Triangulation problems

Oh, don't talk to me about triangles - they've been causing us major headaches in one way or another.  On Sunday I decided to finally make the blind for the triangle window in the oak room.  This has taken an awful lot of thinking about, we even spent a whole morning with Dad a few months ago brainstorming solutions to the problem of curtains/blinds for a triangle-shaped window with a sloping roof above.  We went through all sorts of wacky ideas.  We finally decided on a roman blind which opens with a sort of fan action.  This, of course, means that you have to pull the strings different amounts to make the blind pull up different amounts at each side.  For now we will just have two separate strings and you do just that - pull them different amounts.  Eventually though and when Bob had his lathe set up, we will conjur up a system where each string winds round a different size wheel.  You turn both wheels together, but the different sizes compensate for the different lenghts of string.  Anyway, I measured up each side of the window and cut the material to fit (or so I thought).  I worked out how the stiffening struts fit to do the fan bit and where the strings need to be attached to each strut so the strings pull up properly.  Bob made a batten to attach it to and we held it in place only to find that I'd gone wrong somewhere (probably because I couldn't be bothered to get anything to stand on to measure the long side and so couldn't really see what I was doing properly).  The slope of the material doesn't match the slope of the window!  I think I'll be able to sort it though.

The other triangle problem related to the stairs.  Bob has attached all the triangles to the diagonal supports under the stairs and attached them to the wall.  He then spent an afternoon puzzling why the steps don't fit as we'd expected them to.  It seems he overcompensated (or undercompensated) when adding (or taking away) thicknesses of the wood of the stairs themselves.  So, there's nothing for it but to take them off the wall and cut all the triangle bits off and do them again.  Before we do that though, we need to go and buy some more wood.  Ho hum!

Oh, to add to our misery yesterday morning we broke one of our precious pices of glass that are to go into the draft holes!  We had them made by a local glass artist and they survived three years in the caravan falling off their perches, etc. But when we were attaching the batten for the triangle blind, one got knocked off and broke in half, unfortunately not cleanly so we can't really just glue it back together.  Oh, we were a bit miserable and cross at that point yesterday I can tell you!  So, an early cup of coffee and clear the heads was needed before we could get on and think about anything else.  After the dodgy start though, we got on and had a really good productive day.

On Monday before I went to work we quickly plasterboarded
and skimmed both sides of the new bit of wall in the kitchen

Then yesterday I tiled and painted it.  Not really sure if you're
supposed to do all that in 24 hours, but it all seems fine!

While I was doing that, Bob built two of the steps
that go through the wall for the bottom of the stairs.
It just looks so much more solid now.  He's going
to do the bottom one today (if it ever stops raining
long enough to get the cement mixer out!).  Oh, those are
the offending triangle bit which have got to come off!

I got the end bedroom decorated over the last few days
which I really enjoyed doing (good job because Bob
doesn't really like decorating).  We're not sure the colour
is quite as we remember it, but we like it anyway
which is the main thing.

and here it is done, with the shades on the light and the
black window frames re-touched.  You can't see it on this picture,
but the glass shades have little bubbles in them which makes
a lovely soft pattern on the walls when the light's on.  Aahh, can
you see poor Bob mixing mortar in the rain!

Last night we went to a film-showing at the neighbouring farm all about becoming less dependent on oil and promoting local.  That all sounds a bit boring doesn't it, but it was actually quite interesting and positive - all about doing things ourselves and in our communities instead of relying on big Govt initiatives.  There was beer from down the road and bacon butties made with their own bacon and bread made on the premises - yum, yummy, yum yum!  On Monday evening I had to go to an M&S team brief on plans for the year ahead - oh, what a contrast, it was all about money, money, money.  Tonight we have a talk on ducks and geese at smallholders.  Then on Thursday Jan (Bob's step-mum) may be coming to stay - busy, busy, busy.

Friday was Bob's birthday and we had a lovely day doing not very much.  Lie-in, breakfast in bed, lunch at a canal-side pub and then a walk along the towpath, lazy afternoon then fillet steak and good wine by candlelight.  A nice break.