Lockdown low point

 Thinks I have reached the bottom. I have been in this house too long. This week I find myself wandering around with a scalpel, metal polish, PVC reviver, cloths, and other bits of kit. I am looking for those blobs and smears of paint on the casings on door furniture, plugs and light switches. 

I know. Its pathetic to get pleasure from taking a minuscule bit of old paint off and rebuffing. On my way round I have noticed we are missing at least 4 radiator caps too!!!  (And I am hatching a plan to clean all the radiators and repaint them.)

Less than a £10 for these new caps...... mmmmm .... I may shop on line. But that may be a bit of dangerous living and I may get carried away..... I did last week and spent £80 on underwear and pyjamas* for us both!

I blame daytime TV for my obsession with the paint blobs. I was watching a house renovation show and that Simon O'Brian said the sale was in the close details.  Daytime TV, another dangerous living thing.

I shall go off and live dangerously vicariously through books in front of the fire for the rest of today. Found a different way to search the County library catalogue and found my way through the filters to a different set of books! Plus husband found a way to download from Amazon free access to Kindle on both our tablet things - so we now have access to more free reading! 

* Blame my youngest for this obsession. He started to worry about us going into hospital at short notice and sent us a spare mobile and wanted us to write down our prescription needs and generally be prepared. Result of which was I realised we didn't need phones or anything fancy, what we would need is pyjamas as all our nightwear is not fit to be seen. We do have a bit of emergency kit but it has sadly been neglected of late and I must replace some spare toothbrushes and stuff. 

Going old fashioned with polishing

 Remember this?

Its the sort of thing my mother would have had in her cupboard and I can't even remember why I brought it but it must have been at least 8 years ago judging by the price label. This week it was dug out of the shed and came it to its own!

To explain. We have been renovating our en suite and my one insistence was the radiator had to go.  It was a alongside the loo and so close your thigh got burnt if you stayed too long in the winter. Husband says he is getting a smaller loo (at great cost more than a standard one) but can't move it over.   So the bathroom suite and radiator have come out. In our good environmental ways we re cycled (Free); the loo and washbasin, which beside size had nothing wrong with them, via the local Facebook group to someone's daughter renovating a very down at heel house in a very deprived area of the nearby town.  But the radiator was a bitty tatty, mostly as you could never had maintained it as to was too close to the loo!

Over a couple of days I spent a couple of hours washing it off, using the above to give it a shine and using the wet kitchen foil trick to renovate the chrome.

It went on the Facebook site and was soon gone. 

I was impressed with the deep shine of the Silvo wadding on chrome ever since I have been wandering round the house putting a lovely shine on all bits and pieces - bathroom radiator, taps, chrome legs of TV stand, chrome light switch covers, door handles, oven handle........  Obviously nothing silver in this house to practise on as we not rich enough for anything in precious metals beyond the wedding ring!

Better shine than I have got for years with any of the spray stuff. Can't beat the old fashioned ways can you?

My self isolation list..

Forget food or loo rolls, I am preparing a list of all those annoying little jobs that get put off for more interesting stuff or going out somewhere. 

A period of staying home and we can knock them all on the head.

• Replace sealant round bath and washbasin.
• Replace and re-site pole for front door curtain
• Take the layers of paint off the banister up the stairs
• Hang some pictures
• Level the conservatory floor with self levelling cement
• Re design the layout of pots and tubs just outside the kitchen window.
• Put new springs in the settees where they have failed and we sit in a dip!

I could go on and on. Don't need much delivered in the way of food as we are fast putting in seeds etc for season of own grown fruit and veg to see us through the bat-flu "delay" stage to summer. But I may need deliveries from Amazon or B&Q!!!

Then we have our list of new things to learn. Husband is learning to use his ipad to fly a drone. He's started making a new bookcase (been 5 years on the "I must" list) while I have to learn some new stuff to do more on YouTube (Grow to eat) channel. I am starting some new painting techniques in acrylics. Planning some new sewing ideas - fitted Bermuda shorts are my aim this season.

Been to the library today and stocked up for this month. TV will be as boring as ever so we are looking for some new You Tube people to follow and enjoy other peoples adventures round the world. I have become fascinated by Magnetic George. lad who fishes in rivers and canals in midlands and gets out all sorts of metal objects - worryingly a lot of guns!  Husband is watching people going to Antarctica, Norway and Faroes to photograph landscape. Could he not watch somewhere warmer?

Have you got your list of "what I can do" if forced to stay home ready?

Draining "board"

When my husband re fitted the kitchen with his bespoke hand made units and thick wooden top round a ceramic sink we could not work out what to do about a draining board.  We have a dish washer but there is always some odd thing to put down wet.  For ages we managed with a plastic box lid but it got scuffed and dirty.

The other day one of those catalogues of household "stuff" and "things" came with the seed order and I saw the answer!

A plastic draining "board" with a lip to run water into the ceramic sink. A tray to hold things up and a cutlery box. It works quite well.  If I had an option I would want it 1" smaller all round as it would fit better in the space.

So those catalogues are not a waste of paper and time after all!

More tidy storage in manshed

I few months ago I wrote about my husband finally tidying the store of his clamps (top of this picture). He has now brought some magnetic strips that hold all his spanners (bottom of this picture)

I am now worried. This as tidy as he has been since we married in 1971. LOL

Meanwhile the 3 boys are on the family What's App link at 11pm at night discussing which chop saw is a best buy.

 It definitely runs in the family!!!

Trees and choosing a house

After many house moves (after all our own children call us "house gy*psies") we have developed a criteria of what is good and what is bad about potential homes. As far as trees go, we love them and welcome them. Except our one rule, after one bad experience, has been:

 NEVER buy a house with those b...y conifer hedges ever again!!

Today we have added a new rule:

           NEVER buy a house with those b......y ELDERBERRY bushes/trees ever again!!

Because every two years you have to do this:

And that was the small one, If I had turned round there is one twice as big overshadowing a shed and blocking light from a shrub bed.

The possibility of a south westerly wind on a dry-ish day  so we can have a bonfire in the next two months is probably remote so no hurry to clear this lot down to the bonfire.

I do love the elder-flowers in the spring but the things grow like crazy if you let them get away from you.

Husband breaks down

Depressed husband this Saturday lunch time. "My workshop vacuum cleaner thing is broken".
The end of the world as we know it has occurred.
Unsympathetic wife. "When did you last empty it? 2018? Changed the filters? Last 5 years?"
I tried that he claimed. Went to have a look.


3 mins 45 seconds later (including the walk to the shed)  all mended.
 (He'd taken a secondary inlet valve's cap off and not put it back on).


When you need a job done call a WOman!!




"Now I' ve saved you several hundred £££££, can I have a new ....????"

Potatoes are in

Some may think its a little early, but we live in a very dry part of East Anglia and have found if we leave it till  Easter (the traditional time to plant potatoes) then the soil at depth has already dried out too much.

My husband borrowed this hand drawn ridger from our ancient neighbour to make the furrows and then go back down and make the ridges. The sub soil was damp, but full of worms, and the top loose and dry.  We ended up with 5 and a half rows. 2 First early and the rest Main crop. the last row was a mix of all the left over little ones from each of the main crop bags.  That left half a row in this first veg bed. So I re dug it to make sure their was no couch grass, thistles or docks and planted some spinach. Not done this outside before (we have done it in poly tunnel previously) but we were watching Charles Dowdling You Tube on spinach and he recommended this method outside and planting the whole module with no thinning. You pick the spinach leaves at a very small and young stage. So far, looking good but as it has not rained for a few weeks and the water butts up veg end are empty I have been trolling up and down from the house end with watering cans from those butts to bed the spinach in.

In the next plot my husband has planted 4 rows of onions grown from seeds and they are taking well and making good progress.  They enjoy the sunny open area.

In other bits of the veg beds we are trying to be much more no dig. I have been experimenting with putting some thick plastic on top of the autumn dug soil which is already showing invasive weeds - speedwell and thistles.

After 3 weeks I went back for a look. The thistles were up but spindly and loose, the speedwell had lost its grip on the soil and were easy to get the whole thing up (rather than it snapping at the base and leaving the roots to re grow).  So a quick surface turn over and re-cover and I will probably plant some beetroot there as there is just enough space between the brassica netted area and the garlic on the right. We are doing beetroot in the Charles Dowdling method to give them a head start - several in each module and then just plant them as a whole and thin as they grow.

Lots of heavy work this week in the veg garde, plus the fence is finally repaired.

Ok, not pretty and, yes, that metal joining piece is part of a big hinge off the old outside loo door! One day I will paint this side of the fence, or, I am going to cover it with climbing plants. The latter may be difficult as on our side, it is actually an old horse menage with 3 foot of sand under that grass so we would have to make containers at regular intervals to plant in.

Lovely day today and looking forward to some sewing time this weekend.  I have just been to the village to get some bread and on the way back cleared up some litter in the verges, then as I neared our house I wondered what this brown lump was in the middle of the road.

It was someone's MacDonald's breakfast bag!!! It had not been there when I went out 15 minutes earlier. Put photo on the village Facebook page straight away with the hopes of shaming them.

Storm damage

The recent storm winds have left us with a lot of work.

Its about 9 panels worth of fencing. We had been making great progress this spring so it was the last thing we needed. We (husband) are putting it back as we had spent enough on our weekend away. 10 bags of ballast, one bag of concrete and 5 new wooden posts plus 2 extra packets of biscuits should do it.

The neighbour whose land it fell on has carefully avoided us. The neighbour the other side who offered to help staggered out yesterday morning with gout! Poor chap. As he gives us lifts to railway stations early mornings and late at night we immediately offered to help him by cutting his grass around the house. Nothing worse than being confined indoors and looking at your lawns in a mess!

In all, several good gardening days lost to the fence rebuild.  It won't be perfect but not prepared to invest in replacement. I could just paint it so all the patches look the same, if and when, a house buyer has to make a judgement!

Meanwhile I have committed myself to stand as a Parish Councillor in May. Not sure if I will be good, but I certainly can't be worse than the village mafia in there now.

Rhubarb

 What's under here?

Early rhubarb!

A couple of days later and we have enough for a little bit stewed and served with custard.  Very welcome.

We don't have any bigger pots, so will have to choose a mild day to start hardening it off now and then let it grow away.
The sticks (broken canes) poking out the tops have kept the pots in place despite so strong winds and are loose enough for the rhubarb to push the pots up if they grow to much.

Meanwhile seeds are being sown every few days and are popping up quickly in the conservatory - after that they go to be looked after in the greenhouse.

Had some chilly starts this week so I am finding some odd jobs indoors till after 10am. I am trying to turn this unpainted door white. 3 coats of undercoat later and half a tub of wood filler for the cracks and nicks in it and it is coming along.

One step forward, one back

Its been a stressful week here. One lovely almost spring day when I wandered round without a coat and did some serious spring prep gardening and then 3 days of rain and wind. Still, not too cold considering, and things are coming on and seeds are popping up in the propagator.

Husband has discovered YouTube videos on gardening and is exploring how to have his own channel.  Keeps him quietly occupied.

My laptop has been replaced by a cheap tablet and I am busy congratulating myself on getting to grips with it.  I have managed to down load an app and can now borrow e books for free from my library. I still prefer paper so will still be going for a bag full of books every 3 weeks.   I have to download another app thing to read free magazines which will be worthwhile - Gardeners World, Artists, etc. which I would not pay for.
Usually I have a mental melt down when I have to deal with software and downloads but I have coped quite well.  I shall pop out to the sewing room to make it a cosy case later.

Local mobile carpet dealer managed to fit our new bedroom carpet in 1.5 hours. Pretty good. We have waited 4 years + as the floor boards had to keep coming up for electrical work to be done. But I have declared a halt on any major investments in this property now as we will never get the return on it. And I wanted a carpet!  it is warm and cosy now.

Before with the scratched white painted boards we inherited.

During the furniture piled up

After.  Took 3 days to put it all back!

So that's the forward - why backwards?  The boiler is still on the blink and we are operating it manually.  so first out of bed puts it on for an hour, last one in the house after breakfast has to turn it off. and so on, all day. The electronic gizmo is not working and the return valve sticks and pumps the heating till we boil (literally). Shaun the plumber, lives round the corner,  came round on his way home and puzzled it out for a bit, next day he quoted £30 for the bit. We just need him to come home early one night so he can tackle it in the daylight.

Few flurries of snow

It is cold but our frosts so far have been light and the snow no more than one 20 min flurry.  Still cold out there so been trundling around indoors for what feels like days and days.  Except when I went to post a birthday card and took the opportunity to go up the footpath through the village churchyard. Bit muddy but could be pleasant in the summer.  Next time I will take my camera.

For Xmas we were given 4 of these micro-wavable bowls with plastic lids. They have pop up round bits that let out the steam.  Reheated some shepherds pie and some sponge pudding and custard yesterday and they worked a treat.  Must write to the person who gave us the gift with thanks.

We have had a curtain across our front door for ages but it really was not a good fit and this last week the drafts were noticeable.  I remembered I had a length of not very exciting stone coloured upholstery fabric stashed away so I dug it out and made a new curtain.  Not quite enough matching ribbon for all the ties to go round the curtain pole above the door so reused the old blue ones until I am in town again.

I have been taking 20 to 30 minutes out of the day to put a second coat of white emulsion on the walls of the kitchen.  I have been doing it in sections as doing any thing in a kitchen is disruptive to meal prep!  We still have not got the tiles for the windowsill and I was fed up with the grotty bit of plastic protecting the sill and splash back.  I decided to sacrifice a length of a wipe clean PVC coated tablecloth we use on the dinning table (its too big anyway) and it makes a very pleasant alternative to the missing tiles.

My laptop is getting worse. (nearly 10 years old) Its right click to do spellcheck will not load, Soon my posts will be gibbberish.

Painting

Our big task this summer has been to paint one of the sheds and my log cabin. At last they are all done and looking pretty.

We have added a clock over the door.

I redid the window frames, door and bits round the roof of the machinery shed with a dark green which gave a nice contrast.

Then my husband decided to make a new shed for the storage of his dingy.

He has cut out the base and will put gravel over it to make sure it is well drained. Not that we have seen much rain in the last 5 months.

Not to waste the nice grass that was there we took it up the field to the veg garden to make a new path. We have decided to reduce the area we grow veg in and paths help divide up the veg garden so we (actually, me) will find it easier to weed the small sections.

Now we have finished painting outside for the present and I am taking some time to get back to some hobby painting.   I needed some inspiration so ordered a few library books. One called Daily Painting suggested setting yourself a target of doing 4 small paintings every day of absolutely anything. That helped.

I then found this book by Fiona Pert whose style I liked. One of her exercises was a multi coloured sheep.  How come my sheep look demented or cartonish?

I will bear with the instructions and keep trying !

Wigwam or Tepee?

Last year I made the grandkids 3 hobby horses on broomsticks for the summer holidays. This year I made them a wigwam. My son called it a tepee.  My 4 year old grandkids  called it a tent and had no idea of a cultural background. Wild west or "Cowboy and Indian" films obviously not on CBBC or Tiny Pop or these other channels??

It was made of 4 of my husbands best giant thick bamboo poles (not needed as we were only going for one row of runner beans this year) and four cloth triangles. I used one half of a white king sized duvet and a long length of thin black cotton dress material (donated free to me) from my stash. No great loss as it was so thin it was no good for dresses and I had already had 3 blouses out of it.  So cost nothing except a few afternoons puzzling out the mechanics.  Secured at top with string in a hem and made a door way by splitting one triangle and putting a facing on it with odd ribbons sewn in to fasten up.  I did sew heavy washers into the corners thinking I could use the wire hoops from the veg netting to pin the sides but the ground was too hard and this was last piece of green grass in the garden.  So I made a hem in the excess material round the bases and threaded in some old roofing battens from the scrap/fire wood pile on three sides which held it out nicely as long as it was not too windy. Old bed covers for sitting on  and stretching out to provide a play patio.

It went down very well, as you can see the giant lego stuff was out here and not all over lounge floor to trip up Granddad. Teddy spent time in the tent and often came flying out. It was a good shady place to send one fractious girl with a digital device who was tired, hot and wanted to watch a cartoon when we were all having a cup of tea and chatting and did not want to go indoors.  Not strong enough for the 18 month old of substantial proportions to practice his standing up skills though.

On reflection how I may improve it next year I did think I would keep an eye out for those kids duvets in the charity shops with the garish characters and it may be something they relate to. I think the kids would like that and it would thicken the sides up a bit. I would also fasten the triangle seams to the poles on the insides it was a pain re lining it up each time it got a bit out of line.

They are all gone to the west Country to annoy their other grand parents now. Poles returned to garden stash, string rewound in the shed, wigwam rolled up and stashed. Hobby horses stacked in corner.  Left the bunting up tied to the bushes and fences for a while.  Bit like after Christmas when you take down the tree.

Come back next summer!  But please get out of nappies - my bin has a stench all of its own and it is not collected for another week!!

Cabin Painting

The log cabin we had put up 2 years ago for me to sew, paint and craft in has been looking very sad for some time.  We had followed instructions and put preservative on it at great expense but it was going grey and mottled.  Feeling very disappointed (a little bit that it had been a waste of money) we sought expert advice.  Nothing clear on the web so we went to a trade paint centre on the industrial estate.

We met an enthusiastic rep (up from the big city) who was a bit of an expert. Any way he sold us some paint that is used on swedish wooden houses.  Its lovely stuff, thick, creamy with great coverage. As its been so dry for weeks we hurried to get the first coat on all round - working in the cool bits of the day and in the shadow. 

We could not reach high enough so my husband raided the firewood stash and built a platform!  He hates heights, usually balking at standing on a chair. I was round the corner holding on to the washing line as the drugs from root canal extraction had knocked me sideways. I will help tomorrow.

Here is a picture of intrepid painter!

Its lovely sage green and we will get a small tin of cream for the windows. I shall not tell you the price - suffice to say it needed a sharp intake of breath!

Kitchen

The handmade units (by my husband) are all in and the kitchen is functioning really well. A quiet morning so I took some pictures before any fruit and veg glut came in to be dealt with.

At some point we will tile the window sill and give the walls a second coat of brilliant white emulsion and we intend to get some "pretty" things. At the moment I am just enjoying it!  The tops are extra deep  and three of the cupboards are very narrow so I am looking for storage boxes that will fit down the back for long term storage of all those odds and ends.
I am loving the open space underneath it makes running a broom and mop round really easy. At least better than the narrow odd base boards that were all falling off that we inherited 3 years ago,

Nearly there

The sink unit is in, the sink in place, the top has been fitted!

Just waiting for Sean the plumber!!!

Sink unit

Getting to the end of this never ending kitchen refit.  Son visited over bank holiday to supply some muscle in demolition and bringing in the new unit.

Out went the old wobbly unit and sink, which allowed for cleaning and quickly painting the wall.

A temporary stand was installed and the taps reconnected to allow meals to be made for a day.

We only needed the stand for a while and it has since been used as a stand for implements while we had a BBQ and is now being modified to hold the old sink which will form an outdoor washing area near the veg plot.

The new (hand built) unit was tried out with the Butler's sink.  Since then its been in, out, in, out, in out - for final adjustments like leveling, shimming round the water meter which was 15mm out of planned position and extra brace across  the back.

The taps are re connected but not the drains or dish washer.  Its a bit like camping.

Housemaid's knee

My damaged knee has gone down but is sore to kneel on.  Amazing what you need a right knee for. 

The weather is up and down. Monday it rained all day till just as the sun set. So I painted the kitchen wall to cover the new plaster.  All the low parts done by leaning sideways rather than kneeling. We were contemplating a colour emulsion but now like the brightness so much we may stay white. Least it will be cheap to re paint.  Still waiting for the sink unit to go in.

Tuesday it was sunny and reasonably warm so we tackled the grass. Nice to be out side.  Any work with shears is definitely off the agenda for a while.  Husband was on his ride on mower and I used his new lawn mower.  Its got an automatic starter and a big box and is very easy to use. Did not quite get in all done 75%.

Wednesday it rained until 2.33 pm exactly and then the sun shone brilliantly.  I had to collect the prescriptions from the health centre round the corner and decided to walk down taking a plastic bag and some work gloves with me. So fed up with litter in the village I have decided each walk I will try to collect a bit. I did a village clean up a couple of weeks ago with similar minded villagers.  My bag was half full when I came to the layby. Window frames, soil pipes and down pipes.

Our council now charges for DIY waste at Recycling centres and insists that fly tipping will not increase.  How stupid is that? This lot would have cost someone at least £12 at the recycling centre. I passed this layby yesterday just after noon so it had not been there long. Reported it by 3.30 and on village Facebook page to so if anyone saw the guilty person.  So annoying.

Emergency DIY

We have had this pine king size bed frame for 35 years, and have taken it apart and rebuilt it to move and decorate probably as many times, but last week was the first time it actually broke!

It has creaked for ages, husband had complained about sagging, then suddenly there was a loud crack and we were tipped at 45 degree angle.

Took everything off, collected all the tools from the workshop and set about repairs and maintenance.

Scrapped the inner length of wood which had snapped at a knot which had a screw right through it half way along and found two odd bits of planned timber; held them in with clamps while we carefully made sure they were exactly level with the other side.  Listing is only enjoyable if you are sleeping on a boat not in the house!
One joint needed to be re glued and knocked back in.
All the other bolts were loose and needed a few turns with a big screwdriver.

Replaced the wooden slats and this time put in some new, longer, screws to hold them firm. Not sure why on the last move we had used such short ones - suspect we were in a hurry and had not really looked since.

Any way, by coffee time the bed was reassembled and re made. All good for another 35 years?  We have promised ourselves a new one with a padded headboard many times but this so comfortable we keep putting it off and wondering if the £600 or £700 for a plush bed would be worth it.

Emergency dealt with we could get on with more work in the kitchen. Do you like this vintage wall paper we found behind the cupboard?

I found it quite endearing and reminded me of my Grandmother's kitchen in the 1950/60s. I am sure she had this one.