Hotter than Honolulu

The first May Bank holiday, and it was a record breaker - reaching 28.7C (84F) it was the warmest early May bank holiday in UK history.

 So how did we enjoy the lovely weather? Stuck indoors installing a floating floor in the playroom 🙁

It used to be an integral garage, so only had a concrete floor which was cold, and also there was a step down from the house. So we added a floating floor (insulation with flooring over the top) to bring it in line. 

Looking out of the room towards the hall, you can see underneath the house, where the step was. This has now been filled in, but I still go to step down whenever I go in the room!

We were a bit worried that the floor was going to make a noise, as when just the insulation was down it was a bit squeaky when you walked on it. But once the flooring was laid on top, it just feels like a normal floor. 

Everything that was stored in the room had to be taken outside, so our drive resembled Steptoe's yard!

I was lucky to get a bit of a reprieve and some sunshine when I tidied out the greenhouse. 

I've got three raised beds in there that I wanted emptying so I could move them. Little Boy offered to help, and I gave him an incentive by paying him 20p for every plant pot he filled. £1.20 later, he'd emptied one bed and we stopped for tea and biccies. 

Once the contents were emptied out onto the lawn, and the floor swept it was already a vast improvement...

There are lots of staging and shelving ideas in garden centres and online, but the majority are expensive. We had a few garden tables surplus to requirements, and they are just the business. The smaller one fits nicely on top of the big one, and I have room on the larger one for a potting tray with a chair. 

Next time, I've got HeApS of photos to show you

XxXx

Lounge ceiling down

A completely irrelevant photo to start off, but the rest aren't very pretty ones so I thought I'd include this! The sweet peas in the garden are going mad, we can't keep up with picking them. But I'm not complaining, as we get pots and pots of lovely flowers to dot around the house. 

Right, back to the subject of this post. The children went for a day out with my sister on Saturday, so how to make the most of a child free day? What should we do - a romantic day out? A relaxing day in? No, we knocked down the ceiling in the lounge!! Well it needed doing sometime soon, to put in new electrics upstairs, and to add some sound proof insulation between the lounge and the bedrooms. Far easier to do it without little people in the way. 

The room once emptied of stuff...

The sofa had to stay in with a dust sheet on as it was a nightmare to squeeze through the door when we got it. The brick fireplace and corner unit had to go, as I discovered a lovely tv corner unit on Pinterest to go in its place - I just need to persuade OH to make one for me. I've also spotted a gorgeous flame effect gas fire with a stone surround but it will be a very far in the future purchase as there are LOTS of other more important things to buy first. 

Big Girl wanted to keep the brick cabinet as she really likes it (but then she likes woodchip wallpaper and anaglypta too, I think she was born in the wrong era!) and she got her way for now, because as we lifted the wooden top off we discovered it must have been installed when the house was built as there are no floorboards underneath. It's a big hole straight down under the house! At some point soon  all the floorboards have to come up in here when we put in insulation, so when that's done we will add a floor in that bit and the bricks can come out. 

The view below is looking from the lounge, through the dining room and into the new garden room. The old patio doors that went out to the conservatory are still in, so we can use that room as a dust free place to store everything from the lounge. Once all the messy work is finished we can rip them out and it will be more free flowing and open. 

And here it is once the ceiling is down, certainly makes it a lot darker in there...

Work in progress...

As the bricks above the fireplace came down we realised that the plaster behind was loose so that all had to come down too. 

And this is what it is like when we'd finished. Rather rustic looking but at least all the visible dust and mess has gone. By the way it's Little Boy watching Paw Patrol on the tv, not me - honest!

Do you know what the best part of the day was? Having a shower! Don't you just love it when you get filthy dusty and dirty, and how lovely it feels when you wash it all off and put clean clothes on. Then we collapsed on the sofa with a pizza and chips, a beer for OH and a big cup of tea for me!

So it was a hard, dusty, dirty day but it's one more big job crossed off the to do list. 

Speak soon

XxXx

Rubble to the tip trips

Now the outside of the house is virtually finished, we can concentrate on the inside. Next job on the list was to knock down the wall that was the front of the house, but is now taking up room in our lounge. We could have had another grab hire but that would have meant weeks of rubble piled on our drive until we had enough to justify the cost, so we decided to take it to the tip ourselves. Seeing as OH has a van, and we don't have a permit for it for the tip, it was down to my poor car to be the workhorse. 

It doesn't look like there is much in the boot, but it was sure heavy, and so it took many, many, many trips to get rid of a whole wall. Good job the tip is just a few minutes down the road. 

OH stayed at home, knocking down the wall brick by brick, then passing them through the window to me. We had to take our time and do it carefully as we still had all our stuff in the lounge and didn't want it covered in dust! I had the job of heaving it all into the car then heaving it all out the other end. I was worn out by the end of the day. 

The photo below shows OH in the extension part. It looks tiny, but once the inside wall was taken down it made a huge difference to the sense of space in the lounge. 

My reward for all the lifting and sweating was a freebie! On one of trips I pulled up to the rubble skip and saw this perched on top. As long as you don't actually get in the skip they turn a blind eye if something decides to 'fall into your car'. So this beauty came home with me. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, just needed a bit of a clean. 

Planted up with a grass and some huecheras it now stands guard at the front door with my other blue pot (which incidentally also came from the tip, but that one was a different tip where they sell stuff, cost me £2 if I remember). I just have to set up the self watering system then they will all look after themselves. 

It's Fathers Day this weekend, supposed to be the hottest day of the year! Hope all you fathers out there have a fab day. 

XxXx

Building onwards, upwards & outwards!

This is what our garden looked like a year ago. Nothing special, a work in progress, but at least there was greenery, and a few flowers growing. 

This is what it looked like the same time (May) this year. Quite literally like a building site...

Nick the tiler came, and hey presto, we now have a smart roof and a velux in the kitchen extension...

Little Boy is enjoying having lots of different things to climb on and jump off but also doesn't mind helping out. Give him a box to fill and he's quite happy collecting together all the timber off cuts or bits of rubble...

Inside was rather an upheaval, as we needed to have steel uprights fitted to hold the big steel spanning the width of the lounge. That meant digging two big holes in our lounge floor...

The dust and noise was horrendous, and we had to section off a part of the lounge with heavy duty plastic backed dust sheets so we could carry on living there. 

We also needed to take down units in the kitchen so they could knock through to get the steel in there too. So all the stuff had to come out of the units and be boxed away...

And more mess and dust 😩...

Big Girl wasn't too impressed as they had to knock three holes in her bedroom wall, to put in the acros to hold up the wall. 

Then out came the old concrete lintel...

And in with the new. We had to have extra help that day, as it was really heavy and took four of them to lift it all in place. It was a nervous time, as if anyone had measured wrong and it didn't fit we were in trouble. It was alright in the end, a bit too big but nothing a bit of bashing didn't fix!

Once the steel was in the front wall was soon up, roof tiled, new windows in and a smart new green door...

I'm really pleased with the front door. I didn't just want boring old white PVC, and was tempted by the oak effect. In the end I chose the green, and I think it looks smart with the chrome accessories. Finishing touches will be an outside light and a new door number I think. 

Now all it needs out the front is the window baskets re fitted and planted up, a fence put up, all the rubbish tidied away and some plants planted....

XxXx

Half term entertainment

It was finally back to school last week, after a longer than usual half term. Little Boy seemed a bit under the weather the week before the holidays. When I took his top off to get him in his pyjamas I discovered why...

Chickenpox!!!! Obviously he then couldn't go to nursery, so he was actually off for three weeks rather than just two. He was a model patient, and didn't itch at all. Whenever he had an itchy spot, he would come and tell me and I would put some gel on it. I veered away from the traditional calamine lotion, as I had read that when it dries it can actually be the cause of some itchiness, but instead used ViraSoothe.   It wasn't cheap, at nearly £9 for a 75g tube, but it worked a treat. 

So by the start of the actual half term he was feeling better. We don't splash out lots on days out, but we did have a few nice outings. 

Cotswold wildlife park in Burford

A day out for the children with Nanny and Grandy. Set in 160 acres of parkland, it houses a wide variety of birds and mammals, many of which are endangered in the wild. There's lots to see, including a walk through Madagascar exhibit, Reptile house, and children's farmyard. A miniature train takes you for a ride around the park, but you have to pay extra for that. The adventure playground is amazing, and big enough for adults to go on too (I may have tried it out, purely to keep an eye on Little Boy of course!). For plant lovers there are beautiful landscaped gardens in the walled garden. 

Did you spot Little Boy above with his red painted finger nails? Joys of having a big sister, you get your nails painted a variety of colours in the holidays!

Eastnor Castle, near Ledbury

OH came here too, so a rare 'complete' family day out!

Not only is it great looking around inside the castle, but outside is just as fun, with an adventure playground, knight's maze, and junior assault course....

It's also home to the Land Rover experience, but at nearly £300 for a half day experience is a bit beyond our budget!

A walk in the park

Well it's not actually a park, it's Rose Bank Gardens at the foot of the Malvern Hills. We had a bit of time to kill and thought we'd have a mooch around. Not a lot in there, but a pleasant little walk around, with lovely far reaching views. 

Another walk

This time it was a walk with my sister and her dog in some woods near Suckley. The photos don't do it justice, as the bluebells looked gorgeous. 

I'm sure Little Boy was a dog in a former life. His little hands are stick magnets, and we can't go anywhere without him zooming in on any stick he spies. He was actually struggling to walk with his twiggy bundle, until we suggested maybe he left it on the path for the next little boy who came along who might like some. 

On the home front there was gingerbread decorating (Big Girl's on the left, Little Boy's on the right)....

Mud pie making....

And to wrap up the holidays nicely, I had a phone call from our local Countrywide store to say that Little Boy had won their colouring competition! Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of his entry (bad mummy) but it was an Easter bunny. His entry goes into the next round, and if he wins the national round he wins even more Tractor Ted goodies!

Well done if you reached the end, that was a mammoth post! 

Next time, I will show you the rest of the building works, as the outside is now finished!!

XxXx