We've been keeping ourselves out of mischief with a few bits of light DIY over the last few months - on top of the bigger projects like the windows, kitchen, spare loo and utility room. I've made a quick video to sum it all up in one minute flat!
Firstly - a really important bit of work was to pay an electrician, Connor Giudici, to replace our old style fuse board, which was complicated with much bastardised wiring, with a brand new RCD board, all nicely grouped and labelled (except the utility room which still seems to be on the garage circuit for some reason), but with all the safety features needed to bring it all bang up to date (or no bang - that's the point!) He's also put a couple of external power sockets at sensible positions outside for when we get stuck into the garden. An excellent job, and we would highly recommend Connor!
I (Liz) have made an Instagram purchase of a cute little door bell that just sticks to the back of the door and gives a lovely little tinkle when you shut the door - call it a 'Heather early warning system' so we know if our next door neighbour pops round unannounced! She won't mind me saying that...
I also took some inspiration from all those satisfying videos of people filling generic tubs and jars with food, and bought 48 identical glass and bamboo spice jars and filled them up. Not only do they now look beautiful but it also meant I had duplicates I could donate to Amber in her new flat - a good spice selection is an integral part of her upbringing and essential to an adventurous palate, but also expensive to build up.
Whilst John and Richard were laying the floor, I bit the bullet and stained all the new internal doors we've had fitted by Duncan Kerr. I had been putting this off for a little while - it would be awful if the stain made them look out of place. However, now stained, they really look great and make the place modern without changing the character of the house or clashing with other wood surfaces. Just a coat of satin varnish needed to finish and protect them. They look great with the beautiful solid brass handles in the same shape as the handles on the old doors which we feel fit nicely with the 80's character of the house. Duncan did a great job and we are very lucky to have found such a good joiner locally.
John installed some pretty bright lights into all four built in cupboards so we can see what we are doing in there now - what a difference! And he also spent a fair bit of time under the floor putting in a load of pipe lagging and under-floor insulation to keep us toasty through the winter. It involved a kind of trolley on wheels to lay on and push himself around 'great escape' style in the tiny space. Another good but dirty job mostly done.
Oil deliveries have continued every other month through the winter to keep the tank topped up and the heating and AGA on and piping hot. It really is a great service - phone them up and put in an order and pay for the requisite number of litres of kerosene and they turn up the next day with a tanker and deliver it even if you're not around. We have an open fire, but for the last month, we simply haven't bothered as the house seems an all round even temperature now that John has insulated the pipes under the floor!
John: I don't think Liz could list the million and one things we've done in the last few months. Some things have been amazingly satisfying and take the house to a new level of 'zen' if you like, and others are just simple practical things to make the house our home. I've enjoyed making progress, it's given me purpose in times that could have been quite 'lost at sea' and we can both see a real difference - little things adding up to big overall change.
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