October 30th - October 31st 2010

A beautiful day on Saturday, but a weekend of decorating, in our house.

I can only conclude that decorating is an infectious illness. As soon as one woman starts decorating, other women immediately become infected and need to decorate too.

Saturday night / Sunday morning, clocks go back one hour, the end of British Summer Time for this year. The beginning of several months of it being dark when you get up, and dark when you get home from work (if you work that is), and all to appease a few people in Scotland.

Good old Vince strikes again:

October 28th - 29th 2010

Thursday, almost totally wasted in a man's terms.

By that I mean:

• trailed around Ikea with Tanya, she bought some items, ie curtain pole, glasses.
• trailed around no less than four B&Q stores to get the colour paint Kathleen had chosen.

actually did nothing (unless you count raking up a few leaves off the lawn).

A rip-roaring success in female terms of course.

Now as our leaders struggle to pay off the national debt, with our money, here is a little video, to brighten your weekend:

October 25th - 27th 2010

I have had the whole weekend off, and I have Monday off too.

Well not really off, I have decorating and leaf clearing chores to do at home.

Monday is more or less a day of rest, we (Kathleen and I) go to Newcastle on the Metro, and then walk back along the River Tyne, visiting our friends Bryan and Joan at Pelaw en-route.

Kathleen admires the new UPVC interior doors they have had fitted, NO PAINTING REQUIRED!, in a moment of financial frivolity I have agreed to have them fitted in our house.

That I feel is a result of overdosing on painting and decorating!

Tueday, and another day off, well almost, painted inside of cupboard at Tanya's and put a shelf up in cupboard. Another one needed, it will have to wait until I get more wood.

Kathleen has caught decorating bug from Tanya, now we have started decorating our bedroom, plus there is talk of lounge, kitchen .... the list goes on.

Wednesday, and today Tanya is scheduled to have her new staircarpet fitted.

All goes according to plan, and fitter does an excellent job.

Tanya has made what looks like a sensible choice, the colour is called Anthracite, it is a dark grey and goes very nicely with the Dulux Cornflower White walls.

The photographs are taken with my mobile phone, unfortunately, it has not reproduced the colours very well. The staircase is poorly lit, or perhaps it is just my crap photography skills.

Another day off from the decorating (this is becoming a habit), means I have time for a short walk. Kathleen do our customary walk through Colliery Wood, then along the bridle path past the Travelling Man pub, and home again. For once, avoided calling in at the pub.

Today is Claire's birthday, and she is having a small get together.



October 7th - October 24th 2010

Birthday is over, it is back to work at the decorating.

With the main work in the living room complete, and more than one person doing the work, we can work on several fronts at once, I work my way through the remainder of the flat putting up ceiling coving.

The kitchen is a bit of a nightmare for the coving, since there are so many corners both external and external it is a real test of my (lack) of mitring skills.

More finishing touches are made in the living room, ie pictures, a "new" sofa etc, and it begins to look even better.

At least there is now one room which resembles a civilised house, and is comfortable to be in.

In the meantime, Tanya and her friend Kim, begin painting the kitchen, and it too begins to take shape and look good.

Unfortunately repositioning of the kitchen units, during the refurbishment, means there are gaps in the existing laminated flooring, with no funds available to redo this, it will just have to wait.

The colours here are Rasberry Bellini and Mello Mocha (the names!), but whatever, I think they look superb.

It looks much better than it did, it would look even better if someone washed the dishes, dried them and put them away!

It is necessary to dispose of the "old" fridge freezer, this is potentially a problem, first we have to get it down the stairs, then we have to get it taken away.

Tanya and I manage to man-handle it out of the kitchen and down the stairs. Our luck is in, a recently vacated house is being cleared of debris, and the operator agrees to remove Tanya's discarded fridge/freezer free of charge.

Next filling and painting of the walls of the staircase begins, we have a slight delay since we need ladders to reach the highest points.

Soon all of the walls are painted, Tanya elects to do them Cornflower White, which is eminently sensible since sharing a colour with the living room both economises on paint usage (and hence cost), as well as providing a visual link from the living room to the upper landing and staircase. Not often you hear the words "sensible" and "Tanya" in the same sentance.

At last, the staircase is painted, including gloss painting of the woodwork. We have even completed minor details like varnishing the doors to the livingroom, bathroom and bedroom.

This really beginning to look the business.

The old stair carpet is removed and arrangments made to have the new stair carpet (chosen by Tanya), laid on Wednesday 27th 

October 6th 2010

It is my birthday, I am not decorating today!

Tanya is always short of cash. Partly because she may be a worker as opposed to a benifits scrounger, but she is a low earner, and partly because she has little or no control over her money. It may be hard to believe, but, dire as things may be now, they are actually an improvement on where they have been.

I (and her mother), are currently subsidising the redecorating exercise, so whilst I was very touched when Tanya presented me with a birthday cake, I was also somewhat infuriated that once again she is spending money she does not have.

The cake was very amusing, you can see a picture of it here. It shows me, sitting at my desk with my lap top to my right, and I am busily writing out cheques to Tanya, so many that they have spilled onto the floor!

I had to laugh.

The weather is cold but pleasant, so Kathleen and I go walking in Weardale.

On our return I have a birthday visit from daughters Dana, Claire and their respective husbands Martin, Geoff, and children Emily & Lauren, Molly & Charlotte. They come bearing cards and gifts, most definately not bought with my money!

Son Gary and daughter Phillippa live further away, and send their best wishes by telephone.

This is all followed by a meal at the Red Lion, West Boldon, so another year older.

October 2nd - October 5th 2010

Work begins in the living room, first as always with decorating, there is lots of preparation, scrapping off the remains of the old backing paper, then a long session of filling cracks and sanding walls smooth, not to mention putting up ceiling coving.

I decide to use the lightwieght version of the ceiling coving, rather than the conventional plaster coving I have used in the past. With some trepidation at first, I am old enough to remember the nasty polystyrene ceiling tiles people used in years passed.

But the modern version proves to be a winner, it is simple to work with, it cuts with an ordinary fine toothed saw, and is fixed with solvent free "no more nails" type adhesive. It is so light one person can easily handle it, and the instant grab adhesive means there is no need to pin the coving in place until the adhesive sets.

Whilst I do this,  Tanya is busily choosing colours for the paint, she chooses from the Dulux range and settles on Blue Reflextion and Cornflower White (who thinks up these names?).

Here you can see her busily painting away, and yes she is painting in her PJ's, don't ask!

Before long she has enlisted the aid of a friend, Kim, so with three of us painting, work progresses rapidly as you can see.

The walls and ceiling are duly completed, then the new laminate floor is laid, skirting boards refitted, and gloss painting is done.

If only it could be done as quickly and easily as that short sentance implies!

Soon things are beginning to take shape, and we appear to be making progress, Tanya is a bit of a hoarder, and dare I say, even a little bit untidy, so I make a major effort to goad her into disposing of some of the junk, and having a tidy up!.

Before you know it, it is beginning to look like a home again, rather than a building site, but it is too early to be complacent, this is only the first room done, we still have two more plus the staircase to go.

October 1st 2010

The beginning of October, and I am writing this almost at the end of October!, I have lost control of my time.

I have been involved in redecorating Tanya's flat, after South Tyneside Homes had worked their magic on it as part of their "Decent Homes" Project.

I am sure it will be very nice when it is finished, but what a mess they left.

They have done a lot of work ie:

rewiring

installed new radiators for the central heating system

Replaced the old gas fire with a smart electric fire with a "marble" surround.

Installed a new Bathroom Suite (they also redecorated the Bathroom).

The problem is, that renewing the electrical wiring means they have made holes in every room in the flat, so living room, kitchen, bedroom, and staircase all need to be redecorated.

You can see the "before" photographs here, over the next few weeks hopefully you will see some "in progress" and "after" photographs, showing a marked improvement.