'Operation Summer House'

At long last we have decided to get rid of the playhouse. We no longer have children at home and the one we bought it for turned 18 last month! Besides, it was somewhat derelict – the roof was rotting and the floor was through to the ground in places.

  It looks quite large - till you stand a normal adult person next to it

A quick view of the inside - it still had a child sized picnic table in it, and a sand table and sand play toys

The local riff-raff had taken up residence in it as a den for drinking illicitly (and quite probably other things too). They left quite a mess and spilled alcohol is probably one of the reasons the floor rotted through.

Nearly done:

Gone! In a way it's quite sad to see it go, but it really wasn't doing any good any more and we can use the space for better things - like a 'playhouse' for grown-ups, ie a summer house! We intend to build our own, rather than buying one, so that's what this project is all about.

Next is operation clean-up

The rubbish was burned, but I didn't take a photo of the fire this time. I'm sure we have more than enough pictures of burning bonfires! The empty beer bottles went in recycling.

Round the edge of the concrete raft that the playhouse once stood on are (were) edging blocks. Each one is about 12" x 18" x 2". Believe me, they are heavy too! They went around two edges of the concrete area

One by one, I got them out and laid them across where they are going to be reinstated at some point. To the right of the line will be a flower bed - it has a tree at the far end and daffodils in there already. The rest is weeds. To the left of the line of blocks will be dug out flat and either grassed or concreted as a picnic area and will have a picnic bench on it. (It's bigger than it looks in this picture).

Digging the blocks out was no mean feat. Some came up easily enough; others I needed to dig a trench behind them and raise them out using the spade.

That's one edge done; now for the other side:

Good, got it out!

There were nine of them altogether:

Now, hopefully, you can see the size of the area. Concrete base in the foreground; grassy (read: weedy) area in the middle ground, then you can just make out the line of edging blocks laid in the weeds - beyond that is the flower-bed-to-be:

Ah, we still have to get rid of this stump - an old elderberry, self sown. It can't stay there

The soil is quite a depth and looks pretty good, apart from the weeds on top. The plan is to skim the surface, as if I was digging turf, put that layer on the compost heap, then use the under layer (hopefully without any weed roots) to fill up some of my deep beds in the vegetable garden

 The whole weedy bit will be levelled down to the same level as the path. Some of it will be concreted to enable a wider summer house to be built; the rest grassed (or maybe also concreted). At the moment, the front edge is held up by breeze blocks buried in the soil.

I took up the first three breeze blocks. They are full of soil and weeds. If I thought the edging blocks were heavy - these were heavier! You can see them, upside down here, further along the path. Well, two of them are along the path; the third is sitting up on the weedy bit. This is the distance to which we will definitely be concreting, for the base of the new summer house.

Still loads to do, but we are making progress:

Decorating 13

Well, the deadline has arrived. Tomorrow, the furniture should arrive nice and early and then the occupant and my OH should turn up together about lunch time. Hopefully, everything will be in place by the time they get here.

You will be pleased to hear the rain finally stopped - and so did the drip-drip-drip of the leak. Thankfully, it seems to be drying out without having ruined too much. I might have to give the walls a quick coat of paint, but everything else seems to be fine. Let's hope the rain doesn't return before we can fix the leak!

So, today's work.

First, I painted the gloss in the kitchen. It wasn't a lot, but it was fiddly, as it was mostly door frame. Most of the skirting board is hidden behind the units, so there was very little to do there.

After that, I set about tidying and cleaning. I had hoovered the bedrooms yesterday, 

so I started with the bathroom today. I cleaned the floor, sink, toilet and the floor where the bath is going to go.

Then I hoovered the stairs and landing, followed by the hall.

That was the easy bit!

Next came the living room. There were tools and decorating equipment all over the place, not to mention some stray bits of wallpaper trimmings and lots of mess! I had brought two large boxes (I could have done with three). In one, I put the loose tools; in the other, decorating things. The pasting table and some of the decorating equipment I took upstairs for when I paint and paper the front bedroom. I rehung the curtains and poles at each end, then cleared the window sills and the fireplace. Then I hoovered the floor. It was slow work, as there were a lot of little bits all over the place. Once I had hoovered most of the stuff up, I then got down on my hands and knees and did the floor again, using the stair attachment, to make sure all the bits were hoovered up. It seemed to take ages, but that might have had something to do with the fact I went home for lunch part way through!

Once the living room was done, I had to tackle the kitchen. The boxes and tool cases were removed to the car, along with a few other bits and pieces, like the paint roller tray and the tins of colour I no longer need. The rubbish was all bagged and thrown in the bin.

The cupboards were not particularly clean, so staring on top of the wall cupboards, I cleaned every one of them thoroughly. The work surfaces, hob and sink/drainer got similar treatment. It is as clean as I could get it short of buying replacement units! Lastly, I washed the floor.

The whole thing has taken ten hours! Who'd be a cleaner? Or painter and decorator, come to that?

So, is that it? What else is there still to do?

• Stair lift needs fitting
• New light in kitchen
• Blinds in kitchen and bathroom
• Door in side of garage
• New door on front of garage
• Front bedroom still to decorate
• Border paper in kitchen - almost forgot I had bought this!
• The garden needs a complete overhaul

Not much left then, lol!!

Decorating 12

Sunday - considering I try not to work on Sundays, I put in a six hour shift at the house today. I figured that if I didn't, then the decorating was simply not going to be finished. As it is, the spare bedroom is not going to be done till after Moving Day.

So what did we achieve? I spent all afternoon and evening papering in the living room. It still isn't finished, but the whole of the fireplace wall is now done.

The opposite wall is the one that needed plastering where the plaster skim had come off with the paper, as well as some areas round the windows.

OH spent his time making sure the floors were level for the carpets, which are definitely coming tomorrow morning.

Monday - I was expecting a call from the carpet fitters to let me know what time they were coming. I hadn't had one by noon, so I rang them. Apparently, amid profuse apologies, it hadn't been flagged that they needed to call me on my mobile. The fitters were due to arrive between 12 and 2pm. Of course, they arrived as I took a bite out of my sandwich!

They did the bedroom first, then the bathroom, then the landing, stairs and hall. The carpets look really lovely - and the red in the hall is so warm and welcoming.

Meanwhile, I did more papering in the living room. It still isn't finished!!

OH changed the sockets and light switches.

He also shortened the counter top in the kitchen. There was a space underneath the counter for a fridge, but as the space is needed for an upright fridge/freezer, the counter was rather in the way. 

There was a surround at the rear and side of the counter, where it meets the wall. Of course, it had been plastered after the edging had been put in place, so that meant more plastering when he took off the side rail. He decided to leave the back rail on the wall.

The chimney breast wall had been papered yesterday, so I painted that today.

Altogether I put in a 12 hour shift - 8.30am to 9.45pm, with an hour off for my evening meal - cooked by OH.

Tuesday - OH removed the radiators in the living room... 

so I could paper behind them. 

There were lots of fiddly bits to do today - round window ledges, those awful 2" gaps over the windows, and around, behind, over the brackets for the radiators.

At last, it's finished!!

The final piece:

Then I painted it all, despite the paste not being dry. And OH replaced the radiators.

Between us, but mostly OH, we removed most of the furniture that isn't required in the house. OH took the electric bed to pieces and we managed to get it bit by bit down the stairs, including the mattress - which led us to make a decision. We are not going to fit the stair lift until after the furniture has arrived. It was pretty difficult to get the bed downstairs, so we figured it might be difficult for the removal men to get furniture upstairs, particularly if there is a stair lift taking up half the width of the stairs. So that will be fitted on Friday afternoon, when the removal men have been and gone.

The rest of the electrics have now been sorted out too - new sockets and light switches where they are needed.

Finally, I painted one wall in the kitchen. I have chosen a warm yellow, as the kitchen faces north, but I wondered as I put it on the wall, whether I had chosen too strong a colour. I decided to leave the rest until tomorrow, when I could see whether it dried lighter or darker and basically what it looks like in daylight.

Another 12 hour shift - and at around 9.30 I realised I had only sat down for half an hour today, when I had my evening meal. I even ate lunch on my feet while holding a paint roller in one hand and my sandwich in the other!!

Wednesday - today was a time for finishing little things off and completing tasks.

The yellow in the kitchen looked fine, so I painted the rest of the walls the same colour.

OH took the radiator off so I could paint behind it. As he did so, one of the brackets simply fell off the wall. The wall is hollow, so needs special plugs to ensure they don't just fall off. These are like crocodile clips, but are open, rather than shut when at 'rest'. They close as you put them through the wall, then open up and hold the screw tightly against the plasterboard. Whoever had fitted the radiator had taken the crocodile part off the screw and then put it back on the wrong way round. So when we pulled on the radiator, the bracket came off with it, pulling the closed clip through the drilled hole!

When OH put it back, he swapped the clips round, so the brackets are held on securely.

OH checked and finished all the electric sockets and switches and then took all the furniture from the living room and put it in the garage. Then he collected up some necessary tools and we took him to the train station. He was going south to bring the new householder back to his new house.

When I had finished all the painting, I tidied upstairs. The front bedroom was more or less tidy, but there were still bits all over the floor and some random bits and pieces. I picked up the bits and hoovered the floor. I also put away the spare bit of carpet we are going to use in the walk-in cupboard.

After that, I hoovered the bits of fluff from the new carpet off the bathroom floor and the landing floor. Then turned my attention to the back bedroom. I could have cried! The leak in the corner of the wardrobe has returned and it is damaging all my hard work!! There is a damp patch on the ceiling, two damp patches on the wall, and the corner of the carpet is damp too. The walls will probably need doing again and the carpet has been taken up so as to avoid damage L