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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