Taexalia

wild.life

Preparing for the Invasion

This is a long story and it is growing...

Last year the council decided that the chimney stacks on this row of flats was in need of compulsory repair. Needless to say no-one got off their bum and organised the repairs so the council went ahead. They put up lots of scaffolding, made a lot of noise and very occasionally they did some work. When they got to our chimney, they had to send in a gas fitter to disconnect our gas so they could block up the fire place. He informed us that our back boiler was a death trap. I did not even know we had a back boiler because i am not very clued up on how radiators work. I thought because we never used the gas fire we were safe enough.

So the roof work continued and we sat and had some panicked conversations about luck. And we decided to investigate replacing the boiler. Well. Back boilers are out of fashion and they would have to be specially made. So the concept of a Combi Boiler was brought into the arena. This would have to go on a kitchen wall - which means losing one of our kitchen cupboards. And, well the kitchen is so old and decrepit and really disgusting that I almost cheered at the idea of replacing it.

At this point we were talking to Scottish Gas about the replacement boiler and he quoted us quite a lot of pretty pennies for a combi boiler and some new valves for our radiators. That's quite a lot of pretty pennies.

We decided to get a second opinion because we would rather spend our pretty pennies on beer and wine.

The next man who came to visit hummed and hawed and looked at the state of the tanks. This man wasn't a salesman, he was the actual guy who would be doing the work. He told me that he would not fit a combi boiler onto the current system because basically it's so old that it couldn't handle the pressure. I imagined the pipes bursting and flooding the folk downstairs and decided on the spot to fire Scottish Gas from the equation.

This man's quote was also for quite a lot of pretty pennies but we will be getting a whole new system. I can't get excited about radiators - but I am excited about the one going into the bathroom - A HEATED TOWEL RAIL THINGY!!!!

So the work starts tomorrow and I kind of managed to motivate myself to begin the prep work this afternoon. I am going to bore the pants off you all by blogging the progress. Apart from the fact that it might be nice to develop a daily blogging habit, it may be the only way to retain sanity as my home gets torn apart... new central heating, new kitchen, removal of old gas fire and fireplace and hot water tanks, redecorating lounge and deciding what crap to fill the NEW CUPBOARD with.

Here's what I did today:

This is the entrance to my Den, the site of the new radiator - oh did I mention that the radiators in the bedroom and my Den are under windows and the new ones won't be... Anyway, these are my "art shelves" stuffed with beads, polymer clay, sewing stuff, tools, paints, sketchbooks and all manner of stuff. I had to clear the shelves and move them into the room so that the carpet can come up.

A picture of our hall before I started to clear it to lift the carpet. The carpet was fairly easy to lift except for the very last corner. Some bright spark used a nail instead of a carpet tack and the corner ripped. The words I spoke were not ladylike and I was right behind the front door. I hope my neighbours don't think less of me...

And yes, confirmation that someone used one million nails and put down hardboard over the original wonky floorboards. Did you get that - one million nails.

It occurs to me at this point that I am a lunatic for starting this by myself.

I pulled up all the narrow bits in the doorways and these were piddle easy. Then I began tackling the larger boards. I developed a nifty system with my hammer and actually got one whole board up before 6pm - when I decided it was sensible to stop so as not to drive my downstairs neighbours mental. I couldn't give a fig about the upstairs ones but I haven't figured out how to aim the noise through their stupid laminate wood flooring. And yes, as I type Mr Elephant is practising tenpin bowling above my head.

Note to Dawn - no punging but you would be proud of my floor lifting ability