This may be my last ever blog!

Yes, this may be the last you hear from me.  Bob's just put a log on the woodburner . . . . trouble is it has a branch sticking out so it's too big to go in and the other end is already alight so we can't take it out!  So, I'm typing through a haze of smoke as we wait for it to burn enough to push right in so we can close the door, either that or it burns the house down!  Farewell!!

Oh, well OK then the drama's over - I just managed to knock a bit off the burning branch which was enough to be able to push it back a bit and close the door.  The fog's now clearing and I think we may live to see another day!

We have our first paying guests coming next weekend . . . . well, not paying, but Carol and Graham (my sister and husband . . . her husband, not mine of course) are staying overnight so that's quite exciting isn't it?  So, we've been working hard on the oak room for them to stay in.  It is now all skimmed and decorated and has a door.  The electrician came on Wednesday, so the light, sockets and underfloor heating all work now.  Talking of heating, the underfloor heating has come on over the last few nights.  You can tell it's been on in the morning as nowhere is chilly, but I wouldn't say the floor is really toasty.  I guess it has quite a slab of concrete to heat and so will take a few days to do that.  Glad it's doing its thing and coming on automatically and working out for itself how long it needs to be on, etc.  The plumber also came on Wednesday and he has drained the whole solar system, flushed it through with fresh water and then pressurised it all with fresh glycol.  He's taped the posh insulation on all the pipes and tweeked a few parameters and has high hopes that all will now be well.  It has been working fairly well to be fair, but it is really too late in the year to tell if it really is all lovely, so we'll wait and see what happens next summer . . . . . . . . .

I've had a really busy week workwise - this is supposed to be a part-time job, doing just 21.75 hours a week, but this week I've done 40 including being in for 7am on my day off!  Next week four or five new people are starting, so perhaps it'll calm down a bit.  Tee hee, we won't be the new kids anymore and people'll be expecting us to know what we're doing!  I've just found out that in the lead up to Christmas the shop opens at 7am which means that the people who go in early to fill the shelves, as I do sometimes, have to be in at 5.30am - oh joy!!!

Won't think about that just yet!  Here's the rest of our week in pictures:

Bob playing with fire again!  He's actually retrieving the old
suffolk latch which we salvaged from one of the old doors.
It was fat with a million coats of paint and the best way to strip it
is to chuck it in the fire.  It's now about half the size and attached to
the bathroom door.

We suddenly realised that the stone wall in the oak room was
covered in green slime - well not slime any more because it had dried.
It would've been sensible to clean it off before we built the room wouldn't it and I do remember thinking about it, but it never got done.  So, with rubber gloves and old washing up brushes we set to with stone floor cleaner and it does now look much more like an inside wall thank goodness!



We went to the blacksmiths today to pick up a curtain pole and saw
these bright little numbers and thought they'd make the view from the
oak room a bit more cheerful!



. . . . . and guess what I'm doing again?  Next lot of curtains
is on the go - for the oak room of course, but I'm not sure if I'll
actually get them finished in time for next weekend.  We chose the material
yesterday, but they didn't have enough so they took our number and said they'd
call as soon as it came in.  Not long after we got home, they called to say it was in - now how's that for service?!  Someone else had actually ordered some and that's what
arrived, but they didn't need the whole roll so there was enough for us too - handy!

Now, just look at this cheeky chicken!  Tuesday was a lovely day so we
had the kitchen door open and spent the whole of our lunchtime shooing the
chickens out of the door ending up with a washing up bowl of water as a persuader!
Next thing we know, a chicken appears from the other direction and hops up into the
stair opening to look at us and check if there were any sarnies going spare.  She'd gone through the open door to the middle barn, down the steps, along the hall and then up onto this bit of wall!!  On the same day, Bob found a wren in the middle barn (where they nested
earlier in the year) - well they'll have to think again because they won't be able to get
in there next Spring . . . . hopefully!

A door is dry!!!

Oh, this blog is really suffering at the hands of Marks and Spencer isn't it?  I never seem to do my normal hours and always get asked to do extra - oh well, I suppose it puts a few extra pennies in the bank account.  My initial contract is up in a couple of weeks and I haven't heard yet if they need me to stay on until after Christmas - I guess I'd better ask, because if not I'd better start looking for something else.  That'd be a bit of a pain wouldn't it?

So, what've we been getting on with in the last few days.  Most exciting is that one of the doors has finally dried enough to hang (how sad is our life if that's the most exciting thing, eh?).  So, the bathroom now has a door which seems really strange.  The bathroom is the most modern room in the house, so this old pine door is quite a contrast.  I quite like that though, it kind of reminds you that this is a new bit, but it is part of an old cottage.  I'd quite like to get a little old cupboard or set of drawers for in there for the same reason.  We need to finish painting the architrave for round the door opening and sort out some sort of latch.  Do you like the way the decorating and picture-hanging goes right up to the point where the house is still a building site?

We have finished plasterboarding the ceiling in the oak room.  Next is the dot and dabbing on the wall adjoining the bathroom and the bits around the door and then we'll have to try and remember all we know about skimming.  Might have to read earlier blogs for instructions!  It's funny how these things get filed away in some far recess of your brain the minute you start on something else.  Hopefully, we've done enough of it for it all to come flooding back - just like riding a bike!

On the solar front, the news is not too good.  The plumber came and put it all back together again and fitted the new pressure release valve, re-pressuried everything and toddled off happy that everything would now be fine.  Well, it appears to have held its pressure which means there are no leaks.  As I'm sure you noticed, we had a brilliant few days of hot sunny weather, so ideal testing conditions.  We haven't lit the woodburner and, as we were away for a couple of days, we switched the immersion heater off.  So that was all perfect to give the solar chance to prove its worth all by itself without us drawing off hot water and blurring the results.  So, when we got home from our two days away in the sun (in Peterborough and Norfolk) we had high hope of a tank of good, hot, free water . . . . alas, it was not to be and the temperature had only risen by 10 or 15 degrees in the whole time.  Oh, boo hoo, if I wasn't numbed to it all I could cry.  What the heck is wrong with it?!  The plumber says he's fitted a couple more systems the same since ours and they're working fine.  Don't really know what the next step is.  I guess we wait for the plumber to have his heart monitoring done at the hospital tomorrow and then get him back.  He did seriously suggest that if it doesn't work he takes the whole lot out and we fit some other system!  Seems a bit extreme, be we're running out of ideas.

Our days away in the sun involved doing the Autumn tidy up in Bob's dad's garden which was easy compared to trying to do any sort of tidying up in our own garden!  We also had a night with my mum and dad in Norfolk which was nice.  We then did shopping on our way home which included John Lewis in Peterborough to spend our house-warming vouchers from my sister.  I was quite surprised to get house-warming presents when we moved in, but apart from the vouchers we got homemade jam and cookies from Phil and Ann and a cake from  another neighbour - how nice of people.  Anyway, we then called in at our favourite place on the way home - yep Ikea again!!  Not very successful - we wanted to order a settee and a mattress for the spare bed to be delivered together.  Trouble was that Ikea mattresses don't relate in any way to British bed sizes.  We knew the bed was a kingsize, but because of the different mattress size we needed the exact measurements to make sure it would fit.  So we ended up not ordering either and poor Bob had to go again today.  Anyway, if they can find us, they should deliver on Thursday.  Blimey, that'll be a luxury won't it?  A sofa!  Apart from our trip away last week, we haven't sat on a soft seat for three and a half weeks!

Bob's chickens have been being naughty again.  We had the kitchen door open in all that nice weather and when Bob went in the kitchen one afternoon all the damsons had disappeared from the bowl on the table!  Yep, the twins are apt to come in and jump up on the table the bad girls.  Elvis doesn't of course - she doesn't really do jumping.  So, every time they come near the door now they get a washing up bowl of water thrown at them and now, if you hold the red washing up bowl out, they run a mile!  Wonder if we could just leave a spare washing up bowl in the doorway to keep them out?  Guess they'd soon realise that, by itself, it doesn't really pose a threat.  We'll have to think of something though because we certainly don't want them making a habit of standing on the table.

A week on . . . .

We've been out of the caravan for a whole week now and I really can't imagine living in it now.  Here are some of the little things that are a novelty for us (which everyone else probably would just take for granted):

*  You have to add a bit of cold to the washing up water (rather than boiling the kettle to heat it up)
*  Ditto the shower - well, obviously we didn't add boiling kettle water to the shower, but we didn't need to add cold
*  The pans fit on the hob, yes, even if you are using more than one!
*  We haven't had to share the bathroom with slugs (they were regular visitors in the caravan. . . . .  uughhh!  It makes me shudder to think about it).  Mind you, there are some humungous spiders in this house to replace the slugs!
*  You can bend down in the shower to pick up the soap
*  You don't have to wash up every two seconds to clear space when you're cooking
*  It can be windy or raining outside and we don't notice it!
*  We now have 'ready to go' clothes since I've washed and ironed most of them.  We used to have to plan several days in advance if we wanted to wear anything different so it could be washed and dried to get rid of the musty dampness.

So, our first week has had its ups and downs that's for sure.  The plumber came with the new manifold for the solar on Monday morning and he soon had the old one off and the new one up and in place.  He then found that they had changed the connections since he installed the old one, so he had to sort all that out on the roof which took ages.  Bear in mind that Monday was the extremely windy day with the tail end of hurricane Irene or whatever it was called - mmm, good day to be up on a roof!  We just got the tubes back on the roof before I had to go to work.  Oh, that made me laugh because I came in to get changed, but couldn't get upstairs because the plumber had our 'stairs' attached to the scaffold tower and his roof ladder!  Anyway, he got the solar stuff all connected and re-pressurised and left with us all thinking it would all be lovely now.  You're joking, the pressure had dropped significantly the next day and was absolutely zero by Wednesday . . . . 'Oh, bother' we all said!  So he came back again on Wednesday and checked all the joints again - fine.  So he took the pump station apart, disconnected the pipes from the manifold and blanked them off and attached pressure guages to them both.  This is to check that the pipes, which go through the roof behind the ceiling, are intact with no leaks.  Oh, what if we've put a nail or screw through a pipe?  We're sure we didn't because we were really careful, but you can't help wondering.  We'd have to rip the ceiling off - doesn't really bear thinking about.  Mind you, it probably wouldn't be as much of a nightmare for us as for many people, because at least we do know how to put it back again, it would just be such a pain.  Thankfully, there hasn't been much drop in pressure on those - phew!  He also put a pressure guage on the coil in the heat store in case that has a leak.  We're clutching at straws a bit here I have to say.  He phone every day or so to check what the readings are, but there is nothing obviously leaking.  So he has now ordered another pressure release valve for the pumping station, just in case that is faulty and is releasing pressure when it shouldn't.  WHAT A NIGHTMARE!  So, that's an ongoing saga which I will obviously up date you on again.

On Tuesday the chap came to sort the phone/internet out and that went well . . . . or so we thought!  The next day we couldn't get the internet at all and very lengthy calls to Orange in India couldn't resolve the problem.  They kept insisting we phone them on a mobile so they could test the landline and just couldn't understand that we couldn't because we can't get a signal here (no Orange coverage!).  Bob actually got quite annoyed with them - most unlike him.  So, I think we may be changing internet provider fairly soon!  In the end we borrowed a neighbours modem (to check if it was our modem that didn't like being moved).  Bob plugged that in and it worked, so he tried ours again and it worked too!!??  So, that's that problem solved.  Another neighbour with Orange said they'd had real problems this week, so I guess it was just a coincidence that it happened just after we moved operations to the house. 



My first cake in the new oven worked very well

 Other downs are that I'm not sure the electric oven is working properly - it was, but the last couple of things we've cooked in it have taken ages.  We bought an oven thermometer, but I'm not even sure if that is working properly.  So, that is an ongoing investigation too.  Also we took the CD player into the audio shop in Shrewsbury and their techy bloke took one look and said it wouldn't be worth repairing because the innards are so delicate no-one will touch them anymore.  Oh, that's sad because I did really like that player and we have really missed listening to CDs while we cook.  So, we did a very rash thing and splashed out on a new one, just like that, on the spur of the moment and without a second thought.  Not like us at all, but we had some accumulated birthday and Christmas money.  They had the updated version of our old one, but much neater and smaller and including a digital radio.   We then went and bought a couple of new CDs (there's nowhere to buy them in Oswestry which is frustrating).  As soon as we got home we plugged it all in, put in a new CD, turned the volume up and did a little jig round the kitchen with silly grins on our faces!  Good job no-one could see us.  You can have it on quite loud without being able to hear it outside - so, 18" thick stone walls have their advantages.

Today we've been putting pictures up to make this our home.
This is in our bedroom and the pictures are all baby photos
and other family shots.  The chimney breast needs some work to box in the
header tank on the right and make a wooden mantlepiece (and wardrobes
of course).



Also our bedroom (in case you hadn't guessed) - it's an odd
room to hang pictures with triangles and low spaces.



This is what that bit of the house used to look like - and this
after we'd done quite a lot of work on it.  This is actually the first
time we went upstairs together and I think you may have already
seen this photo.



Do you like our posh Axminster carpet?  We only put it down
when we have visitors you know!



Relaxing in front of the fire - what a life, eh?

 

Fun in paradise . . . NOT!!!

So, another whole week gone and here we are in September.  It's been really autumnal here with a definite chill in the air in the mornings, well on the way to being dark by 8.30pm and red and gold coming through on the trees.  We have been inundated with gifts of plums and apples from friends and neighbours - luckily our own seem to be holding back a bit and aren't quite ready yet.  We would also have a lovely crop of hazelnuts by now if the pesky squirrels hadn't already had them all off the trees and strewn along the lane while still green.  We have a little hazel in the middle of lots of holly and that kept its nuts much longer than the rest and we thought we might actually get to try some.  Then one day last week a squirrel found a way through the holly and stripped the lot!  I told you about the squirrel that has taken it upon itself to act as our alarm clock very early every morning throwing hawthorn stones on the caravan roof . . . well it is really, really getting annoying!  Bob has stormed out of bed a few times, grabbed the air rifle and gone hunting.  This morning I went and there were at least six of them at it!  We just don't seem to be able to get rid of them and we'd really love a lie-in!  HELP!!

Yesterday the plumber was supposed to come to fit the new manifold for the solar tubes . . . . . guess what?  He didn't come.  Apparently, the manifold (which was supposed to arrive while he was on his honeymoon) hadn't turned up and no-one knew anything about it.  I must admit, my first thought was that he hadn't done anything about it before he went away and I was seething about it all.  It turns out though that the manufacturer wants the manifold back to test before they will replace it.  The plumber is really annoyed because they won't pay for his time sorting it out (and obviously we aren't going to pay him for that time either), but that is between him and them.  We're just really annoyed that they won't take his word (as one of their accredited engineers) that the problem is a manufacturing one and replace the part up front.  It could take ages to get the part to them (in Ireland), have it tested, send a new one and get it fitted.  As it is, we've wasted all the summer's hot water potential and will now have to wait longer.  From a purely practical point of view, while they look at the manifold we will have to store 30 solar tubes safely and I really don't know how or where we will do that.  You can't leave them outside as they will still heat up, but have nowhere to dump the heat, we don't have the boxes or packing pieces and they will be in the way wherever we put them!    Aaaaarghhh!  Also yesterday my stereo went on the blink and no sound came out.  Does anyone repair these things anymore or are you supposed to just throw them away and get a new one?  I saved for months and months to buy that way back when I was a single mum and I really like it (no flashing lights or gizmos, just small, neat and smart).  Also, the fridge door won't close properly for some reason and, when I went to Marks and Spencer to pick up some of their real bargain, end of the day reduced stuff that I see go through the tills whenever I'm at work. . . . they didn't have any!!!  Aaaaand, the doors aren't back from the strippers because he is having trouble getting the gloopy varnish off.  So, by bedtime we were both feeling really annoyed and quite fed-up.  Not much fun to be had in paradise at the moment, that's for sure!

Still, today's another day and I have spoken to the chap from Warmflow in Ireland whose only suggestion was that we should buy another manifold to put straight on the roof when the other comes off and then if it turns out to be a manufacturing problem they will refund the money . . . . mmmmmm.  The plumber may have had a bit more luck with Warmflow's rep in England who is talking to the Director about it and says he will get a manifold to us.  We should know more on Monday.

On a more postive note (now I've had a real good moan) I have now tiled the new worktop in the utility room and it just needs grouting.  Bob has made a little peg board which is now fixed above the radiator in the ensuite for our towels, ooohh, toasty towels, can't wait.  He has also sorted out the bit of worktop to the side of the kitchen sink.  I think I told you ages ago about elaborate plans for the awkward space next to the inglenook which is too big not to use, but would be really awkward to get to with worktop around the sink.  Well, we've scrapped those plans and have a simpler solution.  In the alcove we will have a little dresser-type set of cupboards (eventually) but it will be accessable by having a drop-leaf worktop instead of a fixed one - dah, dah, problem solved.  Bob has also put the weather strips on the outside doors (the bits of wood on the outside that stop the rain dripping down the bottom of the door and inside).  They have been made for ages, just not attached.  Today he has been unearthing the telephone cable which wends its way around the garden to the caravan, but will of course need re-routing to the house and burying.  In order to do that, he had to move a big pile of logs and so he has also started constructing a log store.  We will need several I think for logs at various stages of seasoning.  Yesterday a chap came to sort out the gas connection for the cooker and this afternoon we wired it in.  So, I have been playing and I managed to set the timer and get it to come on and switch off automatically.  All quite exciting!  The grill pan is even big enough for more than two slices of toast at once which is really exciting after the tiny caravan one!

Everyone relaxing after a nice cup of tea this afternoon!
Sshhh, Elvis is actually asleep!!

Mickey's moved in!

Today we have had a visit from my Mum and Dad.  They are staying with friends half way between us and them, so took the opportunity for a day visit bringing their friends with them.  I think Mary and Colin have probably heard enough about this project over the last couple of years to feel as though they know the place quite well!  They came bearing gifts of absolutely huge eggs (they have 6,000 chickens!) and some bacon from their local farm . . . guess what we're having for tea!  It was nice to see them all and a good chance for Mum and Dad to catch up and to see what we've done with those manky old floor tiles they helped us clean last time they were here (kitchen floor).

This is the oak frame for the window in the end wall of the timber-frame room - odd shape isn't it?  The slope follows the roofline and it isn't an opening window, so although the joints were a bit awkward on the slope it was the simplest window to start with.  Bob has now cut the sticky-out bits off flush and I have given the outside side a couple of coats of protecting oil.  We have ordered the glass and that should be ready to collect on Monday.  With that fitted, we will have one less piece of burglar-proof polythene over a window opening which is good!

And here's the first bit of soft furnishing - I finally got all the bits and pieces (eye hooks, rings and cord) and finished the blind in the kitchen.  Behind the obvious piece of oak here are a couple of original pieces (much paler and harder to see) and there was quite a gap between them and the window frame at one corner.  It has all be filled with expanding foam, but I've been wondering for a while how to cover the gap and this blind gave the answer.  We had to mount a piece of wood for the blind to hang from so Bob used the piece he'd cut off the end of the table and left it big enough to go right back to the window from and, dah-dah, two birds killed with one stone and no-one will ever know!  Having a blind makes it look much more homely.  Do you know,  I was looking through a pile of magazines for curtain-inspiration and was amazed that none of the posh houses they show have anything up at the windows - how do they get that cosy-up feeling on a winter evening?  Just too trendy for their own good!  Next is the matching curtain for the other window in that room.  We are getting the curtain pole from a local blacksmith and that should be ready any day.  That will hang from some little coat hooks we got from the same shop as the door knocker and the iron chicken - just need to check if they are covered in brown paint like the knocker and, if so, sort them out.

While I was in interior decorating mood, I decided to hang our first picture.  I've had this for ages and really like it - the drawing is just so simple and so clever, I really wish I could draw like that.  I wasn't sure that it would actually look right anywhere, but then decided to try it in the bathroom which is quite modern-looking and I thought it fitted in quite well, except for the blue frame.  The bathroom really needs brightening up with some colour - it's very monochrome at the moment.  So out came the red paint and 'Bob's your uncle' so to speak.  With red towels and bath mat and other bits and pieces to make it more interesting, the whole room should look much better.

On Monday the plumber came to take another look at the solar tubes.  This time he went up on the roof to check the joints - they were all dry.  So he took one of the tubes out and felt in the hole it had come out of and guess what?  The insulation around it was absolutely sopping with glycol!  That means that something in the manifold is leaking which means it is a manufacturing problem - one of their braised joints.  So, we need a new manifold!  Now that's a bit of a pain, but I'm glad he's finally found a real problem and it can be sorted.  He's off to get married on Friday and then away in Mexico for the rest of the month, but we are booked in on his first day back at work on 1 Sept.  He also realised that there was no 'heat sink compound' in the hole where the tubes fit into the manifold.  This is a special heat conducting paste and is really important for transferring the heat.  So, hopefully with a new manifold and plenty of special gunk they should start working beautifully - make sure you keep your fingers crossed until September!  When he got here, he needed a ladder to get onto the roof and the little wooden one I fetched wasn't big enough.  Now, I knew we had a long extending aluminium ladder, but could I think where it was.  I was sure I hadn't seen it lying around for ages so thought it must be stored behind the top barns or something.  In the end I had to ask Bob where it was . . . . "Think!" he said and pointed to our 'stairs'.  D'oh, I've only been climbing up and down it every day to get upstairs - made the plumber laugh anyway!

Just realised, this is my 100th blog/post/message (whatever you call it) on the Elvis the Chicken Blog . . . . . . . sounds like a good reason to have a beer!  Cheers!!

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.

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.

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!

Hot water . . . . . . . not quite!

Well, the plumber was here Monday to Wednesday and got most things connected up.  I did think he might finish yesterday and we'd have running water (even hot water) . . . . . but, no.  I was a little disappointed, but he didn't want to connect to the mains at the end of a day and leave it to sprout leaks overnight - shouldn't he be a little more confident than that?!  I guess it makes sense.  Anyway, he should be here again tomorrow to finish off.  We just have to put the solar tubes on the roof (which we can't do until everything else is ready as they don't react well to creating heat and  not having anywhere for it to go) and connect the house to the mains supply.


Want to know how solar tubes work?  Skip this paragraph if not, but we had a lesson yesterday, so I have to pass on my new-found knowledge.  So, the tubes themselves (a bit like flourescent lights) have a bit of special liquid at the bottom (when they're on a sloping roof) and when the sun heats it this it turns to vapour and rises to the top of the tube.  Here the heat is transferred to the glycol mixture that is in the closed pipe system which runs along under the roof and into the leanto where the heat store is.  As the heat is transferred, the vapour cools and condenses and runs back to the bottom of the tube to begin again.  The glycol mixture runs through a coil in the heat store and the heat is transferred to the water in the tank.  When you turn a hot tap on, mains water runs through another coil in the heat store and takes the heat from the water in the tank  and then pootles along to the tap.  Simple really!  Amazing that the heat is transferred so many times before we will actually feel it.  Yesterday the plumber put  water in the system and pressure tested it, then when he was happy there were no leaks he put the glycol in, so it's all primed and ready to go - just need some water in the heat store so there is somewhere for the heat to go.

This is the heat store - quite a lot of gubbins connected
to it isn't there?  The black pipes are to and from the solar
tubes and the white tank is for the glycol.  Then there are pipes
to and from the backboiler and, of course, cold water in and
hot water out.  All connected up - just waiting for some water!

Although he didn't quite finish yesterday, a lot has been done this week and below are some pictures of our new additions.  The electrician also managed to come for the morning yesterday, so he was able to wire up the downstairs shower, solar pump and controller and the immersion heater.




A loo at last - all connected up, just waiting for some water!



The upstairs sink all connected up - just waiting for some water!



The upstairs shower all ready to go - just waiting for some water!
Actually, the glass screen and door may be a good idea
too, otherwise we'll be having a shower in the kitchen too
I think!



Our little cast iron radiator in the ensuite, all connected up -
you've guessed it, just wating for some water.  We're going to put a
couple of hooks on the wall above so we have nice toasty towels.
Can't wait, damp towels is one of the downsides of caravan life.

While the plumber has been here we've been hanging around as usual in case he needs anything and checking things are where we want them, but we have also got some jobs done.  I've snuck in a bit more decorating and all the painting in the kitchen is now done except for a few bits of touching up.  You know when you're painting it's the corners and edges that take the time?  Well, the kitchen is nothing but corners and edges with all the oak posts and beams!  Bob has carried on digging holes for drains - these holes seem to have been there for ages and it'll be good to get the pipes in and cover them all back in again.  We finally put the guttering around the extension after I painted it all, so that is ready to connect to the pipe to the soakaway.  This afternoon we put the closure plate in the inglenook.  This basically blocks off the rest of the chimney.  The woodburner is connected to a flue liner that goes right to the top of the chimney, so you don't need a big open chimney sucking heat away like you do with an open fire.  We had to make the plate ourselves - you can buy them, but only for little square chimneys, not great big uneven shaped ones like ours.  It was a real pain to do and put in place because, of course, the woodburner and flue are in the way.  Anyway, it's done and very glad we are too.

While I was painting the guttering up by our top barns earlier in the week, the chickens were happily scratching around in the woods behind the barns.  Suddenly one of them started making a real noisy fuss.  Usually that doesn't mean anything, but we do go and check just in case.  So I went to see what was what and as I walked round the corner a buzzard flew from a fairly low branch and across the field.  Wonder if it was thinking that the babies might like chicken for tea?  Anyway, the girls weren't too perturbed and just carried on bumbling around as usual.

A 'sorting out' sort of week



Oooh! That looks painful



I didn't go up on the roof on Monday - Bob seemed quite keen to do the rufty tufty bit, so I did my usual builder's mate job of passing and holding things (and weeding the garden at the same time).  We had to rig up a sturdy carrier bag on a rope for passing things up and down - or Bob just threw them down and I retrieved.  It definitely looks tonnes better without the big, bright orange rubber grommets for the pipes to go through and it is nice to know that they are sealed properly.  The lime mortar the roofer chap put under the ridge tiles in the middle of the big freeze actually wasn't as bad as we thought is might be and was fairly solid.  Because lime mortar takes a long time to go off, the water in it can freeze in the meantime and that 'blows' the joint and it just crumbles, but it seemed OK so Bob just tidied it up.  Good job done!

Spot the difference - yeah, the bright orange
bit have gone (the bits where the pipes go into the
roof in case you didn't spot it)

We have had a bit of a 'sorting out' week.  The planners insisted that the timber extension should be 'subserviant' to the stone part.  Alright for them, they didn't have to build it and work out all the measurements!  Anyway, that means that the gutter needs a dog-leg in it, but of course you can't just buy them - at least not in cast iron (another planning need).  We got an ordinary right angle bend, but needed to attach another piece to it.  Not many people weld cast iron now, it can be a bit awkward to do I think.  Bob rang around a bit and one chap's name came up a few times so we went round to see him last night and he was quite happy to do it and we collected it today - brilliant.  He was a 'good old boy' with a canal-side workshop that used to be the bone-burning building for glue manufacture in a village about 5 miles away.  He also makes hinges, etc and seems to be able to turn his hand to most things, so he could be useful to know.

We also sorted out the work tops for the kitchen (the brickwork is now done ready for the sink).  Bob rang round all the local timberyards asking about 2" beech.  Can you believe that one had some at the back at their shed and as it had been there for a while they said we could have it for about half the price any of the others were asking - fantastic.  So we went and collected that yesterday.  Bob started on that today . . . . we actually think the piece he started on might be sycamore (it's paler than beech and doesn't have the same flecks in it), but it is a nice piece of wood and there's enough to do all the bit round the sink so we'll be having sycamore there.  We are actually trying NOT to have everything matching so are quite happy to have beech for the other bits.

Tomorrow we are going to collect a washing machine.  Now that will be strange after two and a half years of going to the launderette.  I suppose we could connect it to the outside tap and let it drain into the bath, but I think we'll be patient for another week or so and wait until the plumber has been and we can connect it properly.  It's funny, I used to think launderettes were quite scary places - well the one where we used to live certainly was (I certainly wouldn't go there after dark!).  Doing just one big wash a week and not thinking about it the rest of the time has been quite nice in a way, but I will be glad to be able to do it here.  Just need to get used to an ordinary size machine again.

I have also tiled the floor in the utility room - so we can build the frame for the sink to sit on before the plumber comes.  Because the tiles are the same as the ones in the bathroom and the hall, I had to lay the strip down the side of the hall first so the bathroom floor and the utility line up with the hall.  I haven't done the rest of the hall yet though bec\use we're not quite ready for that to be a 'clean area' just yet.  I did a bit more decorating this afternoon.  I started off just doing the bit under the kitchen sink - before it's in which is just so much easier.  As I had all the stuff out, I carried on and did the whole of that quarter of the kitchen, ceiling and all.  I'd quite happile decorate all of it, but have to stop myself and get on with more important things first, but I'm gradually sneaking bits in!

I did some fruit harvesting yesterday afternoon.  I picked all the gooseberries - a bit green and crunchy and very sour (yes, we did try them raw!), but I'm going to make a bit (a very small bit) of gooseberry and elderflower icecream which needs them to be picked now.  We have loads of blackcurrants, but the blackbird is quicker off the mark at harvesting the ripe ones than me.  I did get some though and they are in a jar with some sugar and vodka - yum, alcoholic ribena!  There was also one raspberry and two little wild strawberries. . . . . I just ate them!  I also made a batch of elderflower cordial which is lovely and refreshing on a hot afternoon.