House repairs 2

We are settling into our house well. There’s lots of little maintenance jobs and plenty to do in the garden. X has spent quite a bit of time making a workshop in the basement so he could unpack his tools and dozens of jars of assorted workshoppy things! There are now lots of shelves made with wood we scavenged from offcuts bins at local timber places! The next thing is the bench, then he’ll put in 2 windows. I’m pleased he’s a handyman!

I know exactly how you feel about these light bulbs that won’t come out and when they do they leave the metal bit behind in the holder and what is inside the metal bit at the top of the bulb is what falls out into ones eyes and wherever else.

Today I am forced to sit down not having any electricity to even cook my lunch or to indulge in a cup of hot water. Yes, you might have guessed, the workers are still at it. The cold and hot water tanks are not outside but the mechanics for the drilling is not working, must be replaced after the interference of the plumber and the electrician!! Now all the wires and channels are in place, but nothing is connected, so let’s wait: what will happen next?!!

Whilst at the shop we saw some so-called foolproof security locks, so we’ve put 4 of them on the windows we’re most likely to forget to shut, or need some air from.

I started using that old push machine for washing carpets with on the dining room at 1 p.m. – one I had specially well cleaned in the morning. It was amazing, after 2 days I hoovered again, and on top of usual bits and dirt, at the bottom of the bag there was about 2-3 tablespoonsful of grit, and it looks a much better colour.

At last the man found out what was wrong with the TV – virtually new guts – so $250 later it’s working beautifully – but seldom anything worth watching! If anything else goes I fear it means a new one.

We had high winds and rain for a couple of days and were dismayed to see water running down the outside of the sitting room stove pipe (recently swept). The next day the reason became clear – the cowl over the top had blown off – I think the sweep must have given it a good biff with his brush and broken part of the holding-down straps. Anyway, I had to replace them, which was not easy, as the cowl itself and the top of the chimney were both pretty rusty and thin. I riveted the straps onto the cowl, and then drilled holes in the chimney for self-tapping screws, which was a sensible suggestion from the man when I went to buy more rivets.

In the process of being redecorated by previous owners it had lost the knobs off both sides of 2 bedroom doors (plus latches and locks) and there were 4 built-in cupboards all knobless and catchless so that was 4 doorknobs, 5 cupboard knobs and 4 magnetic catches to fix for a start. And there was an awkward ancient tap in the garden which created a fountain every time it was turned on to provide cold water for the laundry [?sounds a bit primitive even for 35 years ago!]. I had to borrow wrenches from a new neighbour at the back to mend that one +++.   I enjoyed it all very much with a nice sense of achievement.