A weary apprentice

The end of Day 4 of the garage conversion and I have to report that the builder's apprentice/labourer (aka N) is suffering - his right knee has swollen rather alarmingly and, I am reliably informed, 'everything aches'.  Give him his due, he has (been) worked really hard this week so I'm not surprised he's feeling the effects.  Having said that, the garage is now looking more like a potential bedroom.  The workforce finished all the battening and boarding today and tomorrow will begin the task of putting a plaster skim over the boards.  We shall then have to leave it a couple of weeks to dry out completely before we think about decorating but at least we should be able to lose the dust-sheet walkway to the toilet!  

Whilst all this is going on behind closed (garage) doors, I am doing my best to cross off a few of the 'odds and ends' jobs, touching up a bit of paintwork on the front door and emulsioning inside a door recess that was missed completely first time around.  Both jobs took me less than half an hour, and there are plenty more like that.  Then a bit of decluttering, always good for the soul.  And a solution to a major quilting issue suddenly came to me in the wee small hours of this morning.  I may not be able to do much about it immediately but at least now I do know how to complete this particular very long-lasting project.

The veggies are growing well, clearly benefitting from the recent rain.  We may not have much growing at present but it's always satisfying to see little seedlings emerge and grow.

A door (way) and walls

A quick update on building progress.  There is a doorway:

and one wall has been battened and boarded:

One thing N and I have come to appreciate, especially being hands-on with this project, is that there is always so much more involved in a job that us lay-people might think.  N has watched carefully, and asked a lot of questions along the way, and being the labourer has allowed him to understand the process much better.  He was even given his own builder's pencil - all 1 1/2" of it!!  Our lovely builder is being very patient with him ;)

Thankfully today's efforts did not result in piles of rumble and dust like yesterday.  I do, however, need to replenish the fast-dwindling supplies of tea, milk and sugar.  Don't want to be accused of running a dry ship.

Gardening was out of the question today - plenty of rain - so I have been pottering around indoors.  I do need to get into town tomorrow even if I have to dash in-between showers.  

We're losing the light by 16.30 now, but perversely it's daylight by 6 in the morning.  It seems to take me longer to re-adjust to the clocks changing these days.   

Work inside and out

After yesterday's progress in the garage (new wall, new floor), things seem to have taken more of a destructive turn today.  

N, as builders's labourer, was tasked with locating the roof joists by punching holes in the ceiling with a hammer.  So, there were a lot of holes, but the ceiling is now boarded over and the horrible artex-finish is gone for good.

A ceiling of two halves; boarded on the left, horrible artex (and some of the many holes!) on the right.

However, when it came to putting the battening up on the walls, prior to boarding, a few technical hitches were encountered and when I put my head round the garage door with yet another cup of tea for the workers, I was confronted by this:

Chunks of plaster and dust everywhere.  I will admit my heart sank just ever so slightly.  There was a bit of a problem involving the steel lintel over the window and the only way to resolve said problem was to remove all the old plaster.  In addition, some of the battens are now too big and the boarding needs changing for a thinner version.  The workforce was very dusty, weary and just a tad fed up so they wisely called it a day and will start afresh tomorrow.  I have been promised there will be no more dust and destruction, at least not on the same scale.

Whilst all this was going on, I cut the front and back lawns (really it's far more weed than grass, so 'lawn' is a very generous term), having spent several minutes trying to get the petrol mower to start - I think I finally have the knack of pulling the starter cord.  I prepared the paths around the raised beds ready for gravelling, and have started tidying up the one and only 'border' that is currently in existence in the garden.  Following on from my set-to with the phormium yesterday, one or two more plants have met the same fate and I don't think I have finished quite yet.  Gardening at the moment is a bit piecemeal; there's so much that needs to be done and so much that we want to do, but a lot of the jobs are quite big and I think are probably best tackled a bit at a time.  We'll get there, just slowly.

Men at work - again

I'd forgotten just how much disruption is caused by a bit of building work.  Dust-sheets strewn through the house, sawdust, furniture piled high in all the wrong rooms, and the need to provide endless cups of tea for the workforce.  It's all in a good cause, of course, but having had a few weeks of relative peace and quiet, it has come as a bit of a shock to be back in refurbishment mode.  

The builders' merchant kindly made us the first drop of the day - 8 am, very bright and early - and by 9 o'clock the builder and his willing labourer were in full swing (although it wasn't long before they had both discovered that the window sill in the garage was exactly the right height to lean on when pausing to admire their handiwork!)  I have long-since learned that on such occasions it is best to keep a safe distance, popping in from time to time with well-meant words of encouragement accompanied by tea and biscuits.  And it has clearly worked because by the time they both decided to down tools for the day we had the framework for a partition wall, a new floor and the first-fix of the electrics (I should mention that we have also had an electrician on-site today, just for good measure!)

Keeping out of the way of 'men at work' gave me the opportunity to tackle a few odd jobs that I had been putting off for some time.  So I cleared out under the sink, sorted out the cleaning cloths (most of which needed washing), sorted through the (rapidly diminishing) pile of plastic bags, and put another load of washing through.  It was a really lovely autumn day today, blue skies and a very welcome warm sun, so I then headed outside to tackle a bit of gardening. 

We used to have a large phormium (New Zealand Flax) in the middle of the back lawn.  Phormiums and I have a chequered history; they always look very striking in their early years, but goodness, can they get big!  I had one at a previous house that very nearly took over the small gravelled front garden and trying to divide it was akin to a wrestling match.  And DIL has a ginormous specimen in her front garden that is big enough to lose two children in!  I'm now of the opinion that most phormiums are better off in municipal parks or landscaped gardens that can cope for their eventual size.  Consequently, we no longer have a phormium in the middle of the back lawn.  I did battle with it today and I won.  Quite satisfying.

It seems that lots of our neighbours were out and about in their gardens today, no doubt doing all those 'tidying up' sort of jobs that need to be done before the weather breaks.  Grass-cutting is on the agenda for tomorrow as the forecast is fine again, and I need to start getting to grips with the weed-infested lawn.  

This evening I had a bit of a doodle on the sewing machine.  I have a project lined up and I wanted to try out some ideas.  

I've never been very successful using metallic thread but the idea I have requires quilting with said thread so armed with some very sound advice from Vendulka at OliVen I had a little play around and was more than pleasantly surprised by the results.  No broken threads (joy!) and several more than passable snowflakes.  Actually, it was quite good fun.

And now for the garage

We've only been back a couple of days and we're already working on the next project!  I don't think we'd really planned to get stuck into another big project quite so quickly but a visit from our builder just a few minutes after we arrived back this week changed that.  He has some free time next week so we will be converting the garage into a bedroom.  Materials have been ordered, an electrician has been around to look at fitting some sockets, and N and I have once again shifted furniture, boxes and all manner of bits and pieces out of the garage and into a 'spare' room.  

Every time we do this we decide that a few more things can be done without (really we are getting a bit fed up with constantly moving things around the house trying to find a permanent home for them) and we had another trip to the tip.  We're also becoming quite expert at finding an alternative use for something - an unwanted bathroom cabinet is now destined to be used to box in the gas meter in the garage/guest bedroom, and the wooden single-bed frame, which will now be replaced with a double-bed frame, could be useful for shelving in the hall cupboard - that's another little project for the winter.  This list is growing =:o

Tempted by a forecast for dry, even sunny weather today, I did 2 loads of washing (the worst bit of returning from holiday).  And it was quite nice so a good excuse to be in the garden.  Things are growing . . .

A pathway of weeds in-between onions to the left and garlic to the right

. . . and not just veggies.  Where do all these weeds come from?  It seems to be a never-ending battle we're not winning.  We have simply got to keep on top of them through the winter; we just weren't able to give enough time to the task during the summer months.  

We've given the new heating system a bit of a trial run since our return.  It's a bit of a balancing act, finding the right temperature to set the thermostat on, and the radiators, all of which can be individually adjusted.  It's a bigger property than our old place, so we know it will cost more to heat, but we will still try to make it as efficient and economic as we can.  As we record the gas usage weekly, we will be able to see easily how much gas the heating uses and N has already done the calculations for the amount of units we can use and still keep within our monthly budgeted figures.  I've actually found monitoring our energy consumption quite interesting; it's certainly made me more conscious of how we use gas, electricity and water.  

Clocks go back tonight - an extra hour in bed - but it also means darker evenings and shorter days.  Time to start quilting, I think. 

Taking a break

We've had a bit of a break.  To begin with, a lovely few days with the Newly-Weds (and the wedding photos; lots of oohs and aahs, and quite a few laughs too).  It was great to spend some time with them and show them our new home; a bit of gentle encouragement re DIY (it's really not that difficult, and there's such a sense of satisfaction being able to say 'I did that myself'), and, goodness, another set of curtains to alter!  I'm glad I can be of some help even if we don't live close by, and altering curtains I can certainly do.

Then a little bit of time away on our own, to the good old Spanish Costa del Sol, which is becoming a bit of a bolt-hole for us.  It is somewhere we can relax and chill out completely, making the most of the very good weather (high 20s and low 30s), flat promenades for strolling, lovely food and very welcoming people. 

Flat promenades ideal for strolling, cycling, roller-blading and jogging

It's not just the youngsters who stay fit on roller-blades!  This lady caught our attention - maybe we should try this out next time!

it didn't take long for us to realise just how tired we were after the summer spent working on the house (or is it that we are older than we are prepared to admit?!)  Admittedly we were both recovering from a pretty rotten head-cold (yes, DH very kindly passed it along to me so I wouldn't feel left out) but for a couple of days we took things very easy indeed.  We soon slipped back into the Spanish way of life which we find so pleasant.  We walked everyday, just ambling along, stopping every now and then to do a crossword, or take in the sights, or simply watch the world go by.  Sometimes we even had a drink!

One of our favourite stops for a glass of red wine, and some authentic tapas

We travel lightly, having long-since learned what can be left at home.  Do I need my own hair-dryer?  Or five pairs of shoes?  Three outfits for 'just in case' occasions?  Toiletries are provided at the hotel and are perfectly OK for a week so we don't bother with shampoo, shower gel etc.  I bought one item of clothing before I went - a long-sleeved t-shirt for £1 at a charity shop in town - but everything else was already in my wardrobe (and probably had been for, on average, at least five years!!)  By the end of the week, we both reassessed our baggage and decided we could probably pare things down even further, if we wanted to.  We don't, as a rule, 'do' souvenirs, nor do we buy gifts for friends back home, and we didn't do either on this trip.  It was, as usual, a very simple holiday, and I suspect some people may have found it boring.  Not us.  We had a really good time, making the most of simple pleasures and each others' company in a lovely location where the pace of life allows you to slow down and appreciate the little details.  It suits us just fine.

And the sun-rises are pretty spectacular, too.


Back home it's all a bit grey, cold and damp, not great weather for drying a load of washing.  So this morning I made laundry liquid instead.

Clouds

A busy couple of days, out and about at work and visiting friends for a lovely meal and chat.  

We've having some interesting weather - bright blue skies one minute, lowering grey skies and rain the next, wild, windy and thunderstorms for good measure.  I love the cloud formations that changeable weather brings:

I took these early morning photos within a few minutes of each other - the view was constantly changing and the sunlight behind the clouds produced some wonderful effects.

Man-flu has hit the house here, although I have to admit poor N is really under the weather (sorry for the pun) at the moment.  I have fingers-crossed that he keeps it to himself although, being the sharing and caring kind of person that he is, I think there is a good chance I shall end up with it too.  

Fully curtained

I seem to have been sewing curtains non-stop these past few days.  The new-to-us bedroom curtains were just a bit too short once they were hung, so I took a deep breath, unpicked the hems and lengthened them an inch and a half.  So much better - worth the extra time and effort of re-doing them.

Then it was onto the lounge curtains.  We bought these with us from the flat and width-wise they were absolutely fine but again, the length needed altering.  Goodness, I have lost count of the number of times I have fixed all the hooks into the tape, hung the curtains to check the length, then taken them down again to re-pin, or sew.  They are heavy old curtains, to be sure, but on the plus side they are lovely and warm to have over your lap when you are hand-stitching the hems ;)  Anyway, finally they are up and I am really chuffed with how they look.  I had problems with them when I made them originally and was concerned about altering them but my worries appear to have been unfounded because they probably look better now than they did to begin with!  Again, time and effort well spent, and no money spent, so a winner on all fronts.

N and I have pottered around touching up paintwork, tidying bits away (we will probably need those bits later and forget where we have put them, no doubt), edging the kitchen floor, and a few other odds and ends that needed finishing off.  The list of outstanding jobs is still long, but we just tackle one or two things a day.  

They may only be tiny, but it's exciting to see seedlings popping up

I must remember to mention that the onions have sprouted.  Three or four little bright green shoots poking their heads above ground.  I think it must be all the rain we have had this week (really, plenty of it, just last like winter).  The temperature has really dropped as well, and N is muttering about the heating.  We will see if we can eke it out till the end of October.  An extra jumper and long woolly socks are a good stand-by; and maybe a dressing-gown, too!

New-to-us curtains

Autumn seems to be upon us; there's a real nip in the air in the early morning and again by mid-afternoon.   The shed roof was white this morning when I peeped through the curtains =:o

But the sun has shone most of the weekend and I've been able to finish the garage door completely.  Most of the weekend, though, has been about curtains.

I enjoy making curtains but buying yards of fabric, lining and heading tape can add up so we've managed to pick up two pairs of curtains in charity shops.  One pair has already been altered and I spent time yesterday shortening and hemming the other pair.

I think the fabric has a slightly 'shabby chic' look about it.  I'm not sure if this particular trend is still 'in' or not but we like the muted colours and the fact that the curtains were originally made in Britain.  We've decided to have the curtains in our bedroom and the others have been moved into the single room.  I'm now in the middle of altering some curtains we bought from our previous house to fit the lounge windows.  The curtains were originally for a full-length bay window so they are big and heavy and take quite a bit of man-handling!  There is a lot of measuring and pinning, then measuring again before I dare start cutting.  We hope to have all curtains in their correct new locations by the end of the week.  That's quite a bit of sewing.  But we will have curtained the house for the princely sum of £13, considerably cheaper than buying new, and we have given some perfectly good charity-shop curtains a new lease of life.

We had a break this afternoon and went for a walk along the local footpaths. 

The leaves are just beginning to turn and drop and the low sun casts some wonderful shadows.  It was just good to get out and about and we reminded ourselves, yet again, of how  fortunate we are to have all this just a couple of minutes from our doorstep.

Chickens at the kitchen window

I finally got the second coat on the garage door yesterday, but it was a case of 'stop-start' as the weather once again decided to play games with us.  It was only a few spots of rain but gloss paint and raindrops do not mix well.  I then had to contend with numerous tiny insects flying at the door and getting themselves stuck on the wet paint. *sigh*  Anyway, it's done and looks much better then before.  

N has plodded on with the sheds and they are all, hopefully, watertight for the winter.  He's also planted some onions and autumn spinach - at last the garden feels like a productive area.  

Inbetween working outside, I've been making somewhat slow progress with the sewing projects that are on my list.  Today I managed to finish a cafe-style curtain for the kitchen window.

It hasn't cost me a penny, other than my time; I had all the materials in my fabric stash and even the buttons across the tabs were from my button tin (and consequently don't match!)  We recently bought a roller blind for the kitchen which has chickens on it and this little curtain carries on the theme.  It may be the closest we get to having chickens for a while ;)

So, that's one task I can tick off the list.  I'm now altering a pair of curtains for the spare bedroom.  It's a pair we picked up in a charity shop and they need shortening.  The extra fabric I've cut off may well end up recovering the dining room chairs.  Waste not, want not I say.  N is busy giving the outside light a new lease of life.  Doing all the odd DIY jobs ourselves is fun, satisfying and saves us quite a few pounds.  It's surprising what you can do if you put your mind to it and we are enjoying putting some practical and resourceful skills to good use.  And contrary to popular opinion, we're never bored!

October gardening photos

I remembered it's the first of the month, and time for an update of the garden. 

Back lawn, much the same as last month.  These photos were taken early in the morning, and the shadows are really long.  The only new feature is the bird table which seems to be popular with the local wood pigeons.

The veg plot - big changes here.  Four raised beds, topped up with local compost.  One is now planted up with garlic; we're still deciding about the others.

Side passage - the small semi-circular rockery affair has now gone and been concreted over.  This allows far better access to the 'bin storage area' just out of view.  A small change but it's a start.

No change in the front garden although we do have fairly major plans for it.

This wonderful spider's web was guarding the back of the shed

We've had to have one eye on the sky/weather this week, trying to plan and do painting outside in between the drizzle.  I've managed to get one coat of gloss on the garage door, and anything wooden has had preservative slapped on it.  There's a sense of urgency now; we know the good weather will break sometime soon, and we're just trying to get as much done outside as we can before that happens.  And there seems to be so much to do outside.  While I wander around the garden with pot and brush in hand, N is tinkering away with locks and lights, trying to make things work again.  It's good fun, pottering around like this, doing the work ourselves, but I have to admit that come the evening, we're both more than ready to put our feet up!