Life in lockdown 2, steady progress on the renovation, more deliveries & Neil burns his piles in the garden.

Like most people we weren’t happy about the prospect of another lockdown, but, if that’s what it takes to control this virus then let’s just get on with it.  It was frustrating to put the already limited socialising on hold but as the month progressed we could see that even here in East Devon our case numbers were rising at quite an alarming rate.

We continue to support the local businesses who deliver, so the hardship has been relieved by regular packages of sourdough bread & delicious Indian food and Tapas.

It wasn’t all gloom as we had the exciting delivery of our dining table and more furniture for the living room.  The two delivery guys really struggled to carry the table top up the steps and through the front door.  ‘How heavy is it?’ asked Neil.  ‘Over 100kg’ said one of the delivery men as he breathed very heavily.  It’s solid oak and 10ft long and it fits into the room perfectly. 

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November 4^th brought our first winter frost, it also saw us picking our last comice pears, boo hiss, which is really sad as they were so tasty.  We’re still picking tumbling tom tomatoes from the greenhouse – these plants are amazing as all the other tomato varieties died off a while ago.  November 5^th, Guy Fawkes Night, was an opportunity for Neil to burn masses of shrubbery from the garden without allowing some of the neighbours an opportunity to moan about the smoke.  We try to shred & compost as much as possible but the amount of cutting back we need to do is huge given both the size of the garden and the extent it has been allowed to grow unchecked. 

Renovation Update

This is the first time we have tackled bathrooms from scratch and it’s a complicated process as so much has to happen at different stages. 

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It’s been a busy month starting with stripping out tiles and the remaining wallpaper before Stacy & Jake arrived to construct the studwork for the ensuite and the bathroom extension.  Each one has been designed to fit snugly around the shower trays and each has a built in recess for toiletries.  Stacy calls them ‘Nitchees’ and this is now their official name.

Bathroom fixtures were ordered and delivered and as this is typed we are surrounded by boxes of sinks, rads, toilets, tiles and shower screens. 

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We got a great trade deal and decided to also replace the very cheap wc we had to fit in the separate toilet back in February when the old one was damaged.  This meant another visit from our friendly farmer bearing more gifts of cider and joints of pork for the freezer to trade for our surplus wc.  We’re getting to like this bartering, although Neil had to go steady with the scrumpy as it was extremely strong stuff.

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Next in was Matt the Plumb to disconnect the old shower for re use in the ensuite, put in first fix pipework for taps, wastes and radiators and take out a lot of excess plumbing from under the floorboards.  Then it was Dave the Spark who  dropped in cables for the shower, shaver sockets & lights above the sinks.

Despite planning for ages we completely forgot that the change of shape for bedroom 2 meant the centre light wasn’t central anymore – oops!  Never mind we will take out the old one and  Dave can sort that later.

The following week Paul AKA ‘Arnie’ was back with his brother Tony to put up the plasterboard, fill in any holes and get on with the really messy plastering stage.  The dust gets everywhere, which is a great excuse not to bother dusting for the entire month.

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There was another visit from Matt to fit the shower trays and bath and for Neil to construct a framework for the shelf at the end of the bath.

We had a week off while waiting for the plaster to dry out then it was painting next for us, yes, that’s right, more bloody painting.  Drippy, splattery mist coats first, then yes, you’ve guessed it, out came the white paint again.  We’ve also had one patch in bedroom 2 where the plaster is taking ages to dry out for no obvious reason – hopefully there isn’t an underlying problem we haven’t uncovered yet.  Another factor limiting progress was due to our screw up over the position of the centre light in bedroom 2 we could only paint in daylight.

Stacy returned to complete the exterior pipework as the old cast iron needed replacing.  The building control officer came to inspect and was happy with the new arrangements and just asked for pictures of the finished bathrooms to get sign off.

Dave came back to put in the light to bed 2 and en-suite and fit ceiling extract fans.

Finally, Matt returned to replace the radiator, remove some old radiator pipes we forgot about under the window, and check final placings for the sanitary ware.  It was crucial to get this right as we need to get the floors down and finished before the final fix. We can really see the vision for the rooms coming together and It’s amazing how quickly things progress when you get the timing right.

We’ve pencilled in the floor fitting and Matt’s final visit but all rests on getting Jake the Chip and Jason the Tile to come in early next month.  Hopefully we can get it all done before all Tradies stop for Xmas on 18^th December.

Surprise Surprise

We did have some time off!  November 26^th brought us to Cheryl’s birthday.  She was a bit miffed when lockdown 2 was announced as this meant we couldn’t do anything as everything was closed.  Neil had planned a day of enjoyment only to see it kicked into touch by the damned virus.  He had a plan B and that got torpedoed and even plan C was scuppered.  Neil was beginning to think that Covid was smarter than everybody thought.  If it couldn’t get to him to make him ill it would get to him to make him sick as a parrot.

Whilst it was very frustrating for Neil to begin with it all turned out well and we had a great day.  He delivered Cheryl’s favourite breakfast, smoked salmon and scrambled egg, to her in bed.  Neil’s not normally known for his artistic abilities but his home made card was impressive, and made good use of all that white paint. There was a secret delivery of flowers by post from Alex & Freddy then Lunch was a special surprise delivery of our favourite sourdough baguette for a cheese fest lunch.  This was followed by a long walk to Beer with the stunning sunset on the way back. 

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Another surprise was a brief visit from Diane & Glynn to drop off a card, flowers & chocs.  Then finally another special surprise home delivery of tapas from our favourite restaurant for dinner. Of course there was the odd glass of alcofroll to wash down the cheese and tapas. 

So, a washout day became a brill day with the icing on the non-existent cake (you can’t eat everything even if it is your birthday – something has to give) of video calls from all three children and our favourite grandson who wished ‘Happy Birthday Nana’, yes true he did, just once but hey, not bad for someone who is only just over 2.

Next morning there was yet another surprise and a mystery.  A card arrived with no message at all in it.  First thoughts was that this was Leanne’s card which hadn’t arrived yesterday.  No that wasn’t it as she also ordered Belgian Chocolates to go with it and they were both found left in the porch.  A secret admirer maybe?  No, Cheryl eventually tracked it down to June who completely forgot to put a message in!

Reasons to be cheerful

1  We lit the log burner for the first time in the living room – and Neil didn’t burn the place down!

2  Piotr Pheasant returned to the garden

3  Amazing sunsets and sunrises over the sea

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