As July changed into August, work continued on the house in Manchester. In the torrential rain, it became obvious that there were severe leaking problems in the lean-to at the side of the house. The passage at the side of the kitchen had been roofed over with a plastic roof a long time ago so the area could be turned into the place for doing the laundry. There was a washing machine out there, and washing could be hung there to dry.
Unfortunately, nobody had thought to tell us it was leaking very badly, though when it rained we could see and hear it for ourselves. This was rather bad news for the washing machine, which doesn't appreciate getting rained on, and the leaks were so bad it was clear the roof had to be replaced. My son ordered some new plastic roofing, and we all hoped for a dry weekend.
Fortunately, Saturday was dry, and the old roof was soon removed. There was no time to replace any of the old framework, so that just had to be repaired where necessary, and freed from curtains of old spider webs.
Replacing it with the new roof took a bit longer, and the work stretched over into Sunday. The plastic sheeting had to be cut to size and fitted carefully, which meant a lot of standing on ladders.
Eventually, the new roof was finished early on Sunday afternoon, about half an hour before more torrential rain started.
It was neatly sealed round all the edges, so it is watertight once again, and the area makes a useful annex to the kitchen. Having the washing machine outside means there is room in the kitchen for a dish washer, which is always useful for students.
While all this roofing was going on, I did some babysitting. My grandson has grown into the Gruffalo costume he was given some months ago, so he asked to wear it.
After a short while of menacing me with the terrible teeth and terrible claws, he became too hot inside it, so we had to remove it and play a different game. He can manage sentences of a sort now, as long as they're short - 'Come upstairs, Mami! Play trains!' Verbs still have no tenses - 'I swimming' can mean 'I am swimming', as well as 'I've been swimming' and prepositions are missing; he says ’Play me' instead of 'Play with me', but he's not 28 months old yet. And he speaks quite a bit of French, frequently knowing both the French and the English words.
Paul spent a lot of the rest of Sunday clearing up, though we still have more work to do in the house. But, after some further clearing up on Monday morning, we set off to drive back home for a few days. We had a number of social events, including our other daughter-in-law's birthday, and dinners and lunches with friends.
The weather in Surrey was a good deal better, and it was a nice change to be cleaning my own dirt, instead of somebody else's! The main colourful flowers in the garden have now finished, but I was very struck by these, which are nearly as tall as I am.
The big Indian Bean Tree is also in bloom
It shades somebody else's terrace - there is very little shade on any of our terrace. I had intended to have breakfast on the terrace while the weather remained warm, but somehow can't be bothered to get dressed first and don't like to sit about in public on my terrace in my nightie!
After a very brief few days of respite, we were off up to Manchester again and more slaving away.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment