(18 Apr 2020, 9:32 pm)BusLoverMum wrote The boys are mostly slamming each other's doors and eating. Bigun refuses to leave the house at all now he can't use the buses. Littlun (now bigger than me) is enjoying his Boris walks, though, and we're trying to vary them, each time. Turns out Durham has a lot of rabbits and moles. So long as we can avoid falling down the holes they leave, we're probably in the best place possible for some socially distanced exercise.

(18 Apr 2020, 9:46 pm)streetdeckfan wrote I'm starting to regret deciding to stay up here, there's really bugger all to do! My exercise recently has been walking to Aldi, seeing the queue is round the block, and walking back to the house! 
Luckily I still have flour left so can bake my own bread (I'm in the middle of making a sourdough loaf now), although I'm starting to run low on bread flour

The part of the house which has been in the process of getting done up for the past 15 years has now become my workshop, I've been getting my money's worth out of my 'new' Planer/Thicknesser going through all the pallet wood I've been collecting for the past few years and been making things for around the house. I've re-built the stand for the table saw, upgraded my workbenches, I'm running out of things to replace!
I'm even contemplating digging the exercise bike out, but apparently I'm taking up too many rooms as it is!

(18 Apr 2020, 10:23 pm)BusLoverMum wrote We needed our reception rooms replastered, this year as they look like they've been done with a butter knife and the gable end room has the remnants of a damp problem. We've fixed one alcove, ourselves, and that is where husband has his gear set up for work but the other one was worse and still gets moukdy. It's 3' above ground level so the damp course isn't being breached, there's plenty of subfloor ventilation, there's no carpet, we've fixed the chimney and the roof and can't afford to redo all the pebbledash, just in case, so it looks like we're just going to have to tank it.

I did order a new lampshade for in there. Though.

(18 Apr 2020, 10:37 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Plastering is the one thing I would rather not do (other than taking out plumbing, I'm fine putting it in, but taking it out is someone else's department!). 

At mine, I completely changed the layout upstairs, moved the bedroom door, raised the landing ceiling back up to it's full height (the previous owner lowered it for some reason!), knocked the back two bedrooms into one (once again, the previous owners with their bright ideas had two bedrooms, each literally the width of a single bed!). So I have the staircase wall as well as the landing walls to do, the ceiling and the back bedroom all to plaster. I mean, the walls (other than the staircase wall) are all plasterboard so I could just tape and joint them but I just prefer a plastered wall!

The only room I've 'done' so far is my bedroom, and the walls that were already plastered had to be sanded down because whoever plastered them must have been a bit merry!

Have you checked the guttering? We had damp down one corner of the house and it turned out the water was splashing off the guttering and somehow managing to go under the roof.
Failing that, could be worth checking if your cavity walls are insulated properly. My mother is in the process of getting hers re-done under warranty as two of her bedrooms along the back wall are getting damp due to one part of the cavity not being insulated properly

(20 Apr 2020, 5:12 pm)Charles41 wrote For me it's been an afternoon of gardening. Only intended to do half an hour. Four hours and one sun tan later my front garden is looking a lot better.

Charles

(20 Apr 2020, 5:39 pm)BusLoverMum wrote You can come and tackle the nettles in my herb patch, if you've got time (got thyme?) then.

(20 Apr 2020, 3:58 pm)Ambassador wrote I'm lucky to still be working when the vast majority of my colleagues are furloughed.

It wasn't an ideal start but I'm into a flow. My office desk was simply too big to dismantle and bring into the house and my office chair doesn't disassemble either so after a desperate search finally got a desk from Ikea (which took longer to build than anything I've ever had) and resorted to the garden furniture chair. Though I may splash out on an office chair soon (or expense it!)

I find i'm working less hours (my actual 9-5) and taking more breaks and it's a more relaxed pace even though I'm just as busy. Our IT team, previously thought of with as much esteem as a doormat are now heroes for whacking out enough licences and software updates to our iPads, laptops and mobiles. It's been great.

(20 Apr 2020, 5:12 pm)Charles41 wrote For me it's been an afternoon of gardening. Only intended to do half an hour. Four hours and one sun tan later my front garden is looking a lot better.

Charles

(21 Apr 2020, 12:01 pm)streetdeckfan wrote I have the opposite problem, when we moved offices a couple years back, all the furniture was going to just get thrown out so I kept some of the best stuff. So now in the house I think we have 5 or 6 desk chairs, at least 5 desks, I put a massive whiteboard and noticeboard up on the office wall and we have a couple smaller ones downstairs still!

To be honest, most of our work has dried up for the minute because our main client was a national health service and they are apparently a bit busy at the moment, so I have plenty of free time now!


One of my biggest hates is gardening, the only thing I can tolerate is cutting the grass. I don't like getting dirty, I don't like bugs, or bees, especially wasps, I hate the smell of flowers. Give me a concrete yard any day!

In fact, I'm contemplating decking over the entire back garden at mine, the front garden is already definitely going as I want to turn it in to a parking space and I want to build a workshop in the back so I'd only really be left with a small section of grass

(21 Apr 2020, 2:58 pm)BusLoverMum wrote Decking isn't maintenance free. It gets slippery and rots and when it rots, the wasps love it.

Ours needs replacing before someone falls through it but b&q have decided that sort of job isn't essential repairs.

(21 Apr 2020, 3:03 pm)streetdeckfan wrote I've just ordered some decking from B&Q in Bishop (for my mother) and it was ready to collect the same day. Plus, if you order via the app, you don't have to wait in the queue to get on to the website!

I was thinking of going for the composite decking which should last longer, then again I don't really mind doing the maintenance, it gives me something to do!

(21 Apr 2020, 3:21 pm)BusLoverMum wrote They must have added it back in when they made this week's changes then.

(21 Apr 2020, 8:57 pm)idiot wrote Im still writing quizzes.
I've got a pop quiz running till Monday 27th 9pm and a family quiz running till tomorrow 9pm

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Currently

(21 Apr 2020, 3:26 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Yeah, we've been trying to order them for a while and they only showed up this week

(21 Apr 2020, 10:38 pm)BusLoverMum wrote Well the app was a waste of time because that had a wait, too. 

We have a cracked loo seat to add to the list of stuff to fix.

(21 Apr 2020, 10:54 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Strange, I got straight through and ordered while I was in the queue on the laptop!

My toilet is a weird shape so I ordered 2 toilet seats, that way I don't have to mess around trying to find a replacement should I ever need one! Plus, they're quick release so just come off with one button

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