The week started quite well, lovely and sunny despite the weathermens' forecast. I arrived to find that the troublesome holly tree had been partially 'addressed' by John, our carpenter and part-time daredevil.Over the weekend he had single handedly taken down enough of the bush to allow the reluctant scaffolders to put up the rest of the scaffold, so they were duly called. They deigned to come on Thursday. I should perhaps add that John is 63!
The garden, sadly, has been rather comprehensively destroyed, and is now full of debris. The reason we haven't been very diligent about taking stuff down to the tip is because the land rover has required a new propshaft, amongst one or to other minor details. But it's back on the road now and we will soon be clearing the rubble etc.
The electrician also arrived to wire the central heating in so we can now start to dry the house out in readiness for the plasterers. He also helped me put a hole through the chimney in the kitchen for the extractor fan. We were hoping to just drill into the stack and to let it vent up the chimney itself. However, chimneys are never straight forward, and we managed to drill into one of the three flues which had been capped and very kindly filled with rubble. Yes, we've cleared it all now and have a lovely vent all they way through the wall to the outside world. I was very grubby by the end of it all, and there was yet more rubble in the garden!
The right sort of electricity man turned up and changed the main fuse. Sadly he wasn't really the right sort of man for either Deb or I.
The plasterers arrived on Wednesday as promised, and started boarding out. They are over boarding in the new bathroom where we've take a wall down, and to hide all the pipe work. Due to the arrangement of the bathroom and the fact that we have concrete floors throughout the house (commonly called pub floors I believe - see got all the lingo now!), the waste pipe from the sink has to go about half way round the room. So I thought it would be a jolly good idea to put part of said pipe at a angle to increase the flow. I also thought it'd be a good idea to put this pipe in the partition wall where it would be hidden once the overboarding was done. I removed enough of the old lath and plaster so that I could see what I was doing. Ah-ha! I thought I need a 40mm drill bit now to drill though one of the uprights. I asked the gentlemen on site if they might have one I could borrow for a few minutes. Big mistake. The job was deemed too complex for me. I was dispatched to screwfix for essential supplies. I had a list. Lots of measuring, deep breaths and general uming and ahing went on whilst I was gone. No actual action though, you understand. It was far to soon for that. I arrived back with supplies, to find that a great deal of looking and measuring had been done, no actual drilling. I wasn't allowed to contribute. I had to make tea. That's what was needed. Eventually the drill was brought out, the parts required assembled, and tentative advances made. This is the result
Can you see it? The grey bit of pipe with two angle pieces - not 90 degree angle pieces you understand, they had to be 92.5 degree pieces, and two brackets. They were the complicated bit that I wasn't able to deal with. 4 hours that took. 4 whole hours. Several people nearly died. Patience, I believe, is a minor form of despair dressed up as a virtue.
To add insult to injury, there was no sign of the scaffolders. Unless you can count a drive by, no stopping of course, because the tree surgeon who had arrived to redress the holly bush, was in the way. I had to go home. It was all too much for me. I needed a lie down, Sadly I had to go to an illuminating meeting on Dyslexia and Binocular function, followed by a lecture on Paediatric Neurophthalmology. Just what a girl needs on a Thursday night! Still at least Anita was there, so we didn't learn a lot!
On Friday the scaffolders appeared, in fact they got to the house before I did. Unfortunately they decided that we were also fixing next doors roof, and so put scaffold up all across the front of the house. When I got there, I asked them why they had done that, only to be met with a torrent of abuse. I'm afraid to say that my diplomacy skills deserted me at this point. The boss was called, who tried to blame me for the lack of clear communication. Shall we say that by the time he left he had a very full and clear idea of what communication is. The scaffold is now in the right place, all be it without any ladders. It's been raining every since so we've not had full use of it yet as an adventure playground. Friday continued in the same vein all day. I was a very tired and grumpy girl by the time I when home. So was Deb. Not much else could be sent to try us this week could it?
Oh yes it could! We were burgled on Friday night. All the plasterers and carpenters drills were taken. The bars were wrenched off the cellar window (according to the policeman, that wasn't sufficient security). A whole day spent loitering about, policemen and SOCO came and went. They explained what MO meant, in case we'd missed that episode of NCIS. But all to no avail, apparently there's no prospect of getting any of the kit back. Were any of them insured? No. Looks like Deb and I will be footing that bill.
We were both very disheartened by Saturday evening. Tired and Weary.
So, I'm very sorry to confess girls, but at this point I could do with the attentions of a Pictish warrior, even if he does turn up on his mates knock-kneed Shetland pony and hasn't recovered his powers of communication!
But tomorrow is another week! It may have stopped raining! and I will be back in sparkling form!
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