It's been ages!!

HI

Well - I haven't updated this for ages and the honest reason - I completely forgot all about my blog!  It wasn't until Andy's Mum mentioned having read it that I thought - wow - how could have I forgotten all about it!!

So - I'm just going to write about the bits and bobs I can remember!!

The annex bathroom is what I have been working on and it went wrong in a lot of ways - but no so wrong that it will be a disaster (I hope).  The bathroom was fitted - all but the shower as I had to tile first.  The floor was fitted and is very uneven (I wrongly assumed that the guy would try and straighten it out but he didn't at all).  So everything in there has gaps or is propped up in one way or another.  Today I finished putting the tiles on all around the bath - but I have to grout etc.  I have put skirting boards in too - and the bath panel was so bendy and crap that I made wooden bath panels which I will tile after the shower has been put in.

The only other work I have done in the house is put a handle and lock on the door downstairs that will separate the annex from our house, fix the front door handle and the inner front door handle and errr.....there must be other stuff but I can't remember right now!!

I tried to catch up with my running challenge - I ran about 30km and then stopped again - might try to do some later today but I am very behind now!!

I have been putting weight on again - so I've only lost 9lb since xmas which sucks.

We went on a boat party with Helen and Paul - it was a work thing with Helen's colleagues - it was fun - we then went to the Spinny and back to Helen's.  I over indulged too much and ended up going to bed feeling very ill!!

It was Andy's birthday the Tuesday after that weekend and I did the same thing on the evening of his birthday and ended up in bed really early - so I feel like I ruined that for him!!

We went to Manchester on the Wednesday - Andy was working so I visited family.  Had a rare visit to Bev's at her new house.  Rare because she has not wanted me to visit when I have offered in the past and she can be difficult to get on with as she has been in a bad place.  It was great to actually meet up with her though and catch up - saw Tony, George and Megan too s that was nice.  I stayed over on the Wednesday night at Bev's - then went to see Joanne during the day - again that was really nice to sit and chat and catch up! Andrew and Lorna came over whilst I was there to say Hi - she is 30 weeks pregnant - and will be having a girl in November.  Probably the last baby of that generation as we are all too old now!!

I then went to my mum n dads, got showered and we went out fr a meal.  Anthony and Candice - and her 2 kids met us there - again - it was great to catch up with everybody!  So - I managed to see all my siblings during this short visit (apart from Helen who lives in my neck of the woods).

Friday - I went into Manchester town centre and walked around for a while waiting for Andy to finish work.  Was weird being in manchester city centre after so many years - so much I did not recognise!!  I met Andy and his colleague Chris for lunch - then I carried on hanging out around Manchester before meeting Andy again to make the long journey back home!

Andy's folks, John and Sylvia - also made the long journey to our house on the Friday and were there a few hours before we were - so I was stressing on the way back and we hit loads of traffic.  Finally got back and got to catch up with them - so it was definitely a good few days for family catch ups!

John and Sylv hadn't been to out house in almost a year and I was a bit disappointed that there was not loads of progress to show them - although I don't really remember what had and had not been done a year ago.  I wish I had been more prepared for their visit - and been able to make a nice meal and stuff (although I always mess up the most basic recipes when I do it for guests!).

We didn't go out or do anything special during their visit but we did go to our local pub (which we never do for some reason!), we played pool and darts, and just spent time together so that was really nice.

Andy had the Monday and Tuesday off - which Andy mostly spent not knowing what to do with himself lol.  He came to the tip with me and we went around the re-use shop and I bought a cool coffee table which has two table that come out and open up underneath it - somebody had started sanding it down and given up - so I got it for £10! Bargain!!  then we went to Wellington and looked around a place called Fuller Stuff!  Which funnily enough was absolutely full of stuff - from house clearances! Not as cheap as the shop at the tip - but fun to look around!

Today - Andy is working in London and is staying over tonight.  I spent the morning finishing putting the tiles up around the bath - and I'm now sat here doing this debating mixing up some grout and grouting the tiles over the sink....

I'm up to date!! lol

Amazing discovery!!!!

Hi

So - yesterday the floor in the annex bathroom was fitted - and I like it - and I think the colour on the walls looks fine!!  I am not going to rule out changing it though until it is all done - I just need the carpenter to turn up on Saturday to do the boxing in - and then the bathroom (apart from shower) can be fitted the following Tuesday - then I do tiling and shower goes in - and done! Bosh!

More exciting news is this:

Me, Andy and Connor were walking around the outside of the house - after me and Connor had completely emptied and reorganised the outside store, and we were talking about bring up concrete in the front garden to lay fast growing conifers at the front for more privacy...when Andy mentioned that he had found a grid that could lead to a cellar at the back of the house.  I knew about this discovery - I thought it was a square just about big enough to stand in, that was just like a large box - that had some electrics in it.  We had discussed that maybe it was a pump like the one Andy has in his basement room - that pumps water out should it rise too high.  Then, Andy said - no its not just a box - you can see it leads somewhere!! What!!! Why hadn't he told me this before!!  So - Connor said he wanted to go down in it and have a look!  I wanted him too!!  I didn't really expect much to be honest.  So Connor went down there....(the stick in his hand was to sort out cobwebs lol)

He went down there and said....its big....I'm like - what?? then he said - it is full of water....oh....

We passed him a large piece of old guttering for him to dip into the water to tell us how deep it was - I expected maybe a foot of water - nope - about 7 foot deep!  He also said that there was a square hole in the bottom where the water went REALLY deep.  I had to see this!!  So - he came out and I went down and OMG!!!  Look what we found.....

Andy figured out that the pipes that went down into the deeper hole, were the pipes that used to lead into the house - it fed water to a couple of the bathrooms (including the annex one I'm currently doing up).  These bathrooms had notices in saying - NOT DRINKING water.  This water serviced these bathrooms when we moved in!  We took out the water tank and pipes when we put in hot water and now all our water comes directly from the mains!  So - we are guessing that it is fresh spring water - but has now flooded the room.

I went back to the 1898 house particulars because they mention cellars and a well....I found this passage in there....look at "Outbuildings"



It mentions bottle cellar - there is also mention of soft water cistern and pump. Although as far as I am concerned it doesn't quite match up in terms of where it is in (or under) the house.  Furthermore there is mention of pure spring water having connections to all parts of the house - that sounds more like what we found - but it states that is in the north west of the property - whereas what we found was east!

Anyway - we knew that in these particulars it states - in the basement are three good cellars - and we only have one, so we have been looking for the other two and thought we had found one.  Now I think we still have two hidden cellars and we have found the bottle store!  Saying that....somewhere else, I can't remember where I read that one of the cellars was a wine cellar...

This was the most exciting discovery we have found since we moved in!!  Today I am hoping to pick up a water pump to get the water out of there and see if we can see where a doorway used to be as I am not convinced they used to go in via the hole we found!

I'll keep you updated!!

So...I collected the water pump - got it home and me and Connor set to sorting it out - the hose was not long enough - meaning we'd have to keep hold of it and we knew it would take hours!!  But we set it up and came up with a method - use tent pegs to set the end of the hose into the ground, and use old guttering to take the water away from us! It was set up and working!!

It was exciting - and slow.  Well....it wasn't that slow I was just impatient.  After about 4 hours - it was about 8 inches deep and we decided it was time to figure out how we would get in!  It was a sheer drop from the entrance ledge we could just about squeeze into - we managed to squeeze the step ladders in and manourve them to the ledge (well Connor did - only one person can fit down there at a time) then when he tried to set the step ladders on the floor - it was too far down and he thought they would tip over!  With the use of a hose pipe through the top of the step ladders he managed it.  But as it was about 3 foot from the ledge to the top of the ladders it was difficult to get on the ladders - I got in behind Connor and grabbed him as he tried to get on - a lot of messing and uncertainty later he was on the ladders!  He then decided he wanted to go in! I thought that was the whole point!!  but he said - I need wellies!  So whilst balanced on the top of step ladders in this spooky dark room - he managed to get his trainers off and we passed him wellies - and then - he was in!!  He had a walk around and noticed day light from the far corner which is probably the air brick we can see on the other side of the house (annex entrance).  It was very cool indeed.  However, a bit depressing as well - not finding any doorways or other ways in - we realised we'd never be able to use this room! :-(

I have come to the conclusion that the room was only ever a water store.

catch up

Hi

So...its been ages.  What have I been doing? I have no idea!

The plastering was done in the annex bathroom and bedroom...so I have been painting in the bathroom - haven't started on the bedroom yet - and have no idea what colour to do it!  The bathroom however, I painted.  Three coats - one white then 2 blue.  I really liked it until ray (plasterer) saw it, and I said do you like the colour - and he just said no.  lol.  Like his honesty - but this morning the guys turned up to do the flooring - they haven't quite started laying it yet - but as soon as I saw the boxes outside the room  I thought - yeah that colour (on the walls) isn't going to work!  I think it is going to look too bright - but I'll see when the floor is in.  If it is wrong at least I can change it.

After Karl had finished the plastering in the bathroom - I noticed (not that it was hard to see!!) that behind the radiator there was an ugly piece of plasterboard just stuck in at the side!! I had no idea how to conceal it.  The problem was that - because the walls had plasterboard put on and then plastered - the wall stuck out more than the window sill.  I called Ray (Karls boss) and said I needed him to look at something Karl had left....I needed to know what on earth I could do to cover it!  He came and looked at it, and said - you just need to build a new window sill to go over the existing one - with a lip which will cover the gap between sill and radiator (and mess behind it)....oh is that all!!!  So...as Ray had left Connor behind and left me some wood - me  and Connor set to making a new one!  We had fun figuring it out...it was an odd shape so we had to get that right 1st....but we managed it well....then we fit it and cut out another piece of wood for the lip and fitted that...filled over the embedded screws and gave it a lick of paint and it looks awesome!  I'll put pics up when the bathroom is finished.

I finished the tiles in the back porch!!!  I've put that on this blog as a separate post - under house renovations!  So - I won't talk about it here - other than to say - it was a pain in the butt!!! But it is done! yay!

I also pulled all the carpet up in the games room - don't know if I have already mentioned that? But it has good boards under there - so I'll be sanding and sorting them out in the (hopefully) near future!  Unfortunately I have to make the annex stuff priority before I can start on that!

So...other than the work on the house...I have been eating lots and not running...so I'm putting weight on again! I think it is because when I work on the house all day I have no energy left to exercise or cook - so we get take-out! but it has to change!! 

We've had a few good pool nights and Helen and Paul have been around - which is always fun but nothing else of note to talk about....

back porch tiling project!

I also finished the tiles!!!  It was a nightmare right from the beginning to the end!  When we first took up the carpet tiles and saw that it had been "repaired" with ugly big black tiles I had no idea how we would sort it out.  A year later I had done so many DIY projects I thought - I can do that!  So...I knocked out the big black tiles...then some of the broken original ones.  Then I found that they wouldn't come out easily - and I broke others trying to get them out!  Then I realised that new tiles with stick up too high - so I had to break up the concrete underneath - which dislodged and broke more tiles - the area I had to re-tile got bigger and bigger!!  Meanwhile, I struggled to buy replacements - found the right size in reproduction tiles - but the white was actually cream and nowhere near the right colour - also the while ones were slightly bigger than the black ones.  I had to start searching repeatedly looking for original ones being sold.  I went and looked at some - but they were grey!  Eventually somebody was selling them online and I sent a broken one of mine to check the colour - they said they didn't match.  I asked for a pic and thought - that will do!! BUT I ended up paying about £80 for 14 white tiles - he charged me £25 for a 'small order' and £25 for postage!  Anyway - they were mm's too big!  So I had to shave off two edges with the wet tile cutter!

So - I had to lay more concrete in the gap as bringing up the old concrete had gone down to dirt and too deep.  I hadn't done this before - and in hindsight I really should have used more!

When it came to laying the tiles - I had to use so much adhesive because it was too deep.  I should have stopped and used more concrete - but I didn't really realise until it was too late.  The tiles are so tightly packed together I had difficulty getting them in - and they kept sinking in - in the adhesive!  Basically it was so stressful - but I finished it - and just hoped they'd be okay when dry!

Here are the pics!!

This is a 'before'pic.  You can see the large black tiles put it, but other bits were damaged too.

So - I started taking the tiles out....

This is how big the hole ended up after I had dug up the concrete - and broke and dislodged other tiles!!

as you can see the concrete underneath was too high - and tiles kept getting broken!

Anyway - this is how it turned out!!

You can see - on the bottom half of this pic - the slightly different colour white and new looking black tiles!

So - just need to do some grouting now!!  All in all, a major stressful pain in the butt - but good enough to 'use' the floor!

Friday/Saturday

So - I was up at 6am - and we were out by 6.40am and on our way to Bracknell.  Andy was going to work and me to Lissa's.

I got to Lissa about 9.15am - and got to see her new house!!  They have been there a while now but it was the first time I  have got to see it!  Its a lovely little house in Egham. More importantly its their own place to do what they like with! Not sharing with anybody etc.  They have been working with Antony's parents on the double garage they have at the bottom of the garden to turn it into a bar/xbox play room/gym.  Its an awesome extra space they have in addition to the house!

So - had a tour of the house, gave Lissa her pressies, drank coffee (received a call off our Bev, and she was gonna come and see us this weekend but I was at Lissa's!).  Then me and Lissa decided to go out for a run.  Lissa is an exercise addict - and I was getting behind on my running challenge.  She mentioned just running 5k around the streets - but i could see that Windsor |great park was only about 4 miles away - so we drove there to run.  We drove in and then realised we needed to pay to get out and we hadn't brought any money or bank cards with us! Luckily they had contactless which Lissa was able to use with her phone!

So - I had read that there was a route around the park which was about 7k - and we looked on the map when we got there (and took a pic of it) and decided our route!  I was crap to start with - just really struggled even at a slow pace - I was quite annoyed at myself....but it got a bit better after a few kilometres.  Then it started raining - then it started RAINING RAINING lol - torrential heavy flooding type rain - and thunder and lightening lol.  It was ace! haha loved it - made running even more fun!  We were trying to see the way on my phone but I was so soaked I couldn't get my phone to respond half the time!  So - we went the wrong way at one point - not far from the end - took us up a hill too - coming back and going the right way meant that in the end we ran 10.5km.  So we were really pleased that we'd ended up doing a long run! 

We got back to Lissa's, had a shower, got ready - sat down feeling good - and opened the prosecco!  After an hour or so Andy arrived in a taxi and we greeted him at the door with a cold cider!  Andy got the tour and made some suggestions in the man-cave lol.  Then a little while later Antony got back - with snack - which we all dug into - and then we played a game - and then cards and had loads of fun!!  I was just getting too tired in the end - which was annoying - but all in all - a great time - great to see them and catch up and see the house etc. (I have to say all nice things as Lissa is the only person that reads this blog!! haha) Just kidding! Everything was awesome - and we will do it again - be nice to do it when Andy has to go to Bracknell.  Even if Lissa has to work - I can keep myself occupied and meet her for lunch - and then we can stay over friday night and come back Saturday.  I don't know how she feel about it but we could do that fairly regularly (in case u r worried Lissa - it would be about every 4-6 weeks)

So - after not much sleep (cos I ended up on the couch cos Andy was snoring - then Lissa ended up there too cos Antony was snoring - then Lissa was throwing up haha)....they made us an awesome breakfast - then we headed home.  I tried and failed to sleep in the car - we got home and I tried to get some sleep - but got hardly any - then Helen and paul came around!

We played pool - got take out - had a good laugh - a good time as usual - and I got to bed about 1.30am.  That was good going cos when they turned up I was tired and felt a bit yuck - but I felt fine after a while.  I got the sleep I craved and didn't wake up until 10am! :-)

Monday - Thursday

Hi

Well I'm writing this on Sunday and I have no idea what I did Monday to Thursday.

here are a few of the things I remember!

I ripped up all the carpet in the games room - the carpet was horrible and stained and you can see where the old reception desk was because it was the only bit of the carpet that looked its original colour.  So I ripped it all up and took it to the tip.  Underneath was floor boards - all the same with no big boards in it - yay! However some have been stained dark and others have not - so all of it will have to be sanded back - a BIG job especially as the pool table is in there!  This is something that won't get done for ages!!

I also did one part of the tiling in the back porch! quite stressful but finally have some tiles actually down - and I'm really pleased with it!  I have another section to do - the main section - the biggest part!  Dreading it - and can't wait for it to be done at the same time.

I have been on the phone to my dad a lot too - as I was getting measurements again for the door that is to be fitted in the back annex room - leading to outside.  I think he has everything he needs now and he is coming to fit it in September.

I have been on to the plasterer about how he needs to stop prioritizing other jobs and come and get mine down as I've waited 4-5 weeks now and the floor will be fitted soon! 

I had a carpenter round about the boxing in needing doing in the bathroom, the door frame in the kitchen annex and a door fitting internally.

I've been testing more floor dyes trying to figure out what I am going to do in the hallway!

Thursday, I went out shopping for something to take to Lissa and Antony as a house warming pressie - I got them some outdoor plants (Rosemary, Oregano and Bay) a cat plant pot for outside, some fake roses for a vase, a bottle opener that goes on the wall and a sign, for their man-cave where they are having a bar and a couple of ornamental bottles! 

Thursday night we got ready to get up very early friday morning ....

Sunday - Totnes 10k

So - I was up at 8.30 - and we were out just after 9am - making our way to Totnes for a 10K run/race.  I thought I had received an email saying - if you are not used to hills you might want to do some training - but when I went back to try and find this - all I could find about the course was a statement saying 'mostly flat'.  So...I assumed the email about the hills must have been about another course.

It was difficult to tell when we got there as you could not see the course at all - where it was going to go or anything. 

I was nervous - it was very hot - probably the hottest I've ever run in and no clouds.  There were a lot of people - and most looked really fit and slim - like proper runners lol. 

We were off....we went across a field and out...straight to a standstill as there was gridlock! I thought straight away - well this isn't going to be a personal best! Once through it was quite narrow so you could only go the pace of the people in front.  It would widen out a bit and then go narrow again - and a few times we would be walking.  There were also steps that I had to walk (probably would anyway!).  It was gorgeous scenery! The trail would be rocky one minute, then huge tree roots - so not too easy to run - then there was a massive hill! Felt more like rock climbing rather than a run!!  The down hill bit - where I would normally try and make up time - was single file so i couldn't really run full pelt like I usually do.  It was fun! I say that now - I know at the time I didn't really think so hahah.  Eventually I started to be able to hear the guy on the microphone in the field at the finish line - and it sounded far away lol.  I was quite knackered and couldn't really manage much of a sprint on the way in - my time was 1hr 15m....quite bad! But not considering the queues and hills and terrain! 

So - I was still a little disappointed with my time - but quite happy too - that I had done it!

We wasted no time - got back to the car and back home!  I decided to have a lounge in the bath for a while - which was really nice.

We didn't really do much after that - watched a film in the evening....