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.

Everything's broken!

Not having much luck at the moment.  All week we have had real trouble connecting to the internet, the camera has given up the ghost (just too much dust and muck has finally got to it I think) and the bandsaw is broken!  Bob phoned Orange today who said that some maintenance work they had been doing just might have affected our connection, they talked him through a different way to connect which I think resets the modem or something.  This meant we could get in, but I'm not sure if that is it sorted or not - we'll see, but I thought I'd better grab this opportunity for a quick update while I can.  No more photos for a bit I'm afraid!  And then the bandsaw threw a wobbly - literally.  So, we have bearings and belts and stuff on order to see if we can sort it out.  Just when we need it for cutting window sills, oak lintels and so on.

On the positive side, the plumber came and got everything done in one afternoon.  So first fix is complete and the system has been pressure tested.  You cap off all the pipes then pump water through the system.  That can be done with some sort of hand pump or, if mains pressure is good enough you can use a hose pipe.  Our pressure is 6 bar which is quite good I think, so hose pipe it was.  Bob was on tap duty, switching on and off when instructed, the plumber did something with a manifold and I was in the house watching all the pipes.  Suddenly water started pouring out upstairs, really pouring out!  Once everything was off, the plumber realised he'd forgotten to cap one of the pipes . . . .that explains it then!  Easily fixed and then we tried again, no dramas this time, phew.  You then leave the system pressurised for a while and then check all the joints for hissing, dripping or spurting.  Reminds me of my childhood which was mostly spent in awkward positions checking copper pipe joints for leaks as Dad tested his latest addition to the plumbing system of our house - see this is all in my blood!  We are now ready to get on with a whole lot of plasterboarding and so ordered a delivery for Monday.  Then it will really start to look different.  It will be very strange and probably a bit annoying not to have loads of little shelves in the form of the studwork for putting tape measures, pencils, mugs, radio, etc on.  Not being able to see through walls will also be time-consuming - we'll have to walk INTO rooms to look for things!

Yesterday we did lots of bits and pieces, the last bits of studwork, last bits of insulation around the re-routed pipes, a mock-oak-post in the bedroom to hide some cables and wires.  When I say mock, it is real oak, but the post doesn't actually do anything structurally.  Then today we have been doing more domestic things - usual Sainsbury's/launderette trip and lunch out for a treat.  We are off visiting for the weekend - calling at Laura's, then to Mum and Dad's for  couple of nights and then to Bob's Dad's on Sunday and finally a cuppa with Ben and Lucy - so we have also had to do stuff to make ourselves presentable in the outside world.  Boots are now polished, car has been cleaned, jeans washed and so on. 

As I can't take any photos at the moment, here's a couple from last year.  We had so many babies to keep an eye on last year - it was quite a responsibility.  Blue tits nested in the wall in the chicken run and when they fledged two of them just sat on the path tweeting.  They were just soooo cute!  The parents eventually collected one, but the other was left by itself.  We kept an eye on it from a distance, but eventually had to get on so we put it in the chicken run and shut the door so the chickens (or any other predator) couldn't get it.  The blue tits can obviously get in and out through the wire, so the parents wouldn't have any trouble.  Later in the day, it was still there and not looking too perky.  We had to go out, so had to put the chickens in the run.  So I made a 'nest' from moss, put the baby in it and put it on the roof of the run where the parents could find it.  When we got back it had 'gone to sleep'!  Aaah, it was very sad.  We also had a wrens nest in the top of the wriggly barn and actually watched the babies fledge.  What a way to waste a whole afternoon!  They took ages deciding whether to come out or not, getting right out and scurrying back in.  Now, if you think baby blue tits are cute, you should see baby wrens - just little brown balls of fluff.  This one sat right next to me while I was hanging the washing out and then waited patiently while I got the camera.  We also had three robins nests - I think it was actually the same pair.  The first nest was really low down in the grass bank the other side of the lane - doomed from the start I think.  One baby had hatched and there were a couple of eggs when the nest got pulled out and destroyed by something.  The parents then got busy on a much more sensible site in the top of the wriggly barn (opposite end to the wrens) and they all fledged when we weren't looking.  Without a pause, the adults started on the next nest and we saw the newly fledged chicks in the hedge one evening.  The nuthatches used last year's woodpecker nest hole in the half dead beech tree behind the caravan and brought their babies to show us and Laura was treated to a real show with them hopping about on the fence in the wren picture and along the hedge behind the caravan.  The young greater spotted woodpeckers came to the peanuts a few times and the young buzzards drove us mad with their incessant seagull-like calling all day.  I have already told you about the baby tawny owl that entertained us one evening with its bobbing and funny calls.

The reason for all the talk of baby birds is that it is obviously on the minds of the birds around here.  They all have their very smartest outfits on, the robins and nuthatches are actually hanging around in pairs instead of chasing each other off and they've all started singing their little hearts out.  It's quite noisy sometimes!  Earlier in the year, the electrician was here helping us move the electric box before we built the extension and he said 'It's like being in a flippin' jungle round here!'.

Fire! Fire!!

Yes, we've had a fire . . . luckily no major damage and no-one was hurt!  Actually, it was a well controlled fire in our new woodburner!   Now, how's that for excitement?  We just got fed up with it being cold - too cold for vrnish, silicone, mortar and too cold for fingers to work properly for fiddly oak joints, etc - so we (well me really) decided we should go and collect the small woodburner we bought in the Autumn and temporarily install it in the kitchen fireplace as we have already installed the flue in there (we did that about a hundred years ago when the builder re-built the chimney).  The other, bigger woodburner has a backboiler so needs plumbing in before you can use it and we'd have to lay the quarry tiles on the floor before it could go in.  This one was a quick job to do, just a connector piece (£75!!!!) and a bit of fire cement and we were ready to go.  I have to say it didn't light too easily, it was really windy which I don't think helped but we did get it going eventually.  Just makes you wonder when the last time smoke went up that chimney (I think your can just see smoke in the picture).  When I cleared the bread oven out a while ago, I found some old newspaper dated just before the 2nd world war - sad really, it was full of optimism about peaceful settlements, etc.  Also in there were some little logs - obviously there to dry out.  Well, they'd certainly done that, most of them crumbled to nothing when I moved them, but a few stayed together so I kept them to put on our first fire, and that's what we did . . . soppy really, but it is nice to have a connection to the house's past. 

We didn't get much done on Monday afternoon for looking at the fire and then Roy and Sophie popped in having seen smoke coming from the chimney on their walk.  No sooner had they gone than there was a knock at the door (!!!! still a novelty !!!) and it was the plumber calling on the off-chance that we'd be here.  While he was here Phil and Ann (neighbours who look after our chickens when we're away and fellow smallholder quiz team members) called in curious to see where the smoke was coming from.  By the time everyone had gone, it was past 5pm, so hardly worth starting anything!

Having said that, the plumber did some work - he sorted out the pipework for the outside tap and for the radiator upstairs.  We also discussed the Building Inspector's comments about the pipes on the cold side of the insulation.  He thought it was an overreaction and it had never been queried before and he was sure they would never freeze.  However, the seed of doubt had been sown and it is certainly easier to change now than later (and Bob would worry about it).  So we spent yesterday ripping out the lovely silver insulation upstairs followed by £200- £300 worth of plumbers work ready for him to reconnect it all following a different route next week.  It is fair to say that I was well and truly piddled off yesterday!  It took me ages to fit insulation around all these blessed pipes and now, because it's too expensive to just throw away and cut nice new square bits, I had to rip it out and then fit more insulation in the bits where the pipes had been!  Anyway, I've cooled off now and Bob has cut bits out of the studwork to make an easy route for the pipes between the plasterboard and the insulation, so I guess it's a good job done.

Today we hung the kitchen door, it hasn't got the lock or knobs yet, but we can close it to keep the heat in from the fire!  One of the reasons it hasn't got knobs, etc yet is that we did a couple of really silly things when we were doing the other one.  They have a threaded bar that goes through the door and the knobs screw onto and then little grub screws you tighten so the knob doesn't come off when you pull.  We put the bar in place though the lock and screwed the knobs on each side to see how long it needed to be, unscrewed them and cut the bar to length.  Didn't realise that the grub screws were done up and had stopped the bar going all the way in - derrr!  So that bar was no good now!  I then unscrewed one of the grub screws . . . . all the way dropping it in a pile of rubble and dust - gone forever.  Oh, it wasn't a good day.  We tried all over to get replacements with no luck and so eventually I had to confess to the company we'd bought them from and they were brilliant and put replacements in the post which arrived this afternoon.  'From The Anvil' is the company (where we've got all the window and door furniture) and they are brilliant - highly recommended!

I need to tell you about the way we spent Sunday sometime - neighbourhood disputes, caravans and narrow lanes and the police.  No time now as tea is ready, but I will do soon.

BRRRRRRR! It's still cold!



OK, we've had enough winter for now thanks!  Today has been pretty miserable weather-wise - it's actually been above freezing which is warmer than it has been for a while, but it has been raining which means the snow is slushy (with ice underneath) and where there's no snow there's mud.  I slipped over on the snowy ice carrying our hot drinks - no damage done, but in the two seconds it took me to stand up again, shlurrrp, my clothes had soaked up about 6 gallons of icey water and I had snow up my sleeves . . . and I spilt the coffee!



Kitchen studwork - looks as though we're trying to
do a really naff, exposed timber, pub style room!



We have been a bit frustrated because of the weather.  Earlier this week, we had to make some mortar to make good around the holes we'd made for the plumber and electrician to poke cables and pipes through walls.  Trouble was that the sand was frozen!  So, we had to break off lumps of sand and put them in the cement mixer and I stood there pointing the hot air gun into the mixer while the sand tumbled round warming up.  We then used hot water to mix it with.  Oh, I don't know if you're supposed to do all these things, we just make it up as we go along!  We also wanted to get on with the roof insulation, but before we can do that we needed to squirt some expanding foam right into the eaves to close up any little gaps between the wall and the slates (don't want wasps crawling in and making nests).  Of course if you read the instructions on these products they all say to store between 5 and 25 degrees!   Ha, ha - we don't have anywhere that doesn't go below 5 degrees in this weather . . . . unless we take a carrier bag full of tubes of silicone, cans of squirty foam, etc to bed with us!  Then of course you can't use the foam when it's colder than 5 degrees - that'll be about May then.  It only takes 10 minutes to do the foam, but we just couldn't get on with it.  With today going up to a balmy 3 degrees, we decided we'd just have to get on with it, so we plugged in all the big builders lights we have and pointed them at the eaves in the hope of raising the temperature a tad (they do get quite warm - really useful for thawing out fingertips while working) and so that job is done - seemed to work OK.  Don't know if you have ever used this stuff - it's brilliant stuff, but you do have to be careful not to overdo it.  When we put in the tiny windows in the extension we used it between the stone and the frame.  Bob did one and it looked OK, he went off to do something else and when he came back the foam had expanded and almost covered the whole window - it looked so funny and he was horrified!  So, when we'd finished doing the eaves we did go outside and check that it wasn't billowing out under the roof and down the walls! 

Today, as well as the squirty stuff, we put up some more bits of oak in the kitchen.  These will house the above counter sockets and light switch.  I also treated all the oak beams and posts in the kitchen to a coat of danish oil for a bit of protection.  I was a more than a little horrified at how dark it went - it honestly looked as though we'd used some cheap teak-colour stain and it looked so nice before!  Thank goodness though, as it has soaked in and dried, it has lightened a bit and it now has a warm colour (rather than plain orange!) - phew!

Studwork in the stone extension - the phot is taken
from the corridor and nearest to us is what will
be the bathroom and beyond that is the utility room

The plumber has been here for a short time (two afternoons) - he has to keep going off to sort out burst pipes!  He has got on quite well though and we now have pipes all over the place as well as cables.  He still has to sort out toilet waste pipes and run the pipes for the solar panels, but that should be quite straightforward as Bob has done all the holes through walls and so it is a fairly straight run.  The solar panels should be delivered on Tuesday.  They are actually evacuated tubes rather than flat panels - we're told these work better in the winter than the traditional ones (I wasn't really expecting either to work in winter, but apparently they do which is a bit clever isn't it?).  As our roof faces south (pretty much) we will qualify for the Government payment for microgeneration which should amount to about £400 a year for 20 years (as well as cheap hot water) which is not to be sniffed at.  Initially, we didn't want to put anything modern on that side of the roof, but there's not much point in putting solar panels on the wrong side just to keep the old-fashioned cottagey look.  If they are to go on any roof, then they probably blend in to slate better than any . . . sort of, and we have made sure all the frames, etc are black.  They'll be fine . . . . I'm sure they will . . . . . won't they?

We bought our other woodburner this week, so now the shop has two for us in their storeroom - we sit in the caravan huddled round the oil filled radiator and think of our woodburners!  We also had the bath delivered, so we can think of hot bubbly baths too.  Oh, and we've ordered our one and only radiator, so soon we'll be able to think about that too.  Because the kitchen wood burner has a back boiler, you have to have a 'dump radiator'  for it to lose some heat to if necessary.  This will be in the en-suite upstairs and we have gone for an old-fashioned cast iron one rather than a modern panelled thing.  This is our Christmas present to each other - as it costs four times as much as an ordinary one, it is the only way we can justify it!

PEEPO!
Bob's trapped inside the wall!