Nothing really exciting ever happens in Kettering – it’s a nice place to live but nothing really ever gets the local tongues wagging! Until June 2013 that is! The Council has decided that the current refuse collection arrangements of a Black bin, Grey bin, Blue box and Red box, don’t quite cut it any longer. …
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Category:House and Garden
Flat-Pack Frenzy!
And so it begins – The final stages of the office/bedroom conversion! Honor arrived bright and early to begin the painting and wallpaper-hanging whilst David and I got on with the manly task of assembling the flat-pack furniture! Five hours later (and no spares bits left over) we’d assembled the filing cabinet, desk (almost!) and …
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Market Harborough
Nicki stayed overnight and with a complete change in the weather compared to yesterday (today – hot & sunny, yesterday – rain, rain and more rain!), we decided to head over to Market Harborough to look for some more bits and pieces for the office/bedroom conversion. Result! We managed to find some suitable glasses, two …
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Steve and David do the Ivy
A full-on day today! David popped round and we spent an hour or so removing the ivy from the front of the house (a job I’ve been putting off for ages!!!). Then it was off to The Trading Post for lunch. David hadn’t been before, but Ann and I went there around 10 years ago …
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The Temptation of Teal
With just over two weeks before the decorators weave their magic on the office-bedroom conversion, things were getting a little tense at this end as we still hadn’t found the right wallpaper! You know what it’s like – there’s a particular colour that just works with everything else, but nowhere seems to have it. We …
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Holey, Holey, Holey – See the Light!
Today, the ceiling was sorted in the ‘new’ bedroom. I’d like to say it was all my own work – I’d like to, but the hard work was sorted out by Chris and Shayne! If you look carefully at the picture above, you’ll see the rather fashionable artex look (well, fashionable in the 90s anyway!). …
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Job Done!
OK, that’s it! The Home-office, like the dodo, is now extinct. Only the fittest survive, and the old black-ash furniture won’t fit with our new plans. Hats off to Bob, our local carpenter, who custom built all the office furniture (desks, bookcases, printer stations and concealed storage) over 20 years ago. If the furniture was …
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Judging, Pussy and the Plasmas
Judging, Pussy and the Plasmas – no, not a Cowell-esque moment for a feline rock-band with a preference for protons, but a snappy title for today’s activities! The day began with me dropping Ann at Kettering Station so she could re-visit John Lewis in Leicester and make a judgement on bedroom furniture, carpets and wallpaper …
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Skippy…
The bushed DoDO! We ordered a skip to help us dispose of a lot of bits and pieces around the house and some significant business waste. Having carefully considered the skip size before ordering, we clearly abandoned all common sense, and a skip almost the size of Northamptonshire was delivered on Friday. Even after gutting …
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Scarify and Convert!
Probably the only disadvantage of the now, lighter evenings, is that it’s a lot easier to see how much work there is to do in the garden! With the sun (almost) shining, and no sign of snow, we spent significant time in the garden today, picking-off the jobs. The big one was to scarify the …
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Tech Alert (Part 1873)
Those who are ever-so-slightly ‘tech-phobic’ look away now, or click HERE for something prettier. This is my latest ‘toy’ – say hello to the Devolo dLAN 500 Wireless+. It looks ever-so-similar to the gizmo I fitted last year when we had satellite broadband installed, but there IS a difference. Those who don’t need SpecSavers will …
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That Sinkin Feeling
There was a time (not that long ago!) where the high point of my week would be working with a new group of managers on skills, where they needed to improve. These days, as the DoDO, I’m now content with much simpler things – and today is one of those days. It’s ‘Sink Day’! We’ve …
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Broadband Satellite Comes of Age
In these parts, we need all the help we can get with our broadband connection. The pitiful speeds offered via the big players may be OK for the occasional download and checking of emails, but if you want to do big-boy stuff like watch iPlayer, download movies and maybe even upload data to websites, you’ll …
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DoDO – Easy-Peasy Creasy?
Since the major management restructure here at the beginning of the year where I took the developmental position of DoDO (De Ad) – Director of Domestic Operations (Detail & Admin), I’m enjoying the new responsibilities. After a full TNA revealed a number of competency areas where I’m overskilled (IT Support and Car Fleet Valeting to …
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Garden Blitz!
It’s now that time of year, where the garden is shouting for attention to get it ready for Winter! Luckily, the sun was shining, making the task a little easier. Ann took on the cutting back back/cutting down part, whilst I repainted the side garage …
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The Only Way is… Tooway
OK, after years of constantly below-par broadband speeds here, I finally ‘bit the bullet’ and did something about it. For as long as I can remember, it seemed like everyone else (apart from the rest of the neighbours in our immediate area) were getting faster connection speeds than us. When the houses were built 20+ …
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Tech Alert (Part 972)
Yummy! In preparation for satellite broadband that’s being installed next week, I’ve invested in one of these toys – the Devolo dLAN 500 AVTriple Starter Kit, (try saying that quickly!!!) – it’ll allow me to network the internet downstairs to the TV, Sky Box and Blu-ray DVD player – all via the domestic mains socket! …
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No Pressure Then!
When the Wet-Room was completed a few months back, we soon realised that the whizzy-tap-with-no-knobs-on-you-just-hold-your-hands-near-the-tap-and out-comes-the-water was going to be a pain in the a** to live with! The problem? Unbeknown to any of us, it was only suitable for high pressure systems, and being upstairs where the water pressure is very low, the water …
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Wet Room completed
Ralph completed the conversion of our old en-suite shower-room into a Wet-Room today. It’s been a long complex project, but Ralph: “you done great mate!” Can’t wait to get home to try it out! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! …
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Wet, Wet, Wet – The Final Shower
Ralph’s been here all week and things are really coming together now with the Wet Room. We reckon another final trip to hook up all the plumbing and it’s ‘job done!’ Boys and their Toys – Now that’s what I call a shower-head! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing …
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The Wet Room
It’s grouting day for Ralph! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a …
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Wot, no girls…
Ralph’s here to carry on with the Wet Room construction whilst Ann and her friend Nicki have gone to Ragdale Hall for a few days. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all …
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Satisfying Saturday
It’s one of those weekends where a lot of good things happened on the same day. The day started well with possibly the hottest day of the year so far. Papers were saying we were hotter than Barbados! Maybe… it was only 26 degrees here! The cats went in for their regular wash-and-blow-dry and whilst …
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The Wet-Room
Well, the Wet-Room is in its final stages now. Ralph is in the process of tiling it all (after a slight blip due to some serious colour variation on the tiles we originally bought), and it’s all going very well. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until …
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Wet, Wet, Wet – Floor down
The Wet Room project continues. The floor is down – yay! Thanks Ralph!!!!! Quality job!!! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of …
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Wet, Wet, Wet/Cats Away
Ralph’s here again this week working on the Wet-Room. We’re now at the ‘pretty’ stage with hopefully the floor tiles being laid this week, and time permitting, starting on the wall tiles too. The rather fancy tap we’ve ordered should have arrived at the Plumbers as well, so it’ll be interesting to see how that …
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Cats in – Sunglasses out!
Today was the day we took the cats it for their normal six-monthly ‘service’ – we postponed it from yesterday, because we were busy with wedding stuff and Patsy needed to drive to Bournemouth to rescue some abandoned cats – all 17 of them! David and Val popped round for lunch. We had Italian cheese …
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Wet, Wet, Wet – ‘A Night on the Tiles’
More like a day and a night… and another day! With the temperatures into the 30s here yesterday, Ralph’s efforts to lay the initial tiling on the floor turned into a nightmare, as the cement went hard far too quickly! The result was that this part of the project took far longer than he imagined. …
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Wet, Wet Wet…
Ralph’s here, continuing to turn our shower-room into a wet-room. This week, he’s concentrating boarding on the ceiling and setting-up things for when Mick, our excellent Electrician will sort out the electrics in a few weeks’ time. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well …
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Ralph and the Wet-Room
Ralph’s here with us for the week continuing to convert our shower-room. It’s really starting to take shape now, we just need to source some dark tiles for the inset piece – but that’s currently proving to be a bit of a challenge! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my …
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