Conservatory Rebuild - Day x (lost count!)

Another few weeks go by, and the conservatory remains 80% complete. In fact it is more a case of 2 steps forward and one step back!

The tiler arrived last Monday and boarded 3 of the walls in the cloakroom ready to tile the next night. But, thanks to a lazy electrician who had put 2 junction boxes on the 4th wall which, if boarded over, would have made it impossible to actually sit on the toilet, he was unable to do the 4th wall. A few frantic phone calls later with an electrician who can talk for England (he even gives me a run for my money) and we have a date of a week and a half later for him to come and sort the job. The tiler left, and has not been seen since :(

To try and get it sorted quicker Tamsyn asked the guy opposite if he had any idea how we could sort it quickly. He did. He ripped it all out (it was only feeding the outside plug socket, which is easily sorted by running the wire round the outside of the house rather than destroying the aesthetics of the cloakroom).

Unfortunately though, while removing said new wiring he found some clangers that should have been spotted by the electrician: a loose cable made 'safe' with insulating tape left dangling behind the cooker and a cable with junction block cemented in the kitchen wall. These have both now been made properly safe BUT look at our kitchen!



We now have another date for the tiler (Monday and Tuesday) and even the plasterer has decided to return our calls and is due on Tuesday and Wednesday (I'll believe it when he turns up though). We will be asking for another quote, as I decided to 'tidy up' the mess in the kitchen and have progressed to:



So, the conservatory is still not finished, and now we have to get the kitchen sorted as well ...

We've got a door on the bog!

At long last there is light at the end of the tunnel!

This week we have managed to get the electrics finished, the glass replaced with self-cleaning glass (though the kite mark is the same as before so I'm a bit sceptical) and we have a lockable door on the cloakroom (though the *&^%ing thing is broken).



We even have a window sill in the cloakroom as well.



They will, however, be coming back to fix the broken lock and fill in the door frame, though they can't do that until the tiler has been.

So we're basically now waiting on the tiler, plasterer and guy opposite to fit the radiator, and then we're something like.

Conservatory Rebuild The final Stages 1

We're almost there. In coding terms you'd say we were 80% done as it sounds like you've almost finished. The fact that it might take just as long (or longer) to get the final 20% done is never really mentioned ...

There are floor tiles:

Guttering and a soak-away for drainage (the soak-away is the length of the border but you would never know - I'm impressed with how well they did that):



The toilet and sink are in, and we have lights and plug sockets (not quite finished):

As you can see we need tiling in the cloak room, plastering on one of the walls and a door for the toilet. All supposed to be happening over the next few weeks...

Conservatory Rebuild - Day 11

Having sung the praises of the guys doing the conservatory I am now getting fed up. Yesterday (Friday 31 August) the build was a whole week later than expected.

As you can see progress is being made



but I found out yesterday that because they are waiting for 4 panes of glass they won't be back until next Thursday! I reckon there's more than 2 days work left to get it finished so we're going to have to wait even longer before we can get plasterer, electrician, plumber and tiler in: And juggling these guys is hard enough as it is without having to put them off any more.

They've also royally pissed me off with the guttering - I was assured that the guttering would go all around to the side of the house so I could divert the water into a series of water butts. But, somebody mis-measured the roof so the main part will now have to go into a soak-away in the border. They did suggest we have it go straight into a water butt but, as you can see from the picture below, that butt would be right in front of the window (on the left of the picture) and once it was full it would still end up over-flowing into the border!



And if there was nothing there then we run the risk of flooding, both our border and next doors. So they will be digging a soak-away - what a waste (and possible mess while they destroy the border to dig the hole).

I wonder what other surprises they have in store for us? :(

Conservatory Rebuild - Day 10

Not much change visually, but it's coming on well.



A lot of the glass has now been fitted and most of the roof finished with just around the toilet area left to go.

The roof looks a little strange from the upstairs windows but you can see it's quite sturdy, and gives us a lot more headroom from inside.



And finally, this is the view from insiode the house - a great deal of garden now on view. Fantastic.

Conservatory rebuild - Days 8 and 9

Well day 8 was a bit of a laugh as the buggers just didn't turn up. Considering the whole thing was supposed to be finished last Friday that really put us in a good mood. Not!

However, today they arrived and have made great progress, with the frame and most of the roof now up. It really gives a good idea of space when you stand inside and look out and I'm really pleased we went for floor to ceiling glass as you can see all of the garden.

The guys doing the work are great as well and really know their stuff - they're making a great job.

Conservatory Rebuild - Days 6 and 7

Well it's supposed to be finished by now, but as you'll see it still very definitely a work in progress!

The guys turned up on Monday (20/08/2007) to fit the kitchen door and do the fascia. For some reason the double doors weren't yet ready so that was it until Friday.



It turns out the roof etc was still being built i.e. the surveyor went on holiday, forgot all about the job and the measurements weren't taken in time.

Double doors done yesterday and we think they look great, except for a slight crack in one of the panes of glass (being replaced Tuesday).



So Tuesday is the new date for them starting the home run....

Holiday in Pembrokeshire

You'll only want to read the following waffle if bored, or you know us really well. There are pictures of the trip on Flickr but you need to be logged in as a Friend & Family member to see them all...

Day 1
After a fairly lengthy journey down and too many beers to recover from it I woke to a grey and windy day and a cracking headache. The wind soon died and the sun came out - it’s been doing that recently, but only as a 5 minute taster before bucketing it down for the rest of the day.

Unbelievably, the sun stayed out and it got really warm so, after a morning at Felinwynt Rainforest Centre watching butterflies and the most amazing leaf cutter ants hard at work we decided to check out a local beach (Mwnt).
The beach was packed and, thanks to the sun, looked amazing with blue sea, blue skies and real sand. Zoe managed to fall in a rock pool fully clothed so was happy enough to jump around in the surf with soaking wet clothes (a lot happier than Tamsyn when she saw the state of her that’s for sure)

The kids had a great time and spent the rest of the afternoon digging in the sand while we got to sit and enjoy the warmth for a while, and I’ve even caught the sun a little!

The only downside is that the outdoor pool, which is supposed to be heated, is neither heated nor full – somebody set the wrong valve and it managed to empty itself and it has so far taken two days of filling and it’s not quite there yet. And that’s a real shame because, if the guest book is to be believed, they keep it warm and the kids are dying to go swimming.

Day 2
Had to pinch ourselves to check we weren’t dreaming as we woke up to sunshine. The more cynical amongst us (me) figured that it had to rain all day if the sun was out, but I was proved wrong and it and we all ended up with a touch of sun burn.

We went to Cardigan Bay Farm in the morning, which isn’t much of a farm; the highlights being the Llama that spits at all men (I managed to duck, Alan wasn’t so lucky but at least he managed to catch it in his hand rather than full in the face), and the Emus that peck (cruel though this sounds it was quite funny to see the expression of complete shock on Christopher’s face as his thumb was enveloped by a great long beak after the food he was trying to give it).

By far the best bit about the “farm” though is the coastal path which takes you right up to Cardigan island itself, where we spotted a couple of seals and a pair of Dolphins that, as you can imagine, drew a bit of a crowd (buggers to try and photograph though!).

So, after a bite to eat, we headed off to Poppit sands for a bit of rock pooling and quite a bit more sun burn. Not a bad beach and heaving with people who all seemed as shocked as us that the sun had been visible for two days straight.
Leaving the others at the beach we headed back to the cottage to see if the pool was ready. Yet another shock was had as a) it was full at last and b) there were people in it. The next shock was accompanied by a fair bit of shrinkage when I found out that even a heated pool in the UK is cooler than you think, especially after you’ve spent a day marinating in the sun. The kids loved it though, and after you’d done a length or two it was fine so we’ll be getting some exercise in this week at least.

To recover from this unexpected exercise we rounded off the day nice and relaxed with a number of cold beers...

Day 3
After the unexpected sighting of a couple of Dolphins yesterday we decided to take a boat ride from New Quay only to find that the Dolphin spotting rides are so booked up we would have to wait 3 days! So we headed for the beach, which was unbelievably full of people of all shapes, sizes and colours (and by colours I mean milky white, through a spectrum of pink all the way to lobster red).

After a pub lunch we headed back for a swim in a slightly warmer pool – I don't think I'll ever get used to 27C being so bloody cold when in liquid form though!

Day 4
Headed off on our own today and drove about an hour to Tenby. We then got a boat to Caldey Island in the hope of spotting some monks who were conspicuous by their invisibility (they probably spotted Zoe, jumped off the nearest cliff and swam back to Tenby). It's a lovely trip out though and we spent the day wandering around the island learning about how a bunch of religious nutters can somehow make a life of solitude seem appealing. However, I couldn't get a mobile reception, which probably also signifies a lack of broadband so the priesthood is obviously not for me.

Managed to get back for a swim again, followed by finishing off our beers which leaves us with the frightening prospect of only having tea for the next few days. I think we'll probably head over to Tesco's at some point soon...

Day 5
Managed to get our boat ride from New Quay but, unlike the other day when the weather was beautiful, today was windy and started dull. And it showed in the sea as well – it was like glass when we sailed the 20 minute voyage to Caldey Island, it today it looked like Sinbad may have called it off. As soon as the boat poked it’s head around the harbour it got rough.

And so did I.

Everybody else was loving it and tucking into their lunch while I spent the first hour staring fixedly ahead and trying to breathe deeply while trying my hardest not to think of the word vomit. I was doing fine until the tour guide approached me to ask if I was feeling queasy and my answer was almost a new decoration for her shoes. I spent the rest of the journey stood at the front with a red bucket on hand praying for the journey to end. The kids loved it and saw a single seal, but no dolphins. I have to say that even if I had enjoyed the ride it was a pretty boring trip.

We then headed over to Penbryn beach, which was quite nice with sandy beach and a rock pool area full of huge crabs and loads of Gobies (some which were quite large). It also has a water fall at one end which looks very spectacular.

Day 6
The weather was a little dull today so we headed off to the National Botanic Gardens Of Wales, which were lovely (they had orchids so I was happy). The kids took loads of photographs and we were there most of the day.

It was raining when we got back to the cottage but Zoe wanted to swim anyway, as it was our last day. So swim we did, and it was bloody freezing...

Conservatory Rebuild - almost done

Having been away for a week we missed most of the final stretch, but we now have a concrete base and all the brickwork is complete.


They will now measure up for the final fit, which starts on 20 August. They will also remove the window and replace with french doors into the lounge.

Can't wait now...

Conservatory Rebuild - Day 5

At last we can get an idea of size as the brickwork has started.



Next they will come and sort the base out; more hard core, the damp course and a base of concrete. The brick wall between us and next door will also be built as will what we can now call the "cloak room" rather than the toilet in the corner of our lean to :)

Conservatory Rebuild - Days 3 and 4

Day 3 and there's now concreted footings. However, I'm not particularly happy about the amount of the old base that is just lying there. I was expecting that it would have been removed first so they could lay the new floor properly.



A neighbour has since assured me that they take some away, use some as the hard core for the new base and then concrete up to the damp course in the house. That put my mind at rest a bit as I'm hoping for a decent, well insulated base.

Day 4 - not a lot happened today thanks to the beautiful summer we are having. It chucked it down! We have at least now got a pile of bricks on the drive waiting to be turned into a cloakroom, a side wall and the base. Some of the old base was also removed and skipped, and this pile of stone has arrived.



Hopefully (weather permitting) we'll get some brick work done tomorrow...

Conservatory Rebuild - Day 2

Not nearly as much done as yesterday, but then it's hard work breaking up a couple of foot of concrete.



Notice that the toilet has gone but they haven't yet disconnected the water! The children think it very funny when you flush it.



No idea how long it will last, but so far they've managed not to wreck my grass.



There's a fair bit to be done tomorrow because (apparently) the concrete will be arriving. I wonder if Tamsyn is any good with a pick-axe?

Conservatory Rebuild - Day 1

After 10 years of putting up with a wooden lean-to as a conservatory work has started on the new one.

Sunday was spent running round like a mad man trying to clean out the old one, disconnect wiring and generally get it ready for the work men who arrived this morning - not to mention rescuing my plants, which were just starting to look great! :(

Unbelievably it has taken just one day to get it from:


to this:


Tomorrow the toilet goes and so does the floor. No idea how deep they will be digging but it's getting a totally new base and a fair bit of brickwork ready for the final fit at the end of August.

Here's a few more photos for good measure:

Wiggly Podcast nominated for award.

My favourite podcast, The Wiggly Podcast, has been nominated for the best gardening podcast in the mouse and trowel awards. As it's by far the best podcast you'll ever hear please vote for it at:

http://www.inthegardenonline.com/mt/

All about nature, farming in the UK and general state of the countryside, global warming, why cats murder defenceless little birds and just about any other garden/nature/farming rant you can possibly think up theWiggly Team provide weekly entertainment that will help you start the week in style (not that it's particularly stylish when you spit your drink all over your keyboard and the rest goes up your nose because you've started to laugh uncontrollably, but hey it's definitely funny)

Tamsyn doing Race For Life

My wife, Tamsyn, is taking part in the Cancer Research Race For Life in May, to be held at Oulton Park in Cheshire.

Please fell free to sponsort her.

Thanks.

More Wiggly Cat Arguments

Further to my blog-post on the wonderful Podcast 60 by Wiggly Wigglers there has been another corker, podcast 68, which is also well worth a listen.

As the latest mentions it was down to me the whole hilarious episode started I wrote a small article on how cat lovers and normal people non-cat lovers could work together and, hopefully, sort out the whole sorry issue so that people can live next door to a cat or two and still have wild-life in their garden.

Heather has kindly posted the article on the Wiggly blog and we hope that it will become the place where people can go for answers to this on-going situation....

Podcast 60 from Wiggly Wigglers, and the hilarious cat argument

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear.

Further to a perfectly innocent email I sent to Wiggly Wigglers enquiring about the hopefully cat repellent properties of Bokashi treated food waste I managed to cause dissent on the Wiggly sofa. The utterly hilarious Podcast 60 is available from http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/podcasts/Wiggly%20Podcast%200060.mp3
and should come with a warning: If you intend to listen to this and drink at the same time then don’t, especially if sat at a computer because you run the risk of spraying your drink all over your monitor, which is not only unsightly but can cause a lot of fizzing, electrical problems and possibly death as a result.

Richard and Heather were brilliant; Heather the ‘my lovely cat can do no wrong’ cat lover and Richard the ‘shoot the bloody lot of them’ anti argue back and forth for a good few minutes and it is a laugh a minute. Heather made the following good points:
- You should NOT stop feeding the birds just because there are cats about, but you should try very hard to make your feeding area inaccessible to them. Of course this is a lot easier in a larger garden like the Wiggly farm garden (which also only has the one cat, compared to the 3 that regularly use my garden as a toilet)
- Cats do bring lots of comfort to their owners (as well as lots of little, sometimes still twitching, presents). It’s just a shame that the comfort they bring their owners is mirrored by the stress they cause the neighbours who choose not to have one, whatever that reason may be, and end up with their plants strewn all over the place so the little blighter can defecate (or fertilise, depending on your view) in your borders.

Richard on the other hand obviously loves to hate cats and I think it would be even funnier if you could get him on the subject after a few beers.
- He, quite rightly, points out that there are a lot of people who don’t want somebody else’s cat in their garden for whatever reason but mainly because they would like to feed, watch and encourage birds and other wildlife into their little patch of Eden without the fear that said wildlife will be mindlessly tortured, sometimes eaten (and likely puked back up on your door step) but generally just frightened out of its wits.
- Dogs have to be confined to their own garden so why not cats? I should add that it is very hard to fence for a cat compared to a dog but if you can’t be bothered to keep your cat in your garden you shouldn’t own one. If I was to keep deer in my back garden they would be hard to fence for as well, but it would still be my responsibility!

Anyway, I’m starting to waffle but I will quickly mention that responsible cat owners should read the following to help the birds (though it won’t stop them prowling unwanted in my garden): http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/unwantedvisitors/cats/collarthatcat.asp

I should also add that Heather very kindly asked me to be a guest blogger on the Wiggly Wigglers site and if you haven’t lost the will to live yet you can read my efforts at: http://wigglywigglers.blogspot.com/2006/12/simon-sherlocks-top-five-wiggly.html and view a few pictures of my garden at: http://wigglywigglers.blogspot.com/2006/12/simons-garden.html

Know How books now only £5.00 each

Yes, Christmas is coming and I need the space so why not pop over to http://www.bestshapeofyourlife.co.uk and pick up Don Lemmon's Know How books for only £5 each (while stocks last).

With Christmas fast approaching now's a great time to start getting into shape anyway :)

Is your Bokashi smelly?

If you've been composting using Bokashi and have found that the bin gives off a sickly sweet smell (a bit like silage if you've ever worked on a farm and a rotten fruit smell crossed with car sickness for everyone else) then it might just be that you've been acting like the tight Northern short arse that I am!

Thanks to Rachel at Wiggly Wigglers I have been shown the error of my ways and now add two hand fulls of Bokashi bran every time I add stuff to the bin i.e. follow the instructions instead of thinking you can make the bran go further :)

Having done as I was told for the last month there is no smell whatsoever from the bin, which means I can add waste to it from the kitchen rather than having to go outside for fear of being whacked round the head and shouted at by my wife. The process of emptying the bin once ready is also considerably more pleasant and you are able to move onto another job immediately after rather than frantically gulp some fresh air in the hope that the feeling goes away before you throw up on your shoes.

Spamalot - The London Premiere

Added 22/10/2006:
Pictures (not mine) from the do:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=12998

Original post:
It is often said that people with a limited vocabulary resort to swearing as a means to get their point across. But I'm here to tell you that that's obviously a load of complete bollocks and that everybody (except some weirdo from The Guardian) had a right f*****g laugh at the opening night of Spamalot on Tuesday 17 October 2006.

Tamsyn and I were extremely lucky to be there, having been given the golden opportunity of being guests of my Uncle, David Sherlock who even, very generously, put us up in The Covent Garden Hotel for the night. It was worth the trip to London just to stay in such a lovely hotel but I have to say paying the bill the next morning made my eyes water (and I wasn't even paying!).

The night was great with the only disappointment being that out of 4 chances to speak to somebody famous (Bill Oddie, Michael Palin and Brian May) I bottled it completely using the excuse I would catch them at the after show party. However, that was so packed we never saw them again :(

The one person I did get to speak to was Eddie Izzard who was sat immediately behind me and was kind enough to scrabble round the floor helping me pick up the things that fell out of my jacket during the standing ovation. Cheers Eddie, you're now officially a very nice man.

The show itself was fantastic and Tim Curry even more so - I'm not a fan of musicals but the speed and skill that this one was delivered kept me spellbound throughout. I would recommend that anybody who can should go and see it immediately (whether you're a fan of Python or not - it really doesn't matter). The added bonus of sitting on the front row also gave me the chance to eye up the dancers and their very short skirts (I figured this would stop me getting bored, but the show was so good I never did :)

The after-show party was a bit of a let down for us as it was so busy we couldn't find anybody we knew, though we did spot Gary Linekar, Michael Ball, Eddie Izzard again and the girl who won Finding Maria, Connie something-or-other. The champagne was free and plentiful (thankfully I managed to track down a beer or three) and the hall was fantastic (see Wikipedia entry for the Freemasons Hall).

So back to the hotel at 2:30 in the morning and unable to sleep until about 4am as I was buzzing from it all, and then back to reality with a bang the day after when, an hour after getting off the train we were straight back into the school run, after school activities, washing, feeding and generally trying to figure out whether the previous 24 hours was real or whether we had dreamt the whole thing. My only regrets from the whole evening is that I had declined to be introduced to Bill Oddie thinking I would see him later and that I didn't approach Brian May and Roger Taylor to thank them for getting me through my teenage years.

So a great big thank you David for inviting us and apologies if we wondered round looking like star struck fruit-cakes all night.

Here's a picture of Tamsyn and I in front of the Spam castle in the very expensive forest: