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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