All In All It’s Just Something Something

Fences and posts down, concrete foundation curing (28 August)

The massive pile of bricks have mocked me since I only used enough to put in the new kitchen window. The time has come, however, to use these up.

In most of Britain, looking out into your back garden (not usually a euphemism) you own the border to the right and are responsible for it. If you are the left-most resident of a terrace block, then both are yours. I don’t have to fret about the back wall since it is definitely mine as half of it peers out over municipal property and the other half is separated from the next structure’s wall by a half meter gap.

The wall out the right hand side, though, had some rubbish fence panel inserts held up with poorly installed gapped fence posts. When I pulled these down, the need for a foundation to support the new wall became obvious (our house’s previous owner only did enough to the panels to straddle about half their width on her side). We levelled this up then took out every other brick (the ones terminating a run) so that I could feather in the extension and still have one cross brick every row to lend strength to the structure). The topmost one remains for now to hold up the capstone (we need to source some of these) and the bottommost one is there to trigger a new one every half rise/half run.

The progress was catch as catch can what with Jimi’s medical issues and our 2+ week illness mid-September. The first full weekend of October, it stood thus (note the new line of bricks working in … these were the ones Jimi took such an interest in the day before taking ill):

It rained every Saturday thereafter and you have to wait until ‘social hours’ to do anything on Sundays so getting a couple of lines in per week became the norm. As I reached the top but still didn’t have the half round, decorative blue bricks — we’ll do those in the spring — I tidied the sloppily spilled mortar with wire brushes and repointed both sides. Painting to match the rest of the garden walls is also on the short list but here we are, only three months behind plans.

Front Garden

We broke up the ready-mixed concrete that made up the front garden in July 2021 at the opportune moment that one of the skips arrived. I wanted to lay Victorian tiles but J was keen on trying some lawn scaping. It was thin for the first few months but eventually caught up (grown from seed, not sod).

One neighbour (don’t know which) started letting his dog shit in there but that stopped after I started dosing the paved part of the walk with cayenne powder. Birds love it –it tastes sweet to them, as I understand it — so I also spread it in the hedges for the sake of the kids who shove their empty snack containers into them (dumber than the dog, the children probably won’t ever realise why their eyes burn, which is nice).

We finally abandoned the sod idea (or, the sodding idea, as it were) nearly two years hence and opted for the paving I originally considered but with just the leftover quarry tiles from the house refurb (nearly two more years before). With 110cm width, we were able to fit in rows of 5 plus about a 1/2 on a sand substrate over some weed blocking fabric. Now, we just need to put out some plant pots.

House Ready For First Real Visitor

Note to Debra the day before she flies: “We’ll ring you when Jackie is home from work but in the meantime if you go out for any last minute shopping then pick us up a 50 pack of Goodies powders. I just used the last one from about 5 years ago. Also, if you have room, bring me one of these shirts:”

We’ve done as much work on the house after work the past three months as we had planned to do for the whole year, our focus sharpened by our Debra who is finally making good on her threat to come visit. She’s never been out of America and we really wanted her to have a home from home as opposed to a hovel (although I suspect she’s just overwhelmed by the experience).

It was much more effort than this sounds:

• Repainted the dining room
• Installed a futon
• Put a pair of geraniums on the front door hangers
• Added a pendant to the stairwell and improve existing ones there and in entrance
• Pointed and painted the walls of the garden walkway
• Built coat and linen closets and two living room cabinets
• Hung floating shelves for our vinyl LPs
• Refurbed and hung a mirror
• Touched up paint all around
• Moved a 3m long X 1m wide X 50cm tall pile of tools, paint equipment, and lumber out of the dining room where it has been in various forms for the last 3 years
• Finished (started, really, and finished) the kitchen trim and finally regrouted and sealed those quarry tiles
• Layed out a temporary patio by the shed
• Tidied up some outstanding issues with the bathroom
• Resealed the electric access floor boards on the landing and restained the seals
• Installed thresholds where we’ve meant to do for, well, ever
• Got in some plates and drinking glasses (we had two plates and were using 60 year old Tupperware for ourselves)
• And, finally put some shit on the walls.

Note from Jackie replying to my note to Debra: “Jesus, don’t tell her that, you know she’ll try to find one!” I answered that she’d have to travel back to the 70s to get one and Jackie aptly noted that she won’t travel closer to the 70s than spending a week in West Brom. It begins.

Week 33 Recap: The Fall

It was still warm and the sun still rose early and set late 4 weeks ago when I made a snarky comment on Twitter about the obligatory photo of a helicopter-fucking-off-from-the-embassy being the last order of business in Afghanistan. That wasn’t prescience so much as stating the bleeding obvious but with the fall of Kabul I was, just momentarily, an oracle. (spoiler alert: the Fall of Saigon has a similar plotline).

This fuschia dates back to Old Town, Swindon (about 7 years ago). It bloomed beautifully that first year and since then its buds fall off before they open. Jackie has tried to get me to toss it every year since (“it’s dead, Bun…let go”). Blooms opened since last weekend.

Fall weather, early that it is, taunts us. Brrr…all week. Word is that climate change will affect ocean currents such that our little corner of the North Atlantic will get colder and wetter whilst America burns down. Of course.

And, staying on topic for this week, I’ll point out that our weeknight radio accompaniment to our tea is Marc Riley’s Radio 6 programme.

Friday night I finished framing out the shed. Sat for a few minutes on the longest and narrowest bit that serves as a lintel for the back doors and did not fall through (nor even sag) although some of the joints will benefit from nail plates before moving on.

Everytime I burn debris like this I think about this bonfire on a friend’s ranch outside Athens Georgia when not one but three other friends fell into the inferno over the course of the night. Drugs may have been involved. Drink definitely was a factor.

Fines and fees: £51.50. An anaemic amount of running.