It can rain when there's a westerly now...

We weren't going to bother replacing the house's 3 remaining single glazed windows.  The dining room window looks into the conservatory - so not much weather to contend with.  Husband did a great job this summer with sander on a stick, followed by paint brush on a stick to extend the life of the bathroom window.
The first time we had heavy rain with a westerly wind, we decided we did need to replace the cloakroom window as it wasn't keeping the rain outside!
Replaced yesterday with a simple uPVC job.
Whilst it was being fitted, we established that the 2 roof panes that are misbehaving in the conservatory can potentially be fixed (1 leaks & 1 has condensation trapped inside) - and that I need to learn to love sliding doors for the living room as opposed to lovely timber bifolds.
Husband's been doing the decidedly unpleasant job today of hoovering up rodent poo from loft above the garage as an electrician might be coming along soon to add a much needed light fitting to the garage - we're coping with a lantern & a desk lamp at the moment.

Driveway

We've made 3 small changes to our front garden this year.

The only real floral brilliance we've had is this fabulously huge sunflower - grown up from a runt of a little plant I got in a giveaway at work!
It took forever to flower - but grew enormously during midsummer.  It's now got around to starting to open its flowers.
Sunflowers are a bit of a superfood as far as garden wildlife goes.  Pollinating insects enjoy the flowers and 
I'm planning to keep it where it is into the autumn so that birds will be able to enjoy the seeds.

A downside of a long drive is distance from the streetlights.  In our old house, I never had a problem finding the front door, but it's a different case here.

This fitting is solar with 2 LED lights with a PIR sensor.  It gains enough charge for the short amount of time we need it to work for.  Not having to mess about with connecting to the mains was a plus for Phil - but he spent some time getting the solar panel rigged up.

Mains LED light by the front door - again with a motion sensor.  It gives more than enough light for me to find the front door - and my keys in the depths of my handbag!

We've tweaked the PIR settings for both lights - but still needs some more refinement as the sunflower sets off the front door light in the wind!

Neither lights are security light washing in performance, but that's never been their role for us.

More on doors

Although we've decided to live with the eggbox sapele effect doors on built-in wardrobes, the airing cupboard door didn't look good - and even worse after we'd replaced the bedroom doors around it!  So it's now been replaced.

We've always operated with the system of closed-door=occupied for the bathroom, but I didn't want to be looking into the cloakroom every time I walk into the lounge!  We also didn't want one door to have a very different door handle.  We've installed a cabin hook out of reach of small children & Husband has set up the screws so that if we need to force the door, the ones in the architrave should give way.

We're a long way off finishing the cloakroom, but at least the grotty wooden loo seat has now been replaced with a white soft close one.

Bye Bye Egg Box Doors

The perfectly functional sapele effect eggbox doors are now in the wood-to-be-recycled skip at the tip - thanks to Mum & Dad for helping us get them there!
Instead, we have 9 oak veneered doors (FSC full CoC of course) with stainless steel furniture & heavy duty hinges.  We've owned them since December as I bought them when on offer.  I talked Phil out of fitting them himself - he is perfectly capable, but it would take him about 1 day per door with lots of swearing & frustration.  Found a chippy who gave a great quote, but his order book was full - hence only just fitted!  It took him 2 days to do all 9.
We then varnished them all with a satin clear varnish.  "We" was mostly Phil - I only managed to do 1 due to time constraints.
Very pleased with Mel & Tony's suggestion to put a glazed door on the kitchen which gives a weird dark corner in the hallway a little bit of natural light.
One more to sort out - the carpenter found out that although B&Q don't do the 2' width version, the manufacturer does, so we can get the airing cupboard done too.

A bit of gardening

 We're not tackling the garden this year - it's a case of restricting our efforts to holding the wilderness back!  And that alone is a pretty big task.  For example, it takes me 2.5 hours to mow the lawn and I had to downgrade the mower to a lightweight flymo to cope with the slopes (and Phil is exempt due to hayfever).  In our old garden, we were forever pulling up sycamore seedlings whereas here, bindweed is encroaching everywhere as is a pretty but thuggish white geranium.  At least the sandy soil means that digging and pulling stuff up is easier than it was on Edward Ave's brick quality clay soil.

I've covered some of the veg patch with weed stopping fabric for this year - and did sneak in some spuds!  The aparagus bed gave us just 2 meals worth - very tasty.  I'm not as impressed with the tastiness of the raspberries though and may be replacing at some point.

Phil's made the birdbath watertight and has been attempting to make the patio a bit less uneven.  We've painted the fence - but we still need to repoint its brick base.

The clothes line is back in operation so I can start weaning myself off my recently acquired tumble dryer addiction.

And we've entertained in our conservatory - it made a good spot for lunch in the rain.

I'm enjoying the garden much more that working inside.
Wildlife: we've spotted a green woodpecker (on the lawn - very weird), goldfinches, wrens, sparrows, blue tits, great tits, robins, starlings & very tame blackbirds.  One pigeon fell victim to a female sparrowhawk who decapitated it & removed the liver on the driveway before flapping off!  She has been back and Phil's hoping she may keep the pigeon numbers down.

Dining Room - Furniture Change

 More grey IKEA Hemnes added...  We've been rethinking how the huge open plan space downstairs will work - and we're building the plan for the big overhaul that's waiting for my sharesave scheme to mature in December.  It does mean that we can make small changes secure in the knowledge that they will be right for the room in 6 months time as well as now.  


A very generous payment for a bike & housewarming gift from James & Freya enabled us to get 2 bookcases for the dining room.  Short term, it's meant the last of the boxes could be unpacked, freeing up the conservatory and giving me access to the cookery books.  Long term, they will stay there - and may be joined by another of the slim ones.  The pine dresser from our old house that I painted up fits beautifully next to the fish tank & is now overflow booze cupboard and table linen.

There was a wall shelf/unit in the dining room too - it used to be our TV stand in Edward Avenue, but became obsolete when we got a different telly that wouldn't fit.  However, combined with a blanket box, it makes a great suitcase/bag support for the guest room - not exactly elegant, but functional!  I don't know if I'm unusually lazy (probably), but I rarely unpack when staying at a friend's, but do like to be able to stow my bag somewhere - hence not worrying about spare drawers, but 2 places to shove and easily access a case.  after we redecorate this room, will probably put up some hooks so guests can hang up stuff....

Bedroom Furniture

We ended up getting IKEA freestanding furniture for the main bedroom having spent lots of our time talking about fitted units - partly because we couldn't afford the gorgeous wardrobes inspired by our friends' home in Winchester.  And I think that although it wasn't our first choice, it's worked out better as it keeps our bedroom feeling big and spacious - something about being able to see the wall behind.  There's enough space for Phil's clothes plus a chair (essential jacket/jersey/belt temporary storage!).  In an ideal world, the wardrobe door would not wobble when pulled open, but I think we can live with that!