madelinekelly

More progress -- both forwards and backwards -- with the house.

BACKWARDS: we got excited and bought some lime from a nice lime guy. Turns out we both should've been paying more attention to the things that he was saying, because what we thought we could do with the lime is not at all what he told us we could do with the lime. We wanted lime that wouldn't set in water. We ended up with lime that WOULD set in water. And didn't realise until after Matt had mixed a whole expensive bag of it into a dustbin full of water. Oops.

Also, the man who was supposed to come this evening (to assess the size of wooden beam we'd need to support the first floor) never turned up -- we waited an hour-and-a-half for him to no avail.

Also, the man who's supposed to be fixing our chimney stacks still hasn't been in touch.

Also, we missed the conservation grant meeting deadline because the scaffolder was slow in posting his estimate.

Also, the nice lime guy turns out to be too expensive for us to use for the external works, so we have to use the other lime guys (who are also nice, but incredibly slow at getting things done).

Also, the shiny, cheap patio table set had a tiny little rubber bit missing that meant I couldn't put it together. So I had to go to B&Q and persuade someone to cannibalise another patio table set so that I could have my tiny little rubber bit.

FORWARDS: we got depressed about the lime, then I did a bit more research and discovered that there's a cheaper, better option available. And today, we got that kind of lime and Matt successfully mixed it all with water. So after it's had a week to cure, we'll be able to get on with the re-pointing!

Also, we've borrowed a cement mixer for a couple of weeks.

Also, I bought some sand.

Also, we cleaned the oven. Finally. Had to use washing-up liquid, bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, liquid soap, a scrubby sponge thing, and a small plastic ruler -- but most of the cooked-on brown goo has gone! YAY!

Also, I swept the house and tidied away all the tools.

Also, the gas man is coming tomorrow to see about moving the gas cylinders somewhere safer (currently squashed in between a window and a drain, which is totally against current safety guidelines, and actually really in our way for the external repair works we need to get done).

Also, I assembled the patio table. We sat out on the kitchen roof to have our dinner today.

Also, the chimney-stack guy (who hasn't been in touch) claims he'll charge us a quarter of what the other chimney-stack guy quoted for the repair work. This means that we'll have some money spare from our savings to maybe pay for the replacement beams and lintels and floorboards that the house needs.

As you can see, it's ups and downs, ups and downs.