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!
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| 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! |
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