The lovely Mr Bedder picked me up at 9:00am sharp (yay a lie in).
Here’s some pics from Darren’s clearout on Sunday:
The piles of debris you see there, are all about 8ft high and about the same in width, there are four of them, plus 2 smaller ones of bamboo root and soil that need sorting. Much burning to be done!
Darren found the pond!!!
As we’re waiting until November to get the living/dining area sorted, I decided to clean it from top to bottom, it was filthy beyond words. The first job was to evict 10 generations of spiders, both living and dead from inside and on the windows. I am awarding myself 175 beers for bravely accomplishing this, alas, 173 beers get deducted for the constant and excessive use of the phrase “f**k, f**k, F**K” during the eviction process. (I understand that younger eyes may be reading this blog now, so I’ll keep the swearing to a minimum, mostly whenever anything involves spiders). It took me nearly 3 hours to complete the windows/sills at the front of the house, and it looks like I didn’t bother, the double glazing seal on the main window is blown, so there is clouding between the 2 panes. Still I know it’s clean even if you can’t actually see out of it.
CLEAN!!
Lisa popped round and introduced me to her Dad, Brian, he’s only about half a mile away, so counts as a close neighbour. She did warn me about “Dad Jokes” so I should have seen it coming… We’re chatting about the lizards on the property and he tells me he’s got a newt called Tiny, because he’s “my newt”……
I’m never one to allow an opportunity to remain unexploited so Lisa was soon furnished with a J cloth and a bowl of hot water and helps me wash down the walls (by helps, I mean she did most of it while I carried on with even more windows), luckily she’s not scared by spiders and became chief spider evictor!
Lisa and I also hauled out the last of the old lady carpet to the skip so hopefully the house will now lose the slightly musty smell.
Once the cleaning was finished, the only jobs that remain to do in the living/dining room(s) before we move in, are removing the carpet grips, I tried and got absolutely nowhere, not sure what on earth they’re fixed on with, but they could hurt little Maggie paws so they have to go. The electrics (Damian, this weekend) and curtains, luckily there is a curtain maker, Vicky, in the village, so she’s coming around tomorrow to measure up, and I get to meet another neighbour.
Whilst Lisa and I cleaned Steve sanded and filled cracks, until he ran out of filler. After that he went around and removed all the nails and screws in the walls. We then both tackled the second flowerbed at the front of the house, that’s now fully removed. He also fixed the broken windowsill in the main bedroom, so apart from the electrics, that room is prepped and ready to be painted.
Steve then wandered around outside and removed random bits of metal strewn about the place to the skip, they were too heavy for me to heave.
Lisa and Steve both then left and I was left alone for the first time at Purbeck. I wondered if it would feel scary or lonely, but no, it felt like home!
What was scary and lonely, was being at home WITHOUT ANY INTERNET!!!!!!!!!
With them both gone I gave the whole place a general, albeit superficial clean and tidy-up, I’ve gone through 2 vacuum bags today!
With the visit from the conservatory repair guy due at 6:00pm I moved out to the porch to deadhead the geraniums so I could watch him drive by the first time, then be at the end of the drive when he drove by the second time (exactly what happened).
Lisa was supposed to come by at 7:00 to (very kindly) give me a lift back to Norwich, but couldn’t get to the house because of a very large horse lorry and a police car blocking the (only half open anyway, due to electrical cables being laid) road. Turns out they were looking for an escaped horse, ahhh, Countryside Problems!
Tomorrows to do list:
Call the boiler guy – tried many times today, but no joy.
Decide (with MrC) if it’s worth starting to paint the main bedroom, bearing in mind the move is bearing ever closer, or wait until the electrics are finished.
If not painting them more cleaning, windows, sills and walls elsewhere.
Try to persuade the plumber to also disconnect the upstairs bath as well as the sink in the office so I can skip it, we only have the skip for a few more days, and they’re expensive, I want to fill that puppy up to the brim (and just a little bit beyond, but not too much)
Buy vacuum bags
Take more paint out of the cellar to Purbeck as the removals company won’t move it.
countrysideinsanity 