We had a lovely Christmas day with the kids, their boyfriends and Dasha and then jumped in the car first thing boxing day to hit the road. We set off on busy festive roads with just a little reluctance to leave the girls behind (and the knowledge there were two parties in the organising - one more wild than the other (Charlotte!))
When we'd done our flying visit in November to collect the keys we'd taken a few bits of essential DIY stuff and done some measuring up so that we could fill the car for our Christmas visit with the right quantity of the right kit to make a start on some essentials and bits to start making an impression on the house.
John focused on the out of sight stuff, mainly insulation in the roof, which was 40 year old 1980s standard. His concerns balanced between putting something down to keep the place warm and reduce running costs, but also about putting some frost protection on pipework that may freeze - earlier in the month it had been down to -10C for an extended period of time. The loft space was partially boarded down the length of the house and had a light, both of which helped greatly, but off that walkway the insulation was pretty poor and the local mouse population had 'made it their own'. Pipe lagging was literally falling off the pipe runs and quite a few lengths of pipe were poorly supported and sagging in the middle on joints. The kitchen has 12 recessed spotlights which we are going to keep and we decided to 'do the job properly' by buying plastic fireproof domes to go over them in the attic (mainly to help with insulation), on fitting them we found that the mice like the wires on them - so putting the domes in place should keep them a bit safer - the lights and the mice!
Liz focused on immediately visible things and stripping back unnecessary stuff that we simply didn't want, like excess kitchen lights that had been installed underneath the cabinets, and got cracking with some white woodwork painting. She pulled out an old shaving light fitting, bathroom shelf and cabinet that we wouldn't use, and took down all the many, many coat pegs around the place, plus the old doorbell which was inside the house because the old front for had been moved the porch area incorporated into the house. Features like the internal doorbell just didn't make the cut for things to keep! But the 80's circular porch light is definitely going to stay, as are the lovely panels of knock-off Cotswold glass in the hall and wooden doors.
We are still holding ourselves to a promise not to be slaves to the house, so keep diving off the job particularly when there's a break in the weather in the winter. This rainbow was in one such break and we were amazed we could see the end of the rainbow, literally in the ground behind the house, and a little walk down the road in the mist was incredibly romantic.
Having a DIY project 400 miles away requires careful planning for each visit - some things you can chance it on because it's not much money - but for other things you need to work out what you need whilst on site and come back next time. It's a good job we've both spent our working lives being quite methodical! Some things are going to take a bit of time, like pipe lagging and insulation, so just take a quantity every time you go until you're done.
Commentaires