What have you been doing today?

[securespark]

Did you, like me, do it with your other half and have blazing rows about what the other was doing?

 

[Mottie]

Did you, like me, do it with your other half and have blazing rows about what the other was doing?

Lol. Mrs Mottie has been a help - a bit of sanding down, painting some skirtings, handing me tools like a surgeon carrying out a delicate operation - brush, pencil, scissors, brush, pencil, scissors etc. as well as tidying up the mess I make. However, there has been the odd word between us now and then. I suggested that when we have finished this, we start a business as a man and wife decorating team and that we could throw the arguments in for free as a bit of entertainment for the client. She agreed and said that if we start our first job in January, we should be finished in time for Christmas….

 

[Mottie]

More decorating. I’m about 80% finished now, just a bit of papering and then Mrs Mottie can go round snagging and pointing out all the little bits I've missed. Hopefully it will all be finished by tomorrow night. All she has to do then is look for a new light. I’m going to miss our chandelier - it’s been hanging up since we moved in to this house on 15th March 1990. Before that it was in our old house from 1985. It'll go up in the loft with its twin that we only took down from the dining room last year. They may come back into fashion one day. Gold plated and Swarovski Crystal, so 80's! Mrs Mottie won’t be sorry to see it go - she tells me it's a bastard to keep clean.



Is it just me that puts several other rooms out of action when decorating? Apart from my tools, we have stuff from the lounge in the kitchen diner, hall, upstairs landing and back bedroom. Good thing is, when the lounge is finished, we gain a lot of other space in the other rooms!

 

[securespark]

Yes, hate it when the house is clogged up with displaced furniture. Especially as I'm a clumsy git at the best of times and trip over nothing.

The worst is having a room recarpeted.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Yes, hate it when the house is clogged up with displaced furniture. Especially as I'm a clumsy git at the best of times and trip over nothing.

Move stuff to one side of the room, do that side of the room, then clear the other side to do that. cover with dust sheets, whilst ceiling is done.

 

[Mottie]

More decorating. I’m about 80% finished now, just a bit of papering and then Mrs Mottie can go round snagging and pointing out all the little bits I've missed. Hopefully it will all be finished by tomorrow night. All she has to do then is look for a new light. I’m going to miss our chandelier - it’s been hanging up since we moved in to this house on 15th March 1990. Before that it was in our old house from 1985. It'll go up in the loft with its twin that we only took down from the dining room last year. They may come back into fashion one day. Gold plated and Swarovski Crystal, so 80's! Mrs Mottie won’t be sorry to see it go - she tells me it's a bastard to keep clean.

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Is it just me that puts several other rooms out of action when decorating? Apart from my tools, we have stuff from the lounge in the kitchen diner, hall, upstairs landing and back bedroom. Good thing is, when the lounge is finished, we gain a lot of other space in the other rooms!

Finished! All done including the inevitable snagging. Annoyingly, I had to open one more roll of wallpaper at £30 a roll just to literally get a full length 12” strip. I could have patched it in from pieces of off-cuts and anyway, it would have been mostly covered by the curtains but the clerk of the works wasn't having any of it.

Just having a coffee and then I’ll clear up all my tools and put them away for the new year. Next job is a refresh of the kitchen. New worktops - marble or granite, remove tiles, plaster walls, fit upstands and a splashback, remove the flyovers above the hob and sink, a new extractor hood plus a re-jig of the cabinets. If it doesn’t look right, she's thinking of getting someone in to spray them.

 

[Brigadier]

she's thinking of getting someone in to spray them.

My (admittedly, limited) experience of this is.......don't bother.

Paid a load to get ours done, only for them to look crap within weeks.

Then, take two was not a great deal better...........

Even with all the prep in the world (weeks of sanding for the lower doors, and off to a shotblaster for the upper ones), and some decent primer, coat, and seal, they still showed signed of wear after a few months. Mainly, nail chipping under the drawer handles.

Go for all-new or, if the carcasses are sound, just new doors and handles.

 

[Mottie]

My (admittedly, limited) experience of this is.......don't bother.

Paid a load to get ours down, only for them to look crap within weeks.

Then, take two was not a great deal better...........

Even with all the prep in the world (weeks of sanding for the lower doors, and off to a shotblaster for the upper ones), and some decent primer, coat, and seal, they still showed signed of wear after a few months. Mainly, nail chipping under the drawer handles.

Go for all-new or, if the carcasses are sound, just new doors and handles.

Thanks, I’ll bear that in mind. Our doors are solid wood and about 20 years old but she keeps looking in these bloody magazines where people have their kitchens remodelled and she says our kitchen is always shown as the 'before' example!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

If it doesn’t look right, she's thinking of getting someone in to spray them.

A really bad idea, unless she will be happy with the shoddy look within weeks. Polished wood is much tougher than painted and just survives, to look good.

 

[Brigadier]

I'm thinking of starting a CrowdFund or similar..........

....to buy a crash helmet for the knobhead who keeps running his motorbike around the estate, while not wearing one..........

 

[Mottie]

I'm thinking of starting a CrowdFund or similar..........

....to buy a crash helmet for the knobhead who keeps running his motorbike around the estate, while not wearing one..........

Cheaper to buy some fishing line and sit in wait.

 

[Brigadier]

Cheaper to buy some fishing line and sit in wait.

Scoundrel!

 

[securespark]

Battling HMRC over what they say is underpaid tax for 17/ 18 tax year.

Paperwork says "tax liability settled" in my handwriting, but I can't find any payment to them in my statements.

Can't imagine I would have written that and not sorted it, though.

If I can't find any proof of payment, I'll have to cough.... £614.......

 

[Justin Passing]

Took the cat to the vet to have him euthanized.
20 years 4 months old. Poor ol boy wasn't eating, and was getting more frail. He was the best natured animal I've ever come across.
Gawd they leave a hole when they go.

Hardest moment was when looking at my wife, and we both knew it was his time.

 

[Trazor]

Took the cat to the vet to have him euthanized.
20 years 4 months old. Poor ol boy wasn't eating, and was getting more frail. He was the best natured animal I've ever come across.
Gawd they leave a hole when they go.

Hardest moment was when looking at my wife, and we both knew it was his time.

Sounds like he had a wonderful long life.