Another week in paradise

Another week down the line and Phil is still hyper. In fact he hasn’t stopped. The good news is that the weight is falling off him but I am struggling to keep up. I miss my quiet time with Jeremy Kyle; time and space to think, reflect and plan. Phil doesn’t spend much time on the planning stage, preferring to just get stuck in. Still, on the plus side, it’s nice to see progress on our own house and get all those finishing off jobs done which have been niggling me over the winter.

On Sunday Phil started on making good the conservatory – his space. First up he got up on the step ladder and hovered up all the dead spiders. He then cleaned the inside windows and then got the jet spray out to give the outside of the conservatory a good going over. When he’d finished I took over the jet spray and hosed the decking steps, they were filthy. When I got the deck steps up by the back door I uncovered a family of frogs. They made me shriek and I was tempted to hose them away with the jet spray, but Phil, kind soul that he is, captured them in an IKEA bag and put them over the fence.

Before Phil could start tiling in the garage I had to clean out the tools and spread them in the wendy house and the other sheds. This took a while and wasn’t straight forward as I thought it was going to be. Over the last few wee

ks when we have been working in the flats, we’ve just been chucking stuff in the garage in no particular order. It was chaos. Still I managed to get most things re-housed and somehow ended up with yet another pile for the dump. Getting rid of rubbish is so therapeutic!

We want to turn the garage into a utility-room with storage but still leave space for a car, albeit a little one. Phil had been and got a load of cheap-as-chip tiles from B&Q and some grouting powder. Normally we buy the ready made stuff but it’s just so expensive and we don’t really want to spend a packet on the garage. When Phil made up the stuff he said he actually preferred it to the ready made and wished he had tried it a long time ago.

On Monday Phil put up ship lap in the shed in-between the garage. He brought all the wood back from his mum and dad’s last Saturday. The wood was left over from the self-build on Giffard Park that Phil did and mum and dad have been looking after it for last 20 years! It looks a lot better than it did but will really look the business when I get some paint on the walls and Phil laminates the floor. We have brought a new door but are waiting on the carpenter, William, who is away on holiday this week.

Phil’s new black 32” LCD HD ready television was delivered early on Tuesday morning and is now mounted on the wall complete with new bracket in the conservatory. So now he is all set up in his new office. He’s even got his own phone! Actually it is lovely and sunny and bright in the conservatory and I am wondering whether I made the right choice in plumping for the kitchen as my space. Probably, as I’m still stuck with the cooking. I don’t mind really, now that Phil’s at home full-time, my DIY skills don’t seem to be required anymore.

As I said, Phil is hyper; this morning he was up finishing the tiling in the garage at 5.30am.

Mind you, I was up on the email at 4.45 am so really I am not much better. I have had to keep a free day today as I am driving Harriet to a private dental clinic to have a wisdom tooth removed. She is having this done under a local anaesthetic and she is really nervous. This is understandable really as she has never even had one single filling. Unfortunately I am not brave in the dentist chair and she wants me to in the actual room with her. I am going to try and persuade her, that this really is not such a good idea as I know I will make her more nervous. My sister Louise had a wisdom tooth removed and she said she was in a real pain and it was the only time she has gone off sick from work. Naturally I haven’t told Harriet this and I don’t think she reads the blog.

I’m off soon to get some Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream from the 24 hour Tesco’s because I don’t think she’ll be able to eat much else for a couple of days. Rather her than me and fingers crossed she’s not in too much pain.