Manchester 8

Sunday 22nd to Friday 27th April
I see I have got very behind yet again! The days seem to fly past and I can't get back into the habit of writing something every night, because I am usually either shopping for supper, cooking supper or cleaning up after supper while the men work. I'll have to try writing in the early morning instead.

On Sunday, a mitre saw was finally purchased, and the sections of skirting board could finally be cut after careful measuring, especially round the octagonal bay. Paul then spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday preparing and then painting them with gloss paint. Some of them are in position and some still await positioning.

In the meantime, there already being a dust sheet which was put down to protect the nice new floor from the paint, the room has been used to build all the drawers for the kitchen cabinets. Apparently this has been a difficult job, the instructions being not really related to that type of drawer. I offered to help, but was told to go away.

I built some Ikea bedside cabinets instead - I didn't have any difficulty with those drawers, but they are very well designed and come with very clear instructions. We also paid a mid-week visit to B&Q for more paint, so I bought a new blackout blind for the bedroom window. The old one, as well as being filthy beyond belief, was covered in mould, and I suspect may have had more than a little to do with the state of my health. Since we threw it away, my cough and blocked nose have cleared up almost completely. It is also a great relief to be able to undress in the bedroom again, and not to be woken at 5 am by the light. So we now have quite a civilised bedroom, and don't feel quite so much like campers.

We are still living out of suitcases though, there are no wardrobes. I would put together the clothes rails that have been bought for the dressing room, but all our hangers are still in storage.

The plumber arrived on Monday as planned, so we now have a non-leaking sink with a plug. It also has a single tap so you can control the temperature of the water, instead of having boiling hot water out of one tap and freezing cold water out of the other. We have a new flushing toilet too, which we don't need to tip a bucket of water down. The bath no longer runs out onto the bathroom floor, and the bath has been fixed into position so that it should, I hope, stop moving around which I am told is what caused the failure of the outlet pipe in the first place.

I have been able to give most of the bathroom a more thorough clean, though the shower cabinet needs further work; it is still a bit streaky, after months or possibly years of soap scum. I still have to give the bath a proper cleaning as well, as we didn't have a suitable cream cleaner. There is a large metal construction with three shelves in the shower which is unbelievably filthy and quite rusty in places. It is screwed to the tiles, so I can't take it out to clean it properly. I clean a few of the wires every day, but there is still a long way to go. Paul proposed unscrewing it and putting it in the dishwasher, once that is installed, but apparently the dishwasher is hard to install because the power point hasn't been sufficiently deeply set into the wall or something, so there has been yet another kitchen delay.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings after work, our son came home and carried all the kitchen cabinets from the garage into the kitchen. Apparently fitting them is very fiddly, so he hasn't managed it yet. He hopes to do better this weekend. I just look forward to having a kitchen sink for washing up!



On Thursday, I had to go into the centre of Manchester to buy a few things I can't get at local shops, plus I needed to visit Marks and Spencer and also collect my train tickets ahead of time for the trip to London. I was able to catch a tram from the big supermarket nearest to the new house, so after some food shopping at the supermarket I went into town and seemed to be there for ages. Paul wasn't able to do any work on the house because he had the only house key and managed to shut it inside the house when we left. Fortunately, I have the spare car key and the spare key to our son's house, so he wasn't condemned to having to spend the day sitting in the car, but he wasn't able to get on with any of the things he had intended to do. I have now made sure I have a spare house key in my handbag.

Our daughter-in-law came back from France late on Thursday afternoon, having had a very busy time with her family. She had spent the whole day travelling and was pretty tired. Our grandson apparently charmed all her family, and enjoyed himself very much, and we had a nice time playing with him as we still couldn't get into the house, since our son had the only other key. Our son came home from work looking exhausted, and after supper we left them both looking as if they needed to sleep for a week. Anyway, we planned an early start next morning, both having early appointments at the doctors.

We woke early on Friday to find our son and family already in the house; they had come to bring some of the dining room furniture. Then our son rushed off to work, and we had a quick breakfast and went off to the doctor. After Paul had been recommended to the dermatologist and me to a chest X-Ray and a variety of tests, we returned to the flat for coffee and croissants with our daughter-in-law.

Back at the house, I spent an unbelievable amount of time on the phone to the Inland Revenue, who had made a severe mistake with their sums and for some reason calculated that my income this tax year would be three times what it actually will be, resulting a tax code which meant I was starting to give them 40% of my income. The 45 minutes I spent listening to muzak on their phone line was followed by an incredibly long and complicated phone call, after which I felt I needed several stiff drinks. Instead of this, I had a very quick lunch and went with my daughter-in-law to the hospital, where she had her usual fortnightly appointment and I had a chest X-Ray. Unfortunately, she has to return to the hospital on Monday for a small adjusting procedure, and I will be in London, so grandpa must babysit!

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Manchester 7

Wednesday 18th to Saturday 21st April
On Wednesday the floor men arrived to say they weren't coming until the next day! They had decided there were enough of them to finish the job in two days. The electrician did a bit more work, and Paul did more painting of woodwork in the room we are using as a bedroom, so the window had to be open. This did not seem good for a person who was snivelling and coughing, so I spent quite of a bit of the day at my son's flat which was warm and didn't stink of gloss paint. Nobody there was terribly well either, so a lot of sleeping was done by all, and I managed to finish all the work for my talk in May, so it can be published on the web on Friday.

On Thursday I felt a bit better, though my daughter-in-law felt worse, and my little grandson didn't feel great either. Somebody did arrive to start laying the floors, so we felt we were making some progress on the house. We moved our kitchen arrangements into our grandson's bedroom

assuming that, with the house full of men laying floors and others sanding the kitchen, we would have to keep him well away.

We did some birthday shopping for his birthday on Saturday, having done a great deal of research on the Internet. I wanted to buy him a nice chunky truck, like the ones my own boys dearly loved when they were little. However, those aren't made any more. Not every truck you see on the Internet includes dimensions, and I wanted a big one, so it was hard to make a decision. We went and looked at one I had seen on the Internet which seemed suitable, but it really was too small. Eventually I found something, and also bought him some little denim dungarees and some shirts.

By the end of Thursday, only one of the two floors had been laid, but the kitchen floor had been partly sanded and was several shades lighter.


On Friday I vacated the house once the workmen had started, and went to my son's flat again. My daughter-in-law had decided to make a quick trip home to see her mother, who had just had an operation, and booked Eurostar for Saturday. I spent quite a bit of the day looking after my grandson, who still wasn't terribly well.

My son took a half day and he and Paul cut down a fir tree which had grown much too big for the garden. It was cut down in sections, starting from the top. Apparently this wasn't easy, especially when part of it fell into an adjacent garden and my son had to jump the fence and throw it back. Of course he could have gone to the house and knocked on the door and said 'Please can we have our tree back?' but I suppose jumping the fence was quicker, or possibly less embarrassing.

By the end of Friday, the two rooms had nice new smart floors



and the kitchen was sanded and sealed and also looked very much better.
Unfortunately, the wood of the kitchen floor was really dry and it absorbed the seal, so more coats were needed. It was decided that the men would have to come back on Monday, which also meant that the kitchen couldn't be put back at the weekend. I had been really looking forward to having a kitchen sink and spending no more days washing up in the cracked bathroom sink with no plug, but it's only a few days.

In case you were wondering why we didn't just buy a plug, the crack in the sink is so bad there is actually quite a bad hole, so there's no question of filling it with water, it would leak. The new sanitary ware has arrived, and the plumber says he will come on Monday. We have to remind him about repairing the bath outflow as well, so it no longer outflows onto the floor! We are also looking forward to the new loo, as the flush on the existing one is even more broken, and the cistern takes about 15 minutes to fill, so it is difficult for two people who have just come in and are both desperate. We have resorted to keeping a big bucket of water in the bath for the second flush.

On Saturday we went round to my son's house for birthday breakfast. I was interested to see he shares his birthday with the Queen. Our grandson didn't get the 21 gun salutes though! He was quite pleased with his birthday card, and absolutely delighted with his new truck. We heard nothing from him as we had breakfast, he was too busy pushing the truck around the floor.



Paul tried to persuade him that the truck would be just the thing for Mrs. Cow to ride in, but he did not approve of that at all. He snatched Mrs. Cow out of the back of the truck and beat her to death with a fish slice, before throwing her over his shoulder and going back to pushing the truck around the floor.

When it was time for his morning nap, we went back to the house to cut up the remains of the tree and put it in the skip. Frequent rain showers made this difficult, and the tree itself was quite wet. At 11.30 we went back to help the leaving party get to the station on time, and went back to the house for the afternoon, while our son went to bed as he had, by then, developed the problem the rest of us have had.

Later, he and Paul started the saga of buying the mitre saw. New skirting board has been bought for a room downstairs, as the one installed by the last owner of the house was particularly ugly and not in keeping with the style of the rest of the house. Considerable cutting of the skirting board is needed to fit round the octagonal bay, so our son thought buying a mitre saw would make this easier. Paul thought engaging a joiner would be easier still, but there have already been heavy unexpected expenses - like needing the place re-wired and having to buy a new boiler - so our son felt more tradesmen would be too expensive. B&Q were selling the necessary equipment at half price, so they drove to a big store about 20 minutes away. When they got back, they discovered they couldn't put it together as it had a fault, so they took in back. They then discovered all of them at this price had the fault! However, they found a way of getting round the fault by buying something else to help in putting it together, so they came home in triumph, and I went off back to my son's flat to cook some dinner.

At 8.30, they called me from B&Q; they had both been unable to understand the instructions about how to work the thing, so had made another trip to B&Q to get instructions, only to find the store was closed! No progress whatever has been made on the skirting board, and hours have been sent driving around Manchester. Perhaps a joiner would have been a better idea after all. We hope for better progress on Sunday.

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Manchester 6

Saturday 14th to Tuesday 17th April

Getting up to date again! The weekend passed in an orgy of painting and working really hard. Our son and daughter-in-law arrived before we were even awake on Saturday, and began by carrying all the kitchen cabinets out to the garage to join the fridge, so as to leave the kitchen completely clear for painting. The ceiling was completely painted first, then the filthy lumpy walls had to be washed with sugar soap and then sanded. Everybody felt satisfied that the walls and ceiling were finished by the end of Sunday. The bit of the wall behind the kitchen cabinets hasn't been decorated, as it won't be seen anyway.



This is the end of the kitchen where all of the kitchen cabinets will go. You can see why I say the power points are all squint. I would have thought an electrician would have had a spirit level. Mind you, there were some very squint holes there to start with - the man who used to own this house definitely had no spirit level. The other end of the kitchen has a fireplace.



This will need a fireguard for quite a while, as it will be viewed with delight by an almost 1 year old, who is currently walking with help, climbing every set of stairs he sees, and is generally into everything.

Most of my contribution to this work recently has been in looking after my grandson while others paint, and in shopping and producing food. Our daughter-in-law wanted to be involved in the work on her new house, and has been introduced into the mysteries of sugar soap and sand paper, and given painting lessons by Paul. I preferred looking after our grandson anyway - I feel I have scrubbed and painted enough walls in my life, and Paul is starting to feel that way too. Mind you, if he does it himself, at least it prevents him standing critically over some unfortunate tradesman pointing out the bits he has missed!

The dirty carpet from the upstairs front room had made its way into the skip, in readiness for a new wood floor arriving on Wednesday. Our temporary kitchen is up there at present, though it will have to move elsewhere while the new floor is put in.



The room already has floorboards which could in theory be sanded, but there are quite large gaps between them, and our son prefers a completely new floor as it will be less draughty.

We still have to remove the carpet from the front room downstairs, which is also to have a new floor. The unbearably filthy curtains were taken down before the room was painted and went into the skip. They were useful when we were sleeping in there there, but were so dirty we were all glad to see the back of them when they went into the skip.

The kitchen floor is to be sanded; it is already wood, but was never sealed and absorbed dust and cooking grease, so it isn't a good colour and is almost impossible to clean.

We expected the plumber on Monday, to put valves on all the radiators so the temperature could be individually controlled in each room. Currently, the downstairs radiators are red hot and the upstairs ones quite cold. However, there was no plumber on Monday. The electrician came instead, which was convenient as Paul had to go to London for the day. I was going to stay in for the plumber, but the electrician persuaded me to go, and it seemed a good idea as I had work to do on the computer and need a good table or desk. I have another talk to give in London on May 2nd and need to make preparations, so I needed to work on PC. At least our son's flat also has a reliable power supply, and the Internet doesn't keep falling over as power gets switched off. Anyway, no plumber arrived, so it would have been a waste of time my waiting in for him.

I put 2 computers in my backpack and walked back to my son's flat where I looked after my grandson, fed him lunch and put him to bed for his nap, while my daughter-in- law cleaned and sanded woodwork in the house kitchen. While my grandson napped, I was able to get some work done, then when he woke I put him in the pushchair and we walked over to the house. He has a room there which was the first one we painted, and it now has a new clean carpet, a selection of his toys, and a gate in the doorway so he can't get out. I usually stay and play with him there, as he resents being alone in there when things that appear interesting are going on in other parts of the house.

At supper time we went back to the flat and I gave him his supper. I was starting to feel quite ill; my ears had been stuffed up all day, so I failed to hear anything anybody said, and later in the evening I started to feel feverish and quite exhausted. After supper, our son went over to the house and finished the woodwork painting in the kitchen, and Paul got back from London about 10 and we went back to the house.

We arrived there to discover more of the power points working, so I could have the phone charging next to the bed. However, when the alarm went in the morning I felt quite ill and had a sore throat, so I looked forward to a day in bed. This was not to be, as the plumber arrived at 10 and I had to have a high speed shower before he switched the boiler off and started work on the radiators. He was finished by 3 in the afternoon, but by then Paul was painting the woodwork in the bedroom, and the windows needed to be open because of the smell. So I stayed where I was in our son's flat, hoping I wasn't infecting everybody.

An hour later Paul was back, saying I needed to wait at the house for the electrician (who had work to finish), the floor man (who wanted a house key) and the plumber (who wanted to be paid) while Paul went shopping for more paintbrushes etc. At least the house was warm, though Paul says the money on the gas prepayment meter is running out fast and he'll have to remember to go out and put more money on it.

Once all the workmen had called, I was able to retire to bed. However, the bed is in the middle of the floor so Paul can clean and then paint the skirting board. Painting tomorrow is likely to be very stinky and the window needs to be open, so a nice cosy morning in bed does not seem possible tomorrow; moreover, the ground floor will be full of workmen sanding the kitchen floor, which will not be exactly restful.


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Manchester 5

Good Friday to Friday 13th

Dear me, I seem to be further behind than ever with this blog. This is probably because we have been so busy. I have been looking after my grandson for quite a bit of the time, and after that, and producing supper for 4, I am only fit to fall into bed.

On Good Friday, the plasterer finally appeared and plastering was done all over the house, making a lot of mess. We have dust sheets down, but somehow they aren't always quite in the correct place, and plasterers have very dirty boots and use a lot of water. The worst place was the kitchen, where a whole wall had to be plastered, using a great deal of water, so a lot of cardboard was put down on top of the dust sheets to help absorb the water. The resulting paste of cardboard and plaster was put straight into the skip. The skip, when it arrived, was sensibly put in the house driveway. Skips left in the street tend to fill up with other people's rubbish! Unfortunately, it wasn't put quite far enough inside, so it is hard to squeeze between the skip and the metal gates. The gap is too narrow for the pushchair, and we all have to squeeze through sideways.

The plasterer and the electrician took turns in complaining about the cold, and had to be assigned heaters - fortunately, we had obtained a second one to stop us freezing solid in the cold. These came in very handy, because the electrician wanted us to paint before he completed his work, and the plaster wouldn't dry in such a cold house, so no painting could be done. I had the happy thought of using the radiant heaters aimed at the plastered wall in the kitchen, and this worked, so the plaster eventually dried overnight on Saturday.



The dark patches you can see are areas that are still damp. And if you wonder how we managed to do without the heaters ourselves, that was because the plumber came on Saturday and put in a new boiler. So from Saturday night we had heat again in the house. This was a great joy, and we began to feel comfortable again and no longer afraid to get out of the lovely warm bed in the middle of the night and creep down to the freezing cold bathroom. Of course, Paul had to go and put some more money on the prepayment meter after that!

Yet another joy that arrived over the weekend was having a proper bed! Our son visited Ikea late on Saturday and bought the bed, and he and Paul built it, which was, apparently, no mean feat. The design of the bed-slats has apparently changed, they now have to be put together and are very complicated, so the bed-building went on until midnight, but at least we are not now crawling onto a mattress on the floor. One thing that made the bed possible was the laying of a new carpet in the 2nd floor bedroom we are now occupying. The Ikea bed is large, so it needed to await the removal of the old filthy carpet and the arrival of a nice new clean one.

The rest of the Easter weekend passed in an orgy of cleaning and painting. The walls and woodwork had to be washed with sugar soap to get rid of the filth, and then the faintly grey ceilings had to be given a couple of coats of paint. There was a lot of discussion of paint colour for the walls, and some paint which had previously been chosen had to be returned, as our daughter-in-law rejected the colours. Further different colours were examined on Easter Monday (everywhere is shut on Easter Sunday) and eventually suitable colours were selected late on Monday, necessitating a great deal of driving round different B&Q stores. I have never understood why DIY stores have lots of sample colours of paint which they don't appear to keep, and no sample pots of the paint they actually have on the shelves.

One shop which was open on Easter Sunday was the marble worktop supplier, and we were able to inspect worktops in the marble we had previously only seen in tiny sections. This resulted in a completely different marble being selected for the kitchen worktop, the one originally chosen from a small sample appearing absolutely hideous in a large slab.

By the end of the Easter break, our son was disappointed that there was still so much to be done, but I suspect he was glad to get back to work!

On Tuesday the electrician said that not enough work had been done by way of painting to enable him to finish off his work, and did some whip cracking so that everybody had to work harder. It was just as well that Paul was over his cold and feeling better, and walls were painted. Our temporary kitchen had to move around the house as rooms were painted.



Although it had been convenient for it to be in the downstairs front room close to the kitchen sink, it is not too convenient when there is no kitchen sink.



As you can see, the kitchen sink has left, so our only source of water is the bathroom sink - the cracked one with no plug! A new bathroom sink is on order, and will arrive some time next week; then we have to await the arrival of the plumber to install it.

By Wednesday, Paul was becoming quite critical of the electrician and on Thursday they had a severe falling out. It is true that most of the switches and power points are not straight, but it is hard to work when Paul is standing over you treating you like an incompetent child. Eventually, we had to agree to vacate the house on Friday so that the electrician could work without interference. I had to faithfully promise our son that we would arrive in his flat no later than 7.55 so that there was no danger of the electrician, who planned to arrive at the new house at 8, meeting Paul again. We were further punished by discovering on our return on Friday evening that none of the nice new shiny but squint power points was actually working, and we had to run huge extension leads from some old power points in the kitchen up the stairs so we could use the vacuum cleaner and charge the phone. There is no point in having the phone you are using as an alarm clock charging overnight two floors below you.

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Manchester 4

Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th April

It was snowing when we woke up on Wednesday morning! It didn't last, it soon turned to rain, and became, if anything, rather colder. It is hard to bare your body in the icy bathroom in the morning, and the towels are colder and damper every morning. Once it was raining hard, I noticed quite a bit of water coming through the window of what will be our grandson's bedroom. On examination, this proved to be because there appears to be no sealant at the top of the window. The top of the window area is very badly marked, so it has obviously been like that for some time. Just another little job for Paul or our son to finish. So many things in this house have not been finished properly. We seem to have at least one new problem every day.

When they arrived, the electricians needed to put extra power points in the room where we have been sleeping, so everything had to be moved up two floors and our ex-bedroom turned into a building site. This is our new bedroom - still a mattress on the floor.



Please note the tasteful decorations on either side of the bed. Once the plasterer has been, they will turn into nice new power points.

I spent the morning having yet another go at cleaning the carpets. Most of them are to go, but I can't bear to live in filth in the meantime. After vacuuming two carpets, I had to spend a very long time cleaning the brushes on the vacuum cleaner, which had stopped working. The woman who lived here, as well as having a completely useless vacuum cleaner, had long dark hair, and huge quantities of it completely clogged up my vacuum cleaner brushes, stopping them going round. It is not a nice job, cleaning somebody else's hair out of your vacuum cleaner. It's also a very fiddly job, as well as being rather unattractive. Then I had to make like an Edwardian housemaid and take a dustpan and brush to the stairs to get some of the years of dust out of the carpets there - an upright vacuum cleaner doesn't make too good a job of stairs. Shades of Downton Abbey! Except that I needed to wear a surgical mask, the dust is so bad it chokes me.

I caved in and spent the late afternoon at my son's house, keeping warm. Poor Paul now has a streaming cold to go with his sore throat, and I don't think he should be in this cold house. You can't tell him anything though, he knows best.

The plasterer did not come today (Wednesday); he is delayed, apparently, but should come tomorrow. The plumber did come though, and confirmed our worst fears. The boiler has to be declared dead; it has too many problems to be economic to fix it and a new one needs to be installed. Heaven knows how long that will take. The plumber is providing a quote tomorrow. In the meantime, it is so cold in the house the electricians said it was too cold for them to work. They had to be provided with a heater. We ate our supper sitting crouched over the heater and wearing our ski jackets. My legs are so cold I would like to wear my ski pants, but they are back in storage. We bought a second heater, and put them both in our bedroom.

We encountered another little problem as we cooked our supper. I went to close the door to keep the heat in, there was an ominous cracking sound, and one of the door hinges fell out of the wall. This proved to be because the screws in the hinge were too small. So the holes which were too large for the screws had been stuffed with toothpicks to make them smaller! This house never fails to amaze me, I wonder how many more things can have been done wrong.

Thursday dawned sunny but very cold. Paul felt too ill to contemplate the cold bathroom and had no shower. I'll have to warn him if he starts to stink! I wanted him to spend the day at our son's flat and keep warm, but he took Paracetamol and said he felt at bit better. I had a shower, but found the towels were so cold and damp that I took them into a sunny room to try to dry them a bit; they seem not much better though. No plasterer came today again, Paul doesn't know why. There are still big bare channels in the walls with cables hanging out of them.


So there is no chance of getting the kitchen organised this weekend, I'm afraid. In the meantime, we set up a kitchen in one of the upstairs rooms. It is a wonderfully wonderfully light and sunny room, though hardly suitable for a kitchen.



Still, at least we have got the microwave and toaster off the floor, so preparing something to eat isn't quite so trying.

The day continued sunny for once, though still cold. Our daughter-in-law came round in mid-morning and carried me off for a day out with our grandson. We took him to a farm where you could get close to the animals. The baby was suitably amazed by a huge cow, fascinated by donkeys and goats, mildly interested by chickens and ducks, mesmerised by alpacas, bored by a llama, and completely unable to see all of the Clydesdale horse, it was so big. The bit of the visit he probably enjoyed most was the playground though. Somehow, I completely forgot to take any pictures!

In the meantime, Paul did ceiling painting and continued dosing himself up with Paracetamol. I wish he would retire to bed in our son's warm flat, but he won't give in. We ate dinner with them and they offered us their futon upstairs, but Paul insisted the house is not too cold tonight, after a sunny day to warm it. Our son too is looking exhausted, after a week of driving an hour to work, drilling teeth all day, driving an hour back and then driving all over Manchester to shop for building supplies and sometimes working in the new house until very late at night. At least we have a four day weekend now, so he doesn't need to make the big drive to work.

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Manchester 3

Monday 2nd & Tuesday 3rd April

Monday dawned, cold and damp, and I felt reluctant to face the freezing bathroom very early. However, the electricians were due to arrive, so I had to bite the bullet. Once I had showered, I paused to wonder why the bathroom radiator never worked during the time when we had central heating. So I had a look at it, to see if I could see anything wrong with it. There certainly was - it was nicely fixed to the wall, but not connected to anything! Every day, we find another problem with this house.

The electricians slaved away in the kitchen and basement. The kitchen cabinets are currently in the centre of the room, covered by dust sheets. The plasterer is coming late on Wednesday, and after that we have to wait until the plaster dries before we can put the cabinets in place. I am quite looking forward to having a cupboard or two for essential supplies. At present, our store cupboard food is stored in supermarket bags near the foot of our bed, along with the microwave, kettle and toaster, and our plates, bowls and cutlery. The kitchen is currently too dusty to keep anything there.



There is a fridge for food which needs to be kept cold; that's currently in the garage. You have to be dressed before you can make breakfast, as you have to go outside to collect the milk.

Apart from the fridge in the garage, the main difference between our current situation and camping is that the place seems watertight and and we don't have to stoop to get inside.



It isn't much warmer inside the house than it is outside, although the heater our son bought is very efficient and keeps one room warmer than anywhere else in the house.

Paul spent Monday trying to prepare rooms for painting, though he seemed to spend most of his time running up and down stairs answering questions from the electricians. My task for the day was to complete the form for my claim for US medical expenses, which was reasonably complicated and needed the assembling of lots of receipts. I did part of this in bed, and part at our son's house, which was a lot warmer. In the evening we couldn't face crawling on the floor to cook in the microwave, and had a curry carryout, which made a nice change.

Tuesday was even colder. The electricians arrived and started putting in power points in the bedrooms upstairs, which multiplied the mess and chaos everywhere. There seems to be no room without a heap of things of some sort.



I spent the morning researching the local power companies, and we are applying for ordinary electricity meters in our son's name so we can get rid of the prepayment ones. There are two different companies, one for gas and one for electricity, which makes things more complicated. I look forward to not having to get Paul to keep checking on the level of money on the meters, which are in the basement.

My task for the afternoon was to look after our grandson, as our daughter-in-law had a hospital appointment. Paul managed to do some painting preparation work in what will be our grandson's bedroom, but there seem to be so many other things to do as well. Carpets for two bedrooms were chosen in the late afternoon, and they are to be laid on Saturday, so there is some pressure to get the two bedrooms painted before then.

A plumber is coming late tomorrow, so it is hoped he can advise on the central heating, as well as looking at other matters such as fitting another sink to replace the cracked one in the bathroom, and stopping the bath running out onto the bathroom floor. I look forward to being warm again!

We spent the evening at our son's house, in the warm, and I cooked. It is easier to cook standing up! However, we are probably back to crawling on the floor on Wednesday, as we will have both the plumber and the plasterer here until late.


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Manchester 2

Friday 30th March - Sunday 1st April
Some time over the weekend has been spent cleaning, and now one of the rooms is about ready to paint. However, it needs to have some power points put in, so painting will not start right away.

Various kitchen appliances were delivered during the previous week, so we now have a fridge (currently in the garage) and dishwasher, washing machine and cooker, though none of these useful appliances is connected. Our son collected the kitchen cabinets on Friday afternoon, ready to be built on Saturday. Electricians started work on Friday as well. The power was off quite a lot of the day, which made things difficult - cold lunch, no phone, no hot water, no vacuum cleaner and so on. Once the power went back on again, the central heating didn't! This was a bit of a disaster as the electricians had gone home by the time I discovered it and the weather was cold. I am only warm when under the duvet.

On Saturday our son's friend arrived, along with another friend, and kitchen cabinet building began. Unfortunately, it did not prove as easy as anticipated, and things progressed very slowly. Not as much progress as hoped had been made by the end of Saturday. We all repaired to my son's flat for dinner, where we stayed in the warm until about 10.30, then crept back to our cold dark room and bed. There is now no light in the room where we are sleeping. The previous owner came back on Saturday to take more of his belongings, including the chandelier in the room where we have been sleeping. What he has left us with is a few wires hanging out of the ceiling! As it was late when we got back on Saturday night, we just fell into bed in the dark anyway.

On Sunday, further problems were discovered, so once again, not as much progress was made as had been hoped. The power points put in on Friday proved to have been in slightly the wrong place, and one had to be moved, and some extra ones had to be put in for the huge number of electrical appliances our son had forgotten he owned. The new sink was put in place and plumbed in, so at least we have water. The cabinets were all put in place, but without doors or worktop. A man has to come and measure for the granite worktops, there is mdf there at present.

The cupboards all had to be moved on Sunday night so the electricians could modify what they had previously done. I am quite looking forward to having some cupboards to put things in, all our food supplies are in a series of plastic bags on the floor beside our bed and it is quite wearing finding the marmalade or the bananas. Milk and butter and so on live in the fridge in the garage, so one has to be dressed before preparing breakfast.

The house is very cold as the weather has turned cold. Our son bought a heater so we didn't freeze, and we can move it to wherever we need it. It seems very efficient and heats the room where we sleep quite quickly. On Sunday night I discovered that the heater gives out quite a lot of light, so we relied on that to see on Sunday night while we got into bed. There was even enough light for Paul to read in bed. I have books on the iPad, so don't need a bedside light.

The electricians come back tomorrow, so let's hope they can re-connect the heating; it is very cold in the house, and we need our ski jackets if we leave the one warm room.

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Manchester 1

Friday 23rd - Thursday 29th March
We have been incredibly busy since we arrived home, which may help to explain why I am so far behind with this blog.

We had 3 days in a hotel, one (unplanned) night on a futon in the son's flat, and now we are camping in our son's new house. Our son was supposed to be able to move into the new house on Friday (23rd) but the family did not succeed in moving out - they were doing it themselves. Although our son got the keys late on Friday night, the people were back on Saturday to remove more belongings. We turned up on Saturday but could not get access while they continued to move, so we went away again. We were able to get in on Sunday, and immediately started cleaning. Various friends had been invited round for the Sunday to give a hand, but as the weather was lovely, only one person turned up.

The house is very run down, and needs a lot done to it before our son and family can move in. It has no kitchen, for a start. The previous occupants took the kitchen cabinets with them! The new kitchen should arrive partly next Friday and partly at the weekend. At present, we have only a microwave on the floor, a garden table and chairs, and a mattress on the living room floor for sleeping. The mattress we sleep on did not arrive until Monday night, hence the extra unplanned night on the futon in our son's flat - because of the delay in getting into the house, there was not time to get the mattress on Saturday or Sunday, as originally planned.

Not only does every room in the house need decorating, everywhere also needs a thorough cleaning! It is the filthiest place I have ever moved into. The previous people obviously didn't have a very efficient vacuum cleaner so the carpets were very dusty. So far, I have had to empty the vacuum cleaner bag every day, and spend a long time unwinding hairs from its brushes.

We now have one room that is sufficiently clean to put the crawling baby down in, though the walls still need to be washed and the ceiling is grey with dirt. It is an Edwardian house so the ceilings are very high, and ceiling painting will be a nightmare. The cornices are filthy too, and one is badly cracked and needs to be mended.

Perhaps the people who lived here were in financial difficulty because they had those pre-payment gas and electricity meters (which are also very expensive) and they made no arrangements to change them. That took an awful lot of time to organise - not to mention the added misery of keeping an eye on the meter and running to the post office to put more money on the gas meter or the electricity meter! In order to change the meter, you have to notify the company some weeks beforehand of a name change, then once the meters are in your name, you have to apply for a credit account in the new name, have a credit check (wait 3 weeks) and then you can apply to have the meter changed.....

We have made several visits to our storage to get bedding and towels, also our picnic supplies, and are resigned to microwave meals for a few days. We urgently need to make some progress with cleaning the walls of Tom's bedroom so painting can start there. Wooden flooring will be installed on the ground and first floors on April 18th, and also existing flooring in the kitchen will be sanded. There will also be some new carpets on the second floor - existing carpets being too filthy to contemplate using. I am gradually getting them cleaner, and we had been going to shampoo them, but they are very stained and lots of the stains are indelible. We need to try to have things painted before the new carpets and wooden floors go down, and it now appears the place must be partly re-wired, as it is borderline dangerous.

On our first morning here, we discovered the shower was barely lukewarm. The resulting shower was quite unpleasant. On the second morning, the weather was colder and I couldn't face the nearly cold shower. So I ran a bath - the normal water was sufficiently hot, it was only the shower that was nearly cold. So I had a lovely hot bath, then stepped out to get dried. Soon, I was standing in a flood. The bath runs out onto the bathroom floor! So I put the plug back in, and we had to bale out the bath with a bucket into the loo.

Actually, the bathroom is a bit of a disaster area, the loo flush is broken, the washbasin is badly cracked and there is a 6 foot long vertical gaping hole behind the door. No wonder the house was cheap! The previous owner did all the work himself, and it seems he never finished anything properly. Our son has taken on an awful lot. His best friend did something of the same some years ago, (though that was before he had any children). Things take so much longer when you have a baby, and of course our grandson is into everything, so there are two rooms upstairs with gates on the doors, and he will have to stay up there until things are more finished downstairs and upstairs.

Our son and an electrician friend had a look at some of the problems yesterday, and have made the shower hot, so at least I can shower and wash my hair. A builder friend of our son is arriving at the weekend to help with putting in the kitchen, and then we may be a bit further forward. It is handy to have a friend who is a builder - it's just a shame our son doesn't live in south London, nearer this friend! There is an electrician friend up here, so that helps - he is going to deal with the house wiring. At least the weather is warm and it is pleasant in the garden, though we aren't able to see much of it!

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Breckenridge to Manchester

Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd March

The early morning after breakfast was spent on last minute packing and sorting out the kitchen, so that just enough was left for lunch. We had permission for a late checkout, so could stay until our transport for the airport arrived. We went to have a final coffee with our friends and say goodbye, then back to lunch.

Our transport arrived on time, and as we were the last, I was able to sit in the front of the minivan and take pictures through the windscreen. They weren't all successful, as the windscreen was quite dirty. However, they do show the countryside. This is a view of Lake Dillon as we drove past Frisco.



It is completely iced over at present, though probably not for much longer, given the high temperatures.

We drove on, gradually descending. There was still a lot of snow on the high peaks, though there was none in the valley.



The land not covered with snow is rather bare, apart from the trees. Some of the slopes are too rocky and bare for trees, and some are too steep for the snow to lie.

On the way down, we passed another ski resort, called Loveland.



These look more like my sort of slopes - not too steep! However, you may be able to see there is hardly anybody on them, so possibly they are like the lower slopes in Breckenridge - icy or slushy. As far as I can see, those rather bare upper slopes should be the more difficult slopes, but they don't seem to have enough snow for skiing.

A couple of hours after we left Breckenridge, we were at Denver Airport.



The building is quite distinctive. It is supposed to represent the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. It is quite a busy airport



We were fortunate to find that all our bags were within the weight limit - only just within! Paul's suitcase was 22.9 kilos, mine was 22.9, and the ski box was exactly 23. Next time, we will both cut down on the number of clothes we take, bearing in mind that we have to get ski boots, helmets and goggles into our cases these days.

I just had time to wander round a few shops before our flight was called. The plane was very full, so there was no stretching out this time. However, we had a bulkhead seat, so there were only two seats and we had slightly more space. The centre block of seats next to us were occupied by a couple with two small children, so it wasn't exactly restful. We didn't get much sleep. I remember the stress of flying with two small children when we came back from Hong Kong via various places many years ago, so felt quite sympathetic. I don't remember my children making quite that much noise, but perhaps time has cast a rosy glow over the journeys.

We landed soon after 9.30 and were reasonably quick getting through Immigration and finding our baggage, so we were on our way to London not much more than an hour later. King's Cross proved difficult with so much baggage, but we were at Euston about 80 minutes before our booked train, so there was plenty of time to collect the tickets and have some lunch.

I don't remember much of the train journey, as we both slept, being utterly exhausted by then.

Our daughter-in-law collected us at the station, but we couldn't fit everything into her car, so Paul had to take a taxi anyway. Then I looked after our grandson, while Paul was driven off to the storage to collect our car. After dinner, we drove to our hotel to check in.

We know we have some busy days ahead. Our son has bought a new house, but cannot move in right away, as so much work needs to be done to it. We are going to camp in it, and help to oversee the work. Once it is in a reasonable state to have the baby, they will move in and we will move into their flat until the summer, when we will move back to London.

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