General Chat

We had a nightmare journey back home, it took an hour and a half longer than it should have because of the traffic :-(

I am glad to be back home and not breathing brick dust. We did a phenomenal amount of hard physical work, I haven't worked so hard for years. The house looks much worse now than when we started :-D

All of the carpets have gone, plus the downstairs wallpaper and the plaster from the front and back walls . They are going to fit solid wall insulation to those walls to keep the heat in. We also removed everything from the front garden including a privet hedge.

The house hadn't been lived in for about five years because the old lady who owned it was in a home. Apparently she was a bit if a hoarder, I did loads of runs to the tip, I was just about on first name terms with the men there.

The house has potential to be really nice, but it needs a huge amount of work doing to it. My son and his girlfriend are both very keen, but I think it is just dawning on them what they have bitten off

Hello Berona - hope you are well.

Not much rain here. We did get a day of fairly steady rain on Tuesday but it didn't do more than water my pots. More on the weekend they are saying. So dry here too
:-(

Not much chatting done to-day/to-night. Everyone busy or tired?

Linda - please go easy on yourself. That demolishing is hard work!

Still no rain here. Any down your way, Sue? I just hope that the 'burning off' has been put in place in the hope of avoiding summer fires. Everything is so dry here. The city of Sydney seems to get rain occasionally, but that's where there are shops and terraced houses - where a lot of the rain goes down the drain and out to sea. Further west where the farms are is where the rain is needed and it's not happening.

You take things easy too, Tec.

Ohhh.....I've missed you :-(

Goodnight <3 <3

Off to bed now,

Have a good day those Down Under,

and a goodnight those Up Top,

Goodnight,
Tec :-)

Sounds like you are all working very hard demolishing the house :-D

The tiled hall was a good find.
We have patterned tiles in our hall, as you know.
When we came here the Duchess found them cold and hard to walk on. It was wintertime, and there was an inch gap under the front door :-( so we had the hall carpeted when the staircase was done.
When I came home in a wheelchair I found it very difficult to get along on the thick carpet, so I had it taken up to reveal the tiles, which were rather dull.
I had them professionally scrubbed, and then sealed. The difference was amazing.
The tiles came up beautifully, quite clean given that they are over 100 years old, and a nice shine one them too.

It seems such a shame to hide such an original feature.

Try not to work too hard :-D

Phew this house destruction is hard work. I stripped two walls of ghastly wallpaper this morning and this afternoon I have been using a steam cleaner on my hands and knees to scrub the newly discovered quarry tiles in the hallway. They had old newspaper and Lino backing stuck on them They are only the red and yellow type set out in a diamond pattern, but they are not in too bad a condition, so they should clean up and restore quite nicely.

While I was scrubbing away, I was thinking that at some stage the house owner would be really pleased that these old tiles are being covered up with nice new Lino and here we are pleased that they are still there.

The house was built in 1896, so I managed to find it on the 1901 and 1911 census

Good Morning Sue,

Enjoy breakfast, and the rest of your day, Bye,

Hello everyone :-D

Can't stay to chat this morning as we are going out for breakfast with my brother and SIL.

Talk later <3

Sounds like you are a demolition squad Linda :-D
hard but satisfying work though.
Just keep imagining the house all finished.


It rained here today Sylvia, and quite cool. There is a whiff of Autumn in the air.
Glad you enjoyed your anniversary

Congratulations on your anniversary Sylvia

We have been working incredibly hard. This house has potential to be extremely nice, but it needs a huge amount of work doing to it. At the moment it us in destruction stage and extremely dirty

I am very pleased that Mr Persie is OK

it is raining here ....................



and much cooler, only about 18C




:-D :-D :-D :-D

we had a lovely day .........................


it was cooler for one thing :-)



we went for dinner to our favourite restaurant, and it was excellent, as always.


I had rack of lamb, and OH had duck breast

I wonder what they did with all the water wells from the telegraph department.. The sticky strips that came out with the printed message went over a damp sponge which sat in a metal water well.. each water well had a raised slot on either side to slide the tape through. They weren't just filled with any old water they had disinfectant to try and put a stop to the cockroaches visits.

I nicked a small wooden handled brush (bit like a toothbrush) they were for cleaning the water wells and one office I went to had several in there store room which was very much surplus to requirements.. it has made a very good toaster cleaning brush. Quite funny really cause I don't even take the free soaps etc they give you in hotels.

Goodnight Tec - sleep tight <3

It's the same all over the world Sue.

Here they are screaming the NHS is virtually bankrupt, and millions in debt.
I spent ten weeks in hospital this year, watching the waste was an education.
This I assume is going on all over the country - no wonder the NHS is broken.

Well it's bedtime again.

I hope the sun continues to shine for you.

Enjoy your day,
Goodnight,
Tec :-)

That's ridiculous - then they complain that the system is costing too much money :-(. When OH was working he used a computer. The printers had refillable ink cartridges but the company would throw them away. OH asked if he could take one to have it refilled and then submitted a letter to the company that it cost a lot less to refill it than to buy new ones. They thanked him for the suggestion but continued to throw them away :-(

It amazes me how departments find it so difficult to communicate with each other.
Sometimes it is a matter of ticking boxes. If that isn't always simple and straightforward it throes the system, and they can't cope.

I hope the can gets OHs pension matters sorted out soon.

Today a was classic example of madness.
I have to rely on hospital transport to appointments. Usually they sent a car.
Today they sent an ambulance all the way from Pwllheli, nearly two hours away.
Just to take me 20 minutes up the road.
Then the driver had to return to Pwllheli. :-(

Perhaps the little hospital should be getting some expert advice for the right people. Another case of lack of communication. We are having to deal with that at the moment as OH officially becomes an OAP on Saturday. The pension department doesn't seem to be able to change it from the volunteer allowance to the pension through lack of communication between departments :-(

Good Morning Sue,

Glad the sun is shining for you today.

Yes - I always lecture Archie before we go anywhere. Tell him to behave and not show me up, walk nicely, and stay close to me etc :-D

I do find it funny having to make sure we have matching socks :-D

It is a bit of a waste of time going to the little local hospital. They are very nice, but don't really know what they are supposed to be doing with me. Whereas the specialist unit I went to deal with artificial limbs all the time.
There are a few ex military lads go there now that they have been discharged from their original limb centres in other parts of the UK.