posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
madelinekelly at 10:34pm on 13/03/2010 under house
madelinekelly at 10:34pm on 13/03/2010 under houseLadies! A top tip for hair-styling. If you get a sufficient quantity of concrete dust in your hair you will no longer need to wash it. Also, it will eventually form a kind of squidgy mass which you can sculpt into any shape you like. Also also, apparently concrete dust doesn't just brush out. Feel free to imagine how stylish I've looked during the last week or two.
Monday I taught at the private school, and phoned various insurance companies to amend/cancel various policies. Also dashed to bank and post office and supermarket and library. Ate sandwich in car, then off to evening teaching. Matt spent the whole day at the house, then went to the cinema with his brother in the evening (to see Avatar). I ate mashed potato and broccoli and faffed about with laundry.
Tuesday I taught at school in morning. Visited dad at his garage (also to drop of cheque for car repair) and complained at length about how much everything was going to cost and how seemingly trivial things that we'd thought we could leave until much later on now apparently had to be done before the essential things could be fixed. More teaching in afternoon. Matt very depressed about graphic design work. Enigmatic text from dad just before midnight, showing that I'd managed to change his mind about money/work during our conversation -- just as he'd manage to change my mind! Heh.
Wednesday I taught at school in morning. Home for lovely dinner with Matt. Off out teaching again. Relaxing evening finishing Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones. Didn't like the ending, and wished the book could've gone on for several hundred more pages. Oh well.
Thursday we both went up to the house in the morning, where lovely man from electricity authority gave us a proper meter (up until then we'd had a key meter thing, where you basically had to put £20 in every couple of weeks). Turns out he's in the Southern Young Farmers' Club, so he knows my little brother. Small island, of course. Matt hacked at the front bedroom wall, while I shovelled up rubble and carted the sacks downstairs. Organised more quotes from builders/joiners/etc. Nice windowmaker man turned up while I was making dinner and explained about sash windows and all the different things you can do with them. Roofer never showed up. Dashed back to chicken-keeping friend's house, got changed, then dashed off again to old Victorian prison for one last skeet before they sell off all the furnishings and gut the place. Interesting seeing inside it, but no use for us -- we'd been hoping they were going to sell off the floorboards too (which we desperately need) but apparently not. Then I went off to evening teaching, while Matt visited his parents. Interrupted final lesson to watch the International Space Station whizz past overhead. Stayed for tea with Matt's dad, and played Scrabble. Lovely night.
Friday morning I had a pupil at 9.00am. Then off to the house to wait for roofer. Took up more carpet, and stripped the rotten underlay off the upper staircase, while Matt finished off the green bedroom. Roofer arrived and was lovely, as always. Swept the kitchen roof. Matt removed the strange wooden pergola thing that was getting in the way over the back yard -- discovering in the process the true joy of power tools. To tip with rubble, then B&Q for futile search through hardware sale but did at least buy sandpaper. Back to house to collect more rubble sacks. Tried sanding a beam in the attic -- much quicker than with electric sander, oddly enough. Back to chicken-keeping friend's house for quick shower, then off to evening teaching. Matt made lovely sausage pasta bake for tea, and we all sat around staring vacantly at bad TV programmes until bedtime.
Saturday morning I had a pupil at 9.30am. Then off to house because one of my adult pupils wanted to come and see it. Gave them the tour (she and her husband were gratifyingly impressed with the potential), and they surprised us by offering to give us their old scaffolding and ladders. Wonderful! The husband dropped by later on to unload the scaffolding, and we think it'll make a lot of the up-coming jobs easier, safer and cheaper. Bought bouquets for Mothering Sunday. Sanded more of the beams. Matt joined in. Mum and her husband turned up for a look round, and we all had a cup of tea. More sanding after they left. Then Matt's brother popped round. More sanding. Then B&Q for face masks and plastic crates. To Matt's parents for a cup of tea. Home for tea.
Pictures!
The front bedroom, once a lime green and black monstrosity, is now this lovely thing:
It has, rather unexpectedly, become my favourite room in the house.
Now that Matt has figured out how to open and close the terrace door, I've been able to get out there and sweep up all the moss and sedum. Here it is:
Some of the railings are badly corroded, but they're mostly sound. Yesterday morning, when it was sunny and not very windy, we sat out there and basked in the heat. It was tremendous. We haven't decided what to call it. "Terrace" seems a bit posh for what it really is. It isn't really a "deck". And "the kitchen roof" is a bit of a mouthful. We might settle for "the roof", possibly. Any thoughts?
I'm quite pleased about these stairs:
Good, solid wood underneath the damp orange underlay gunk. And I'm still in love with that wall.
Finally, a bit of a beam:
It took a while to get it this clean (all the big beams are coated in very thick black paint), but I'm glad I started doing it. I think the attic will be a lot less oppressive with waxed wooden beams and white-painted walls and ceiling.
Anyway, that's what we've been doing this week. I am SO TIRED, but still mostly enjoying the process.
Monday I taught at the private school, and phoned various insurance companies to amend/cancel various policies. Also dashed to bank and post office and supermarket and library. Ate sandwich in car, then off to evening teaching. Matt spent the whole day at the house, then went to the cinema with his brother in the evening (to see Avatar). I ate mashed potato and broccoli and faffed about with laundry.
Tuesday I taught at school in morning. Visited dad at his garage (also to drop of cheque for car repair) and complained at length about how much everything was going to cost and how seemingly trivial things that we'd thought we could leave until much later on now apparently had to be done before the essential things could be fixed. More teaching in afternoon. Matt very depressed about graphic design work. Enigmatic text from dad just before midnight, showing that I'd managed to change his mind about money/work during our conversation -- just as he'd manage to change my mind! Heh.
Wednesday I taught at school in morning. Home for lovely dinner with Matt. Off out teaching again. Relaxing evening finishing Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones. Didn't like the ending, and wished the book could've gone on for several hundred more pages. Oh well.
Thursday we both went up to the house in the morning, where lovely man from electricity authority gave us a proper meter (up until then we'd had a key meter thing, where you basically had to put £20 in every couple of weeks). Turns out he's in the Southern Young Farmers' Club, so he knows my little brother. Small island, of course. Matt hacked at the front bedroom wall, while I shovelled up rubble and carted the sacks downstairs. Organised more quotes from builders/joiners/etc. Nice windowmaker man turned up while I was making dinner and explained about sash windows and all the different things you can do with them. Roofer never showed up. Dashed back to chicken-keeping friend's house, got changed, then dashed off again to old Victorian prison for one last skeet before they sell off all the furnishings and gut the place. Interesting seeing inside it, but no use for us -- we'd been hoping they were going to sell off the floorboards too (which we desperately need) but apparently not. Then I went off to evening teaching, while Matt visited his parents. Interrupted final lesson to watch the International Space Station whizz past overhead. Stayed for tea with Matt's dad, and played Scrabble. Lovely night.
Friday morning I had a pupil at 9.00am. Then off to the house to wait for roofer. Took up more carpet, and stripped the rotten underlay off the upper staircase, while Matt finished off the green bedroom. Roofer arrived and was lovely, as always. Swept the kitchen roof. Matt removed the strange wooden pergola thing that was getting in the way over the back yard -- discovering in the process the true joy of power tools. To tip with rubble, then B&Q for futile search through hardware sale but did at least buy sandpaper. Back to house to collect more rubble sacks. Tried sanding a beam in the attic -- much quicker than with electric sander, oddly enough. Back to chicken-keeping friend's house for quick shower, then off to evening teaching. Matt made lovely sausage pasta bake for tea, and we all sat around staring vacantly at bad TV programmes until bedtime.
Saturday morning I had a pupil at 9.30am. Then off to house because one of my adult pupils wanted to come and see it. Gave them the tour (she and her husband were gratifyingly impressed with the potential), and they surprised us by offering to give us their old scaffolding and ladders. Wonderful! The husband dropped by later on to unload the scaffolding, and we think it'll make a lot of the up-coming jobs easier, safer and cheaper. Bought bouquets for Mothering Sunday. Sanded more of the beams. Matt joined in. Mum and her husband turned up for a look round, and we all had a cup of tea. More sanding after they left. Then Matt's brother popped round. More sanding. Then B&Q for face masks and plastic crates. To Matt's parents for a cup of tea. Home for tea.
Pictures!
The front bedroom, once a lime green and black monstrosity, is now this lovely thing:
It has, rather unexpectedly, become my favourite room in the house.
Now that Matt has figured out how to open and close the terrace door, I've been able to get out there and sweep up all the moss and sedum. Here it is:
Some of the railings are badly corroded, but they're mostly sound. Yesterday morning, when it was sunny and not very windy, we sat out there and basked in the heat. It was tremendous. We haven't decided what to call it. "Terrace" seems a bit posh for what it really is. It isn't really a "deck". And "the kitchen roof" is a bit of a mouthful. We might settle for "the roof", possibly. Any thoughts?
I'm quite pleased about these stairs:
Good, solid wood underneath the damp orange underlay gunk. And I'm still in love with that wall.
Finally, a bit of a beam:
It took a while to get it this clean (all the big beams are coated in very thick black paint), but I'm glad I started doing it. I think the attic will be a lot less oppressive with waxed wooden beams and white-painted walls and ceiling.
Anyway, that's what we've been doing this week. I am SO TIRED, but still mostly enjoying the process.
(no subject)
(no subject)
Great to see and read what you're up to, Madeline! For the last two months I've been addicted to Facebook, the only thing I really missed about Livejournal was hearing from you. I missed you! Gad to hear the house renovations are proceeding so well.
So, what's Enchanted Glass about? I am reading Goblin Quest by Greg Hines (which makes me miss playing Dungeons and Dragons terribly) and The Dying Earth by Jack Vance, because I read that he was the greatest influence on modern fantasy besides Tolkien (and I had never even heard of the guy.)
(no subject)
Enchanted Glass is about a young man who inherits his grandfather's house, along with various magical responsibilities. It's all mixed up with the fairy folk from A Midsummer Night's Dream, with a backdrop of growing prize vegetables for the village fair. I enjoyed it, but it did rely rather heavily on the central characters not asking important and obvious questions.