Today feels like a day that's long overdue for a blog, but the challenge is that having taken so long to get around to writing one, it seems difficult to know where to start!
Let's kick off with house news. Firstly, I am very pleased to be able to report that our utility bills are coming down. This was after a rather alarming time in the early part of the year - the combination of moving to a bigger house, having a long and cold winter, and (until we got it replaced) having an old boiler which wasn't the most efficient as well as no thermostatic controls at all led to some hefty bills. However, things are improving, although I am still keeping a daily eye on the meter readings. Following the really warm day this week, I was disproportionately chuffed to be able to report that on that day we had used no units of gas at all!!
However, despite the best efforts of our heating engineer, our system is still leaking somewhere. We can only assume that it is somewhere underneath the ground floor, as we haven't spotted any water damage on ceilings, and given that at one stage it was requiring topping up several times a day, had it been upstairs, I think we would have noticed it by now. We only hope that we don't suddenly have a disappearing floor downstairs at some point due to the accumulation of water. The heating engineer came back last week to put in some "compound"which apparently can seal small holes in pipes from the inside, and we have noticed a bit of an improvement since then, and so he's been back again today to put in some more!
As I type this sat in the study, I can't hear the pitter patter of tiny feet above my head, which might just mean that the loft squirrel problem is behind us. Several steps have been taken, including sealing some obvious points of entry under the eaves, putting traps and poisoned peanut butter up in the loft, and asking our neighbour to cut back a tree which may have been providing a route up towards the roof. Nicky even turned a problem into an opportunity by making good use of an unwanted present that the cat had left for us in the utility room one night, and distributing some of it in strategic points in corners of the loft - hopefully that will finally finish them off!
With the improvements in the weather, we've even been making a start int the garden. We've done some clearance in the front (probably about half of what is needed) as well as clearing most of the raised bed in the back. That, combined with a little bit of hacking on the land, and a few old unused fence panels, provided enough fuel for three large bonfires. Nicky also did a sterling job last weekend of jet-washing the patio, and where before it was pretty black and grimy, we can now see the delightful crazy paving patterns far more easily! Still, there is much excitement at the moment - the patio area is about to be put to very good use - the table tennis table arrives later today!
Other news from outside is slightly less pleasant. When we bought the house, one of the few things that the vendors did warn us about was that the main sewer running through our garden and land did have an occasional tendency to overflow due to some blockages further down caused by tree roots. Well, we can now confirm that he is right about that. One day during the week before last we woke to find that there was some brown sludge around the manhole cover next to our conservatory. Nicky was straight on to the water board, who came round and over the course of a few days did a pretty thorough cleanup operation. We were also able to get a new manhole cover for the land, as the previous one was just resting on top of the brick manhole surround, and had no frame - not very safe at all. Still, it is sorted now, and the water board team have also been trying to clear out some of the roots from the sewer, so hopefully it won't happen again any time soon.
Right, that's plenty for now. Will hopefully get into a better routine of posting for a while.
(Most of this post written on Saturday, but then updated, finished off, and posted on Monday.)