DVT DAYS 193 & 194
Its very simple: two solid days of cleaning and decorating the storage space in which we deposit all the things we cannot bear to throw out. It had not been touched until we had to move everything out to enable the plumbers to do the re -pipe that took care of the first three days of the week. So I bit the bullet and decided to clean the area and paint it out, and of course that led to deciding to insulate the new central heating pipes. Of course if your doing all that then then I thought I might as well sort out the flooring. This I thought was a good idea until I moved the wardrobes and found mould on the end wall. Fearing damp I set about demoulding it and putting on a coat of antimould paint before emulsioning it. So Thursday saw me cleaning and painting. A tricky timing task as I had to host my Open Forum at 1pm. Of course there was the run to the local Wickes to buy the materials fitted in as well. I will not bore anyone with the details of the work but by the evening I was knackered and retreated to a hot bath. It was glorious, I love the joy of having hot water to top up the bath at will. I lay in it for hours and read all of Marshal McLuhan’s The medium is the Massage. I recommend it as a good bath time read.
So Friday arrives and my first thought, almost, was whether the paint had dried on my mouldy wall. It had, so I set to finish the painting of the walls and ceiling. In a moment of inspiration I decide to put a new flooring down and I fixed on a form of decking tile that I had used before. Its durable and I had no intention of ever redoing this area of the house again. So I go to Wickes again, buy the pipe lagging and then found the decking tiles I wanted. I then stood by them and calculated how many I needed to cover the storage area. I cracked it and picked up the required number of packs, and retuned home. I set about putting the first tiles down. To my surprise the space was exactly four by ten tiles, a miracle, no cutting required. The fly in the ointment was that I had miscalculated and was a pack of four short. Such a pain, but I headed back to Wickes and got the final pack of decking tiles. I then spent a tortuous few hours laying tiles and moving two large wardrobes around in a very confined space. It was tiring to say the least but eventually with a little help from my floor laying kit I got it done. With that done I lagged the new bright shiny pipes. Using my new hot wire saw was fun and made cutting the pipe lagging easy, so this part of the work went smoothly. The final outcome looks nothing but at least I know its all sound and will not need doing again for years.
I cleared away what I could and collapsed in front of the TV, ate tea and then watched rugby. So now I’m catching up with the blog and wondering when I will get time to read my new books on McLuhan.
I am keen to get the house straight again before my youngest daughter comes to visit Sunday for a couple of days. I’m hoping for snow so we can luxuriate in the warmth of our new heating system.
