Wind and Rain - Wet or Dry?

I wrote recently about how this house is now warm and dry (see this post), and the recent weather has reinforced that view.  The wind and rain have been causing issues both to the Grade I listed church opposite, and to the 12 year old house of a friend who had water ingress affecting her electrics and security alarm. In both cases I went to investigate and the cause was the same - the driving wind from the south-west forcing water into cracks in the wall and gaps along flashing.

On the church there were small leaks at various places along the south arches where the nave meets the south aisle. As a result I had to go on the south aisle roof (on Christmas Eve!) to investigate and found that the flashing was pointed with cement which had come away from the limestone above, leaving a 2-3mm gap.  Since it was cement already I overcame my inbuilt resistance and used some fairly wet cement mortar to fill in this gap; however, it is a good illustration of why you shouldn't use cement on a limestone building - the cement is rigid and so will crack when the lead expands in the heat, whereas lime mortar is much more tolerant. At some time we will get all this cement out and have the job done properly with lime, but of course I couldn't do such a repair in this cold and wet weather.

The friend's house was perhaps more surprising: the water ingress was where the low front porch joined the front wall of the 2-storey house and at a quick glance from the ground it all looked OK. However, closer investigation using a ladder revealed cracks in the pointing of the front wall of the house, and some very poor pointing using mastic on the lead flashing at the join. In fact, there was what looked like the proper exterior mastic but also some clear mastic which really looked like internal stuff which someone had applied when a similar event had occurred before our friend bought it; of course, the newer stuff was no longer stuck to the older stuff so my recommendation was to get someone to sort the mastic properly and, perhaps, fill the pointing cracks at the same time. Of course, I am still officially convalescing so I didn't want to volunteer myself, even though I do have the necessary tools.

On the plus side, our own house has stoutly resisted the weather and has only ever had water ingress at one point - a southerly wind can force rain onto and under the front door despite a decent weatherboard and some cunning work by me on the doorstep. We use a bit of newspaper to mop it up and otherwise ignore it! As I look out now on New Year's Eve and see the rain still falling, at least I can feel content with this house being warm and dry - now I must go and check the church...

Doesn't Time Fly?

Yesterday was my grandson's third birthday; he was born the day after all that snow fell in Dec 2010.  I can remember so clearly that I was busy the whole day doing the laths on the back bedroom ceilings  - it was freezing cold in the house - while the snow fell and fell until it was 8 or 10 inches deep. I wrote this entry a few days later, but here's another photo from that time:

That one was taken in the back garden of the dreadfully cold and badly designed rented house that we had at the time. That house (built in 1999) just never got warm, even in July, and a modern house surely should not allow the internal hot water pipes to freeze between the boiler and the bathroom! This house of ours, however, did warm up when the walls had dried out after all the sources of dampness had been tackled; the old thick walls are now a heat reservoir which helps the house to be warmer than outside in winter and cooler than outside in summer. Old methods are more effective than badly done new ones!

Anyway, back to my grandson. I did not realise how much fun a grandchild would be, especially now that he has reached the stage of learning things and asking questions. Every time we see him he comes out with some new bit of learning, like switching on the room lights. Of course, I am fairly pleased that he wasn't our own child when we heard about him being unwell last weekend! However, he was better yesterday and really enjoying opening his presents, blowing candles out and eating chocolate cake. Oh to be young again.

Don't You Just Love Amazon?

Apologies for the off topic post!

I no longer buy things from Amazon; I have never bought much but over time I have come to really dislike everything that they stand for – basically maximising profit regardless of the effect on individuals, companies or countries.

The booksellers’ started it. They are the ones who not only let the embryo Amazon get a foot in the door, but they didn’t realize that this was the thin end of the wedge which was actually very thick. They must have thought that having a contract with a small new on-line company would just help them sell more books, and didn’t seem to appreciate either the potential scale of Amazon’s ambitions or the effect of the contracts that they signed. It obviously never occurred to them that Amazon would be able to use the generous discount which the retailers gave to undercut them to the extent that Amazon would then achieve a huge market share. This then allowed Amazon to control the market to the extent that the retailers would then not be able to do without Amazon! Very clever stuff from Amazon, and you have to hand it to them that as a business plan it succeeded fantastically well.

From selling books successfully, someone at Amazon realized that the same infrastructure could be used to sell anything non-perishable. (In fact, of course, they try to pretend that you actually can buy absolutely anything; you must have noticed that silly thing that appears on a Google search for, say, “Barack Obama” which says “Buy Barack Obama at Amazon”?) That decision, plus a good amount of investment, has made Amazon into the leading on-line retailer and a real force to be reckoned with. As the holder of an MBA, I cannot help but admire their success; I bet that there are now case studies which teach these new ethics to the current MBA students all across then country.

However, there are several separate reasons for my aversion: firstly, their business model seems intent on driving everyone else out of business. They started with bookshops and are now aiming at many other high street shops. Such market dominance has probably often been the aim of many companies, but I doubt that many, if any, have succeeded to the same extent. Frankly you have to wonder where it will end – do they want to control the whole world? Shades of the Inner Party in Oceania out of Orwell’s “1984”?

Secondly, as is well known, Amazon doesn’t pay much (if any) UK corporation tax. They do this legally as it is the avoidance of tax by legal means as opposed to illegally evading tax, and I'm amazed that this is still possible as international conglomerates have been around for ages.  However, I really hope that before long there will be some provision for forcing Amazon and other companies such as Starbucks and Google to pay tax on profit earned as a result of UK operations. The only benefit that this country derives from such companies is that they provide employment for people in this country, but that brings me on to my third point:

The employment practices of Amazon are nothing better than third-world sweat-shop exploitation. The recent Panorama programme (see this link to the BBC iPlayer) reveals the methods behind their efficient and prompt despatch of your item ordered so easily on your PC. In it, the undercover reporter reveals how he spent every shift picking your orders from the shelves in a vast warehouse, with a computer telling him how many seconds he has for each one before he is judged to be going too slowly.  The pressure is relentless and experts are produced to pronounce how harmful this is to one’s health. Is this really the type of employment that this country deserves?

 I cannot now bring myself to order anything at all from Amazon.

Warm and Dry, or Damp and Cold?

I'm still officially convalescing but I feel a bit of a fraud, as I am actually healing very well and I feel very well. I'm very limited in what I am allowed to do around the house: I'm not allowed to lift things, or go up ladders, or do anything that really classes as "work".  However, I am being obedient and not risking anything, probably until Christmas. The only thing that I don't like to do too much is bending down, as that puts pressure on the wound across my abdomen; this doesn't hurt at all but it just feels like a bad idea!

I went outside the back of the house today for the first time in ages, where it really is cold and damp. I was surprised to see that my new grey limestone slabs all have a green tinge. I presume that this discoloration will last until next Spring, when I would hope that the slabs will dry out as the temperature rises and, like the walls of the house, the green will just disappear.  There is no way that I want to take a pressure hose to these slabs every year!

The conditions outside were a forceful reminder about the way to treat an old building; we are dry and quite warm inside, and this was achieved by using no cement, no damp proof course and no modern plaster in the restoration of the house (although of course the extension was built entirely in the modern way). I've only lit the front room fire once, and the woodburner not at all, as I am still waiting for it to turn cold! After all, I don't want to waste firewood. The secondary glazing helps enormously, and keeping draughts down by closing internal doors helps as well although of course the paradox is that good ventilation is essential. The first rule is that if you are not wearing a jumper then you can't complain about the cold inside the house, and the second rule is that if you turn the thermostat up then you can't complain about the size of the gas bill!

The Best Thing I've Ever Done

Well, the afore-mentioned kidney transplant operation has come and gone; everything was remarkably successful.  The removal was virtually painless for me, and my brother is now a "new man". I do not think that we really knew how ill he was, but we do now as we see a much fitter version, literally "in the pink" and no longer feeling tired all the time. All the stats are going in the right direction and so he just has to re-adjust to a life of balancing anti-rejection drugs with the risk of infection (as the drugs inhibit the immune system).

If you are interested in the idea of living kidney donation, please see the whole story of my donation at http://diaryofakidneydonor.blogspot.co.uk/. It's quite surprising - I'm a reserved logical person but this experience has really found the emotion in me (especially the entry on Oct 21st).

Please become an organ donor - see http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ - and make sure that your next of kin know that this is what you want.  Apparently a surprisingly high number of donor card holders do not donate anything when they die because their relatives still have a veto.  At least I can be sure that my next of kin know how I think!

I now have a good excuse to catch up on gentle activities like walking, writing and reading as, even though I feel great, I am banned from doing anything more serious than lifting a glass or mug for a fair while.

The Year's Work Draws to a Close

My impending operation (see http://diaryofakidneydonor.blogspot.co.uk/) is now only a week away so the end of the year's work is close for me.  I will be in no position to be able to do anything at all strenuous or difficult for some time, almost certainly into 2014. That will of course mean that any lifting is out but even bending down might be too much for me for a while. These last few days have been concentrated therefore on doing various odd bits which either really must be done now (or wait for another year) or else are things which have a benefit exceeding the time and effort required (i.e. they please 'Er Indoors).

One important thing was to put an insert into the chimney pot for the fire in the third bedroom.  We have twice had an idiot wood pigeon fall down this, presumably by falling asleep and overbalancing (and probably not the same bird).  The first time was before I fitted the secondary glazing; it got into the bedroom and I was able to open the window and shoo it out.  The second time was this summer and I had fortunately removed the secondary glazing for ventilation; this time it was sat just up in the chimney refusing to budge, so I had to open the window, reach up with a gloved hand, grab and then quickly throw whatever I had grabbed out of the window.  It flew off leaving a trail of feathers, but it was not impressed at this treatment!

The difficulty in stopping pigeons falling down was that (a) I didn't want to block off the chimney as it needs to be ventilated, (b) the top of the chimney is about 9 feet above the gutters so it is VERY high and (c) the chimney is rectangular and no-one seems to sell a rectangular vented clay hat.  I therefore made my own device but it looks so odd that I'm embarrassed to add a photo of it. To fit it I borrowed a ladder which reached the fascia and used a long pole with a hook on the end and managed to lower the device into place without falling off the ladder.  Thinking about that now, perhaps I shouldn't have taken that risk as any injury would have scuppered the operation next week.

Secondly, I've had to cut the grass which was only laid a couple of weeks ago.  I thought that this would not be needed again before winter but it was almost 10cm high, so I've done a high trim. It looks as though it has been down for years.

Thirdly, I've been doing various bits in the lounge, such as tackling the plaster which was damaged during fitment of the window (the one fitted in June 2011...).  I've also sorted the wooden poles which form the corners of the plaster on the chimney breast and the window bay.  These had been papered over years ago but have now been scraped clean and given a coat of wood hardener which has brought them up nicely.  Finally, I removed the door and cut a half inch off the bottom so that we can lay carpet somewhen; while it was off I decided to remove the brown gunk (it's not paint or varnish) on the inside, ready for painting somewhen. When all the dirty work is done we can seriously plan to buy a carpet, which will please the other half a lot!

The final job was outside again: the ivy in one apple tree had been ignored as it gave privacy and security (as well as cover for birds).  I realised that it was very high so I decided to remove a lot of this to allow the tree to breathe again and possibly grow better next spring. It's a once a year job for the autumn only so it was now or leave it for another year.  Now I have to dispose of the foliage!

The Back Garden takes shape

This post could just as easily be entitled "The Beginning of the End for the Builder's Yard", which is what my side and back garden has been for the last two years since we moved in.  At last I have made some significant progress to making it look right; I previously reported the completion of the paving here - that was a bit premature as actually there were five left to do, which I wanted to do at the same time as the little back wall. 

As I've said before, this wall is just four courses high but fills several important functions: firstly it provides a good edge for the limestone paving laid on sand; secondly it retains a foot of earth at the base of the stone wall where we had lowered the ground level (this was essential for drainage but I was worried about whether we had gone down too far and that the foundation of the wall might erode); thirdly, it's a home for a good amount of spare earth which I had acquired whilst laying the flagstones and finally, it looks good!

At the far end you can see the foundation for the brick barbeque which I hope to do soon.  The last five flagstones are the ones at the top, beside the wall and the barbeque.

The other major task just completed is that yesterday we collected 20 sq m of turf, which I have laid today. 

This is what now permits me to say that it is now more of a garden than a builder's yard (although you can still see a pallet, my mixer and various plastic tubs in the above photo! Here's a photo of the lawn, (left) with the steps and the unfinished stone wall beside the house (which is just out of picture on the right), and you can just see a bit of the low brick wall which runs across the back of the house (on the extreme right).

Top tip for turfing: buy good turf! It should be consistently thin but strong; if not it's a nightmare (I learned that a long time ago; these were great).

I think you will agree that it's a large change from what we bought almost three years ago:

I reckon the above photo is taken from almost exactly the same place as the one of the lawn above it; the ivy covered apple tree is in the middle at the top of the lawn photo (I just pointed the camera down at the lawn a bit more). In fact this overgrown photo was taken in March 2011 after five months work - the "as purchased" condition was so bad that you couldn't even walk there due to the vegetation.

Feeling Worn Out

I've done almost half of the one foot high brick wall which edges the paving at the end of the garden.  It will be about 13 feet long and have a brick built barbeque stand at one end.  The foundation is concrete, and the reclaimed Imperial bricks are laid with lime mortar which matches the house.  This wall gives a solid edge for the paving laid on sand, and also resolves a worry I had about whether we had taken the ground down too far beside the 6ft stone wall; it will raise the ground level at the base of the wall thus preventing erosion, and also I can dispose of a good quantity of excavated earth behind it. 

I spent yesterday working at my normal speed, until about 3pm.  I had done two major e-mails on church business which, with a phone call as well, had taken most of the morning, and then I got on with the foundations for the second half of the wall. This was hard work as yesterday was very hot, and I was digging through a layer which contains animal bone (no human has teeth that size!) and a good amount of local brash.  This stuff is annoying as you have a few bits of stone as large as your hand hidden in good earth, and if partly hidden they still have to be removed. Suddenly I realised that actually I was very tired, and that I wasn't going to finish digging the hole and mix a load of concrete in what was left of the afternoon.  So I stopped and at that same moment decided that I would do nothing at all today as well - just have a day off. 

I've had a bit of a poor throat recently, but last night I slept pretty well. I had to get up at 6.30 to take t'other half to the station, and when I came back I went back to bed with another cup of tea.  Next thing I knew it was 10.00am! I went to the shops for a few essentials and a haircut, and only then realised that I had not had any breakfast.  After lunch I found myself watching the Formula 1 practice on TV, and an old film with Telly Savalas.  I certainly feel rested and much better today; perhaps this is what retirement is meant to be like?

Yes, there are still lots of things I could do around the house and garden, and I know I have to finish doing things by October 16th (operation day) but I am determined not to let these jobs put such pressure on me in the future.

Doing Things Again - Part 2

I have mentioned before about my dislike of having to do some things again - see this entry from June.  One of those items was the framed, ledged and braced internal door bought from b****y W****s which was fitted in the new extension as the toilet door almost two years ago.  The problem is that it no longer fits in the door frame, even with force; the vertical hinge edge (a bit of planed 4 x 2) has twisted, so that it went one way at the top and the opposite way at the bottom compared to the vertical boards.

Well, I've finally got round to doing something about it by complaining to the retailer whose customer serices firstly tried the excuse that it was "too long ago": no, it's not, as the door is not "fit for purpose" (Sale of Goods Act).  Then it was "you'll need the receipt", hoping that I didn't have it - WRONG (it took me one minute to find it in my file)!  Then they seemed to hope that they could bore me into submission by disagreeing within the company about who should look after my complaint.  When that didn't work (it is the branch's responsibility, btw), the chap in the branch lost my details on his desk (!), so I had to remind him.  Then they asked me to send photos so that they could pass them on to their supplier, which I did the same day, despite the problems of taking photos to show the twist in a fitted door in a small space.  Finally, having had no answer a couple of weeks later, I sent an e-mail to the chap in the branch, reminding him that under the Sale of Goods Act, my contract is with his employer, not with the manufacturer.  At last, he caved in and offered me a refund, if I would "like to bring the door back, and the receipt", which I did by 10am the next morning. It was good to be able to show him the defect, as then even he had to admit that it was pretty poor.

I declined his offer of another door - "we now have a different supplier" - and went back to my favourite reclamation yard (Burgess Reclamation) where I bought a much nicer door at a much increased price. This one is just ledged, with just four vertical planks from reclaimed floorboards. Then I thought I would treat the knots, so at T----- P-----, I found some knot sealer and asked the obvious question "does it allow me then to stain the wood or will I see patches?"  To my surprise no-one knew, so I bought it anyway.  The answer is that it does, but I overcame this by treating the entire door with the stuff so it is all the same colour (a quite attractive dark-ish pine).  It is now fitted, with bolt and a pull handle (the handle part of a rusted original Suffolk latch) on the inside, plus a door knob on the outside; I still haven't worked out how to fit a latch to a ledged door with no frame. Perhaps I should buy another hand made Suffolk latch, but then I would have to change all the moulded architrave... sigh.

Paving Part 4 - Finished At Last!

I realise that I never uploaded photos of the progress with the paving - I think that was because my camera batteries expired.  At the time of my last post on paving - here - I had started laying the slabs at the back of the house but had yet to tackle the back door step.  Since then I have made considerable progress:

Firstly, I did the back door step. This uses some old engineering bricks

(in a sort of larger than usual Imperial size) on a concrete foundation set in a rectangle, with one in the middle as well; in the photo (right) there are extra ones inside which were used to support the temporary step while the cement set.  After they were removed, the structure was in-filled with gravel and topped with a 90cm x 60 cm x 4cm limestone slab which matches the ones I've been laying.  The step is above halfway as you have to step over the bottom of the door frame and, in any case, it is quite difficult getting that sort of thing spot on.

The result is pretty pleasing and certainly my grandson finds it easy to use, which is what matters.  The rest of the paving was pretty easy, aided by judicious use of an angle grinder, hired for possibly the last time.

Here you can see the finished back door step surrounded by the paving, with the addition of the stone seat which I bought on the spur of the moment at my favourite reclamation yard. My grandson has already found out with his head how solid the stone seat is!

I'm also quite pleased with the infill up to the wall: this is "self-compacting gravel" as recommended by my groundworker for the driveway, and it seemed a good thing to fill the gap.  Having a thing about dampness, even in a brand new construction with a DPC like this, I didn't want the stone going up to the wall as that would then cause rain to splash on the wall.

Then, last week, we had the pleasure of sitting with the entire family on our patio for the very first time; I now have to do the barbecue - if there is any summer left for entertaining.

Window Arch Repair

The windows of the house have bricks to provide good edges around the window, as the walls are made of random rubble.  Above the window is an arched soldier course, i.e. of bricks on their end, and these are called rubbers.  This is, I believe, because the bricks are actually slightly tapered in order to give the arch its shape, and this taper was achieved by rubbing the bricks against each other. 

Above the hall window is the soil pipe we fitted in 2011, and when we did that I observed that the surrounding stonework was not in great nick (see first photo).  I did a bit of pointing in this area last year (or was it 2011?), doing some deep fill and letting it go off before doing the surface bit in an appropriate colour.  So, when I mixed some more coloured mortar the other day (see the previous entry), I was keen to get this area tidied up.  However, it took all of 30 seconds up the ladder to realise that things were worse than I thought: where I had done the deep pointing above the rubbers, there was (already) a 2mm gap between the pointing and the rubbers.  This could only be caused by the rubbers dropping down.

Movement like this is NOT good news, so I called Pete who did the brickwork on the extension in late 2011.  He came round for a look, assured me that he could sort this in less than a day, and duly turned up this week.  He came armed with his Acrow prop and the "Strong Boy", a flat plate which attaches to the top of the Acrow (see second photo)- and yes, it is strong.  He fitted it in under the large stone just below the soil pipe, and also fitted some shaped wood to support the brick arch.  He then proceeded to remove nearly all the mortar below the Strong Boy, and ended up with some stones and all the rubbers loose (aaargh!!).

The next step was to push the arched wood up to restore the shape of the arch and then insert bits of slate between the rubbers (I think in four gaps only) to make the arch secure.  Slate is brilliant for this as, after all, it was produced under thousands of tons of pressure, so in compression it is fantastically strong.  Then it was replace the brickwork and mortar, tidy up the pointing and the job was done (see third photo).

I am very pleased with the result, as it has removed one of my major headaches.  Since I was paying him for the day, he filled in time by doing the drilling job for the kitchen vent (see previous entry), so I got TWO tricky jobs out of the way for the price of one.  Well worth £150, I reckon.

Loose Ends

It's been a mixed bag recently, with three jobs making significant progress after years of procrastination.

In a spirit of tidying up I decided to mix some more of my local sand & lime putty mix for pointing; then I thought I would do some pointing myself, and my daughter visited and did some more!  So the stone wall which I built last year is almost fully pointed at last (right).

Thus encouraged, I then went back to pointing the side wall of the house which I did a couple of years ago (plus a bit last year) under the new window which I fitted.  Beside that window is the downpipe which had a large hole about 9 feet up; the water gushing through this caused severe damage to the wall as it had been happening over a long period of time.  I only realised how bad it was when clearing the gaps out before filling - in one place I could get my flat hand into the hole, and then curl my fingers up in the void.  There were also some bits where some idiot had smeared a thin coat of cement over the wall, which can only hold moisture in, rather than stop it getting in!  I've now re-pointed a good deal of the worst bits on this wall, mindful of the general rule to not re-point unless absolutely necessary; this is good advice, not just for the integrity of the house but also because it really is a tedious job.  I'm quite pleased with the result!

Having done that pointing, I could now attach the shoe on the bottom of the downpipe.  When we took the ground level down in 2011, I had been left with an annoying gap of about 4 inches at the bottom.  I really didn't want to spend £65 on a new 6 ft length, just for that, and I found a shoe which was longer than usual, but it was still a bit high above the drain.  To bring it down I have used a spare elbow with a collar, and cut the bent bit off, so now there are two collars at the bottom (photo left), and it is a perfect fit (although the groundworkers always seem to attach the gully too close to the wall...).

Then I was urged by 'Er Indoors to do the last bit of skirting board in the lounge; it's one of those bits with a right angle that fits beside the chimney breast, and the old one was rotten; when I had a go a while back, it all went wrong because I didn't cut good 45 degree mitres and so the result was awful.  That was pretty discouraging, spending a couple of hours and achieving absolutely nothing, so I left it.

Anyway, today I had another go and not only cut the two pieces successfully but also fitted the result in place AND painted it (photo right).  Once again, I'm pleased that I can choose a job for the day and do it completely without having to go and buy anything at all.

The third job was the drilling of the hole for the vent in the kitchen (left).  This was not done when the kitchen was fitted (errr... two years ago!) as they intended to chain drill a rectangular hole through 18 inches of stone! I was not impressed as I am sure that this would have caused immense damage to the remaining wall.  Today Pete (who did the brickwork on the extension in late 2011) came and drilled it with his 110mm cutter on an SDS drill, which took him about an hour and a half. It's one of those jobs that perhaps I could do myself but really I am quite happy to pay someone who knows what he's doing.

Now that the hole is done I can purchase the necessary bits to duct the extractor over the hob outside instead of re-circulating it - perhaps I will have done that by Christmas?

Paving Part 3

The paving has been continued around the back of the house, and I have taken delivery of the remaining slabs.  This afternoon I have had to stop laying them as there is the last obstacle to overcome - the back door step.  For this I have a 90cm x 60cm slab (and it's 40mm thick!) which I intend to lay on a bed of old engineering bricks.  At least, I think that's what they are.  They are larger than Imperial bricks in all dimensions, and have the texture of engineering bricks, so I reckon they must be an early version; I found them when digging the foundations for the extension. So, this afternoon, I have made some shuttering - almost of the right size.  This is actually surprisingly difficult, so when your groundworker makes it look easy when doing the oversite for your extension, it is because he is skilled!

Having made the shuttering, I mixed and laid some concrete for the foundation.  [Top Tip - always make sure you have enough cement and ballast for this before you start!  I found that I was about a trowel-full short, which was close enough but too close for comfort.]  Then, looking at the finished article, I realised that I had measured wrongly and had allowed for a slab width for the step of 70cm not 60cm. So I have shaved some off the concrete which is setting perhaps too rapidly in this heat; excuse me while I go and cover it up to protect from the sun... [2 minutes] ...  I've now done that but if 'Er Indoors goes outdoors she might get a shock as I've used an old one tonne ballast bag to cover it.

Tomorrow, the step itself, and then I can finish the paving, although I'll need to hire the 9" grinder again - noisy and dusty!

Paving and Setts - Part 2

At last! My paving stone has arrived, after getting stuck in a container at a dock somewhere in India I think it was.  I've taken delivery of the first 17 sq m, and have been having fun laying them down between the setts which were set in cement weeks ago. Happily,

all my careful measuring has paid off and they all seem to be looking good, with no large gaps anywhere. Here's the first lot (right) of 19 slabs, laid in about two and a half hours.  I'm glad that I chose to bed them on sand; having helped lay the 18 sq m of pretty similar stone in the kitchen in 2011, and then done another 12 sq m in the rebuilt extension all by myself, I knew that getting the level was surprisingly difficult, and so I wanted to retain the option of lifting and re-laying a slab later on.  There are a couple of those set in mortar that I would love to be able to do again!  In fact, when laying large slabs (60cm square, or larger) on mortar, due to the suction it is quite difficult to lift the slab even when you have only just laid it, never mind when it's all set.

The annoying thing about the delay was that I didn't trust my ability to measure accurately enough.  Hence I wanted to get the first half or so of the paving laid beside the house before I turned the corner (literally) to do the back.  Now that the first lot is done almost to the back, I will be able to prove the positioning of the end of the setts; then I can work from that edge and lay the remaining setts accurately beside the half-finished wall. 

That will then allow me to work across the back of the house on what will be our patio; in fact that part is almost a sunken garden due to the high walls, but it still catches the summer sun almost all day even though it's on the north side of the house.  Here's another view (left) from the other direction; the "patio" is at the end and then on the right out of sight behind the brick extension.


I'd just done those first pavers and was thinking of a cup of tea when a light shower started which decided the issue! So I took these pictures and decided to update the blog instead.

Doing Things Again

There are lots of things on this house that I did myself, and I had to learn a lot on the job.  Now, two years since we moved in, I have found that in some cases there were clearly things that I did not appreciate or understand at the time, and so some things are having to be re-done.

The first of these is my back gate; it is actually an old ledged and braced back door.  This was made redundant when we re-built the extension as there was no point in having two back doors.  I had a vision of re-using it as half of my back gates, and was delighted to acquire a partner as a swap for some old glass.  Both were the same hand, so all I had to do was to change the braces on my old one and sort out the surface finish.  They came up a treat with some gloss black which matches the front door, and now provide some security by solidly blocking the way to any passing ne'er-do-well (see photos here).

However, late last year I saw that some of the paint was flaking off my old door, on what used to be the inside. Now, it is looking very sad indeed, and clearly needs attention.  Noticeably, the paint is not flaking where I replaced the braces (the slanting bits) - they were old bits of bare floor board and are still looking good with their coats of primer, undercoat and topcoat.  The problem is with the old ledges (the horizontal bits).  I suspect that, despite my best intentions, the door was not fully dried out when I re-painted it, so at some stage soon I shall have to strip that side and start again.  I really didn't want to have to do things like this again.

Another similar example was sort of my fault where I was misled by the term "transit primer" which was the only finish available on the new bits of soil pipe which I bought (see here).  I happily applied black Hammerite on the top before we installed them, and 18 months later I saw it was all flaking.  So this time, up a ladder, I have removed all the old paint and this grotty primer using a wire brush and Stanley knife; then I coated them with red oxide before adding more black Hammerite.  Hopefully this lot will last longer!

Then there's my kitchen worktop. We bought a new kitchen from W----s, and chose an interesting bamboo worktop (see photos at this entry) which requires occasional recoating.  There's nothing in the literature to warn about any possible problems but 'Er Indoors has recently demonstrated the corrosive properties of caustic soda.  She did not realize that some had been splashed onto the worktop near the sink; we only noticed these spots when wiping the worktop and seeing spots appear before our eyes, as the water from the cloth sank into the wood and darkened it!  I have tried sanding and re-applying the coating but the problem is still there.  Now all I can do is to find a way of neutralizing the alkali (with some acid, I guess) and then re-apply the coating after sanding the whole lot.  Another waste of time.

Now there are some more doors: the specially-made (i.e. expensive) 2 inch thick pine front door replaced an older, rotting one, also in pine.  I paid extra for kiln-dried wood but even so it has warped and at some times of the year becomes difficult to open; I have not been able to use the mortise lock since March.  In the same way, the cheaper internal door to the loo in the rebuilt extension has warped - at least that only cost £50; bl---dy W----s!  Finally, the external door in the rebuilt extension is rejecting its paint and starting to look mottles and streaky.  I can only presume that the undercoat did not like the stuff that T----- P's supplier had covered it with, but what do I use now to fix it?

On their own, none of these are going to cause me huge grief, but taken together, when I still have plenty of work to do, I really could do without this additional workload.  What really gets me is that one of my deliberate philosophies in doing this rebuild was that I expect to be here for 10, 20 or more years, so I wanted to spend that bit more and get things right first time; I did NOT want to be in exactly this position in that time, and certainly did not expect it in such a short timescale.

Problems with Tree Identification

I have a wrong tree in my front garden.  It is definitely not the one I wanted and I'm really cheesed off with it.  It might be what it says on my planning permission, but it's NOT what I wanted.

My original vision for the front garden was to plant some semi-mature trees at the front which matched the ones in the churchyard opposite.  In 2011, I noticed that these across the road were blooming with lovely white or pale pink blossom; it seemed that there were at least three different sorts of tree and they bloomed in sequence, so that there was blossom on at least one tree there for about eight or nine weeks.

When I found a landscape designer there were only two things I wanted: one was a good looking plan to get past the council tree officer and the planning department, and the other was the identification of some suitable tree species.  The first was achieved but, on the second, one of the three is wrong.  Now, you might say that two out of three is not bad, but when I pay someone a decent sum of money to give you expert advice, I expect that advice to be RIGHT.  That is what being an expert means, isn't it?

One of the trees was a cherry, and I opted to go for a Japanese Cherry as I knew these have abundant blossom - you know, the sort of thing that is covered in lovely pink-white blossom and always appears in films and photos of Japan.  Another was something odd and it turned out to be an Amelanchier (right) which is a North American berry tree; it had blossom and a few berries last year which would be edible if the birds didn't get them first.


The third tree was to match a tree which, to my eyes, was a sort of apple: it had apple blossom, apple tree leaves and little fruit which looked like the basis of an apple but never grew bigger than pea-size.  My landscaper took one look when I pointed it out 25 yards away and said "that's a sorbus" and so that was what we went for.  She said that in "olden times" a sorbus was believed to keep witches away and that is why they were often planted in churchyards.  I realise now that her knowledge of a superstition was used in her mind to justify her identification, which seems the wrong way round when you think about it.

Last year I was a bit puzzled as my new tree (left, ignore the hornbeam hedge in front) was the same shape as the one in the churchyard  but had some odd leaves (more like elm?) with no sign of blossom at all.  I put this down to the fact that it was only planted in November 2011 and I was just pleased that all the trees had survived the winter. 

However, this year it is quite clear - it is definitely NOT the same species.  I sent a photo (right) to the nursery who sold and planted the the trees and they think the one in the churchyard is a Morus (Mulberry) but I can't find a photo of one of these on-line which looks like the one over the road, so that might be incorrect as well.

Since I know that I described the blossom on the one in the churchyard in some detail to my so-called "expert", I am really severely dischuffed about the entire affair.


However,  I also planted a malus (crab apple) at the rear of the front garden in front of my new wall, and it is flowering very nicely. This photo is from last year, and it is even better this year - I will put up a photo when I finish the pointing on my wall.

Paving and Setts - Part 1

It's been a long time since my last post.  At last the weather has improved, and I've been outside preparing to lay paving. The photo right shows what it used to be like soon after we bought it, and the photo below left shows the view from the other end when the extension was being rebuilt after removal of tons of earth (note higher garden on right).

This excavation gave a recessed pathway along beside the house, and I decided ages ago to put in a retaining wall about six feet from the house (photo below right, taken in opposite direction). 

This retaining wall is essential to prevent the higher ground of the "garden" (I like to call it that - it will be true one day!) moving gently back towards the house; this would again cause dampness and, having spent time and money in sorting this issue, I have no intention of ever letting it return.  However, as you can see, the wall is still not finished!

One of the issues in clearing up the exterior has been the question of what to lay?  For the same dampness reason I have not felt inclined to lay much concrete, or do anything which feels too permanent.  I will admit that I have laid concrete in the front, and just inside the back gates, but I felt this was a neccessary evil.  In the front it is three inches lower than it used to be and there's a recess beside the lounge wall, so I am not repeating the "let's concrete right up to the wall at interior floor height" error which caused floorboards and joists to rot.  Last year, for the back, I purchased some cast gratings which are really heavy duty items (in fact well over the top!); I intend to fit these between the house wall and whatever I do with the paving. 

It seems almost all paving is really quite expensive, but I have made it sound cheaper by comparing it to the cost of carpet.  You certainly get what you pay for; if it's cheap then it looks cheap and you'll regret it.  I did a fair search - cast cement, brick, reconstituted stone, real stone, etc, in a variety of colours and various finishes (but who wants polished stone outside?).  Eventually I found I could get imported tumbled limestone, 30mm thick in regular sizes, for £32 per square metre.  We chose the pale grey (with a faint hint of purple?) which hopefully will set off the greying yellow of the Cotswold limestone.

It seems the modern way is to lay a huge bed of cement, lay the paving of your choice and then add a dry mix for the grouting.  Something in me still rebels at the thought of laying paving on cement - it seems so permanent.  After all, in 2011 we got rid of nine 18-ton lorry loads of hardcore, soil and stuff from this house (and there were yards of concrete path and slabs all at the wrong height) so why should I want to lay more new cement?  So, after a lot of deliberation, I have gone for a dry bed of sand on MoT Type 1 hardcore (which was already laid in 2011). This has the benefit of being easily reversible (a key principle for old buildings) but requires to be held in place with solid edging.  [Top Tip - work out the entire cost before you decide anything - edging can add a lot to your costs, especially for some of those reconstituted stones.]  I decided to use granite setts which I could buy for about £2 each (and they are almost 25cm long); I am also saving a bit of cash and work by laying the sand up to the wall of the new extension (the level being two bricks below the DPC).  Since the extension was laid out with the use of a laser, this also gives me a good level to work from.

So, in the last three weeks I have laid the last little bit of concrete (near the drains) and a lot of setts in a slightly complicated pattern. This is because I didn't
want a straight pathway and, in any case, I have to avoid various obstacles such as the gas meter box and a few drains.  Clearly, you have to get the setts right: the right plan measurements to avoid cutting the slabs, and the right height as well.  The first thing I had to do, therefore, was to cut granite setts.  This is achieved by use of a bolster and a decent mallet; a few good blows with the bolster carefully held yield a pleasing result.  However, it is made more difficult if your setts are not smooth and then the bolster is not making good contact along its length.  Result - it splits in not quite the right direction!

The current situation is that I have finished the preparation along the side of the house.

The setts on the right will separate the paving from a strip of earth so that I can plant a few things to make the wall look pretty.  On the left, iron grating will fill the gap and allow the house wall to breathe.  Notice that the gas meter box is a bit high; this is a good indication of how much lower the ground level is now - when it was fitted it seemed ever so far down!  All I need to do is to work out how much Type 1 and sharp sand I need to order, then I can start laying.  Then I have to do the rear of the house and extension...

Now you see it, now you don't

They've gone and changed their minds; the operation is deferred for ages (even 12 months possibly), so I will after all be able to get on with the tasks that I want to do this summer.  When I said it was bad timing, I honestly didn't really want this to happen.

All I need now is some half decent weather to let me make a start outside.  The walls, pointing, edge setts and flagstones will all take ages, and I'd like to tidy up and sow some grass seed as well.  Then there's refurbishing sash windows - perhaps I'll get a couple done if I'm lucky this year - and repairing some stucco work at the front (although it's actually cement so shouldn't be too difficult).

In the meantime there is some decorating inside to be done, but that's a job I hate - removing the black gunge that the doors are coated with.  Sanding it just gums up the sandpaper in 15 or 20 seconds, and a heat gun requires three hands as you get these sticky dead slugs on your scraper which have to removed with a sharp knife or else all you do is to spread it around.  The other hassle with the heat gun is having to remove the smoke detectors as they tend to get set off by it.  I've never had much luck with paint remover but perhaps I'll give it another go. 

Bad Timing

I know my brother needs my kidney (see link on previous entry), but in many ways this really is bad timing.  I now have less than six weeks to do a whole load of work in the garden in order to get it ready for my convalescence.

I rather like the idea of sitting out in the summer sun for six or eight weeks, drinking a little lemonade and watching the birds feeding.  The plants will be growing nicely with a gentle fragrance filling the air, while swifts will be wheeling in the sky above.  The alert among you will have noticed the possibly erroneous assumption in all this: what summer?  We're into spring and even that refuses to work this year.  I certainly cannot do any lime brickwork while it's so cold, and I don't even really want to do any concreting or cement work while we're likely to get a frost at night.

I took delivery today of some granite setts which will act as one edge for my paving.  The other long edge is alongside the house; part will be a concrete strip which will support my cast iron grilles where I don't want to pave up to the wall of the old house. Where the paving goes up to the wall of the new extension I will have a strip of self-compacting gravel against the wall of the house as I don't mind that going a bit higher (and I don't have enough grilles!).  There is no point is replicating the earlier errors (of high ground against a porous wall) which I have permanently eliminated by spending a considerable amount.

Once I have done the edges, I can lay the flagstones.  These are on order at my favourite reclamation yard, and I think I've got him down to the lowest possible price of £32/sq m, which isn't bad if you say it quickly - mind you it is for proper 30mm thick real stone, not some thin reconstituted stuff.  I must admit that does sound expensive until you think how much good carpet costs; this stone will be around long after the carpet has given up.

If I can get these done before the operation, I'll be pretty happy, but if I can also clear and lay some lawn I'll be even happier! So, I have work to do as soon as I can persuade myself that the weather is (a) warm enough for me to work, and (b) warm enough for concrete to set properly.

All Quiet on the North Western Frontier

The garden to the west and north of my house is still technically not a garden but a builder's yard.  I made some progress with walls etc in last year's dismal apology for a summer, but I really want to get some major fine weather jobs done.  These include stone facing on a long retaining wall, 10 m of setts laid, 25 sq m of limestone pavers, a fair bit of earth removal, clearing the rubble from the "lawn", planting the new lawn, painting 16 m of picture rail for the lounge and refurbishing some of the 7 sash windows.  (Recently I turned a window cleaner away on the grounds that the state of the windows meant that he would be likely to damage them!)  Even recently I have been too busy with accounts to do much so the garden has been quiet for the entire winter.

However, all these best laid plans really have "gang agley".  I have an operation provisionally booked for May 1st, and so whatever is not done in the next six weeks will not get done until July or August.

I have been running a blog about this potential operation which you might care to visit: http://diaryofakidneydonor.blogspot.co.uk/. If you know of any one who has done something similar then please point them to it - I'd love to have details of people's recent experiences of this.  One thing that surprises me is that the whole thing now is VERY emotional - I can hardly talk or write about it without welling up.  I think this can only increase!

I'm glad I never actually set a completion date; we set (and met) the "move-in" date in July 2011, but thereafter it's just one task after another.  'Er indoors is very patient!!

Ze Flashing Lights!

Those of more mature years will remember the wonderful spoof TV comedy series "Allo! Allo!" from thirty odd years ago - I'm sure it's still shown on some Freeview channel somewhere (or else BBC will show it when they finish "Dad's Army" again).  It was all silliness about a cafe owner who was reluctantly involved with the French Resistance in WW2, in case you're wondering.  One of their running jokes was how the knobs on the elderly mother's bed flashed when "London" was calling "Night'awk"on the radio.

Why am I telling you this? Well, we have experienced the same sort of flashing lights over some period of time. The problem was usually associated with high winds (in my trees) and so it seemed to me to be something to do with the above ground cables which supply the mains electricity to all the houses here. The supply to our house is via a cable hung from the terraced house on one side, through the trees to the corner at the front left; there it splits and our feed goes left around the fascia while the feed for next door routes to the right along our fascia (old photo right; the cable is not visible but goes from the top left corner of the picture to a point above my head, level with the gutter).  I was misled by the same symptom happening to other people locally which caused me to believe that it was affecting a good number of houses.  When we moved in I had some interesting times with the electricity supply (which I mentioned in this entry) as the old cable was perished and totally covered by the ivy.  Although it took a fair few phone calls, the job did get done properly and so I thought it was unlikely that the flashing issue was with my end of the cable.

However, I got fed up with the flashing in the high winds a couple of weeks ago - it wasn't just the flashing, but the fact that it tripped our answerphone which then reset itself saying "Answer on; calls will be answered in five rings".  When the power dip is repetitive, you hear "Answer on - Answer on - Ans - Answer -Ans" etc which is really annoying when you know you are alone in the house.  Curiously the power issue only seemed to affect the phone.  No digital clocks reset themselves and there was no other symptom, until the day when (unusually) I had the digital radio on and it all went garbled for some time; it only came good when I switched it off and on.  Then later the same day it went off entirely for over a minute and I decided this was too much so called the electricity supplier.  Of course, I got cut off once making that call by the answerphone resetting itself!  Aaaaagh!

Anyway, at last the problem was reported and they promptly came with the emergency team.  To my surprise they reckoned there was indeed a problem with the new connection - it had overheated (WHY?) and melted the plastic sheathing.  Worryingly, they said that it did happen sometimes even with new bits (but I'm a Chartered Engineer and I like to know WHY!). It's been replaced now and the problem has not recurred, so tranquility rules again.

The Saga of the Water Meter

In almost every decision on restoring this house, I deliberately tended to adopt the long term solution.  After all, we expect to be living here for a fair while, so the more expensive long term solutions were always worth considering as we would derive the benefit.  One such was the sheepswool loft insulation (see this page); this was quite expensive but it allows the ceilings to breathe, and is so much nicer to work with than the glass stuff which irritates.  Another has been the acrylic secondary glazing (see this page), which has made the house so much more comfortable, and in any case will have paid for itself in two years or less.  Other investments are purely financial, based on the expectation that we will still own the house in ten or more years' time; one such item was the water meter.  We had one in our rented house in 2010, and the experience was that, with just two of us living there, the meter had saved us about £150 per year.  So it was a no-brainer to have one fitted here and, quite naturally, I wanted it done early in the restoration.

I had identified that the mains supply for the house had a stop cock under a plastic cover in the pavement; there were two stop cocks inside the house; the main one was in the hall and fed a flexible (washing machine quality?) pipe which went to the bathroom above and had supplied the cold tank (which had already been removed to the garden!).  The other supply went to the old extension, and I had had the plumber fit a new internal tap so that we could properly attach a hose for the plastering and floor laying.  When that was working I had the plumber feed the other supply through to the kitchen so that it was ready there, but out of the way of planned work.

So, early in 2011 I made an application to Thames Water for a meter.  They sent out a workman (actually a contractor) who looked at everything and asked me if I wanted an internal or external meter.  I said "external if possible", not wanting to have a meter getting in the way of the kitchen floor and plaster work about to be tackled.  Little did I know.  A crew was sent without delay, and they very speedily fitted a meter under the pavement.  OK so far!

There was an amusing small glitch later in the year - when doing the extension we found that the water supply in the old extension actually carried on under the brick wall separating our back gardens and fed our neighbour's outside tap.  This would not normally be a concern, but in fact it had been used as the sole supply for the construction of a £3 million building at the back; this was an arrangement which preceded the sale of next door, and when they purchased it, the builders had an obligation to pay his water bill for a period.  As it happens, the construction had been completed about two months before I asked for the meter, which was fortuitous.  My neighbour admitted that he had been puzzled that his water bill was completely normal!

Having moved in (July 2011), I had a very low bill the next month, followed in February 2012 by a quite reasonable one of £91 for a six month period.  You can imagine my consternation when in August 2012 I received my second six month bill for £274.  Now, the house next door (not our other half but a separate cottage) had been rented out from February 2012, having been empty for over a year; it was not difficult to do a quick bit of detective work and spot that there was no other water main cover in the pavement for 15 metres, and so clearly they had fitted the meter to a shared supply. D'oh!

I can write this now in the cool light of reflection of the last five months.  That time was regularly punctuated with me telephoning Thames Water and getting not much satisfaction.  It took a considerable amount of persistence to resolve this issue, and their first level help desk staff became predictable in their complete lack of ability to achieve anything.   Their typical response was to say that someone would call in 6 working days but nothing happened.  One really stupid thing that someone did was to rescind all their bills back to when the meter was fitted (although the meter readings WERE valid and acceptable to me for almost a year), and then send out a bill for the standard rate for April 2011 to April 2013, so that I owed them £789, payable at once!

If you have the same sort of issue, my top tip is that at the first excuse you say the magic words "I want to escalate this issue".  Once I had been passed on to the "Escalation Department" I had much better service and progress was made, ultimately successfully.  Sadly for me that did not happen until I had wasted nine weeks and many phone calls in trying.  A second top tip is to keep a good record of your phone calls; it really gets the attention of the Manager in the "Escalation Department" when you can name the idiot who failed to do what he promised four months ago, and when you give a string of names and dates they quickly realize that you do indeed have a point.  The other thing to remember is that it is (usually) not the fault of the person to whom you are speaking, but one of their colleagues, so a plaintive sob story with a hint of desperation gets a far better response than shouting at the poor unfortunate one who was unlucky enough to get your call.

The result for me was that in order to have a meter it had to be internal.  Of course, this would have been much easier if it had been done before installing our new kitchen (June 2011), so there was a bit of an issue as to where to put it.  The only sensible place was under the sink, and Thames Water said that their installer needed six inches "all the way around" to fit the meter.  Now, it is natural to fit pipes within two inches of the wall and floor, isn't it?  This is what my plumber had done, and they wanted me to sort out the pipes before they would send someone to fit the meter.  I rather griped at that generous use of space which would have used the entire space underneath my sink for just the meter, and asked if my plumber could fit the meter as well.  This did not seem to be allowable, but they sent a man to look at the possibilities; he actually brought a meter with him, which somehow I persuaded him to leave and I then paid my plumber £96 to fit it right at the back of  the sink cupboard.  Good job!  All up and running.

I have today received their latest bill and I'm £165 in credit.  They wouldn't pay my £96 but the nice young woman has used a low figure for estimating the consumption if I'd had a meter which gave valid readings.  This has (deliberately or inadvertently?) given that sum back to me, so I'll let that drop, as I am really fed up with phoning their hepdesk!

Little Bits of Progress

It's really cold outside right now, so you won't be surprised at my lack of activity out there, even before it snowed.  All I can manage is an occasional quick foray to feed the birds or to bring in some more wood for the lounge fire - it seems to us that this fire is producing more heat into the room than last winter, but perhaps that's just us being older? We're still burning the trees from the front garden and the (untreated) old battens off the roof - I think that will see us into next winter fairly comfortably.  There is a nice feeling of burning fuel that actually cost us nothing as the battens would have gone to landfill if I had left them for the roofers to get rid of; the only cost of the trees was that the tree-fellers had to do a few more strokes with their chainsaw to give me the fire-friendly lengths to split.

So, I've been doing little things inside - the sort of job that normally I don't find time for as there is usually something far more important to do.  Last winter there were lots of tasks left on the rebuilt extension, but now there's no excuse.  The first thing to do was to sort the wardrobe: I built this in 2011 as a stud wall, a foot in front of the fireplace in our bedroom, the whole way across the room.  This was done so that when we moved in we had somewhere to put our clothes which was a little less dusty!  Sadly, the recycled doors sat forlornly (getting in the way) awaiting repair, repainting and fitting from then until I managed to do the repairs and repainting last autumn (only a whole year...).  However, the fitting had to wait and was eventually done in a hurry on the Saturday before Christmas 2012 (that was 17 months...) as I had some time and realized that it would make Jane smile.  They are all done now and look really good - they even make the room seem bigger as there is nothing falling out of the wardrobe!

Also before Christmas I made a new coat rack for the hall, recycling some old coat hooks which I had kept from two years previously.  The previous coat rack is still in place but hardly used as (a) it is above the radiator and seems to absorb the heat and (b) it is so high that Jane cannot hang coats onto it!  Having moved the coats, the hall now seems larger as well.

Now I've moved on to finishing the tiling in the bathroom - there was an annoying bit which was where the tiles met the window frame; this needed some decent cutting and of course I had bought a good tile cutter ages ago but still never got round to this little job...  It's done now and is awaiting grouting - that reminds me, there's also a bit left for grouting in the extension utility.

Perhaps next I will see if it is possible to fit the bath panel properly - this has also been left since we moved in, resting almost in place, due to the impossibility (it seems) of getting it to go under the lip of the bath.  Then there's the repainting of the doors on the landing; these were also done just before we moved in, and it is amazing to see how much shrinkage there has been since then - on the door panels there is a whole centimetre of dark wood showing where I had painted white.  The dampness in the house must have been much worse than I had realized.

One other external and long awaited job that was done before it snowed was that the roofers came back to fix a slipped slate which had been outstanding since about last April.  This had not been done because it was directly under the chimney and thus a roofers ladder couldn't be used, but it was too far up the roof to allow it to be done with a ladder resting at gutter level.  Hence a cherry picker was required and, to save money, this had to wait until one was hired for another job.  Hence after such a long wait I was quite surprised when they turned up in early January.  As you might expect, it took longer to position the cherry picker than to actually do the job, which was a single lead tingle to hold the slate in place.  Since the cherry picker was resting on the lawn, they needed some spreaders to stop the feet digging in, so I found some rafter ends (7" x 2") from the construction of the extension and left them to it.  When I came back, they had finished and gone, taking my bits of rafter with them!  Oh well, I suppose they weren't valuable, but they have been useful for a good number of tasks in the last year.