Its been all go this month – lots of plastering, endless sanding and painting, more stripping and finally the big news – we have a kitchen – yay!

• 

Before we get to the details here’s a round up of our other news. The scaffold has gone but not before we installed some extra bird deterrents to keep those pesky gulls off the chimneys using spikes from Toolstation and some very special glue.

• 

From what we understand they usually make a nest on our flat roof and also on the chimneys of Julia’s house next door. By means both fair and foul Neil has made their life a misery and they’ve decided to bring up their families elsewhere. Having said that, there is a definite dearth of seagulls everywhere this year which many people are putting down to the pandemic and the lack tourists leaving fish ‘n chip leftovers in the waste bins and for them to dig out. Whilst gulls come with the territory of living by the sea their absence is not missed by many people. We’ve also recovered a tiny fraction of the money we’ve spent. The old wood burner that was to become our fire pit actually got sold for £200…..bingo!

Out of the blue Neil received a letter from the NHS to tell him that he had been randomly selected to take part in a Coronavirus testing survey with Imperial College London.  He was advised that the test would cause some discomfort but that he would have his results back in less than a week.

The test was actually pretty horrid.  It can be self-administered  but when Cheryl knew that she could inflict satisfying gratuitous pain she insisted in doing it for him!  Head back, mouth open and poke a swab to the back of the throat, tickle the tonsils for 10 seconds hopefully without gagging.   She was very, very lucky not to get smothered in a projectile overcoat.  Pain still not over.  Now take the same swab and shove it up the left nostril as far as you can stand it and spin it 5 times then do the same up the right nostril. The results arrived a week later and you will be relieved to know it was all clear.

On the social front, as the lockdown has been slowly easing we met and socially distanced in Cliff Gardens with Glyn and Diane to celebrate his 65^th birthday.  A bottle or two of bubbly plus some snacks made a very pleasant evening overlooking the sea.  Sadly for Glyn he has to wait for another year before the pension fairy arrives in his bank every month.

• 

We also had drinks across the road with Bob and Sheila and their neighbours Don and Pat.  At the end of the month we decided to host a BBQ for the neighbours of Ron the butcher’s homemade sausages and burgers.   The weather was great, hot and as the UV was forecast to be very strong it was all in the shade.  It was a great success although as you can see from the photograph we forgot one important thing.  This was to be the first real party/BBQ in our house so we carefully set up the camera so we could capture the moment.  The trouble was the event went so well we forgot to take a picture.

• 

We still miss Phileas and Philomena but maybe when nature sees fit we’ll get some more pheasants in the future.  Whilst there’s not much more we can do to encourage them we are working on getting a rescue hedgehog.  Cheryl has been in contact with a local volunteer, giving money to her charity to smooth the way, and Neil has built three hog houses to put in the garden.  They’re easy and quick to build and once covered with logs and leaves they look very inviting and any self-respecting Hog would be pleased to call it home…….well we hope so.

• 

There’s still no sign of life in the pond even after introducing some tadpoles.  We’re not sure what happened to them as the pond is well established with lots of oxygenating weed and lilies.  We keep on hoping and next year we’ll try again or, ideally, some amphibians decide to call it home in a natural way. 

We’ve previously reported that the garden has continued to amaze us with it’s flowers.  Now we are equally amazed with the soft fruit that we are picking from the fruit cage.  Masses of delicious raspberries and blackcurrants and we’ve just started to harvest our first tomatoes and cucumbers from the greenhouse and cucumber and courgettes from the garden.  The slugs have decimated the brassicas and something continues to steal the strawberries but, hey ho, you can’t have it all.

Renovation Update

Things have progressed a lot since last month. 

The hallway also revealed the name of another previous decorator.  As Cheryl stripped the wallpaper the name of Max Dack was revealed and signed on March 2^nd, 1997.    Neil sent a photo to Stacy Dack who did the chimney repair and fireplace move, and he replied ‘that’s my Uncle’!  

• 

Paul, AKA Arnie, managed to get hold of 30 bags of good UK plaster and plasterboard which meant he was able to finish the 3 back bedrooms, the downstairs hallway and to board and plaster the ceiling of our bedroom and board the ensuite.  The plastering of our bedroom walls has to wait for more plaster and final paper stripping so we’ve moved into the last useable bedroom and just about manage to climb into the bed as it’s surrounded by stacked up furniture from all the other  bedrooms.  This chaotic order of events wasn’t in the original plan but we’ve learned to grab any trade and whatever progress we can during lockdown and put up with the inconvenience.

The living room also saw some action.  One wall is plastered but Paul needed help to do the ceiling.  Firstly, Neil signed up as an apprentice to help him board the ceiling and as it’s such a large surface he couldn’t manage the plastering alone so in came his brother Tony.  Tony is nothing like Paul, and just like the film Twins one tall and muscular and one short and average.  That didn’t matter to Tony as he arrived carrying his stilts and proceeded to get on with the job. The remaining wall can’t be plastered until the French doors are installed which hopefully will happen in July.

• 

• 

With Arnie gone we started on the mammoth task of painting, beginning with the messy mist coats on the back bedroom walls.  To make things easy we’ve decided to paint all rooms matt white so no decisions on colours or tricky cutting in required.  Great idea although we are starting to go a bit snow blind!  Another two of the Dack clan, Jason & nephew Jake arrived to re instate coving and skirting board where we’ve altered the doorways and removed the huge fitted cupboard.  That’s left us with the tedious sanding & painting the woodwork and maybe we are in spitting distance of getting something finished.  The carpets have arrived and are sitting in the dining room ready to be laid so we are under pressure to get on with the decoration.  

The big big win was the kitchen, delivered and installed….yes, yes, yes, after 3 months we finally have a kitchen!  The cabinets and worktops arrived at the beginning of the month and Paul Emmett arrived to do the fitting.  Within 2 weeks it was done but not before there was lots of grunting and groaning as Paul and Neil picked up the worktops and loaded them onto the bench for cutting and sanding.  Luckily Arnie was still around and was able to help out as well.  They are solid resin called Minerva which makes soft curved edges easy to achieve.  The drawback is that each 3m length weighs 100kg.  The joins are also easy to do.  They are stuck together with the same sort of resin and when sanded it’s virtually impossible to find them.  It was just as we envisaged all those months ago when we bought the house.  Each time we walk into the kitchen we just go ‘wow, are we tickled pink or what’?

• 

• 

• 

• 

An interesting footnote.  We kept a note of the last time we filled the car up with fuel, February 28^th. That means that in 4 months we travelled less than 400 miles.  What a difference a pandemic makes and, surely, now we must be on Greta Thunberg’s Christmas card list, home made of course and from recycled card and flown over from Sweden by pidgeon.