Rambling Update
The weekend was initially scheduled to be when we would get stuck into rebuilding the patio, but then David had to work instead so I ended up with a quiet restful weekend of pottering around the house.
We have the new windows being installed in a couple of weeks. This came as a surprise because I still had them mentally tagged as being "ages away in the future". So a large part of the pottering involved tidying up and arranging things so we can fairly easily create clear space around the windows for the installers to work with. My office looks much tidier now, although there are a still a couple of small piles of unsorted papers to deal with at some point.
David's office and Lego niche remain challenges, but as it's likely to be a 3-day job we can shuffle stuff around while it's in progress.
Today we have the electrician in to move the switches and electrical connections away from window frames. The list for him also includes moving the outside light to make room for balcony repairs, checking on a couple of lights that have been triggering the circuit breaker, and installing a ceiling fan over the stairs to improve air circulation.
The main purpose of the fan is to encourage cool air from the aircon to circulate through the house instead of congregating in the stairwell, and to distribute heat more evenly in winter if required. The stairwell also seems to collect smells from elsewhere in the house - mostly cooking smells which isn't too bad, except when it's burnt toast.
(As an aside, I finally seem to have had my fill of hot weather. I'm ready for a week of two of days under 30 now.)
It's hard rubbish week, so we've taken the opportunity to dispose of a door, the rotted timbers from the balcony, and the previous owner's old paint tins. We have gained a table for the balcony. More or less. It needs a new tabletop, but David is working on that. Fairly pleased about that because it seems to be near impossible to find a nice, small, outdoor table at the moment. It's all expensive ten-seat dining solutions and stuff. Or things full of decorative gaps that would quickly become an arachnid condominium at our place.
It has to be admitted that our house is probably not a good place for arachnophobes. Fortunately my own dislike of spiders is mostly directed at the large and the hairy ones, and only really trends to genocidal for large hairy ones. Most of our spiders are small and harmless, only one Huntsman so far and it was outside.
The warm weather has stirred them up though. There's a web stretching across the yard between trees, one tried to block our back door recently, and we've dubbed the collection on the kitchen window "arachnopolis". They seem to have given up on the idea of stretching webs from the rotating clothes line to the ground.
If anyone comes to stay we will try to banish the daddy-long-legs from inside before you arrive, but odds are that you will encounter one. Just ignore them, they think they own the place.
Looking forward to the new windows and screens. Left one open last night to try and cool the house a bit, then this morning had to shoo out a small cloud of insects that had found their way in through the screen but couldn't remember how to get back out. You'd think all those spiders would be good for something, but apparently not.
We have the new windows being installed in a couple of weeks. This came as a surprise because I still had them mentally tagged as being "ages away in the future". So a large part of the pottering involved tidying up and arranging things so we can fairly easily create clear space around the windows for the installers to work with. My office looks much tidier now, although there are a still a couple of small piles of unsorted papers to deal with at some point.
David's office and Lego niche remain challenges, but as it's likely to be a 3-day job we can shuffle stuff around while it's in progress.
Today we have the electrician in to move the switches and electrical connections away from window frames. The list for him also includes moving the outside light to make room for balcony repairs, checking on a couple of lights that have been triggering the circuit breaker, and installing a ceiling fan over the stairs to improve air circulation.
The main purpose of the fan is to encourage cool air from the aircon to circulate through the house instead of congregating in the stairwell, and to distribute heat more evenly in winter if required. The stairwell also seems to collect smells from elsewhere in the house - mostly cooking smells which isn't too bad, except when it's burnt toast.
(As an aside, I finally seem to have had my fill of hot weather. I'm ready for a week of two of days under 30 now.)
It's hard rubbish week, so we've taken the opportunity to dispose of a door, the rotted timbers from the balcony, and the previous owner's old paint tins. We have gained a table for the balcony. More or less. It needs a new tabletop, but David is working on that. Fairly pleased about that because it seems to be near impossible to find a nice, small, outdoor table at the moment. It's all expensive ten-seat dining solutions and stuff. Or things full of decorative gaps that would quickly become an arachnid condominium at our place.
It has to be admitted that our house is probably not a good place for arachnophobes. Fortunately my own dislike of spiders is mostly directed at the large and the hairy ones, and only really trends to genocidal for large hairy ones. Most of our spiders are small and harmless, only one Huntsman so far and it was outside.
The warm weather has stirred them up though. There's a web stretching across the yard between trees, one tried to block our back door recently, and we've dubbed the collection on the kitchen window "arachnopolis". They seem to have given up on the idea of stretching webs from the rotating clothes line to the ground.
If anyone comes to stay we will try to banish the daddy-long-legs from inside before you arrive, but odds are that you will encounter one. Just ignore them, they think they own the place.
Looking forward to the new windows and screens. Left one open last night to try and cool the house a bit, then this morning had to shoo out a small cloud of insects that had found their way in through the screen but couldn't remember how to get back out. You'd think all those spiders would be good for something, but apparently not.