Water Pipe Workout
So far the only part of our front garden not yet dug up was the front path, which Dave remedied at the weekend when replacing our old dual water supply, with one new pipe. This involved another 12 hr weekend digging slog to unearth the old pipe beneath our pathway slabs and lay the new pipe - who needs the gym when you can have a water pipe workout and get a tan at the same time?!
Next in the workout challenge was to hack through 1ft of concrete to locate the entry point of the pipe into the house and the point where the upstairs and downstairs supplies separated. This had to be completed in one weekend so we could relay the slabs and have a safe passage from the front door to the pavement again - essential when you are 9months pregnant and tiptoeing along the side of a large hole to gain entry to your home is not highly recommended. By the end of the weekend, the new pipe was successfully laid, the pathway slabs replaced, and every muscle in Dave's body thoroughly worked out.
This was a highly significant step forward in our renovation, since once the new pipe is connected, we can disconnect and rip out the stopcock sitting very unhelpfully in the middle of our kitchen, where the sliding doors need to be installed. With news that the sliding doors should be ready by the end of this week, we can then go full steam ahead into project 'new kitchen'!! Very exciting!
The other big step forward is that our kerb is now lowered and once the final 2 tons of soil are disposed of, we can start parking our car in the driveway (albeit some impromtu ramps will be required and we might get a bit stuck if it rains and the driveway turns to a mud pit - but progress none the less..)
It feels like lots of things are slotting into place, and we are free to start making significant progress on different rooms in the house and driveway. The only issue is deciding which one to tackle first when we're desperate to get going on them all - plus the minor distraction of a baby due to arrive any day...
The Week that Nothing Worked
It was Easter weekend and lots of things were supposed to happen. By the end of the week, we were expecting the top soil to be all gone; the kerb to be lowered so we could park on our drive; and our new bed and curtains to have arrived, allowing us to move upstairs to our swanky new bedroom! Simple - except this turned out to be one of those frustrating weeks where nothing quite works out.
We commissioned a grab truck to come and remove the topsoil, however after filling up at least 10 tons the truck was full and lots of soil remained - tantalisingly out of reach of the grab arm.. So Dave got to spend another 6hours on Easter Friday shifting top soil to move the remaining load into the reach of the truck. It returned and managed to squeeze another 14 tons or so on - however that left a frustrating pile of about 2 tons that refused to fit on. The truck man charges £130 a go, and doesn't do partial loads so we are stuck with 2 tons of top soil sitting annoyingly in the space where we'd like to park our car. Anyone need any soil??..
The next day, Dave's arms got a rest and we headed to town to shop for soft furnishings for our loft in anticipation of our new ILVA bed, which was due to be delivered the following Thursday, along with our curtains. We sorted ourselves out with a new quilt, pillows, duvet covers etc and were looking forward to finally moving upstairs. Thursday came, and I sat patiently in the house waiting for our bed in our alloted 'slot' (entire day) of 8am - 6pm. This is no great hardship for a lady on maternity leave, but annoying when it's sunny outside and I could be off having Cream Tea in Writtle.. About 2pm I decided to confirm they were definetly coming, as Dave had received a garbled message from ILVA about some bedside tables not being delivered (we weren't expecting those until May, so no great surprise they weren't coming today). The lady on the phone revealled our delivery had 'disappeared' from the system and after much phoning and faffing managed to find out that our bed was damaged and wouldn't be coming after all - thanks for letting us know. and you owe me Cream Tea. She cheerfully assured me that it would arrive on April 26th instead - which coincidently is the baby's due date so maybe we'll have 2 new arrivals that day. Predictably, the curtains weren't ready on time either grrrrrr.
To add to our frustrating week, we heard from our kerb lowering man that he couldn't start work as scheduled as the permit from the council hadn't arrived in time. This was inspite of the fact that the council insisted we wait until this week to do the work since it would be Easter holidays at school and therefore would be less disruption from our traffic lights. Taking matters into my own hands (while bored sitting waiting for the bed that would never arrive) I chased up the council, who declared the permit was fine but the contractor had a problem with his lights. Either way, it wasn't going to happen.
Happily though - as I write this a week later, we are greatly inconveniencing passing moterists with our traffic lights while the kerb is being drilled up. Even better - the kerb man has agreed to shift the pesky last 2 tons of soil from our front drive! And to top off a turn in fortune - tomorrow I can pick up our new curtains. Now we just need a bed.....
Nursery Tales
Last weekend was another busy one in the Hartley house, with the bonus of plenty of Hartley Helpers. Roger, Jean, Jo and Stuart all came by for some more hard labour to help keep progress moving along nicely.
The biggest step forward was with the nursery, which is now fully fitted and ready for a little person to move into. This involved flat pack construction of the chest of drawers, washing of all baby clothes and blankets, and ingenious stapling of a curtain to the wall to cover the plywood shower space. . (curtain bargainiously purchased brand new from ebay for £13 delivered - and today I saw the same one for sale in Debenhams for £100, which made me very happy!).
The electrics were fully signed off at the weekend by our Part P inspector. This was after a week of wiring by Dave to fit the bedroom and landing lights, along with all the mains smoke alarms. The inspector gave Dave a gold star for the quality of his wiring (courtesy of a week's training at Ford Swansea Plant in 1996). We also learned that our bed will be delivered next week, along with our curtains hopefully - so we should be ready to move up to our loft santury very soon indeed. Another excuse for me to go shopping today and buy new quilt covers to complete the look (for those concerned, I am adapting very well to life without work - today I mostly slept, shopped, and met friends for cream tea and gossip. It's a hard life..)
More hard slog was put in by the team in the garden, with a much needed trip to the recycling depot to remove the piles of wood, debris, windows and doors that were featuring in our front garden - please note the silver estate convoy (baby boomer and echo boomer lifestyle choices in evidence...) Then, there was yet more digging in the garden and moving of soil into position for the truck to remove - it came yesterday and managed to shift only half the soil (10tons) before it was full. Roger discovered and removed half a caravan in the depths of the back garden, holding together another few tons worth of compost and soil. With a newly flat back lawn, we then got our shiny new lawnmower in action and planted some new grass seed, which the fat pigeons have been enjoying ever since..
We ended the weekend with some much deserved beers/ginger ale in the sunshine in the back garden, before sending our exhausted helpers homeward.
