Age and Forgetfulness

Before I get to the age bit, a quick update: I've done float coat of the lime plaster on the wall in the extension, which I'm pretty pleased with.  It had to be done in two bits as I was unable to find the energy to do the whole thing in one day.  I'll tackle the final coats when I feel up to it!  Compare these photos with the original ones when I started (note the old square hatch in the middle).

It's not all I've done recently, but I have been a bit distracted because of recent events like my birthday, which seemed to last for four days last weekend.  It's not necessarily a great event to celebrate one's birthday.  OK, when you're young, each one is exciting, with presents, a party and possibly some sense of being closer to being a "grown-up".  I'm not sure when this sense of excitement ceased for me, but my latest birthday was, as they say, a BIG one with a zero at the end. My lovely family were wonderful and I had a great time with some great presents (see below).

It is obvious to me that I am getting old - after all, I'm retired!  I partly excuse myself as my early retirement was prompted by redundancy at 58.  I reckon I'm pretty fit - having then spent 17 months refurbishing this house I have become much fitter. I proved this last year when, needing some working trousers, I found an old pair of RAF trousers last worn in 1992, and they fitted!!!  I also have a sweet grandson, but I know some people who were grandparents before they were 40, so having a grandson doesn't make me old, does it?

Nevertheless, I myself find it hard to believe that subtracting year of birth from the current year somehow equals 60.  I've tried checking the arithmetic to make sure I've not miscalculated, but it's still 60.  A good number of friends at church were astonished when sharing some birthday cake last Sunday.  Actually it was two cakes, one a '6' and the other '0'; I cunningly shared out the '6' first, and then asked the latecomers to guess what number had appeared in front of the '0'.  Very gratifying to see the looks of astonishment on some faces who thought that a '5' was more appropriate.

One of the things that I notice about myself is increasing forgetfulness.  Whilst doing something, it is so easy to be asked to do something else, which you then totally forget.  I have developed techniques for coping with this, to make things stick in my memory, but even these are not infallible.  This happened to me the other day, when the rector asked me to give a message to Jane; I was in conversation with a group of friends and I actually replied that I would forget unless I took home something as a reminder of the task.  So then I forgot to take the reminder!

I also forget things like ideas for this blog - something comes into mind whilst plastering or painting, and by the time I am in a position to write it down, it has gone.  If you're lucky, you go back to the same place and somehow the same thoughts come back, but it doesn't always work.

Back to my birthday: the best present was the last one to arrive.  It was a hardbound book of this blog!  Apparently you can get this done at a well known high street chemist.  It is about 10 inches square, and has lots of photos from this blog (plus a few by Jane that I had not seen before), together with a selection of brief quotes (the better ones, probably selected by Suzi) telling the story of what has been done to this house.  What a thing to treasure!  Come the day that the internet crashes or Blogspot disappears, I will still have a wonderful memento.  Beat that, as they say.

A Loo and a Washing Machine

Well, the plumbers have been, and most efficient they have been too.  In about four hours the two of them fitted the new loo, the corner basin with tap and outlet, the tap and outlet in the utility sink, and the washing machine supply and outlet.  Apart from the lack of electricity for the washing machine, we are all ready to go once the sealant sets, so I'll probably have an initiation ceremony tomorrow when I'll fix the worktop and base unit properly.

I have spent a fair bit of time on odd jobs in preparation for this event.  Once the floors were laid and grouted (see this page from January) I had to do tiling behind the loo and basin, assemble the base unit, cut the worktop and fit the steel sink in it, and then fit and paint the skirting board that goes behind the sink unit (as this will be visible beside the washing machine).  I know that professionals do this sort of thing much faster than me, but it still seems to me that there is no real reason why I should pay someone for a job that I can do - and I can feel proud of the achievements afterwards!

I would post some photos of the utility and loo in the extension but, like our main bathroom, they are so small that it is almost impossible to get a decent and meaningful photo.  It's all black (worktop), white (all tiles, sanitary ware and the base unit) or stainless steel (the sink), so please use your imagination!

I now need to finish the plastering so that the electrician can come and do his second fix.  I didn't properly appreciate the time required for the lime plastering (I have no excuse after all the other work done here) and really I should have started it before doing the floor if I wanted to finish earlier.  Never mind, where's the hurry?  I guess the electrics will get done in about ten days time, and I've plenty to keep me busy whilst the plaster goes off.  For instance, today I stripped and painted a 6ft cast iron downpipe and a hopper which will be a job to fit in place of the ones for the bathroom grey water outlet.  The fitted ones are in danger of falling off the wall and, as we've lowered the ground level, they are too short.

More Lime Plastering

Well, I've finished off the scratch coat on that wall, and I'm now waiting for it to go off before I do the float coat.  I'm pretty happy with my efforts (so far) but I must say that the bit around the door was far more difficult than I had expected.  My admiration for Phil the Spread and all other plasterers has increased in direct proportion to the ache in both my arms, specifically the elbow joints.  Both forearms felt as though they were about to fall off after I finished, and I had only done two mixes on each day; how do these guys do five or six?

Anyone who saw me will probably have wondered why that idiot was mixing mortar outside on such a cold day.  Even cement would have been out of the question, so to knock up lime seems idiotic.  I'm well aware of the issues with lime and cold weather (or, for that matter, lime and hot weather!), but I did have a plan.  The mortar was all carefully kept inside so was at about 18 deg C, but I had no intention of using my mixer indoors as you end up with lime splashes over everything within a wide arc in front of the mixer.  These splashes can also be at quite an unexpected range!  My solution was to pre-warm the mixer with a couple of kettles of boiling water, and then cover it up again as soon as the load was in the wheelbarrow.  Once inside, the joy of lime is that it stays workable for as long as you can be bothered, although you do need to knock it up again when the hawk is loaded.

The other real pain is cleaning up afterwards.  The mixer is done first, then the water/sand/lime mix is poured into the wheelbarrow which acts as the sink to do all the tools, leaving the wheelbarrow itself as the last thing.  On a cold day there is a real incentive to all this VERY quickly!  Then, inside to sort out the floor: our black limestone flags look wonderful but you need to clean all the lime mortar off before it sets or you will have a real job on your hands later on.  A decorator's sponge is a good tool, plus a large bowl of warm water and some disposable gloves (which of course I was also wearing for all the plastering).  Then it's wipe and rinse continually for ages.  One thing is always to do complete flags so that cleaning doesn't show.  I used the same method while doing the grouting, but you have to develop a technique for wiping the surplus off the flags right to the edges without leaving any signs of wiping.  I found that a careful sponging along the edge with a gentle turn with the fingers to use a fresh bit of sponge seemed to work very well; the turn twists the sponge from behind and brings it over the mortar which reveals a nice clean edge behind it.  Again, frequent rinsing of the sponge is critical.  I really am longing to have the whole job finished so that perhaps the floors will need cleaning less often!

One reason for the extension taking a long time is of course the weather (and the forecast for Saturday is minus 10 deg C!).  Another reason is that I get tired quite quickly, and have realised that pushing myself too much on one day simply means that I then achieve even less the next day, so a sensible, steady pace is required for maximum achievement.  Thirdly, I have been to see the doctor recently and it took several visits to decide that there was nothing wrong with me apart from advancing years. Finally, of course, there's my grandson to see - when you've got a cute little kid like him to play with, it certainly puts things in perspective and you wonder why you bother doing things at the speed of the modern world.  I spent three hours babysitting one afternoon the other week and it was FUN!