for moving.  At that point one of the diggers had to nip off to fill a lorry with stone.  In the meantime a chap in a van arrived, got out and had a look at the problem - more teeth sucking and stuck comments.  Eventually the other digger came back and they had another go and finally managed to get it out.  The two digger drivers immediately set-to levelling off the area as though sweeping away the evidence.  So much for our early start, by the time they'd got sorted it was time for coffee!

It looks as though Elvis may have retired from her career in egg production.  Her eggs have been rather sporadic for a while, then she had a phase of forgetting the shell.  Bless her though, she tries to help, the other day Bob went into the caravan to find one of Elvis's eggs on the floor in front of the fridge.  I suppose she couldn't quite manage to open the door to put it away!  Naughty girl had snuck in when we weren't looking (and had forgotten the chicken gate) - still I guess it could have been worse than an egg on the floor!



OK, I give in - here's an old photo of the inglenook in the
kitchen and the dilapidated range that was in there.  What
a mess - you've seen the new look with our cooking woodburner.
I hope you think it's an improvement!



It's what we've been waiting for . . . . .

. . . . so, how's this for running water?

What an exciting moment.  This is, as far as we can make out, the first time there has been running hot water in this house.  It was last lived in in 1977 and we could only find evidence of the one cold tap in the scullery.  The range we took out had a water compartment and you would have to scoop hot water out of it to use.  The loo was up at the top of the garden in a brick privvy - just a platform over a bucket.  The bucket was still in there and, yes, I have scrubbed it and kept it!  Not to use for its original purpose I hasten to add!  It is a little hard to believe - 1977 isn't that long ago (I was still at school so, obviously, it's not that long ago!).  I think us townies had a soft life - we were impressed when someone got a remote control for their telly at that time, not when they got an inside loo!

I know you can't see the steam rising, but Bob is actually
washing his hands with hot water here!  Amazing!!

The solar tubes look a little glaring here (sorry) they actually look quite dark.  It is strange, but when it was just the frame on the roof it looked like a bit of a monstrous carbuncle (to quote HRH Charlie), but now that the tubes are fitted it looks much better and even looks a little smaller.  I think it is because it now looks as though it has a purpose and an eco one at that.  So, all in all, we are quite happy with them.  Yesterday afternoon they managed to raise the temperature of the water in the heatstore by 10 degrees - that's 260 litres of water, so not bad.  There is a control unit in the lean-to (or plant room as the plumber calls it) and you can get it to display the temperature of the water at the bottom of the tank, top of the tank and on the roof.  It's a bit addictive (but I'm sure the novelty will wear off).  Good job it is too, because when I went in there this morning there was water all over the floor - turned out to be glycol actually from the pipe coming in from the solar panels where a joint is leaking.  Bob tried tightening it, but instead of a fast drip it turned into a spout and the pressure in the system (yep, we have a dial that tells us that too) dropped quite a bit.  What do you do?  What happens if all the glycol leaks out?  Will it all overheat/burn out?  WE DON'T KNOW!!!  HELP!!!!!!  And, the plumber's away until Wednesday!  Now, I don't like to disturb people during their time off, but we could make a very costly mistake here.  So, we switched the pump off and phoned the plumber, leaving a message explaining.  Luckily, he picked up the message and rang back, because switching off was the wrong thing to do - it could all overheat and do damage.  So, we switched it back on, managed to get the joint to just drip slowly and then wrapped plenty of PTFE tape around it to slow it down and it seems to be ticking along OK.  Then we discovered another small leak on one of the other pipes going into (or out of) the tank - also got that to a very slow drip.  Oh, and the stopcock joint under the utility sink has a bit of a drip too.  The plumber's coming back on Wednesday morning!

The other problem we had was with the immersion timer - no power going out of it to the immersion itself.  So, a phone call to the electrician to make sure we weren't missing anything stupid and he said he'd call round this afternoon.  Bless him - a Saturday afternoon too (I made some tiffin for him to apologise to his family for dragging him away).  Bob went and got another timer in case ours was faulty, and it was, so the new one was installed.  The electrician brought his wife with him for a look round and we had a nice leisurely cuppa sat on the beer bench in the sun with them before they went.

Now, I know for most of you a working washing machine is far from exciting, but this really is an historic moment for us and for this house.  Never before has a washing machine worked here.  There was a copper in the lean-to (plant room).  The copper tub had gone when we bought it, but the brickwork, fireplace and chimney were all there (once we'd cleared away the three feet of poronographic magazines and videos from the floor of the lean-to of course!).  For us this marks the end of two and a half years of launderetting - wooohooo!  So, we've done the initial wash where you're not supposed to put anything in so it can clean the muck out of the pipes - I did put the cloths and towels we use for cleaning up in the house in, well it'd be a waste to not put anything in.  Then we did a normal wash with clothes in.  All good so far.  Now I have put the towels in and set the delay timer so it should come on at 4am (Economy 7 electricity), so fingers crossed I've set that right.  Then we're all up-to-date with the washing.  Hee hee, this is a real novelty!

Oh, I forgot to take a photo of the woodburner plumbing last time, so here it is.  We haven't tried lighting this yet, so that's a test for another day.  Another oh, we did do another test today - simultaneous loo testing!  Bob downstairs and me upstairs - all went well you'll be pleased to know!