Zomer 2008 Summer

This year Summer happened on September 1st, for at least four whole hours! So of course I ran out and took some photo's of the outside world on this historical day.


I left last year's two Halloween pumpkins to rot in a corner of the garden and look what they've given me in return! I've counted at least twelve flowers in it and if the birds leave them alone we'll have a lot more than two pumpkins in a few weeks time!




The tiny rose bushes I planted in the Spring have done really well, despite the lack of sunshine, and turn out loads of lovely flowers in this nice deep red colour. And - thanks to the lavender?! - no wee beasties at all, yeah!


The lavender, in the meantime, was growing so wild that I cut it down and hung a nice big bunch by the front door. Just making sure that everybody coming in is calm and relaxed...




The clematis hasn't had much chance to grow and flower, but it's making a brave and beautiful effort.

Het leven gaat door - Life goes on

This week was for the finishing touches to the extension. Literally. I touched up all the missed or damaged bits of paintwork and I painted the walk-in cupboard. Total hours spent painting in the new extension: 64!!


On one side of that cupboard we'll make shelves and rails for clothes and then there's still plenty space for Owen's Warhammer stuff, his Donald Duck magazine collection, and other valuable souvenirs of a youth well spent, such as boxes of Playmobil, Lego and K-nex. They're now up in the attic, but I'm sure when they're more at hand it'll get used again...
So the room is actually finished now and ready to be lived in. This huge table is very dear to me, as it's about as old as I am. It was made by a good friend of the family - Uncle Henk, we call him - when I was only little. Yes, a long, long time ago. The table is not only huge, but also solid. And it has a formica top - easy to clean! - and two extensions. It doesn't really fit into our living/dining room, so I am utterly pleased that it's found a new use!
And while I'm cleaning up and all that, I have live music to keep the spirits up!

Another item that is being put back into use is Owen's hammock, in the hardwood stand. It takes up a lot of space and even in this big room there's only one way it will fit. But Owen will be over the moon to have it back and I doubt if he'll sleep in his bed when this is available.

Ken is being a good Daddy and sacrifices some of his precious time to test-sleep the hammock and make sure it's safe and sound for Owen. Aahhh.
For the sake of completeness, a picture from the other side of the room. I've bought blue jeans coloured curtains today and with a bit of luck they'll be up before Monday. Then the room is ready to be personalized by Owen :). I doubt if you'll see anymore pictures of it after this...

To round it off, we made use of the one morning this week when it wasn't raining and we did the garden, so at least the garden matches the house again. Wow, who would've thought I'd end up in a neat looking house with a neat looking garden!!

And yes, we also do other things... Earlier this week, on Tuesday, we picked Jacen up. Austin was also staying here for a couple of days and the three of them were getting along just fine, having lots of fun at LaserQuest (walking into town together), playing Guitar Hero on the X-Box, playing real guitar and other games, watching films in the cinema and at home, hanging out in the caravan...

And I know what we'll be doing after we've had a few more days of sunshine! Picking brambles! Look at these! And there's loads and loads of them in our other bit of garden, just across the road. We can see them from our front window. We'd been thinking about cutting them down, but I'm so glad we didn't. Yum!!

Communicerende vaten - A few barrels full

When the garage was still only a garage there were ten huge water barrels on the roof. They were linked to each other through a simple but ingenious system of hose pipes. The idea was to make as much use as possible from our lovely Cumbrian - read: wet - climate, so that we would have a vast supply of rain water for the garden, for washing vehicles, etc.
By the time we moved in here the system wasn't working due to a leak somewhere. And obviously, the barrels had to be taken off to make space for the extension.
The house owner took half of them home to set up his own system and we kept the rest.
After they'd finished the extension the builders put the barrels on big cement bricks, fed the rainpipe into the first, reconnected the bits of hosepipe, with a length of hosepipe going into the drain.

This is how it looked when the builders where finished.

As it's officially part of the drainage system, the building inspector had to approve it before he could sign the whole project off. He didn't approve. He thought it was a bit too 'flimsy'. Too much risk of the hosepipe being knocked off. And he wanted a fixed overflow outlet from the last barrel into the drain.
So yesterday the house owner came and helped us set up the system in a better way.

We closed all the taps at the bottom of the barrels and disconnected the hose. The house owner had brought ready sets from B&Q with flexible pipe and connectors. He drilled holes in the top of the barrels, put holders into the holes and then glued the flexible pipe into the holders.

If you look closely you can see - below - the black bits of pipe that connect the barrels at the top. He's now fixing the overflow outlet (also ready package from B&Q)

Overflow outlet in place...

Cut into the drainpipe (obviously a bit lower than the overflow outlet)...

Slide the connecting bit from the B&Q package in (which is slightly more difficult than it looks)...

... and the system is ready for inspection! I have no doubt it'll pass now, as it's definitely not flimsy anymore and the stuff of B&Q is made to standard.

Luckily, there was an educational part to this all. It took a while, but after some gentle hints from Ken the children - and I - found out the difference between the original and the new system. I'm sure you all know, but just in case:

When the barrels were connected through the hose at the bottom - and all the taps were open - the water leveled itself out between the barrels. So the water level would be the same in all five barrels. But with the connection now being at the top the first barrel fills up first and then overflows into the second and when that's full it goes into the third, etcetera. When all five are full it goes into the drainpipe, same as before. The taps are still there (but closed, obviously), so we can tap from which ever barrel is full.

I need to see it working before I can grasp it and the weather gods are accommodating my need to learn, as it's pouring down with rain at the moment.

First thing tomorrow morning I'll go and see. I'll keep you posted!

The Final Stretch - De Laatste Loodjes

The Monday after we packed the garage again, the electricians came back to put the lights and the machine to open the garage door back in. Only... they couldn't find the wiring... It had disappeared under the plaster board. We found that the different trades like to exchange nasty comments about each other and this time they had a field day!



The scaffolding and lots of rain water hadn't done the path around the house a lot of good, so the landlord had asked the builders to re-pave it.



It was a pleasure to watch the men at work ;)). Look what we saved for a rainy day... And it really was a rainy day! I suppose it's one way to keep one's shirt dry...



Luckily, the result looked nice, too.






And while the guttering was put in place outside...




The last work was done to the bathroom inside. The huge tiles weren't easy to handle, but once in place they actually looked quite nice!



Here's what it looked like after grouting, and after the plumbers had fitted the shower and the radiator...



... and the toilet and the wash basin. Unfortunately the wash basin was fitted right up against the wall on the right, which didn't look very nice and would make it very hard to clean.



Fortunately, Paul the Perfectionist came up with the plan to put an extra tile in (well, part of a tile) and fill the space to make it look like a corner unit. That looks better!



Luckily, Aldi were doing a special on bathroom stuff, so I got all kind of cheap but nice looking accessories, including the shower curtain. By this time the doors were out again for us to paint the skirting boards and frames.



Also courtesy of Aldi (two or three years ago) this flexible tube with spotlights, ideal for this room.



All the painting and lifting had taken its toll from my hands, so a historical moment occurred when Ken picked up the paint brush and took over from me. Doesn't he look as if he's enjoying himself? But even though he said - beforehand - he can't paint to save his life, he did a pretty good job!

We're nearing the end. Only the finishing touches to do. And then of course the re-arranging of the rest of the house...

The Extension / De Aanbouw... the continuing story

Now, where were we... it's all going so fast! On the last picture I posted the joiners were putting the floor in. So much has been done after that. Nothing but praise for all the hard and neat work done!

On Friday July 18 the floor was in...

but the plaster hadn't dried up completely...

so we couldn't start painting...

until the Monday (21/7), although I did wash the walls of the shower room down with watered down PVA to make them damp proof. We worked around the carpenter putting in the door frames.

Myrna and I tried to get the first layer on before the carpenter started putting the laminate down...

but we only managed to get three of the four walls done before the Tuesday. Ah well...

Meanwhile, we had to vacate the garage and cover up the bits that couldn't be moved, because due to fire regulations - and health and safety no doubt - a new insulated ceiling had to be put in. Unfortunately, this means we loose our rafters, where we stacked a lot of wood and other stuff. But hey, I'm sure we'll find a place or a destination for it all.

And aren't we lucky with our landlord, who agreed to have a laminate floor put in! This is on Wednesday evening, laminate, skirting boards and door frames are finished and I can start painting the last wall.

Thursday 1.30 AM!! Just finishing the second layer of paint... Notice the worn out of fashion baggy trousers... Apparently they're a disgrace, but I can't part with them, so I'm now using them for painting!

Friday 25/7, The plasterers are back to put the ceiling up in the garage...

... they had to work in the boiling heat, because the doors couldn't open while they were working on the ceiling! And it was hot! Liters of water and loads of packets of crisps were consumed.

Will you look at this ballroom!! Isn't it gorgeous and worth all the work and trouble!!

And now for the finishing touches... With the ceiling back in we can start repacking the garage. Although the major part of the garage is "Ken's space", this time I've taken charge of the organizing. So first we cleaned everything that was there, shifting and dumping at the same time, creating space for the stuff that had been stored elsewhere...

Elsewhere being the garage of no. 2 (our previous / temporary house across the road), which we were kindly given the use of. All this had to go into that newly created clean space.

This is "my" domain. I converted the back bit of the garage into a pantry-like space. This is what it looked like at the end of the day on Saturday (26/7).

Here we've just loaded Old Faithful up with the contents of no.2's garage and we've started putting it back - in an organized and structured way! It was a heavy test to our marriage, but again we managed to survive it. Everything coming out of the van had to be cleaned and checked for usefulness. Also, we repacked a lot of boxes and managed to have eight of them empty by the end of the day! The skip was full by then...

And this is what it looked like... the morning after...

The caravan is full, too. We'll have to find a place or destination for everything, because the plan is that the front bit of the garage is going to be our gym. So next, we're going to tidy up the attic and the storage cupboard. After we varnished the skirting boards, doors and door frames of the new room... We'll not get bored! Stay tuned for hopefully the last episode.