Sunday 31st October, Halloween, and it is absolutely pouring down. It is raining so hard that there is a river of water running down the road and it has overloaded our new gutters at the back and is pouring over the top (I did argue with the Conservation officer that we needed to put deep guttering on the roof, not half round, but he wasn’t having it).
Glynn is back for the day and has set up his tools in the garage. It’s a bit of a squeeze but at least he is dry!
Glynn starts on the cupboard doors in the attic, firstly fitting the doors, then architrave, then skirting. I am sure he has missed crawling around the attic on his hands and knees, whilst hitting his head on the beams!
The doors are fitted with soft-close hinges.
Architrave gets added around all the doors.
And finally the skirting gets added in between the cupboards.
Finished and ready for Cat to caulk around the edges, paint a final top coat, then add the door handles.
Glynn moves onto the cupboard under the stairs, as the door is already at an angle, working out the angles for the architrave is a bit of a headache.
Perfect!
Cat giving the architrave an undercoat before Glynn fits it.
The cupboard door getting painted.
Before.
After. Ready for Cat to fill, caulk and paint. Glynn had fun scribing in the bottom edge of the skirting to the wonky old floorboards!
This little mistake is the boxing around the soil pipe from the bathroom, which was supposed to be hidden within the staircase wall. The end sticks through the wall, so Glynn has fitted an old piece of floorboard on top as a little ledge to finish it off.
Glynn has finished off the new door to the stairs with an oak door stop (this piece in the middle of the frame to stop the door from swinging through when closed) and architrave on both sides of the frame.
The oak architrave is fitted around the frame ready to be oiled.
Thank you Glynn! Another marathon day of jobs, and on your one day off too!
Me and Cat take a trip out to walk Jasper the dog around the grounds of Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park and discover some interesting sculptures in the park.
I have no idea what this is. Is it Art?
Finally we are getting round to putting some of our pictures up on the walls.
A tonne bag of top soil has been delivered by Red Horse Vale for the new trough.
We also have bought manure and grit to mix into the new top soil.
Our lovely new/old trough.
The trough needs drainage holes so Colin is drilling several holes through the bottom.
Positioning the two new grape vines.
Everything is planted into the trough including winter pansies and cyclamens.
Cat is still not happy with the layout of her room and wants to move her bed to the other side of the attic, and the futon to where the bed was. We didn’t think the bed would fit on this side of the room but it does (only just) giving her more useable space on the other side, a space she can now use as a dressing room.
Hanging another picture, not an easy one as this is the bloody blue wall in the attic that marks when you look at it…
This is a photo of Cat riding across a beach in South Africa and fits perfectly on the blue wall between the two lights.
Cat is a bit happier now.
We have over half a tonne of top soil left over so Colin uses some of it on the front lawn to level up the worst lumps and holes.
Cat and Colin are sorting out this bed in the front garden, weeding, mixing in more top soil and manure, and shifting the plants around.
Cat re-positioning some the plants that Sophie grew for us, they had previously been planted up but in a rush just to get them in! These are Purple Mullein and shouldn’t be flowering right now…
Cat bought a beautiful new Hellebore for the side of the trough. We both adoreHellebores, our Mum used to adore them too.
We are planting 3 large red rose bushes from David Austin in the bed between us and our neighbour’s front door, so it should be quite a fabulous display.
Plenty of manure and new top soil has been dug into the rose bed.
Epic bonfire and fireworks in Harbury, you can almost feel the heat in this photo!
So lovely to see all these finishing touches – ‘epic’ is the word I would use!