Not a lot ...

... going on at the moment so not much to blog about with up-to-date stuff.  Normal everyday business.  Grocery shopping (hate it!), chiropodist and general bits and pieces.  Archery stuff on eBay has a lot of interest ... thankfully ... so I'll be packing and posting soon.  Hope it all goes but over half already has bids and there's still over 4 days to go.  Strangest thing is that I listed my quiver and it's got 3 bids with numerous watching.  It is a quality quiver but ... it's personalised!  I had it made to my design way back.  The 'decoration' is as asked for, including my name.  Yep, it has PAM scribed on it in quite large letters.  Now it could be a name but I guess it could equally be initials.  Whatever, it was one of the first things I got a bid on.  On started it at 99p because I didn't think it was worth anything to anyone other than somebody called Pam so a very limited market.  It's currently at £7.50 and I've been asked how much to take it off auction and do a Buy it Now.  I won't do that because it has bids but more because there are so many watchers.  I'll let it find it's own price and be happy with that as it nearly got dumped :)

Think I'll continue the bathroom story ... as much as I can.

Bathroom was finished and we were using it well, despite not being happy with the finish (photos could show but we'll leave that bit now)  In February I thought it about time I got on with sorting the study out.  Other things had come along and put a stop to it over a few months.  Was progressing well when I took something off of a book shelf and found this ....

Blue 'dust'

Pulled the shelf out and moved stuff on the shelf below and saw this ...

More ... and down to the ground

I emptied the book case completely and started cleaning the mould away.  From the top it wiped off the wall quite well, then wallpaper started coming away with it and I realised the wall was wet.  On checking I found the edge of the carpet was wet and the bottom of the bookcase a CD tower next to it was also damp.  Wondering where this had all come from I suddenly realised that the other side of the wall was the wet room basin!   LEAK!  Went into the wet room and a quick check proved there was a leak but ... we couldn't turn the water off other than at the mains as I couldn't locate the isolator valves.  More to the point - I couldn't get to the pipework at all other than the top few inches.  The pipework had been boxed in with no access made to them.  Called plumber and asked him to come as an emergency.

Back to study and further investigation showed that the mould was behind a double wardrobe as well - and had transferred some to the back of the wardrobe.  The mould extended over a metre long and a metre high.  For the amount of mould we'd obvioulsy had the leak since the new basin and tap had been installed back in September/October.

Behind the wardrobe

Pulling the wardrobe away dragged some of the back off :(

The mould extended to where the dark spot is above the yard stick.
From there to where the paper is stripped it 'dusted' off.

Plumber arrived and, long story short ... this is how he left us.

Note how wet the boarding is under the basin ... and along the bottom!

This was after he'd had the basin off the wall.  It transpired that the isolator valves for the basin were behind the boxing in but in the bottom left corner and totally inaccessible.  This part of the room had to deconstructed to get to the pipework and with a view to putting in an access panel and new isolator valves.  It was then left open to help dry the wall.  This was February.  In May, after nearly 3 months and several attempts to cure the leak, unsuccessfully, we sacked the guy and contacted somebody else.  They found other problems that needed to be dealt with and problems that the guy, as a supposed heating engineer, should not have left us with.

The wet room, and the other problems, were finally sorted out and finished at the end of August ... nearly a year after the room was started.  We're finally leak free and have an access panel so our wet room now looks like this ...

Not a huge change but at least we're now dry and have access if ever needed again and .... the study wall is finally dry and has been cleaned up.  The paper is lifting and the room needs decorating but it's all clean and hidden and the rest can follow in time.  The saga is not yet finished though.  The original guy guaranteed his work.  He has had a bill sent and we're prepared to take it to law ....

Thanks for dropping by .....

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Busy couple of ...

... days, or so it's seemed.  Spent most of the day yesterday listing 'stuff' on eBay.  Archery stuff mainly.  I accepted I'll never shoot again some time ago but it's been hard making the decision to get rid of the equipment. Well, you never know, do you?  If I hung on to it then I could at least pretend that one day ....

Anyway, decision made so it's been offered for sale and within 15 minutes of being listed I had a bid on one of the items.  I've now 8 11 items with bids on (it's gone up 3 since I started this post *happy face* and everything is being 'watched').  I know that doesn't necessarily equate to bids arriving but the bow has had 118 views and has 23 watchers so I'm quite confident that will go, especially as I've had somebody ask if I'll ship to Italy - and it's now one of the items that has a bid on - YAY!.  It is a good bow, arguably one of the best ever made and it's no longer available.

Once I'd done that, hubby decided he wanted to try some of his target air rifle accessories.  He's not really shot target air rifle since around 1996 following an injury he picked up in the Atlanta Paralympics.  Trouble with OH is that he's no idea how eBay works for selling so it was a frustrating afternoon for me trying to explain and him not listening.  Suffice to say that if he sells any of what he has listed (courtesy of moi) he'll be blooming lucky!

I'm trying a new slow cooker recipe I found on Pinterest.  It smells good but may be a tad salty.  I always follow new recipes to the letter - unless I've not got all the ingredients but if I've got close I use that.  For this one I had them all.  We'll see what it's like come dinner time :)  After we've tried it as given I then make adjustments subsequently to suit our taste.  Watch this space - *LOL*

Washing machine is busy.  Guess the ironing board needs to be next :(  Bed was stripped yesterday and linen washed. Today it's the day to day stuff - aka, clothes!

I've also got a letter ready to go in the post tomorrow regarding our bathroom makeover.  Story goes - and I'll keep it as brief as possible ......

Spur of moment decision to have it done, bought on by OH's elbow problem (another story for another time) last year.  We had a plumber/heating engineer already doing odd jobs and he had good references on CheckaTrade.  Disabled bathroom/wet rooms were on his website as within his capabilities and tiling was one of his skills.  Oh ... how wrong all that was, as it turned out.  Anyways, quote given and accepted and work started.  3 weeks work he said.  Started well.  Room gutted, old tiles removed and walls all plastered by the first weekend.  2nd week started with the floor being prepped for the drainage and tiles started to be put into place and that was when we realised that perhaps he was a little short on the truth regarding his skills.  Every day, after he'd gone, I was finding tiles that weren't satisfactorily installed.  Every day he was having to remove some tiles and redo them.  It ended up that he was spending ½ the day putting right work he'd done the day before and the initial 3 week timescale started to get longer.  Eventually the room was finished (?) 7 weeks later.  Have to say that the finish was appalling.  We ended up with grout on the window frame which won't come off, even now.  To get it off we would ruin the frame.  Mind you, it's ruined with it on there.  We had tiles where he'd not even bothered to cut them round pipes and we had spaces between tiles that varied from nearly nothing to ¼ inch (spacers varied from proper plastic spacers to strips of cardboard of varying thickness).  There were holes in the grouting and .... I could go on but it gets boring!

I'd gone out the last morning.  I returned to be told that it was all finished but the shower didn't work?  WHAT???  Seems that he knew it was unlikely to work as he'd blown the fuse the very first day he was here but thought he'd fix it later.  He'd not isolated the electrics to the shower (which was being reused as it was newish, but moved) before he started taking the tiles off the wall or doing any of the 'demolition'.  In the end he had to call out an electrician friend (he couldn't find the fuse in the fuse box) who found the fuse and went to buy a new one.  Everyone left.  I went round with a notebook and post-it notes to label the 'snags'.  He came back to sort it all out .... not!  He did what he could that was possible.  The rest wasn't.  He got paid but less the cost of the door and his charge for fitting it.  Brand new door ruined when he cut it to fit - but it's only a little bit, was what he said when pointed out.  Not good enough, no pay :)

And that, as they say, was it .... or was it???

From this ...

To this ...

Thanks for dropping by .....

Follow my blog with Bloglovin