Olympics opening ceremony

Well what a good start to the Olympics ehh, I didn't completely understand all the elements but the highlights for me were the transformation from countryside to Industrial revolution, which went seamlessly, the deaf lady drummer Dame Evelyn Glennie and the 1000 other drummers who were braw, Mr Bean and the symphony orchestra, James and the Queen and her corgi's, the Olympic cauldron, the colourful dresses of the different nations, most of the music and the biking winged folks.

Danny Boyle did an awesome job, for me seeing the kids and staff from GOSH was nice but the NHS celebration started to lose me a wee bit, apart from Danny being MrTrainspotting I dont think that movie would have got a reference, Paul stuffed up the start of Hey Jude and carried on far too long at the end but he certainly had squillions of us singing along for the first 10 choruses of na na na, overall it was well worth staying up late for.

Progress report

My blog is getting more and more like a building progress report every day, I remember a time when I used to sarcastically blog about Sylvester,s Mummy and the Mufti, sounds a bit like a sequel to Tomb raiders, anyway theres not much happening in the world apart for my fireplace and heating system honest.

The finished thing will have tiles between the two plinths and a wood mantle and wood on top of the two shelves/ seats or whatever they are meant to be. I was going to stain/ varnish them but I'm not really a stain fan so now they will get painted a high gloss. The chimney breast will be that muddy grey colour and the bit behind the fire will be same light wall colour as rest of room so the fire stands out against it. The copper piping was run yesterday and 4 radiators hung ready to be connected, there is a wee thermostat which controls a pump which lets water from the boiler on the back of the fire to the 500ltr holding tank, that was installed along with the pump, the chimney breast was filled with a substance for insulation around the flue and there is a new cap on the roof.

There is a cacophony of swallows swooping around chasing flies over the pond and in amongst the trees making a wonderful din as they feast themselves. They are amazing to watch as they feed on the wing at breakkneck speeds.

The weather is back to being windy and moist again but hey this is Ireland what were you expecting son. All the plumbing is finished in my office so I have put everything back in there and am hot to trot with my website designing, I have numerous ones on the go at the moment including a guest house, a castle, a window company, a zumba dance class, a music tuition business and hopefully a pro photographer, anyway they have all paid a portion of the cost apart from the zumba and music ones who are for a friend so no doubt they will all call up at once to proceed further with their designs. No doubt as soon as the sun comes out lol.

Finally back online

Well it seems like an eternity since I had the Onwave satelite disconnected and signed up with Vodafone for my telephone and broadband, wait a min it is an eternity, anyway this is me back online again. It only took 15 working days in the end but hey this is Ireland and the working week is only 2 days after all.

The fireplace should be getting plasterered tommorow and hopefully I shall get my living room sort of back to normality, saying that I have to lift the carpet and take off the carpet tack rails and the skirting boards and repaint most things. Today I'm painting bathrooms between things one coat before the rads go on next week. Will have three plumbers here over the weekend so there should be some progress.

I missed my internet, the dongle Angie has wasnt strong enough to use skype so I havent been in touch with anyone for the 15 days.

I see my neighbour is down at the river building a new bridge today so i shall have to go down and inspect at some point, I saw him this morning and he was saying the Pikies were down at the river last night, the neighbour owns the fishing on the river and the travelers have decided to camp in a passing place just down the road here( not good as they leave a heck of a mess, rob everyone in the vicinity and there are now 7 caravans parked there). I have my gates closed to stop Jessy from going out but have still had visits from them trying to sell me stuff probably on a pretext while they cased the joint. Thankfully I have two largeish dogs that make a heck of a row if anyone comes in.

new fire arrived

Well the new Nestor Martin Harmony fire arrived today and is currently in the middle of the living room floor it looks the same as the one below

I got tiles for the hearth today they should look great and are a bit like shiny textured slightly rusty metal in colour. The store they came from had some good bargains and we may even tile the kitchen floor instead of putting wood through there. Took me ages and lots of sweating to get the cork tiles off, used "Big Bertha" which is a long handled heavy scraper, but it weas still hard going.

Am going to get a Rangemaster range cooker for the kitchen, will order that tommorow and have my 70 yr old plumber fit it.

The gas bottles will be out in the shed with a new water tank and pressure pump for the hot water.

I will have to try and do the kitchen cabinets up rather than get a new one at the present time but changing them from varnished pine to a cream colour high gloss should give them a new lease of life.

So its all go here

Remember the old fire place ?

Well renovating is such fun I must do more of it to be sure to be sure. I think every room in the house now is decimated with dust and ruble and tools and that. Remember the old fireplace? well its near gone and barrowloads of fill came out of the chimney breast.

The new stainless tank has pride of place in the hallway, its huge and has more places for inlets and outlets than you could poke a stick at, it was expensive but is future proof and can take solar pannels and all sorts down the track and thankfully it wont stay in the hallway for ever but replace the existing electric emerser tank in the hot press.

The wall in the small shower room off the hall has gone and in a few days when the plaster goes off I shall paint it and after the radiator goes in there will lay some lino I think and maybe tile it down the track.

The kitchen ceiling has been renewed they ended up putting up new battons before the plasterboard for extra strength. And the Archway is also up and drying out.

Went out fishing with Sacha and caught about a dozen and kept six decent sized Pollack.

Harvested some veg from my garden the zuccini went mad

Have copious quantities of them and onions, carrots, lettus beans and peas and spuds.

The weather has been pretty hopless for Sheanas stay but that hasnt stopped us in any way from having a good time.

Bear Grylis eat your heart out

Well we got into building a tree house, well actually a tree tent thingie and then scaled the rapids in the river near the house, or sacha did anyway I put my largest toe in the water then feigned malaria.

windows in and looking good

Well the windows are in let the big cleanup begin. They made o good job of installing them but sheeeze they are mess. Anyway I have till Wednesday before the next round of works begin. I got the rest of the hallway stripped of wallpaper it was a big job but apart from some cracks that I have filled the walls look in good nick and should take paint well. Tommorrow I shall give them an undercoat or two of white then decide on a colour.

The electricity came back on about 9 pm last night and today was mostly dry so things have started to dry out a wee bit, the midges were horendous today but at least they had more target humans to attack not just me.

The wood along the bottome of the door has to be knocked out in a couple of days when the cement has gone off and I need to give them a wash tommorrow as the silicon will have set.

thunder storms

Well today was severe thunder storms one which knocked out the electricity, which is still off. I'm blogging from a car park near the local shop as the "dongle" reception is better down here and the car isnt full of dust unlike the house. The new windows/ doors look great they just have to fit the front door and do some plaster work and clean up I hope lol, bliddy renovations are messy I had no idea just how much mess was involved replacing windows, I suppose they had to cut out a lot of cement and plaster as the new windows are a lot thicker.

My solicitor got the certificate for the tank today and I got a quote for the new fire and heating systems which I said yes to.

I had to go in to Galway Hospital for a meet with the public system cardio man, its free but I have discovered they make all their money from the car park charges and the fact that they get you to go in 3 hours before they are ready to see you, I was sitting in one waiting room for an hour and a half then an other for a chest xray for about the same time then had to join the q for blood work. I almost choked when the Dr said next visit would take most of the day, note to self take a novel as the mags in there are all womens.

The yachts arrived in Galway from the Volvo round the world series so the town is busy, if the weather is half decent on Saturday I might try to go out for a sail up towards Galway. I should have a tellephone line on in 8 days time so will try calling family and friends after that.

new windows

Well they have brought the window installation ahead so will be starting tommorow :) hopefully a lot will be done before the weekend as Sheena arrives then for a two week visit. The surveyor passed the septic tank and percolation area today which means we will get a certificate and pay over the last money and the place is finally ours woohoo. The kitchen ceiling and archway and shower room wall are getting done next week so its all go here at last. I'm still waiting for a quote for the heating but hopefully that will be going ahead really soon too.

I managed to reverse into a petrol pump fourteen months ago and a claim came through for repairs to the insurer yesterday lol ohh well this is Ireland ehh since then I have moved house and insurers and they asked if I wanted to settle it myself or for them to do it? I paused a min and said " I think I'll let you go ahead considering thats what I paid you for".

My whipper snipper is in for repairs and today my hoover decided it needed replaced by the new model too, psst its in for a shock as I have duct tape here.

The picture below is the new colour of the walls in the living room I just gave the fire surrounds a coat of this sort of muddy grey colour which sounded great on the label "urbanite" I'm not sure if it will pass inspection from the P & O manageress but hey I did ask for some guidance on colours before I bought it. The stone part of the fireplace is going to be ripped out leaving a wee  Inglenook that I can stack wood in around the new wood burner I think it should look good and am wondering if I should paint a light colour in it so the stove stands out or maybe get a cream coloured stove and paint it darker.

I'm home alone from tommorrow untill Friday night so am thinking of painting the hallway the same "moccasin" colour as the other walls in the lounge and kitchen, why? well I have some left over for starters and its a nice light colour which will go nice with wood floors I think.

Below is the percolation area and John's rock garden which was a muddy patch near the shed.

I have to plant grass seed around the percolation area and put more veg in at the moment there are just some lonely potatoe plants. I was waiting this time untill it passed inspection.

Sky tv

Well June ended pretty dreich infact I saw somewhere that England had had the wettest June since 1834, John and I got a wee bit done, made a sort of no maintenance rockery to the North of the house on a slope beside the new driveway, it was all muddy as soon as we got a bit of rain as the dogs run over it all the time. Anyway it has pavers, gravel, rocks and wood and should be easy to look after.

We got sky tv installed yesterday, the dish wouldnt get a signal on the gable end so he ended up attaching it to the chimney, it was fine for him to climb all over the roof but Health and Safety wouldnt let him go in the loft so I had to go up and do the cables up there, wonder if I could put a bill in for installing the cables in my own house lol.

The dongle internet reception is woeful at times and poor at best but it means I can get emails and do the blog anyway. If I have to transfer files for websites or anything I shall have to go out in the car and look for a better signal lol.

Got all the grass cut today before it started raining as John left about 0730 so I had an earlyish start, my strimmer is in for repairs so the edges didnt get done, if its not back soon I shall need to get the sycthe out.