this week i have been doing the last run from old radnor , thats everything domestic here now, phew. i will start on the oxfordshire heavy wokshop stuff soon .
on the house , i put down the huge 1974 rug/carpet to see how damp it would get from the tiles breathing underneath , if its bad i can put it in the bedroom .
it is a bit big , but a sofa could cover the extra up the wall , i do like the three very old rugs in a row ..
very bohemian i also got the fire grate and back from the last trip , and cleared out the wood and sacks of cement and sand from the fireplace and installed the burn area accutrements..
next i realised , since its around 1c outside and foggy i need to keep as much heat in as possible , so i set too on the area around the flue .
there had been a leaking pipe above here , and PO had cut out the wet boards . you can see i have wedged in a few bits of foam insulation i found in the PB , and then i put up some old plaster board and fixed and sealed it in ..
should keep a bit more heat downstairs .i cut the ring around the flue freehand with a stanley knife , i made it bigger than the flue after researching ,its 233 c for the board to char , and the flue is around 100 c.
Next was to fit gabby an emerg. exit ..
can you see whats shes staring at ?
no ? how about now ...
luckily they did a runner before she rocketed out like an exocet ...using ham it took about 30 seconds for her to learn how a cat flap works .
meanwhile , outside i have raked away tons of sodden wet leaves and mud from the top of the drive ..
also found this ..
a solid tow bar ? weird thing is is has a loop welded on the end ,not an opennable link like you'd click on a chassis hoop .
Next , I have started the window surround from hell ..
I decided to try to cover a lot of the dodgy unattached lime plaster with the surround , hopefully clamping it back to the wall that way , so i raided the playbarn , and got some wood ..
and a load more , and made a frame out of 6"x 2" beams , i had to chisel away a bit with the wood saw and a screwdriver ..
but its good and snug ..
and is fixed to the lintel beam above and drilled through into the bricks too . i can now fix frames and mouldings to it .
something else i brought up was this ..
A 1970's hi fi , hasn't been used since 1999 , and it will be interesting to see if it works, and how it sounds ,or if it has blown its caps, i do have the speakers , but the rubber around the cones has demogrified , so that's a bummer ...tracking down original mid cones might be a event involving me running down a stone corridor with a giant stone ball chasing me .
Lastly , lets end on some more moody winter shots out the window
regards
robert
Useful tool for pulling stuff remotely behind a towbar.
Loop one end is for. D-shackle or industrial strength strapping, or a pin to drop through on your tractor when you need to mode something.
As for the catflap.
I know George likes me, and my place, but also his home does not have a catflap. (Rental house)
Wait till she starts to deliver freshly caught game to your bedroom, then you will be quids in.