Small update

I've actually been living in the house for just over four weeks, now, and am getting used to the place...

David had very kindly put away lots of things, but because there is so much less storage space than we were used to I've had to rearrange most things [and the clothing, which is the only thing not re-done, is on the "To-Do" list!].  Despite having a much bigger kitchen, it has a lot less usable storage: most cupboards you open contain something already - a fridge; a freezer; a water-softener; a boiler; a washing machine; a dishwasher; two different electrical fuse boxes [different cupboards] - you get the picture!

So, we brought our pine dresser back from France, and bought a sideboard in a charity shop, and after I'd thoroughly scrubbed the kitchen, I tried to find new homes for everything.  It's a lot better now, and we don't have the recurrent cascade of saucepans/lids/grater/colander off the (very tiny) carousel, rather the luxury of looking at two shelves of minimally-stacked pots & pans.

Bliss!

The oven took two days' of hard labour, but as I have a letter sent by the landlord saying if I cleaned it now I wouldn't have to pay for professional cleaning when we move out, that seemed a worthwhile bargain...  Although given how the "professionals" dealt with the oven in Ormonde Court (didn't even wipe off the crumbs from one toasting session) I think I'm doubly glad I didn't get a professional cleaner in to do it now.

Apparently, there were grooves on the bottom of the oven all along!

Even if I don't clean the oven again, it won't end up in such a mess; my oven has never been that dirty (and that includes a very difficult seven-year patch where I never cleaned it once), so I think the landlord will benefit more from the deal than I will.  Still, one fewer task to do on moving out.

We've had a new shower screen fitted [the old one came off in the hand the first time David tried to use it (and you won't be surprised to learn that the encrusted grot revealed showed that the break had happened a long time ago, I'm sure), and quadrant beading around the bath, so hopefully the water leak on the bedroom ceiling won't come back.

We're still waiting for the cistern to be changed on the downstairs loo as the damp persists after one leak was fixed, and the second leak happens every time someone flushes it, so I will be glad to see Shaun & Lee back to do that.

The lighting is mostly sorted - just a transformer to be replaced (oddly, the 105W one used wasn't capable of coping with the 200W of power going through it, so kept overheating! Simon's going to use two 105W instead so we're not left completely without lights above the dining room table) and a broken outside light fitting to be drilled so that the bulb can be changed.  The landlord and I were both right, as it turns out: I thought it was just Daniel not replacing bulbs [16 bulbs were that], but there were also three other problems - one fitting was loose and needed replacing, the transformer is being replaced with two 105W ones, and the screw broke off on the outside lamp [although I don't think that had been touched since it was installed, so that's a moot point].

It does go to show that the landlord should check things very carefully before giving their tenant the deposit back; I'm sure Simon replacing those 16 bulbs cost more than if Diane had done it!

I've been round the place with a variety of cleaning products and it's all much nicer now [and no limescale], and a variety of screwdrivers and now the ball finials (reassembled one) stay on the curtain poles, the curtain poles stay on the brackets, the loo-roll holder doesn't swivel, the handles stay on the doors upstairs,  the lock on the front door doesn't wobble about and the tap in the kitchen has better pressure so doesn't spray water everywhere as we use it.

I also did a running repair to the stairs [the first two steps no longer slope to the right], added a doorbell (only stuck on, so I can remove it if the landlord isn't happy), and changed the letterbox to one that can hold more that one free newspaper!

Oh, and I fixed the wheels back onto the dishwasher basket so that doesn't derail every time we use it, and re-attached the blind fascia.

I also (needlessly, as it turned out) customised the TV stand to add an extra shelf and wheels.  Sadly, the freeview box/aerial combination couldn't cope with where we wanted the TV [out of the way, not the major "feature" of the room], so it all seemed a lost cause.

Sadly, again, the TV seems to be on it's last legs and the scart connection seemed really rubbish [if you think that's a harsh opinion, you should have heard the opinion of the salesman in Comet !], so we had to join the 21st Century, and buy a digital TV.  We're getting used to it, and love never having to plug a recalcitrant cable back in for the nth time.

And we're getting used to the house: it's a lovely place, and now our belongings are (mostly) stored and it is clean and (most) things work it's going to be good living here.

I've joined a gym, so am getting nearly 40 minutes of walking in as well as whatever I do there [mostly swimming so far], and I've got the joy of raking leaves so that's even more exercise, so that is all to the good, too, but today's activity is waiting for a delivery [anytime between 07:30 and 19:30, so I've got a bit more sitting around to do], and profiting from the opportunity to update my blog!