Front and centre

The ‘to do’ list is getting shorter, all the major jobs are done, but there are a fair few little ones that need doing, and this week we tackled one we had both been putting off. Way back when we were in the loft on a regular basis, I noticed a hole filled with a birds nest in the eves, I managed to get most of the nest out – it was very old, but this left a hole that needed fixing. We didn’t have any leaks, but when you know you have a hole in the roof, you don’t want to leave it. We also needed to sort out the pull socket we had disconnected in the bathroom, so we could finally take it out.

So up I went. 

The first job was to work out which cables were connected to what and what was needed to remove the switch from the bathroom. Ian wiggled from below as I looked out for a moving cable, having spotted it, we realised it was connected to a junction box, so although we could remove the fitting and pull the cable up, it needed to be disconnected at the other end too, and working out what was what took a while. Nobody likes a free flapping live cable in the loft.

There was no way I was doing that bit on my own so Ian joined me up top and managed to sort it all out identifying about 3 other cables that were just randomly connected to nothing. Luckily none of those were live either, but there were a few double check moments before taking a firm grasp and pulling.

While we were there we decided to tackle the nest/hole. Last time I just couldn’t reach the actual hole as there just wasn’t space, flat out on my stomach, arms outstretched I just couldn’t get close enough as the roof was too low, I needed to be flatter to fit and I haven't lost weight, so I needed a plan. I used a stick to get the nest out before, but I was going to have to get in there this time. So I came up with a cunning plan… Front and centre did not work, so side and flatter it had to be. ( some will get this reference, others less blessed may not!) It gave me a little extra space and ta da, I could reach the hole. I had the sticky roofing material to stick on all carefully prepared; it was just unfortunate it wouldn’t stick!

After all that, I couldn’t fix it from the inside, so Ian got the ladder out and after about 20 minutes of him trying to find the hole in the roof from the outside (it was not in the same location as the internal hole in the lining), we finally found the issue… the lights went out in the roof. Ian had found the source of the problem. It seems the flue from the boiler wasn’t that well sealed! A bit of sand and cement later, and it was fixed.

Having removed the pull socket from the bathroom, we were reminded of the state of the house when we arrived. Ewww, this bit of ceiling was... shall we say... in its original state! So we fixed that too.   

We also decided it was time to get our final belongings out of storage and work out where on earth we are going to keep it all. The final container had most of the garage content, some of which we now needed, but also my Kenwood Mixer ( well mum’s, but it’s mine now) and my weighing scales. Oh how I have missed them. No more guessing cup measurements. I can weigh out ingredients once again! Bliss….