The weather late yesterday afternoon was absolutely atrocious. There was a major storm, pretty much directly overhead, with non-stop lightning flashing between the clouds and thunder rolling around the hills. The wind was so strong that the trees in the wood opposite were thrashing around alarmingly, and indeed one came down and completely blocked my […]
I have a regular annual booking with Rob, my trusty decorator, to keep on top of the paintwork of this house. There’s always something peeling or fading or needing attention. This year, my priority was to get the summerhouse sorted out. This is a rather lovely little Victorian shed on the topmost terrace of the […]
It was overall a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable holiday, but it was then back to earth with a bump. I got back from the airport to a phone call from my neighbour, saying that my burglar alarm had gone off while I was away. She’d had a good look around, and couldn’t see anything suspicious, […]
Having seen what a big difference it has made having some decent new windows, ideally I’d like to have all the old ones replaced throughout the house, bringing them all up to the standard of the extension. But that’s far too expensive to even contemplate doing in one go – the bedrooms and dining room […]
I was so pleased with the utility room window, and indeed with the various jobs I’d had this building firm do for me, that two years ago I decided to have the next worst window dealt with. This was a big window in the kitchen, that I’d always hated. It was in fact a double-glazed […]
Looking back at the state this house was in when we moved in, first we, and latterly I, have done a great deal to improve it. But there always seems to be a never-ending list of things that need doing. Take the windows, for example. In the extension, the windows are all modern, bespoke double-glazed […]
Nearly twenty years ago, shortly after Christopher and I were married, a deaf and dumb hawker came to the door of our flat selling household goods. Christopher was a much softer touch than me, and felt emotionally blackmailed into buying some oven gloves from him. It turned out to be a bad buy. As oven […]
I’ve been getting increasingly fed up with the state of the path leading from the drive to the front door, and finally decided that Enough was Enough, and I’d get something done about it. It was made of square concrete slabs, probably about 40cm on a side, and was anything but flat and level. There […]
I am very impressed with the surgical precision of the drain re-lining operation. It really was reminiscent of keyhole surgery, up to and including an endoscope! However, there is one rather unpleasant side-effect, and that’s the fumes from the solvent used to harden the resin-impregnated liner. They’ve been escaping via the plug-holes and permeating the […]
As you’ve probably gathered, this house is anything but a “new-build”. It’s got way more character than a identikit modern box on an estate, but the down-side is that much of it is many, many decades old and therefore needs attention. The main foul drain leading to the septic tank is a case in point. […]
