Here's..........Toby1

The new resident.  The Hoose Cat.
Tobi 1 Kenobi

and the neighbours have decided that instead of a trampoline for the bairns in the garden this summer, they'll just throw another mattress on the pile. (beside the gap in the fence).  MG has plans for  a trellis with pyracantha or holly or hawthorn. teehee.

Back on Track

It's been 6 months and more. That's what happens when your brother decides to get married in Foreign Mauritius in March and you have to get sorted with frocks and stuff. we had an amnesty from December. Living in the Hoose instead of ripping it to shreds.
Well... Mauritius is over, dad's got some time off work (well, nobody wants him to be honest) and we're back on track.  Colly's wee bruv's coming to stay in July so we're working on bedrooms.

You used to have to go through the tiny bedroom to get into the second sized one.  So we've done some wall adjusting, with frames going up to make a skinny corridor.

We had to buy one special narrow door to fit the special narrow little room, but it's coming on nicely now. We got a little bed from the Argos reject shop and Nick had an extra matttress so we're nearly sorted.  Two more rooms, just about done.  There's a major hazard at the top of thestairs, where we've made the landing bigger - needs a bit of a railing.

 With any luck there'll be room to swing a cat, which may be possible because Toby 1 has taken residence.



A Week Later

We're making progress.  These photos show the plastering but there's also been a lot of furnishing going on - more later. Dad's inner plasterer is getting much faster and smoother. Just in time, the whole stairwell is next.
Lucky Colin is a source of Nitto tape - a kind of super protecting blue sticky stuff - here it's keeping the back door from the plaster..
You can see the cubby hole under the stairs.  It's going to be Secret Storage.

nice slope dad

The archway to the kitchen. we've got a similar light for the utillary.  The sensor's moving into the corner and the meter cupboard's getting doors to match the units.

The Laundillary

Dad had a week off work last week.  MG put some plastic sheeting from the polytunnel across the kitchen door and the arch into the laundillary (laundry/utility).  So we can't move round downstairs.  It's protecting the kitchen and sitting room from dad's dust.  Oh the grinder - it's bound to come into play.
he spent most of Tuesday with a chisel hacking gloss paint off the brick walls.  Then his friend Mick the plasterer said oh no yuo don't wanna do it like that...
MG meanwhile used the steam stripper to peel the paint off in sheets, with my help while dad for once was at a loose end. haha, the boot on the other foot.

Yellow glossed bricks with ancient chip fat replaced by plasterboard walls - it's nearly done, just two triangles, the cubby hole and ceiling to sort, with a bit of plumbing and electrics then we have somewhere to use the washing machine.  MG won't need to clear her decks for me to take the laundry over there and do it, or more often, nick the dirties while I'm pretending not to look then bring them back clean and dry.

Next week I'm off work and so is dad...just think what we may get done (run out of money maybe?  Hope not)

Fast forward late september

MG got some USA spec wasp eradicator at the Stanhope Show wher George was showing his donkey.  (no wonder progress is slowing).  It nearly did the trick, but some survived and multiplied.  They were still dropping out of the light fittings and the window edges where the double glazed units need tidying up.  Three sprays later we were getting about 5 a day on two window sills.

We've got the main bedroom done now.  Plastered, painted, sockets in, light moved, skirting boards on etc.  The bed is in and we're sleeping upstairs. The IKEA student wardrobe is still in the sitting room, but hey, one step at a time.

Fast Forward to late July

MG too busy with chickens to get the photos uploaded til now, and festivals and visiting and stuff.

We got the sitting room finished with TV on the wall and moved in properly at the end of July.  We had the bed and settee in there, with scraps of carpet in the hall and bare wood on the stairs.

Then the wasps came.There were a lot of them.  More every day, everywhere.

Hot weather plastering

Dad's doing a good job plastering the living room.  On Sunday he went for the ceiling, starting with full boiler suit and all, but the hotter it got...