Renovation Blog

6 November 2006 - On the boil

Work is totally manic for me at the moment, leaving little time for renovation work alas. Also my second child is now 5 days overdue and my wife is very uncomfortable. However, we do get a visit from Jones Nash, suppliers of wood-chip boilers. We have decided to install such a machine if we can, as it will be very green, economical and cheaper to run that an oil-fired system. However, they are quite expensive to install... The chap is delightful and informative and we are very impressed.

8 November 2006 - Nights are drawing in
Well, I'm certainly at the drawing board. So many plans to do I've invested in an old drawing board like we used years ago for our Technical Drawing O Level. I'm pleased to see that those lessons weren't wasted.

16 November - A son is born
Sorry for the lack of news, but my internet connection has been down for some days... I've been desperately looking round for electricians, plumbers etc. to do various jobs for us, and it seems to take hours just tracking them down. Who'd be a project manager?

Also (just a minor thing!) two weeks overdue my wife has no choice but to be induced, which happens at the local hospital. When we had our first he too was induced and it was all over in under 3 hours so we're expecting it to be quick.
8am: Arrived and hung around for ages.
12pm: Light blue touch paper, insert pessaries, and take up position in the slips...
12.01pm: Nothing happens. Most bizarre.
Hang around for 6 hours.
6.45pm: Insert second lot (by now everyone assuming nothing much will happen and we were lying about the last birth).
6:50pm: Under starters orders and BANG off she goes. Massive contractions, lots of gas 'n' air, and we're off. All going fine apart from the wretched monitor repeatedly setting off the alarm (which we'd said specifically we didn't want but oh no, the risk of being sued is clearly more important than being sensible and doing what the patient requests).
8:50pm: Along comes a doctor (Dougie Howser, to judge by his age) who insists it's all going too fast and crazy and tries to mess around with everything, wants more monitoring, drugs to slow it down etc. DESPITE all the family history and the last birth taking 3 hrs.
9:10pm: After actually inspecting her, Dougie decides he'll break the waters "to speed it up". Well that's alright then - there he was telling me we needed to slow down.
9:50pm: POP! Out he comes, yelling his little head off. All fine and dandy.
12:30am: I'm ejected from the hospital. Can't find car in car park, then can't find exit to car park.
12:40am: I finally leave the hospital for home.

17 November - Winter draws on
Back in to pick up and return home with everyone, after the inevitable paperwork.
Our house is, er, somewhat cold, so I generously decided we could have the heating (such as it was) on for an hour or so in the afternoon. Some time later it became clear it wasn't working and futher investigation revealed it had completely broken down. By this stage it was 5pm on Friday and there was obviously no chance of sorting it out, so the little boy spent his first night in a rather cold house. Probably toughened him up! Anyway, we have a few fan heaters so I'm sure we'll be fine.

24 November - Pigging out

Since we've just had a small baby and live in a total wreck the obvious choice for a few days in late November is to butcher three pigs and make a load of sausages! Bring it on... My wife is rather tired and busy feeding so does not play a huge part in this, but we have some very willing friends to help and a good time was had by all, aided by a barrel of ale from the local pub. Eat your heart out Hugh.

29 November - Back in the saddle, but off the boil

My wife is taking the boys out so that I can get on with making a filthy mess in the house. We have found a very friendly local electrician to come and replace our ancient fuse box with something more modern. Unfortunately it takes all day to work out the bizarre wiring that is run round the house. There seems to be no logic to it, and it is ages before we have worked out how it is set up... Finally the lights come back on, but every time I turn on the kettle, or anything in the living room, the trip switch turns off all the electric circuits. The electrician promises to come back tomorrow to sort it out.