Quick daily posts

[Serinde]

Oooft. That's a lot of work accomplished, Richard. I hate it when I come face to face with cavalier building practices -- always after the event and usually when something has gone badly wrong.

Re ivy: we rescued a large holly from entwining ivy one year. The ivy had trunks rather than stems, and we ended burning them in the stove... they didn't burn well, to be honest, but it felt good. Ivy can be beautiful and is valuable for birds and insects, but I won't have it strangling my trees, nope, I won't.

[richardandtracy]

The Ivy is growing up two large Holly trees which shade our patio. I am in two minds about the Holly trees themselves. The shade for the patio is welcome. I just wish the trees were a different species, any different species. Holly trees are always messy. In the spring they drop flowers, in summer they drop leaves and in autumn/winter they drop berries. And all year round they drop copious quantities of Ring Collar Dove guano. We have two huge Golden Hops and the ivy growing up the Holly trees, but both trees are still in rude health, with trunks of 18" and 15" in diameter. Fortunately we've pruned the canopy base high enough that the leaves are no longer spikey, and remove any lower branches that develop spikey leaves.

Got the roof timbers yesterday for the garage. They just fitted in the van and weighed a fraction under 200 kg (approx 430 lb) for the 12. That lot in itself was a huge effort to load and unload, but other jobs yesterday included digging a shallow foundation for a flood defence wall at the base of the new garage profile. Then filled with concrete, ready for a two high blockwork wall to provide the new defence. The garage wall of timber will sit on top of this.

While getting close to the existing garage wall with the foundation, I discovered something I expected, but didn't want to find. The garage was seriously modified by the last owner 17 years ago, with the 1920's brick garage being extended in depth from a single car to deep enough for 2 plus some bikes. This was done with a timber framed and clad structure. What I expected and found was that the garage had been extended over 1980's block paving with no foundation and, unforgivably, no damp proof course. So the bottom wall plate timber is rotting out and in the next couple of years I am going to have to cut out the bottom of the wall, dig a foundation, put in a line of blocks, damp proofing course and new wall plate 9" higher up. I could have done without that. I really could have done without that.

The steel garage roof sheeting should arrive today. It was £500 cheaper to buy over the internet than any local supplier - for the same stuff.
Ah well. Keeps us busy.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

No damp proof course! Grrr. There is a special circle in the Netherworld for cowboy builders.

We had organised to be on hols this week and next, but for YS's little local difficulty with writing off his car and his need for a driver so he could complete his course and work experience. SO, I have taken an executive decision: I'm on holiday. I've cleared my desk, submitted my tax return and told various organisations I'm away. We are pretty much stuck at home, but there are much worse places to be stuck than the Trossachs, frankly. And I have a wedding card to stitch for young friends which might just have enticed back my stitchy bug -- I did wonder if it had permanently decamped! Yahoo!

[wendywombat]

We had a 1930's house just outside Bristol with no damproof course! The kitchen, dining room and hall had quarry tiles flooring and when we had the Aga reconditioned we found that under that was earth! We'd wondered why the tiles would never hold a polished finish and that there was a couple which always looked damp. There had been a waterproof membrane under the tiles which had broken down.

So, Serinde...a Staycation and Taxi Service Eh? What we do for our offspring!

[richardandtracy]

It so happens that the cowboy builder responsible for our garage was the previous owner, a chartered production engineer.

He did the shoddy work while they still thought they could get planning permission to turn the place into a boarding kennels. When their application was refused, they sold up and after a couple of years bought an existing kennels. They seem very happy there.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Still. Unless he told you prior to buying, I might move him up a circle (not that I'm in charge, of course), but if you discovered this after purchase, I rest my case.

@WW: no kidding.

[Granny Weatherwax]

After having read Mabels blog, I went with my little daughter to Pelgrimshoeve (a large second-hand shop) today and bought 30 dmc skeins for 50 cents each!

So happy! I am going to write down my missing dmc skeins and return to increase my stash!

[Serinde]

Hey, Granny! Great to see you! Glad you got a bargain.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Lovely to hear that Granny! I hope to be able to visit it in December if all goes well.

[richardandtracy]

Finally have a mostly finished section of dam wall that will become part of the garage wall. It's 3 concrete blocks high (27"/ 67.5 cm high). This means any flood will come over the front garden wall into the house before it overtops the waterproof wall in the garage. The front garden wall will be inundated by a 19"/47.5cm flood above pavement level, so far we've never had anything more than 5.5"/14cm, so I hope that I am being sufficiently cautious about levels. The current/being replaced clinker construction of the garage walls offers almost no obstruction to a flood, and we rarely see any level difference between inside and out.

Because the garage drains down 3" to the back, I have put in a drain hole we can uncover in a controlled manner once the flood subsides to let out the last 3", and will normally be covered by a concrete block paver weighing 2lb. This will be pushed out of the way by a 29" flood but not before (yes, I was bored, which is why I did the calculation).

Our roof sheeting has not been delivered due to a rolling mill breakdown at the place the sheeting is shaped. This is frustrating, but can't be helped. Means we may get a day off work over the bank holiday.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

Work and no play... ?

[richardandtracy]

Yep. Dull, dull, dull, that's me this year.

This week's leave hasn't gone to plan. Everything more difficult than expected, humidity much higher than usual and I end up dripping within minutes. The amount of rain and wind hasn't helped, but the worst thing is that neither Tracy nor I seem to be as strong or capable as we used to be. My hand and feet joints hurt while Tracy has pulled a muscle in her arm that almost incapacitates it after we were trying to get the cement mixer out of the shed. Trying to prevent Tracy from hurting herself more is probably the most difficult job at the moment and has led to some furious grumps while she protests she's feeling perfectly OK despite not even being able to hold a mug of tea in her right hand.

Neither of us are enjoying getting older.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Richard, you both have my sympathy. Getting older isn't for the faint-of-heart. It's that moment of hesitation when you aren't convinced your body will actually do what you tell it to that's really awful.

[wendywombat]

Take care of yourselves, Richard an Tracy. Don't forget that there's always another day.
Just heard some good news. A friend recently returned from the UK became very ill last weekend. All the symptoms of Covid19! She had a test and it's come back negative. She's now wondering what else it could have been.

[richardandtracy]

Wendy, that's good news. I've heard similar stories from other people.

One lady at work had all the symptoms, including loss of smell, but came back negative. I do wonder if with her, it's not because the test didn't find any virus at the time rather than she hadn't had it. The test she took was 2 days after the onset of symptoms and she was feeling much better at that point.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

It would seem that half the primary school children in the Central Belt are being tested for Covid, but what they have (naturally) is the sort of common cold (another coronavirus, oh the irony) that circulates at the beginning of any school year. An abundance of caution puts parental minds to rest, so that's fine. The pandemic is throwing unexpected light in various dark corners, like the ridiculousness of a quarter of England commuting into London every day and social inequalities that make it more likely that you get the virus. But there are silver linings, too. I hope that no one ever again thinks that they have to go to work if they are coughing and sneezing. I hope that the work from home trend continues because it puts heart back into small communities like mine, for example.

[Serinde]

Now I get it!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Brilliant, that one

[Serinde]

Also applies to glitter sugar I use on the gingerbread house roof. DH sports it in his beard for days despite washing!

[wendywombat]

I remember my D/D applying a glitter gel before a school dance!
We all got covered....even the horses and they were 2 miles away!!
Our G/Shepherd had it in her ears for weeks!