Snail slow progress

Here's what the 'Ornamental Pool' design is looking like just now. Haven't been able to do much as I've either been mad busy, or dead tired!!! Boom and bust is my life!!! Had a couple of low key days though and hope that will help a bit. I have to do some interpreting tonight for which I don't feel at all well prepared, (the fact that I hate prep doesn't help!), but I expect I'll feel better when that's out of the way.


Home is still in chaos after the redecoration and re-carpetting of the study, so there are still piles of stuff all over the place, just look at the hall here seen from the study doorway! I can't really get the vac out very well! Carpets are dreadful! This is something DH got for himself in Taiwan and has put it on the study door.=) Well, he is the president of his own business, so it's accurate!!! He's also the office junior and the tea-boy..... Cute, though, isn't it? I bet that shop sell as many for fun as they do for serious business!

Bedroom lined and glossed

Here are the same two views as yesterday, but with all the woodwork gloss painted and lining paper on the walls, evening poor plasterwork out and hiding all the dark plaster we had to use to cover the sunk wiring back in June. I realise that, mostly owing to the poor light yesterday (it seemed to be dark all day), the photos don't show a great deal of difference, but if you look closely at the ones from the last posting, you'll see a change, esp up near the cornicing and just next to the cupboard doors. At least it's been proper daylight today and you can see clearly again.

The top paper is going on this afternoon and Sir is finishing sanding down the woodwork in the hall where there are a LOT of doors! 5 rooms, 4 cupboard doors as well as the front door (which we'll do later on) and the skirting board. That little lot will be glossed tomorrow afternoon. Oh, how great it is to have friends who love decorating and hate to be idle over the hols!!!

I'm still pressing on with lesson planning, writing handouts etc and generally trying to keep house in amongst all this chaos. Not surprisingly, we're sleeping at mum's again! We plan to sleep here again on Monday night after the hall glosswork has had time to dry and air and the bedroom paper is dry etc. And Tim's just arrived for his afternoon's fun. No, really, he loves it!

No stitching to report on really except that I'm in the final stages of back-stitching on the blue-tit. I can't get into it at the mo, so don't expect much in the way of really interesting photos.

Bedroom in progress

Here's what it looked like before work started for the day:

<- This is the 'usual' view of the corner with my wardrobes - here seen primed and undercoated. It's yet to be glossed and yesterday we bought new door handles to make it look a little nicer than before. We also got the wallpaper, a self-coloured off-white stripe. I just wanted something simple and neutral so that we can go to town with bedding colours and jazz up the walls with pictures, i.e. the chaffinches one I did over the summer.=)

->

This is what the room looks like from the door. It's so dark today that we have to have lights on all the time! Anyone would think it was within the Arctic Circle the amount of light we're getting right now!=(

As I type, Sir is sanding down woodwork in the hallway, Hongda is pasting lining paper and Tim is hanging said lining paper. Should get the bedroom glosswork done today as well. Another update will be posted tomorrow with how it looks at the start of the day, then another on Sunday with the bedroom essentially done. Huzzah!

Working, working....

As I type, Sir is madly sanding down the kitchen door frame. He's using his time off over the holiday period to get on with the decorating and a friend has been kind enough to come and help too. Another one due tomorrow as well, so we plan to get the entire bedroom finished, the glosswork done in the hall, living room (only 2 things there left now), and perhaps even the bathroom completed as well as the bathroom prepared for re-painting and at least the ceiling done of that. Things are moving ahead apace!

As for me, I'm spending the rest of the day on my secular work and probably much of tomorrow as well, so I can get well caught up and then relax a bit more for the rest of the hols. I've been ill for the last week, which has lost me a lot of time and productive stuff.=( So, I'll have some photos to post over the w/e, mostly of progress around the flat, but maybe even something on my needlework too. I must get that 2nd picture done soon for the bedroom!

Works in progress

Well, images wasn't working yeterday for me, so these are one day out of date, but.....

(Weds) Greetings and many thanks to all those who sent congratulations to DH on his graduation!=) Today I've got 2 WIP photos of very different kinds. The first is the blue tit cross stitch as I just haven't got back into the dog again yet.

The other is the current state of my side of the bedroom. We're hoping to get a lot of glosswork done over the holiday season, but I'm not holding my breath, you know!!!LOL!

Thursday am: I've now done a few leaves and the light brownish bits to the left of the bird as well. Hope to complete the XS today as I'm stuck home not feeling well, bit as I was planning on having a Stitch-a-thon today anyway, no probs!!!

I have also created a 'Sale or Trade' album on my Webshots, (link on the left, or click the here at the top of the blog), so have a look and see if you can use anything that's there. Most of things I've already done, so you can see the finished look in more detail in the relevant albums there.

Some Updates

And it's Monday again! Good-oh! I'm not very well today, but it seems to be only a 24 hour thing and I should be OK for my new Chinese classes 2nd session tomorrow tea-time. I've got loads of fun activities planned, so I'm quite looking forward to it. I would never have thought it, but perhaps teaching is for me after all.=)

So, here's the long over-due kitchen update photo. It still needs a window dressing (and the glosswork will be re-done when it's all done over the winter hols) and I plan to stitch that lovely blue tit and bird table design to go just above the cooker too. So, things to look out for the in the first half of next year, all being well. Hope you like progress thus far - it's certainly a lot brighter and less bottom heavy than it was, now that it's painted a nice lemon colour and has 2 shelves to house all my machinery.

Here's the doggie at present as well. I'm kinda enjoying doing him, but will be very pleased when he's done and I can get on with other things. Might do something on his this afternoon actually as I have an unexpected free afti owing to it being a good idea to rest up as much as poss. That's certainly true as I'm going to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate on Friday and it would be an awful shame to mess that up, no?

Streuth! The new beta Blogger version might be quicker etc, but it adds in even more blank lines with photos than the old one did! Heavy use of 'preview' function recommended, and it's about time that was adapted to actually reflect what will appear too!

Two late updates!

Has it really been more than two weeks? Yikes!

OK, so here are some WIP updates. The first is very late as it was done more than a week ago, (although it's been only a week since I completed moving all the books etc back in, which you can't see on this lil' pic), and it's the living room from more or less the same angle as I posted about 3 weeks ago. I thought it would make more sense that way! It's been really just renewing in here. No big changes like in other rooms, just keeping things the same so as not to have to buy new furniture etc. Wait 'til you see the hall when it's done....

The second is the latest on the hardanger cushion. I haven't been able to do much on it lately, but as you can see, I've completed all the satin and cable stitching. Next is the backstitch which will make the flowers seem more complete, then it's on to the cutwork, which won't take long as there isn't much and it's just wrapped bars and square filet filling - both the fastest going. Then is the eternal beading - 888 beads to go on this baby! Eeeeeek! I plan on doing those for the flower centres in purple and those for the buds in turquoise blue. Nothing more done on the dog as yet, but I think I shall take him to Ireland next week and work on him there. He'll have been in 4 countries then!!!

What home looks like right now.....

Are you ready for this? Here's what the bedroom looks like with most of the movable contents of the living room in it, (although there are also 4 boxes in the hall, (see below), and 2 bags in the kitchen!). I managed to keep a space clear-ish to dry washing in, but it's some challenge to get in my wardrobe, I can tell you!! Notice too the splashes of paint down the walls and so on in here. It needs wall-papering yet and also most of the woodwork needs totally stripping and re-painting. Only the skirting board just needs rubbing down and re-doing. Sigh! Well, we do want it to look good, right?=)

<- The hall looks like this with all those living room boxes, decorating stuff and being in rotten, messy condition itself.=( Haven't decided on a colour scheme for the hall yet. Anyone got any ideas? I suppose the best thing I've thought of has been red and cream shades.

And this is the view from -> the living room door. Everything under cover, but the coving is totally mended and re-painted as is the ceiling. Sir also finished getting all the old wallpaper off and we plan to buy the new tomorrow. We get £150 of decorating vouchers then, which is a BIG help. He also wants to get some undercoating done tonight.

Last night's work

Here's what we both did last night. Sir did some work in the living room and I did some stitching, (as I didn't feel well enough to help - got a rotten bug, AGAIN!). I got on with the hardanger cushion and have now got more than half of the thicker thread (#5) surface work done. With this one, there isn't a great deal of cutwork to do, but there is a lot of #8 cotton, thinner thread, stuff going on and well over 800 beads to contend with.....=( Here's what it looks like right now:

Sir fixed the part of the living room cornicing that was damged by the electricians putting that nasty trunking across the ceiling, inserted a new piece. Today it'll be fillled, smoothed and got ready for re-painting. He also fitted the proper living room light, which may seem a bit back-to-front to do that before re-painting the ceiling, but he says that, last time he did the celing around a temporary light fitting, the ceiling rose was larger and he ended up with an un-painted patch to re-do, so he'll just loosen this one when the time comes. I'm happy anyway as there's twice as much light as before and I love light.=) As well as sorting out the rest of the cornicing, he plans to smooth down this awful patch of plaster you can see here, strip the remaining wall-paper (from walls not visible on this shot), and also prepare paintwork for re-doing.

He's also almost through with his own read-through on his dissertation, then it's my turn to proof-read. I'm shopping with Mamma this morning, out with Jen this afternoon, then taking it easy for a bit to rest this virus through. I've been doing too much on a virus and need to rest, so Saturday is home day and I'm going to have a stitch-a-thon. Look out for updates on Sunday to both the dog and the cushion cover.=) I'm trying not to start anything new until these are done and they will both take a while and provide quite some variety within themselves. Then I'll feel much freer.

Oh yes, we got verbal (just waiting for written) confirmation that the wiring issues are resolved and have been awardrd £150 in re-decorating vounchers too! Yippee! That should pay for the stuff needed for both living room and bedroom. Going to buy paper on Tuesday, right after I register for a German course at LMU (Leeds Metropolitan University). Looking forward to moving Sir's language forward again.

Re-start of renovation works!

Hi guys! 6 comments from this morning's posting already, WOW! Thanks for all the lovely responses to the finishes on the posting below.

So, who remembers the major home renovations from June? Well, they got frozen for about 2½ months, but now that Sir has all but finished his MA dissertation, (just checking and proof-reading to do), he's about to get on with the living room. We're having guests arriving in 9 days' time and, as that is our 'guest bedroom', it needs to be a bit better than it is. Have a look at what we've been looking at for the past 11 weeks or thereabouts! That along with several packed boxes, bags and half laden, dusty shelves as there was no point in putting stuff back beyond what was needed to use the dining table (and stop it collapsing under the weight of so many books!). So, the fact that it should be totally re-done including new carpet in just over a week is a nice thought.

Then the bedroom, re-painting the kitchen and bathroom, painting and papering the hall.... No danger of life getting boring around here, huh?

Good News!

Wow! I finally managed to get to talk to the lady who sent us the letter about the wiring business and, well, she's human! She'd spoken to the chap who'd come out and refused to pass the work on Friday and he said that, in view of all the work we'd done, if we could get a proper certificate and just rectify one or two concerns he has, (the hall coving, for sure), then he'll pass it and sign it off! We have a meeting with them here on Thursday morning, (Sir is working the next 2 days, else we'd have done it tomorrow!), and so look out for more news then......

The wiring jokes are still coming thick and fast - eek! The Victory Carol is almost complete!!

Almost done with the stitching on the bookmark and I expect to have it done very soon and a nice photo posted. I want to give it to the little girl I'm making it for, (a butterfly fan - like me), on Weds eve, so a pic should be on here before then. Hopefully, we'll soon be able to rededicate this blog to needle and thread matters!!!!!!=)

My Book of Wiring Psalms - 16th Edition

Trunking is for us a refuge and a strength, wires that are readily to be found during distress.
That is why we shall not fear, thought the electrics undergo change
And though the new cornicing totter into the heart of the dusty bedroom;
Though its wires be boisterous, bulging over,
Though the wiring cupboard rocks at its trunking
(Perverted from Ps 46:1-3)

Therefore we do not give up, but even if the plaster outside is wasting away, certainly the wiring inside is being renewed from day to day. For though the re-re-wiring is dirty and noisy, it works out for us a signing off that is of more and more surpassing weight and is everlasting; while we keep our eyes, not on the trunking seen, but on the wiring unseen. For the trunking seen is temporary, but the wiring sunk is everlasting.
(Freely adapted from 2 Cor 4:16-18 )

Or how can you say to your tenant, 'Allow me to extract the wiring from your walls'; when look! No trunking is in your own home. Hypocrite! First re-wire your own home to sub-standard specification, then you will see clearly how to install trunking in your tenant's home.
(A relevant, if irreverent, principle from Matt 7:4&5)

The Nightmare Continues......

Oh man! What a day! Got home mid-morning to a letter telling us that we have to have the wiring re-done to be surface mounted again, (i.e. in that hideous trunking), as it does not comply with their specifications and therefore the work cannot be signed off as complete. So, what they're saying here is that, because of not being able to tick a box on a form, a mere and worthless formality, they are willing to put us and their contractors to the trouble of re-doing much of the wiring work jsut because we object to our home being made to look like a portacabin and sank in the wires! Unbelievable!

You can be sure that we're not taking this without a fight and are appealing to them to be reasonable about it. Their reason for having the wires all surface mounted (official: so they can be easily accessed, real: cheaper and quicker to do in the first place), falls down when you note that their own specification for the kitchen (where there is more wiring than anywhere in the whole flat) and the bathroom include wires sunk into the walls and all sockets and switches flush! So, one thing in one room and another in the other rooms. Total nonsense! We'll also be contacting the local Councillor, who by all reports is a man of action, to ask him to get them to make a note on the file and sign the work off regardless of our alterations. I mean, surely the fact that they are safely done and fully functional is what really matters, not their silly paperwork? I hope we can convince him and that he can lean on them.

If all else fails and we have to go back through with it, we have a contingency plan consisting of being here to have the electricians route the wires in the least visible places and then, if possible, to re-sink what wires cannot be hidden in cupboards or by furnishings once the project is signed off and all inspections complete. Naturally, we would like to avoid this and are going to do all we can to prevent any further action being taken!

They say we have a voice in things, but it turns out to be unlikely to be true in actual fact and when it's something that really bothers you. When you think that so many tennants have refused all the work anyway or denied access to their properties, but we have co-operated against our will with wiring in the first place, (my mum's place is twice the age of this building and has never needed re-wiring!), it's amazing that they go to all this trouble to hassle us! Oh, and they're threatening to make us pay for the re-doing of work that they unreasonably insist on as well! The fact that not one person, including the Council Clerk of Works who was here the other day, have ever said anything actively disuading us from improving the look of the re-wiring, then we get a letter saying we should have known better is just one of the things that make me WILD!

Man, how much I want all this mayhem to be OVER and to be able to focus on something more important, or at least more interesting!=( We're having to wait for vouchers for the re-decoration anyway and I think there'll be an inspection to see how much is needed, so should we have to submit to a 2nd re-wire, then we'd best leave any re-sinking until after then...... We shall see.

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Bathroom Done!

Here's the final status on the bathroom. As with the kithchen in the post below, the paint colour will be changed as I don't like magnolia much at all, but esp. not with green tiles! The poor lady next door chose the blue tiles for her bathroom and has been lumbered with magnolia walls too, so I hope someone is going to help her re-paint with something more suitable as well. They didn't even use kitchen and bathroom paint, and you can really tell when you get some water on the wall, (common near the washbasin).

We moved back in last night, got the bedroom workable and I'll re-start on getting the living room up and running over the next couple of days. Photos of those are on the Webshots.

(Skip the next bit if you don't want to read me getting some ranting off my chest!)

One of the reasons I am just SO glad to be back here is the noise at mum's! Hard to believe when we live in a tower block and her in a nice, private semi-detached house, but she has an electric guitarist living next door. Now, electric guitar is not my favourite instrument. I don't mind it in regular sorts of modern music, but it's the yowly solos that I find, frankly, stressful. Well, this lad has the corresponding bedroom to the one we were using, so whenever he started to play, we had the full benefit of it. And it went on for hours on end! I didn't mind on the very odd occasion that he played softly and something pleasant to listen to, but most of the time it was that horrid, showy stuff that sounds like a cat fight. The irresponsible, inconsiderate little oik had his amp jacked to the ceiling too! You could often hear the volume actually going up during a note, (so he clearly increased it at that point), and you could even hear the feedback from the amp next door, it was that loud! How his family put up with it, I simply cannot imagine and I was glad, on our last night there, to go 'round there and 'petition for a bit of peace and quiet'. The self-important little pratt just looked at his watch, (it was already after 9pm and he had been at it for most of the pm that day), and said, 'No problem.' I wish I'd said at the time, 'Yes matey, it is a problem. It is a problem when I can hear you in the next house, when I can hear you all over the next house and I can even hear you in the street. It is a problem when your amp has a volume control and that you are so blatantly inconsiderate and have a family that are so stupid that they don't realise that this noise is going to annoy the neighbours and don't put a stop to it. I find that a very big problem indeed, so don't you be so blooming smooth and pseudo co-operative with me, you long-haired yob! If I had your guitar to hand right now, I'd break it over your silly head and throw your amp through your window.'

Ugh! How much I hate people like that who are so self-absorbed that they can't think beyond their own little world and what they want. I mean, surely it's obvious that noise on that scale is plain inacceptable? My mum just turns her telly up, but when you're trying to chill out after a long days' renovation and cleaning up, the last thing you want is boy prodigy next door forcibly showing you how good he is at the nasty solo bits. Yack! Just you wait until I get my cello, little matey! Then I'll go to my mum's, go into our old bedroom and practice my scales and arpeggios as loud and as off key as I can possibly manage just to give you and yours a taste of your own medicine. And just you try and complain and see what colour of gobful you get in return. PAH!

And I bet his family just let him get away with it out of indulgence. You see he has/had ME just like I had, so he's probably one of those who has a family that let him have everything he wants, just because he's ill! I suspect his trigger emotion is anger and that he works it through by howling via the leccy guitar. Well, I sympathise with the illness, but I don't support the treatment! Families who treat their sick kids as if they were to be indulged to the n-th degree are just setting themselves up for a load of trouble and are not teaching their kids anything remotely useful. They just teach them that they can do whatever they like, whenever they like, that they are not to blame for anything and that, basically, the world owes them a living. Instead of teaching their offspring to behave maturely and responsibly, parents like these (along with those who always side with their kids, no matter how vile said kids have been) just breed big-headed delinquents - just like the indulgent Chinese parents who give their only son everything he wants, the modern 'Little Emperor' syndrome. Well, parents of sick kids can be guilty of creating their own little monsters when they ought to be helping them.

OK, I needed that!=)

Ktichen Complete!

Here's the new kitchen with all the work by the Council workmen completed. I still feel a bit lost in there as it feels so bare and colourless! Still, we just need to re-paint the walls and then get a bright blind for the window, plus put a couple of pictures up.

Martin took a lovely photo of a sunflower which was in our formerly yellow bathroom, so that's waiting to be re-hung in the kitchen and I plan on stitching a nice oranges and lemon's design (yes, the fruits) which is in a Spanish cross stitch mag I got on holiday last December! I always like to buy the local stitching titles whilst abroad and hope to catch up on the latest hardanger issues in Germany next month. I can also get the Italian 'Rakam' in larger outlets over there too.=)

WAY too much to catch up on!!

So, where are we now in the renovation chaos? Well, it was getting a bit hard to remember all the details from each day, so I'll just give a quick round up and post some photos of things as they stand tomorrow as it's too dark to get shots now and the 'finisher' comes tomorrow to ties up loose ends in the external work.

The kitchen and bathroom are essentially complete, except that the kitchen window ledge needs attention as do a few bits of filling around the room. Sealant is needed around the bath so that we can finally use that super-dooper new shower they've given us, (I tried it when doing my hair the other night), and the bath panel was damaged, so a new one is needed. The finished also will sort out the bathroom window ledge and, we hope, someone will sort out the light in there as it's not fit to be seen right now. It works, but it's just wires and not properly finished off. All the appliances are back in the kitchen, flooring is down in both that and the bathroom and all the boxes and bags of stuff that were taken out are now back in. That was quite a job! I managed to get rid of quite a lot of stuff to the convenient charity shop ('thrift store' for those who speak US English) around the corner. More going there soon....

I kidnapped the aforementioned finisher on Friday afternoon and he kindly plumbed the washing machine back in for me. Since then, I've managed to get all that needs washing done and today I tackled the huge pile of ironing that's resulted from not being able to get to anything for 2 weeks! I didn't bother with curtains though, as they may as well be pressed just before being re-hung.

Friends, Nicki, Stu and Emily came over on Saturday afternoon and helped me clear the rest of the living room shelves and they also stripped 95% of the hall wallpaper, (I plan on finishing that off tomorrow), and also about 40% of the living room paper. Martin (DH) has finished putting up the coving in the bedroom and is painting both it and the ceiling as I type. As well as getting the last bits of hall paper off tomorrow, I plan on getting a fair amount of sanding of woodwork done in the bedroom, so that we can get on with the glossing in there as soon as we can.

This evening we decided not to wait for the re-decoration grant vounchers to do the bedroom, but to get on with it and have it done as soon as we can so at least one room is fit for human habitation. I'll need to hide in that room for a while yet until the living room is made fit to look at. Honestly, one look at that mess in there and I just feel anxious and depressed!=( Anyway, even though we're doing one room ahead of arrival of any vouchers, there'll be more than enough needed to get full use out of them when they do come on the hall and living room paper and paint. We also need new coving for the hall as we thought the stuff the workmen put up was naff in the extreme.

Photos from the above mentioned work on my Webshots where the whole lot is recorded for anyone who'd like a re-cap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Up-dates here tomorrow, all being well.=)

Days 11 & 12

No photos at the mo, but we're actually beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel! On Tuesday, day 11, the painter came and did the kitchen and bathroom paintwork. The woodwork is white, but the walls are magnolia! Yack! Looks deadly boring in the kitchen as it's almost the exact same colour as the tiling. Planning to re-paint that in a nice lemon shade and as for the bathroom, well I don't think the wall colour goes with the tiling at all, so a nice green shade for there to match instead, methinks! I got some cleaning up done in the bedroom so that it's clean enough to decorate and almost clean enough to sleep in.

Day 12 and a nice young sparky, (but not the one I'm married to...), came and finished off the electrics in the kitchen and bathroom. Whilst he was working, I got the majority of the dust out of the study, well, the shelves anyway. They won't be done thoroughly until everything's taken off for a new carpet being put in.

After that, I cleaned out the kitchen, bathroom and hall, (the cooker is now back in the kitchen, so the hall is clearer), and began to get the boxes and bags that the kitchen stuff was packed in. Washed everything and began to put it away. That also got some stuff cleared off the living room floor! Later on, Martin put a first coat of paint on the study ceiling. First decorating (by us) is under way, yeah!

Lili: We're not living here at the moment, so no stiching is being done here. In fact, not much is being done at my mum's either, but I am working slowly on a bookmark and will post a photo soon.

Day 10

It's Monday, day 10 (counting in the weekend this time as work was done by us both days unlike last weekend), and let's hear it for the new shower!

Other than that, we've just got on with the re-decoration prep and also a lot of cleaning up. EVERYTHING is filthy and the ambient dust was dreadful. I managed to clear the air in a few room by opening windows, vacuuming fiercely and doing as much wet cleaning as I could. We bought paper for the study wall, new cornicing for the bedroom and some paint for ceilings today as well as other bits and pieces. Here's the study pre-paper stripping, but Martin finished clearing the old paper off the study wall and did a bit more filling in there.This is what the hall looks like - just so you have an idea why we're still at mum's...

Days 8 & 9

Over the weekend a bit more on the new wiring was completed and yet more cleaning up. Here's a handsome sparky!!

I tell you, I will never view ordinary house cleaning the same way ever again, it took forever to clear up the mess from all this work.



Here are some of the shots post sinking of electrical stuff.

Day 7 - Quite a bit of progress

Friday the bathroom joinery was done as well as the tiling in both the kitchen and bathroom by the workmen. We got on with plastering in of sockets, coursing and then sanding it down to make it smooth for re-papering and so forth.