A messy weekend

We are still in a right old mess in the CF flat but any day soon things will be turned around. I have painted all the rooms now, even got 3 coats on the newly plastered kitchen ceiling so I am feeling much happier. The glossing is even done in the main bedroom so once the new windows are in, the place will be almost liveable. Well I say liveable but we are still without a bathroom or kitchen It’s going to be a hectic week and we are going to be under pressure to lay the wall tiles in the bathroom in readiness for Snake, the plumber, to come in and fit the new bathroom, which incidentally we haven’t even brought yet.

The sun has shone for the last few days and Betty kept out of my way for most of Thursday and Friday, which, needless to say has helped me no end. Phil has been out of action for a couple of days which has slowed us down. We had planned to take the afternoon off on Friday and stay in a hotel in Oxford so Phil could go to his OU tutorial on the Saturday morning but Georgina had to be taken to Oxford on Friday for the open day at the university so that meant we had to cancel our plans. Instead, I went painting at CF flat all day and was absolutely exhausted when I got home. No change there then.

Phil had to pick up another student in Milton Keynes and then drove to Oxford for a second day in a row for his tutorial on Saturday morning. I got petrol, went to the tip and then made my way to Cranfield for another day of painting. Betty was around but on Saturday’s she does her washing and housework so she didn’t have much time to chat. Actually, I had to ask her to help me put the glass table top back on and lift the mirror back on the wall, so five minutes of work, and she was very helpful. I didn’t feel guilty though because I did take her a bottle of wine the other day and donated a bag of old clothes, shoes and belts for the youngest daughter to take into school so I’m not all bad! I did notice when I was sweeping up the tile dust, my last job before heading home, that she’d tended to the garden outside our front door; there was an old pot full of weeds by the step and I saw that she’d dug out the weeds and put in some kind of plastic animal. Sweet thought but obviously not to my taste and I need to loose it somehow without her noticing.

Harriet came round on Friday night to use our loo as hers was blocked. She has been complaining about the flush on her back-to-wall toilet for weeks now and I felt guilty that I hadn’t chased up the plumber to come and sort it. To be honest, I have chased him and left several messages but he just hasn’t got back to me. I spent an hour phoning around different plumbers from the classified ads in The Citizen on Saturday but struggled to get a plumber out because as soon as I mentioned the blocked bog, they didn’t want the job. One plumber suggested I shove a toilet brush with a hand towel down the loo so I went round to Harriet’s and tried this but it didn’t work, in fact it made the situation worse. It was disgusting, the more I shoved, the more waste came out of the pipe and back up into the loo. YUK!!! Made me gag I can tell you and I had to abort the operation nearly as soon as I’d started. Shane watched the procedure from outside the bathroom and it even made him gag. Even Coke, the dog, stayed well away.

I went back home and phoned another plumber and eventually persuaded one to come out to HH’s loo within the hour. Owen unblocked the loo and phoned me to say that we needed a new syphon. Apparently the flush system is so old that you can’t get new parts and really we should have replaced the flush system when we replaced the bathroom. The plumber who fitted the bathroom (mention no names, but you know who I mean) not only did he fail to tell us that the flush system was ancient but he also didn’t fit the syphon properly which consequently caused the flush to not work and subsequently block the loo. Owen (star) is ordering the part and will be out on Thursday morning to fit it. What is it with us and toilet leaks????

Phil got back from his tutorial a little before 2pm and as there was no food in the freezer we went to Peartree Bridge for a carvery. I went for the turkey which turned out a good choice because Phil said the beef was tough. I made the mistake of having a large glass of house white which made me feel really sleepy and dosey. I felt like calling it a day and going home but Phil insisted we went to Wickes to buy the kitchen. It was easy enough to pick from the shelf but with both of us suffering with bad backs, not so great loading the units into the car. Once we had loaded it all in we drove to the CF flat to offload the units. Whilst we were there Phil cut the few remaining floor tiles whilst I got another coat of emulsion on the kitchen ceiling. I was knackered by the end of the day and Saturday night was shower, jarmies, wine and X-factor.

When we’d had breakfast and answered emails we went straight over to the CF flat to carry on with the works. Phil got stuck into the grouting and I followed behind him doing the brushing and wiping down. Another grovelling around on hands and knees dirty job but very satisfying once it was done. Phil built up the base kitchen units and I got the ladder out and painted the fascia boards. We finished at midday, got changed and went to the Swan in Cranfield for lunch. It has had a change of management and a refurbishment since we were there last (about two years ago) so we were pleasantly surprised. We went for the Sunday roast lamb but there were plenty of other choices on the menu including a huge choice of Thai food. Our roast lamb was delicious, all freshly cooked and well presented. It’s not cheap as chips but I think you pay for what you get and we will definitely be dining there again.

After lunch we went to Tesco’s to get fuel and supplies from the main store then we went to Wickes to see if we could get the missing parts for the drawer base unit. After much waiting around and discussions with several of the staff, we ended up having to order the missing parts. Never mind, hopefully they should arrive sooner rather than later and preferably in the next couple of days. Next trip was a visit to B&Q to get the wall tiles. We pretty much knew what we wanted so it was just a case of loading up the trolley and lugging it all into the boot of Phil’s car, another back breaking job.

We went home for a shower and change of clothes and were just ready to greet Barry our new guttering and roof repair man. Barry has just done the guttering on the two OB flats and had come round for payment. Whilst he was here Phil asked him to quote to repair the leak in Shirley’s garage. You can see the sky and as we have stored some of Shirley’s stuff in there and are concerned that it will get damp. Barry said he would do it for fifty quid which we though was fair. Last night was again, jarmies, wine and early to bed, ready for the new week ahead.