Category: House and Garden

Windows

For once this isn’t about M$ and some guff about windows. No – I’ve put up with three different salesman and last night signed on the dotted line to get new double glazing and front door fitted. The price has shocked me but if we get a quality job I won’t grumble. The thought did cross my mind…lets just get the door replaced and I can get my plasma sorted, especially after watching this 720p video of PGR3.

Anyway – six weeks from now should see us have 13 windows and a front door replaced by Anglian. There salesman wasn’t too bad and at least didn’t start off high and come down to more than half his original price (£22,500 to £9,500 in about 4 steps from the Everest guy) although he did have something that summed up salesman for me. He had the crazy frog ringtone – the bastard. So kids, woman and salesman are responsible for keeping the crazy frog ringtone market afloat. Swines. The new kit should make a massive difference – the front door is very draughty and a few of the windows are in a pretty poor state – old draughty sash windows although the stained glass at the front of the house is nice and we’ll be getting it reproduced. Between this and getting the garden fencing replaced it’s going to be an expensive couple of months – no new toys for me.

There’s been a murder

Last week we spotted a mouse outside. Next day it was in our kitchen. Little bugger. I popped of to B&Q and picked up poison, traps and a weird bait type box. The mouse has spent the last few days ignoring the traps but enjoyed the baited food – but when will it die? Today, that’s when. Popped down the stairs this morning to find the mouse in the baited food gasping for air….and another mouse caught in the trap. Joy of joys. Hopefully that’s the end of them.

However it highlights how much we miss having a cat around the house. A good friend and handy if we do find another mouse. The Cat Protection League hasn’t been too successful so far…must widen the hunt.

Shattered

Made the most of the holiday weekend and I can safely say that I’m glad to be going back to work tomorrow. The clear-out on Saturday was followed by lot’s of flat pack building. Also cleaned out the rest of the garage and organised what’s left – for the first time since we moved in the garage is looking tidy…for a garage.

The rest of the furniture is all built and in place but it’ll take a few days of tidying to get back to normal. One thing I do regret is I forgot to order a lock and key for a set of office drawers I bought. I foolishly went into Ikea today for it – never again on a bank holiday. The place was mobbed and you could see three types of consumer

  • Browsers – they walk at a snails pace (now called the ‘Ikea Shuffle) and seem to stop and point at all the room displays whether they are buying anything or not.
  • ‘The Lost’ – trying in vain to make their way through the maze is not easy but on a busy day, with people wanting to take short cuts they had no chance
  • Irish – the place was teeming with them. Day trips from Ireland to the Glasgow Ikea are VERY popular

    • Never mind – a lesson has been learnt.

    Knackered

    Hired a van today and with the help of Graham bought far too much at Ikea and then cleared out my garage. Since we moved in the garage has always niggled at me. 5 windows, a kitchen worktop, some kitchen cabinets and an old decrepit workbench from the 1920’s plus wood and car posters from the sixties had meant I could never get the place organised. Finally it has been.

    The council dump was a bit weird though. No vehicles over the height of 1.8 metres is allowed in. The reason I needed a van was the size and weight of the stuff needing dumped. Looks like they want to encourage you to pay the council to take the sizeable rubbish away. Swine’s. Never mind – a good job well done.

    Sprung

    Yes – spring has sprung. The first good weekend of the year weather wise has meant the garden can be appreciated without realising after two minutes it’s bloody freezing and time to get back inside. The bulbs planted last year are flowering well (daffs and tulips mostly) and it’s good to see that the plants we invested in last year have got new growth on them.

    But the front lawn. Oh dear. Needs some serious attention over the next two months. I am on a mission. A mission to seed.

    Autumn Clearing

    With Autumn now officially here and a break in the wet weather we’ve been having it was time for the final grass cut of the year. This then turned into a garden clearance (never did I thought so many plants would last for such a small time). Cue 10 bags filled and a trip to the dump. To round it off, a trip to Dobbies to restock the barren wasteland that was the garden. One point…since when did garden centres clear out half there shop to stock MASSIVE amounts of crimbo decorations. Blimey. I guess it is only 10 weeks on Saturday till Christmas.

    The second clearout was the pc. Only 3 months old and running out of room (it only has 160Gb)? A swift clearout later and I’d freed 60Gb. Shocking the amount of guff you accumulate with broadband. Having the 1 Meg connection doesn’t help. Time to get the old pc set-up as a server and put all the movies and music on it instead.

    Holiday…what holiday?

    Well, I’m on holiday this week but I’m looking forward to going back to work next Monday for a break. Since Sunday afternoon I’ve painted the garage doors and side door, painted the garage guttering, painted the back garden gates and fence, painted the front garden gate and painted half of the kitchen ceiling. Tomorrow will be the other half of the ceiling and a start on the walls. Also cut the lawns and did some weeding. On previous weeks off what exactly did I do? Ah yes….gamed for the week. If only.

    Still enough time to beat some PGR2 times though 🙂

    6 Months In

    Well, Tuesday 20th July marked 6 months since we moved into the new house. Even though it’s been a bit of a slog, and financially it’s a lot more stretching, it is most defiantly the best thing we’ve done – the last 6 months have been great. Neighbours are very friendly and a total opposite to what we had before which on reflection wouldn’t be difficult. Seeing someone shoot-up on the landing outside the old house was the last straw. And I don’t miss the Friday and Saturday night drunks that used to annoy every week. And goodbye Orange Walks – never again will I have to put up with your bigot driven strolls down Argyle Street while the hangers on piss all over the pavements.

    I’m even enjoying the garden 🙂

    Gardening

    Spent a good bit of the weekend in the garden – I must admit I never realised how much effort it would take. Just digging a border around the front lawn was knackering and also meant 2 trips to the dump with 16 bags of refuse. But the weed killer on the front lawn has worked so the grass seed has been planted – I’ll do a photo update every few days to see if the seed works.