Archives: attic

Joy – bank holidays! A little extra time at home.
We (Louise & I) made progress in the attic Sunday night. We both did some painting. I’m getting on quite well with the skirting boards & she did a little wall painting where the underside of the arch where the chimney flues meet. Can’t really continue on that wall now, as we have to wait for the plaster to dry out. On the plus side – it does – very gradually – seem to be drying out. We had some bad rain last week & there seems to be no darkening in tone of the plaster – so we rather hope that leaks have been sealed. As Louise has had a taste of painting now, I think that she’ll be more up for helping me on an evening. Having said that we did no work. I wanted to got to bed early as I was irritable at some points yesterday, which is a sure sign that I’m fraying my edges too much.
We went to Leeds on Sunday & bought some clothes for the kids & Louise got some wool & I got some comics (our ‘habits’ satiated). We then discovered that we did not have as much money in the bank as anticipated… bum… Wishing our ‘habits’ were still craving. I got a whole bunch of small press comics to remind myself how badly I am progressing with ZUM!. Very nice to see a comic shop bothering to stock them though. I also got James Kochalka’s ‘comic book diary #2. Delightful & trying not to read it too fast.

I dithered about for an age in B&Q yesterday considering paint colour.
I eventually settled on woodwork colour, but dithered too much on the wall colour & got the one that we thought we might originally. It doesn’t really go with the woodwork colour though, but no matter – it can be used for the back room downstairs, as it needs doing this year as well. We have decided on a wall colour now – so I can go get that next week or something. Jack was very keen to start painting as soon as he saw me lugging it home. I was vague on the subject, but I did do a bit of painting last night – just to make a start & to see what it came out like. Nice.
Feel like I’m actually making progress now. The damp from February’s rain is still there. Looking at it very very closely yesterday it seems it could well be actually starting to dry out. Not a lot – but it seems to be… This is slower than it used to dry – whether this be because of the sealing in they have done has caught whatever was actually letting in water, or whether this is due to the volume of water that needs to dry out – I dunno.

Jude still has a cold. He was having problems breathing & feeding in the night because of his blocked nose. He was managing though – & he wasn’t getting distressed or upset. He has a health visitor coming to see him today. I imagine he’ll be weighed & all that. He certainly seems a growing lad. His eyes do not seem to be remaining blue. They have light brown round the iris at the moment. Still no clear idea what his hair color might be. It is growing (aside from the little bald patch as the back that babies get from lying down all the time & moving their head about a lot) but it’s still just a mousy brown. There are hints of lighter colour & red when through light… but nothing dominant. He’s murmuring & gurgling quite a bit nowadays – lovely sounds for parents. He loves watching his brother & sister. Louise was outside with him yesterday & he was happily watching his siblings & the world in general, when Louise had to pop inside for something (tissue for Eve’s nose?). He was crying as soon as she went into the house, but stopped again as soon as he was outside again.
On the whole I think the kids are feeling better. Last night Eve slept through the night in her own bed & Jack managed the same the night before.

Jude is not so well at the moment. He has a bit of a cough & is having to deal with a blocked nose & all that. He’s coping quite well really… He’s not especially happy, but he complains little. He’s not throwing up or anything more than usual. Speaking of which – Eve did yesterday evening. She tripped up over her ball, & the boy who passed it to her & probably caused it, “Didn’t say sorry”. She fell over again coming up the street home, so whether it was that fall of before (it’s difficult to say – not seeing the initial, but the latter being a nasty fall) but she managed to bump her head quite badly. The reason she was sick was because she was so upset. Poor lamb.
Jack started nagging me about the garden before I even got him home from school yesterday. I would say that he likes gardening. For want of anything else to do, & to quiet his pleadings, we ‘dead headed’ the daffodils – which are getting quite past their best by now. I suspect that it was enough to satiate him as I ended up finishing it off. He’d disappeared for a while, but now I realise he must have been taking in Louise a flower that Eve had plucked as her contribution to the activity. Hey – they’re puling flowers – I’ll pull …this!… one. “Eeya-ar daddy!”. Mauve primula by the kitchen sink in a little jar.
Plans that Louise & I do the attic went awry. Louise went to bed & I did a little bit of filling between the wall & skirting where I noted a gap the other day. I then proceeded to scan an old comic as I found the ‘printing’ proofs on Sunday when we were tidying & sorting – 1st stage to putting those on my web space as well.
Still not made my definitive decision on what colour paint to but – but I will buy some on the way home tonight.

Jack had been nagging me for a couple of days to mow the lawn, so I finally got off my arse yesterday & did. Well… Jack did… I felt a bit like the gardeners assistant. Whenever tried to do something like use the mower or rake up some grass I would have one of them complaining at me & wanting to do it themselves. We used a hover mower that has a ‘safe blade’ (a nylon thread rather that a blade) & it has made me realise that this is all I can have. Anything else would be too dangerous. I did draw the line at either of them using the edge trimmers – which are somewhere between a pair of secateurs & scissors. Lawn tidy now anyway & it kept them busy & me occupied.
Louise & I had a good talk about the attic again the other day. Louise is concerned at the lack of progress again, but Jack was fighting the inevitability of sleep last week, so half an hour seemed to be a little pointless. Louise has now said that she will join in & we will both try to spend half an hour in the evenings, so in theory that puts in, at least an hour in the evenings between us, which seems more worthwhile. We’ve done some all important tidying & sorting up there – so we have a couple more ‘charity’ bags that we need to donate to the recycling thing in town. This is one of the points where we wish we had a car – to be able to take stuff to the dump or recycling in one big lot – rather than me lump it into town bit by bit. Also a major change of plan; Louise says that as there is possible staining on the plaster due to the leaks in the roof. These are taking an age to dry out due to the fact that the chimneys are so silicone sealed now that they stonework is no longer porous. Hey ho. So it’s paint the plaster now… & I have to think about colour again & what we should use etc. I scrap the present colour scheme & try to rethink, but I end up in confusion. We shall see… I’m going to by the paint tomorrow…
On the tech geek side… if I get time I’ll try to get my emate & mac communicating via ethernet. I have a working ethernet card off ebay now – cooo! Now then – how do I get it working?

Jack was late off to sleep again last night. Hopefully he will sleep in a bit thins morning…
Perhaps “A Comet in Moominland” is just too stimulating for him… I dunno. He seems to be enjoying it as his bedtime read, as do I, but he got alarmed that Momintroll fell off a cliff pushing a boulder over with Snufkin. They were roped together though – so he didn’t fall, but I had to explain twice that the boulder was not going to fall on then as they had pushed it. Then he wanted to root down further into his bed, so I had to move Jude, who was sleeping on Jack’s bed after falling asleep with Louise (Louise subsequently having gone to do sandwiches for lunches & ironing & suchlike). Jude did not go into the cot without waking up, so Jack did not get more stories, but had to try to get off to sleep on his own while I went through the process of trying to calm Jude down & then put him back in his cot. Jude was not for being put down, & Jack had a struggle to get asleep. He did sleep eventually, but time probably drifted past 10:00 – which was even later than yesterday… Poor boy will be tired at school.
Oh, & I’m tired as well as it was past 11:00 again before I managed to get to bed, what with having a bath & all. At least Hattie is coming over to day to look t the shower & see what needs to be done.
Oh, talking of work to be done on the house. The roof. I’m not sure what it is, as Louise was discussing it& I only got the end of the conversation… & have not got round to getting it clear in my head what is going on. Anyway – they are coming back to put some ventilation on the roof. I’m not really sure what this entails. I think Louise says ventilating ridge tiles – which should be interesting as imagine that they will change the profile of the roof. May have completely the wrong end of the stick, though.

We worry about Eve. She does not seem well at the moment. She has a rash, she has a sore at the corner of her mouth, she is snuffly, she is delicate & she is crying at night. She does not want comforting either… but then she is different to Jack, in that if she feels offended she will not be comforted. Jack is happy for a cuddle anytime. Louise thinks she may take her to doctors today (assuming that she can get an appointment past the obfuscatious & demeaning receptionists, “Is it an emergency?” One would think if you said yes they would advise going to hospital Casualty Unit, as that is what they are for. “OK – we have a booking Thursday week” etc etc. <sigh>. I hope she gets on OK.
Got a good bit of sanding done in the attic yesterday. I’m getting to the point where I can start painting the skirting board… Once that is done we can think about a carpet & once we have that we can actually think about moving up there!! Of course there’s still the chimney. That has yet to be sorted out. We have not had rain for a good long while now, but unfortunately the walls that have got damp seem to be taking forever to dry out. March was quite dry, but it seems that the tide of dampness on the wall has hardly retreated. This cannot be good. Our neigbour Andy went onto the roof the other day & had a look at the chimney to see if he could see anything damp, or any indication where water may be getting in. He did find a bit of damp mortar, so I guess that it’s possible that is where water has got in, but could it also just be water trying to get out? Hmm – well that seems plausible… I worry that they have put silicone sealant on the stone & mortar, & if they have how will any water fixed in there dry out?
Nagging worries like this are not good. I can blank them out quite well, as I find it hard to see the point in worry, but it chips at Louise’s well being.

Trying to think why I was tardy in writing the end of last week… I might have been reading – there might have been trains without tables…
There were no trains on Friday at all what so ever. In the days of British Rail, if there were a train strike then all the trains would go. Nowadays – with competing train ‘companies’ a strike usually means I can still get the sparse service of another company (we being at the end of their reach into this ‘territory’ there are a couple of ‘turn back’ services a day, but no through runners’). Ah, but the shame, oh the shame, of the fact that both companies had a strike on Friday. I was forced to stay at home with the family :)
Got a little attic work done. More sanding, although this was curtailed by the auto sander packing up on me. Dunno why – it just stopped. The electric motor that runs it decided it didn’t want to play no more. It wasn’t like it was getting over heated or anything either…. Gah! Nevertheless, did get a good amount done before then. I’m now muttering to myself over the colour scheme I should use. I think, although I would like to go for a more daring warm purple for the woodwork, It will have to be a slate blue. I cannot see me doing the ceiling beams purple, & that means thinking of another colour to add to the balance, which won’t do at all.
We were discussing the problem with the chimney/roof & the leak up there somewhere. Now it has been dry for over a week we he suggested that he go up & have a look at it. I will not get onto the roof. I’m sure I could but I’d rather not dare to rationalise my vertigo. He had a good look & noted that there was some mortar, which was still damp – which seems odd. If I stand on a chair looking out of the velux window I can see it myself – so I took a couple of pictures with my digital camera. They are printed off now & Louise is going to call Jill to have a look at them, (or in fact the roof it self) to see if she thinks that this may be at the root of it all. It would be nice if it is – to finally get this all sorted. I worry now that the plaster may be afflicted to the extent that it needs to be redone. That would really be tedious (but hopefully covered on the insurance). Louise & I had a good ol’ chat about what we’d like to get done in the house. We would like to get the downstairs sorted out – kitchen & carpets – but we think that will have to wait another year. This year; window maintenance & painting the back room (as well at the attic). Louise has dangled the carrot of a CD writer for the completion of the latter…
Louise was not feeling well yesterday & was not really any better when I left this morning. She is worried that she has mastitis, but it may just be a cold as I have a few flu like symptoms as well (not as badly as poor Louise though). The kids seems basically OK as well – although there have been a few running noses etc to deal with.

Eve had a good day yesterday; much more her usual self. She even allowed herself a sleep during the day. She’s still apt to being a bit cheeky at the moment though. It’s her age, I guess; doing that bit of boundary testing.

I fine, cold crisp bright morning. Will they come to do the roof today? I doubt it – due for more miserable rain tomorrow. Gah!

Jack coughed himself to sleep last night, but he seemed to have a better night of it in general. Hopefully he’s getting better. I am feeling marginally better. Not over it yet, but better. I didn’t manage to get any attic work done last night (not managed any for a few nights!) as I just about got to sort some files out, & check some mail before I thought better of trying to remain awake.
Gosh! I found some time to sleep – what a novelty!

Train home.
Not too, too busy today. As usual I am over tired though. I really should get a better nights sleep. Pottering in the attic last night & I shall potter some more when I get home. The old pantomime of being home, but not being home. As Louise’s mum is visiting, I can get away with this.
Just been reading the paper. International news is depressing. We are still as www.seruv.org.il at some point. It looks to be honourable people in the face of national stupidity.

Cor – that make 3 day in a row I’ve set off for work & it’s actually not raining. Lovely.
They have not come to the roof again. Louise met Jill yesterday who said that ours was the next ‘roof job’. They have not been to do the roof yet as they want to take off all the ridge tiles. It’s going to be a 2 day job, & we have not had a period of 2 working days without rain.