My Poor Roof
Jerry wasn’t the best roofer, as these pictures show.
He also seems to have created a roof to absorb heat into my house, which probably explains why it gets so hot.
The man was an idiot.
Getting Back To Normal
After yesterday’s disaster on getting to Doncaster, which was compounded by Ipswich playing extremely well and winning three-nil, things seem to be getting back to normal.
They are dual-handed on BBC Breakfast with Naga Munchetty and Jon Kay.
Even our cricketers are doing better!
But I’ve still got a long list of things to sort out.
My e-mail and e-commerce computer has a missing R on the keyboard. I think a USB keyboard and mouse will solve that one.
I’m typing this on my other computer, which I hate because it’s Windows 7 and Office 2010, which is just another case of fiddling and is far inferior for my purposes to Vista and Office 2007. I also hate the keyboard on this computer, as the Delete key is in the wrong place amongst many design faults. Can’t they leave well enough alone. All PCs and laptops must have the same keyboard! It should be the law!
I’m also virtually typing in the dark, as I have this computer at the other end of the table, and Jerry’s lights are crap. I need to grow another pair of hands, so I can put the Anglepoise up at this end of the table. When I first saw this house, I said that the lights must be replaced, but short of tearing down the ceiling, no-one seems to have any idea on how to do it. Obviously, Jerry used to walk around with a miner’s helmet on.
I must hope that the plumber can get over to fix my heating system. It’s just nineteen in here.
The humidity is up to forty six, which is better, but that is due to my little humidifier, I bought at John Lewis. The humidifier, I hired at great expense has failed.
One of the weird things about this house is that small electrical things fail. One of my Nokia 6310i’s needed repair and the menders thought I’d dropped it in water. I hadn’t. The latest casualty is an expensive mouse, which seems to have given up the ghost. It wouldn’t even let me change the battery, as it seemed to have glued itself solid. So I’m using an old fashioned USB mouse shared between my two computers. And both have their USB ports on the left, which means the cable runs in front of me and constantly gets tangled up in my dressing gown.
Life could be worse!
My Upside Down Heating System
My heating system is proving a nightmare to get right. On Friday the plumber found that instead of having the normally closed actuators on the valves with an M30 thread, they are normally open ones with an M28 thread.
Obviously, the originals fell of the back of a lorry somewhere in foreign parts, but they are totally incompatible with a modern heating control system. One supplier said that they were probably specially made, so they could charge a fortune for replacements.
The outcome is that there is little or no control of the temperature of the floors in my house. They seem to remain stone cold all the time.
Although, you can get some heat into them at odd times, but I suspect that is because the sun warms the room above the temperature set on the controls. This opens the valve and it gets even hotter, when it should switch the system off.
Was this why I collapsed in the heat and ended up in hospital? The doctors don’t think so, but I’m not going to let the house repeat its attempt to kill me!
The more I find out about this house, the more I come to the conclusion, that the architect had a few good ideas, but was very short on detail and calculations, the house was built by Jerry and he used a heating engineer, who used components with a very dodgy history. But then the name of company who developed the site was called Back Street Developments. They seem to have taken the money from those who bought the houses and run, as there is no trace of the company or an NHBRC Warranty.
I’m going to change the manifolds and actuators to the standard that every other system uses.
Mugged In My Own Shower Room
Ever since I moved into this house, I’ve moaned about the bathrooms. The en-suite shower room of my bedroom has got a lot of my anger, as every other time I clean my teeth, I bump my head on the cabinet above the basin.
Last night, as I went to bed, the awful cabinet bit back. I’d needed a new toilet roll and as one does, I keep them in the bathroom cabinet. But the catch is not the most reliable of devices and as I rose from the toilet, the door caught me on the head.
It only managed to extract a very small spot of blood.
My head has a very thick skull, but this morning, I do have a wound and a small amount of pain there.
It could have been a lot worse.
It’s another piece of bad workmanship and/or design to blame on Jerry.
I wonder if RIBA have a worst building prize.
I’ve Finally Got A Washing Machine In A Convenient Place
Ever since I’ve lived in this house, the washing machine has been perched on a crude shelf beside the boiler. You can get a glimpse of the installation here. It was impossible to get anything in or out of it without giving yourself a bang on the head or getting your hand trapped in the cupboard door.
So now the washing machine is in the garage and my excellent plumber has threaded the pipework through the floor.
Note the Sanivite to pump the water away. What surprised me about this device, was that it will pump grey water five metres vertically and fifty metres horizontally. So it might be ideal, if you want to put a sink in the shed at the bottom of the garden! Other devices from the same company, will cope with toilets!
One good thing was that the plumber found that the infamous Jerry had installed the underfloor heating correctly.
Obviously, I do have a scar in the tiling after the installation, but when the hall is finished, it will be carpeted.
My Ideal Kitchen
My current kitchen is not the best! But what do you expect as it was put in, by the idiot called Jerry, who built this house.
These three pictures show the kitchen as it is now.
This is the view looking into the kitchen from the living area.
Looking Into The Kitchen
Note.
1. The central heating box at the right.
2. The black IKEA shelving unit and one of my dining chairs.
3. The silly high shelf across the top, which is really just a convenient place to put things with no home.
This shows the other side of the wall looking out of the kitchen.
Looking Back
Note.
1. The small fridge without a freezer.
2. The general clutter.
This is the other side of the kitchen.
The Other Side
Note.
1. The dishwasher I hardly ever use.
2. The sink with the atrocious taps, that won’t fill a kettle with anything in the sink.
3. The cooker which does all I need. I never use timers or anything complicated like that, as before here, I cooked for nearly forty years on an AGA.
4. The Le Creuset shallow casserole, that I use a lot.
As you can see it’s not good. But the basic layout works for me.
There are other things to bear in mind.
1. It may seem daft, but I rarely use the dish washer, if I’m by myself. I tend to wash up by hand once a day in the morning to get my left hand thoroughly warmed so that I can do my blood test.
2. I am a pretty competent cook, but as I’m a coeliac, the sort of things are cook, tend to be fairly simple. I don’t keep many vegetables outside of the fridge for instance.
3. I do use lots of spices though.
Lots Of Spices
4. As the picture shows, I use a lot of glass jars for pasta, salt etc.
5. I also watch television and cook at the same time.
Watching Television From The Kitchen
5. I don’t have too many gadgets, except for a toaster, a kettle and a small food processor. Looking at this picture, you can see one of the problems with this kitchen. There isn’t enough space.
6. I do like to prepare everything on a big chopping board. My last one had a hole with a stopper, so I could chasse peelings into a bin underneath.
7. I do have lots of little utensils though.
8. I also want a home for my wonderful Sheba cutlery.
A Box Full Of Sheba Cutlery
Note the rare pie slice and teaspoons.
9. Colour is defined by the steel beams that run across the house. The black/brown IKEA colour is virtually right and I do like proper brass fittings.
Just writing all this down has given me a few ideas.
1. I think that the kitchen should be continuous and sort of overflow through the wall into the living room. Perhaps the worktop should be continuous between the two rooms! And at the normal ninety centimetre height.
2. In the living room, there would be a unit under the top. This would store the Sheba cutlery and other tablewear and crockery, a few bottles of wine and beer, perhaps include a wine fridge and of course hide the dreadful utilities cupboard. The unit would also be capable of holding most of the odds and ends that sit on the counter now.
3. Judging by past history, no-one would need to sit at the top, but it would be capable of being used as a serving table at a party.
4. The continuous worktop should give me a lot of space, which patently I lack at the moment.
5. The side facing the living area, would have a fridge and a freezer under the worktop, with some properly fitted out cupboards.
6. The cooker would be in the same place with cupboards, a built in microwave and a proper extractor above.
7. I do have several large casseroles that need homes.
8. On the window side, I want a double sink. I think, I’d probably still have a dishwasher, even if it’s only a half -size one.
2.
My Non-Existent Trickle Vents
All windows in a house are supposed to have trickle vents. My windows don’t! Wikipedia says this about the effect of trickle vents on the indoor environment.
Trickle vents will help avoid problems associated with poor ventilation in naturally ventilated spaces, including, reduced risk of condensation, avoided over ventilation (minimizing energy consumption), improved comfort through draft avoidance.
So I’ve now opened the top windows to see if this makes the house healthier for me.
My Non-Existent Trickle Vents
it looks like I could have just scored another victory over the dreaded Jerry
My Shower Room Was Designed By An Idiot
If I’m being charitable, to call Jerry an idiot is probably best, but sometimes I feel he was almost a sadist.
I said how if you have a shower, a lot of the water outside the shower area, gets thoroughly wet and if you use the toilet in the morning, you need to put shoes on, as if you’re in socks, they just soak up the water.
But the shower isn’t fit for purpose. I find it impossible to stand in the shower and wash underneath my arms unless I use a flannel, which I don’t have to do in all of the other showers I’ve used over the last few years. And guess what? There’s no place to put a flannel, so it inevitably falls on the floor. I don’t have trouble picking it up, but the tiles he used are very slippery when wet and one day, they’ll claim a victim. I just hope it’s not me.
The shower too, doesn’t know how to mix the water, so depending on where you stand, you either get hot or cold water, but rarely something in between.
The sooner the builders finish the bathroom downstairs the better. As then they can fix the two shower rooms.
I’m looking forward to 2015!
I Hate Avoidable Imperfections
I have just spent twenty minutes putting out the recycling. As it was only two full green sacks of mixed recycling and a cardboard box, that is far too long.
The problem isn’t the sacks, the box, my gammy hand or anything else outside of my control, but the front door of my house. I asked my previous builder to do something with it, so that it doesn’t close on its own volition. Luckily, it has only managed to lock me out once, but tonight it closed on me four times, as I took the recycling out. But I always check that my keys are in my pocket, as they were tonight.
I’ve been in this house nearly three years and I’m getting fed up with this door. All it needs is to look good, have an adequate letter box to replace the one, the previous builders broke, only shut when I want it to, and possibly be able to be locked and unlocked from upstairs, by flicking a switch.
I have an adequate budget for this job and I don’t think it’s too much to hope that this door will be sorted soon.
I suppose the real problem is that Jerry got the door on the cheap!
My Central Heating
There’s something weird about the central heating in this house.
I haven’t had it switched on upstairs due to its homicidal tendencies for a few weeks. So today, as it’s so cold, I switched in on again.
It must be the first time, anybody has switched the heating on and the temperature has fallen. Despite the fact that the floor is now quite a bit warmer!
The Anonymous Widower 