Working Like a Trojan - but the only Wooden Horse was a Clothes Horse - July 18, 2018

The start to the day could have been better, The laundry had been building up quicker than I expected, so I decided to do another round of washing. As I was separating coloureds, whites and darks (as Sally had trained me), I found a pile of clean laundry, where I had left it, at the bottom of the laundry basket. I clearly hadn't emptied it before refilling with dirty laundry. At least that explains why I had so much and so soon.

Not knowing which was dirty and which clean I just re-washed the lot.

First batch goes in - and then I realise I've not put in a detergent tablet. I set it to rapid wash so that I can get it out and start again withing 15-minutes (little did I know I could have simply opened the door after the cycle had started).

With the washing underway I went to the shower room to get started with the painting - only to find the floor awash. Water was coming out of the radiator outlet pipe. It hadn't been when I had removed the radiator, so why was it now and, more importantly, how long had it been doing it? All night?

I checked downstairs for leaks and/or damage but none was apparent - phew!

I packed the opening of the pipe with blu-tack and that seemed to do the trick. Later in the day the blu-tack leaked and, on removing it I found water appeared to 'melt' it - so not the best material for the job. I got a wad of putty and used that - sorted. I have a theory as to why water pumps out of the pipe intermittently - I think it is back pressure from the washing machine. I hope I'm right as it will mean there was no overnight leakage.

With the leak sorted I could get on with the painting in earnest. I worked like a Trojan, if I do say so myself - not even breaking for lunch as I was on a roll. By the end of the day the shower room window and window frame were painted (one coat external, two internal) the door frame and skirting in the loo had two coats, the pipe work in the shower room and loo had their first coat and the radiator was rubbed down, cleaned and had a coat of paint on one side.

I finally feeling that I'm making real progress with the loo and shower room. Tomorrow should see the painting finished and the flooring starting to go down. I'm keen to get the radiator back on (if only to eliminate the risk of more leaks), but I want the flooring in  place first.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Receipt of Compromise & Diagnostics Reports (Feb 2018)

I'm still building this blog, setting up the 'Retrospective' pages which describe our activities between first embarking on this adventure  and finally deciding to create this blog. However, I've decided to create the first blog post as we've hit the first major milestone to occur since I started blogging - the receipt of the Compromise and the Diagnostic Reports. The Compromise is the first of two contractual documents and commits both parties to the sale of the property. The other contract is the main contract at the end of the process. Rather than travel to France we had decided to give the notaire (similar to a solicitor but working for the State rather than the two parties) power of attorney  to sign the Compromise on our behalf. This seemed seemed sensible as it involved no additional fees and saved us the journey. We would still have a 10-day cooling off period and, even if we had traveled there, the chances of understanding even a small part of what we w
Read more

A Night at the Chateau. 4-5 July

Image
 Up at 05:30 and on the road, as planned, shortly after 06:00. Nice clear run to the Eurotunnel terminal, as a result of which we were offered the 10:20 crossing (we were booked on the 11:50). Great result! Except we then queued and queued as traffic crawled through the customs and security checks. Eventually we found ourselves on the 11:20 crossing - still 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Anecdotally, the return delays are currently even worse. Isn't Brexit bliss 😒. We had booked a night at the Chateau de la Bucherie, just to the west of Paris. And French leg of the journey from the terminal was a s smooth as the journey to the terminal. I can highly recommend the chateau. The price was very reasonable, the room spacious (all be it in the roof with only a moderate sized Velux window).  The staff were delightful and friendly and the grounds (with impressive flora and fauna) were exceptional.  The kitchen garden was well stocked and we weren't surprised to see its produce feature
Read more

Baking Bread without an Oven & Accosting Strangers - 28 & 29 June.

Image
  On Sunday we tried, unsuccessfully, to find the workshop of the bicycle repairman that had a stall on the market the previous year. He'd told us he was opening a shop but we failed to find it  – perhaps it didn’t survive the pandemic; perhaps we simply were looking in the wrong place. We more groceries (we can only buy a few provisions each visit due to transport being limited to the push bikes) and ordered a full size fridge-freezer. Sally reckoned it was a good price and we’ve been managing with a small fridge for long enough – especially as we’ll be visiting for longer periods now (hopefully). Delivery was only €10 so we arranged for it to be delivered the next day. In the evening we looked for hotels in Paris and, having booked three-nights there, changed our return train ticket; a surprisingly simple process. Up at a more reasonable time (07:45) on Monday – thanks to setting the alarm. We needed to be sure to be up in time for the fridge-freezer delivery (scheduled for s
Read more