Monday, November 2, 2009

A Productive Day at The Deenery, Monday 2nd November 2009

This is a photo of my pretty 12 year old Granddaughter Lina, K's youngest, ready and made up to go Trick or Treating on Halloween Night. Doesn't she look amazing? K did the make up for her but it was Lina's idea.


Can it be November already? I can hardly believe it, and as for thinking about Christmas, save me.

Give Away

Firstly, there is one more day left before I do the draw for one of my raggy bags. If you'd like to be included, please go to my post of 20th October and leave a comment. Don't miss out. I will get Mr Deen to pull a name out of my hat (I won't be wearing it) at midnight tomorrow night, the end of November 3rd.

Work at The Deenery Today

Our plumber, Seamus, has left a San Andreas fault across the snug where he laid the central heating piping, to join it up with the old part of the cottage. Jim decided to brave the weather and make a cement mix and fill up the fault line. It seems nobody else is going to do it! Here is Jim tackling the job:

Clever boy, he finished it and it looks great. Not that it matters much, as eventually it will be under wooden flooring. However, this is not part of the Extension so we will be doing that later.

That looks better.

We had also accumulated vast piles of tools on the kitchen table so Jim set about sorting them out and taking lots of them to the barn.

I was cleaning up our bedroom and hall for the carpenters to put down the floor. What, here today? Nooooo!! Now they are coming on Thursday. Actually, it was partly my fault because I wasn't happy with the material they were going to put down under the floor, it was very thin and flimsy. Martin the builder has managed to source some other material which is much more robust and sound proofs at the same time. He brought that round today. It goes by the rather grandiose name of 'Acoustic Blue'.

Stanley

Our lovely old solid fuel stove, Stanley, has been de-commissioned. Jim suggested maybe we should let the government know, rather like a nuclear warhead. 'One Stanley decommissioned today at Doorus'. Sadly, we are unable to move Stanley as he weighs a ton. We'll have to wait until some strong men arrive and make use of their muscles. I can't believe how heavy he is. Now the wall behind Stanley is a sight to behold. Tar drips down from the chimney - yuk!

Lovely!!

Stanley's on the right.


Stanley is to the right. Ahead was a deep hole filled with newspaper and bits of rubbish. I'm not sure what it was for - Jim thinks maybe ashes? When Stanley's gone, we can sort it all out properly.

In the meantime, I washed the back wall and painted it. It needs at least another coat, but looks 100 times better already. Then we decided to do the whole of that wall, as it was the worst one in the kitchen. Jim painted most of it, as it was high and I finished lower down. It's amazing what a lick of paint does. This is a temporary job, but I still think it was worth doing.

This is my favourite shot, up the chimney!! As I painted the back wall, rain was dripping down on me, and tar! Lovely.

Believe it or not, the fireplace and wall are painted the same colour. The colour of the back of Stanley is more accurate. The dark hole was a large hole that Jim filled with cement. I will be able to paint that tomorrow and give the back wall another coat. The brown tar is coming through of course! We're hoping to make it into a little seating area, having properly blocked up the chimney.

Latch Hooked Rug

I have done quite a bit of my new rug and here is one of the corners:

This is my tray of wool, cut up and ready to use.

Buster

Buster went off for quite a while this evening and came back soaked and exhausted. Here he is, flopped out on another of my rugs. It was a baby blanket and I hand sewed all those strips onto it! Buster loves it anyway, and it goes in the washing machine, which is always a bonus.


I can't think of any other news. The weather has been colder and wet on and off. I'm sitting here in my t-shirt!

Happy Monday everyone - and Tuesday.

BT
xxx

11 comments:

DK said...

lovely pics, good on Jim too filling the great rift! lol Love the look of the Buster rug x

BT said...

Thanks DK. I did that one ages ago.

Anonymous said...

Your lovely granddaughter looks a lot like you.
I happened to see Buster in the shadows of the photo where Jim is working on the floor.
We have much cooler weather today after a lot of rain.
Hope your floor gets installed Thursday.

BT said...

Hello Mildred, I wondered whether anyone would spot Buster there!
Regarding Lina, I must have very strong genes as all my children and most of the grandchildren look like me!! Oh I hope my floors get put in too. I can't wait.

Elizabeth Golden said...

I love your rug colors they are beautiful! It is like looking at the sky!
Buster looks rather comfy!

Jason said...

Like the green colour, very nice. Its all coming together!

xx

Priti Lisa said...

That face painting on Lina is fantastic! I've never seen anything like it!
What a lot of work, just reading about it is exhausting, are you sure you aren't 20 yrs old?
xox, Lisa

Heckety said...

Wow! Some busy woman! Love Lina's make-up: my girls will be mad jealous when I show them!
I wonder do builders, plumbers and suchlike have special training to know how to leave jobs so that they'll irritate you most? We were amazingly fortunate with our builder but I hear plenty of stories like yours. Still, the trench would have made a good focal point if you'd left it...and accident spot...
Have you any idea how long that Stanley has been there? Some friends removed theirs last year from the old part of their house and reckoned it'd been there for over a hundred years! You know you could always leave the chimney open and sit under it with an umbrella...another talking point! Amn't I full of useful suggestions?

Heather said...

Lina's make-up is very clever - she should scare the neighbours into submission! Poor old Stanley, and what a mess he has left you with but it will be a lovely little niche when you have finished with it. Your new rug looks very cosy and Buster is obviously content with the one he is sleeping on. I'm sure I signed on to take part in your giveaway, but am just going to check, to be sure.

BT said...

I've emailed everyone up to Heckety.

Oh Heckety, you really are full of wonderful suggestions!! lol. Jim has shoved a piece of polystyrene across the chimney and now when it rains it creaks and rattles. Sounds weird - and noisy!

I'm not sure how old Stanley is but he's an early one I think. Doors are held on with wire and the grid at the bottom has a huge hole in it so we had to add a bit on top to stop the fire falling through!! I did think of filling the trench with water and sailing boats along it!!

Hello Heather, only 1 hour to go before I do my prize draw!! You did sign up, I'm sure. Lina's make-up was something else, wasn't it? I am thinking of making some stuffed seating for the chimney breast. Maybe patchwork. We'll see. I wanted to collage the back wall, but Jim wouldn't have any of it. Miserable thing.

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Love the Halloween costume on your pretty grand-daughter! And love that Buster!!