That brings me nicely on to my modernisation budget. I allowed myself a generous 20% contingency fund for my rebuild and as these things tend to it disappeared pretty quickly. In order to completely finish the house in the way I want therefore requires me to do some of the work. I'm going to do all of the living room with some advice from my builder. Like most DIYers I can lay bricks and work accurately with timber but the art of plastering and other finish work is something most prefer to leave to the pro's due to the high quality finish they give. I'm going to tank, render and plaster my lounge and lay the new floor. This work has to be done correctly and my builder will supervise whilst he finishes the kitchen and moves on to the bathroom.
This is an intriguing house. Lifting the floor - probably the first time since the last fire in 1904 - revealed charred brick and tile and showed more evidence of the building phases going back some 200 years. The last house I owned was built in 1720 and this one is more interesting and worthy of respect. This is partly why my budget has grown. Removing timber lintels and "over specing" the new lounge floor are examples. The lads from (my old) work who read this know only too well that in any project you can usually trade time for money. I am over spending therefore I need to reduce the time/money spent on paid labour to bring the project back and get all that I want for the money I have alotted. So I have asked the builder to give me the last 10 days on my own. 4hrs a day, 4 days out of 7, I have worked on the house. This together with keeping my old kitchen floor has saved me about £1000. I'm getting entirely fresh kitchen, bathroom and lounge for £12k. I think this is good value considering the quality and completeness of the work being performed. No short cuts here and the electrics and heating are state of the art and have some innovation applied to them. This will be an interesting home designed just for me and it should deliver exactly what I want my house to do. Can't wait until it is complete - October?
My blog posts tend to centre on several recurring subjects: travel, fitness (or lack of it), festivals and the plethora of minor shit that equate to building my new life. There is one other subject I tend to write about and there has been some changes here. Early days and caution is present but I'm smiling more. Thank you.
Ive got that "Buckle up your seat belt Dorothy'coz Kansas is going bye bye" feeling.
My beautiful daughter returned from travelling this week so we went out and got shitfaced - as we do. Some parents my be shocked at this but Lizzy and I are great friends and I would just like to ask what do you do with your friends when you haven't seen them for some time? Anyway, Friday was a great night where travel stories were exchanged and I benefited from from hearing her insight. Lizzy spent a month in Cambodia and a month in Thailand performing voluntary work with orphans. She is 20 in September and off to Uni in October. I would say this wouldn't I but my daughter is quite a gal. Given all that has happened she is honest, straight and ambitious in the right way. She is also a thinker, beautiful and funny. I hope you can see why I'm so proud of her. We had a great night and crashed at a close friends flat that is blissfully located not 30mtrs from the pub. I slept on the freezing kitchen floor whilst Lizzy and her (quality) boyfriend had the lounge. I woke up stiff as a board and shivering, clear signs of a successful, good ole fashioned alternative piss up. Here's to you Lizzy, welcome back kid. Love ya.
This was going to be a simple post but actually I really enjoyed writing this one! Lots of things have happened and more to come next week when I leave for France and the lounge gets it's new floor. The bike is ready for France and in touring trim (as opposed to "all out, fuck off, mad dog, turbo charged nutter bastard" trim) and I hope I am ready as well.
So it's music time. I saw the Goddess that is Flo perform this twice at Glastonbury a year ago and it was emotional. It was the only time I have seen the entire Pyramid Stage area crowd (full by the way), the Solidarity bar punters and all the fast food traders stop doing whatever they were doing and climb on tables, chairs, turned to each other and put their hands in the air. Everyone, together, at once, sang the great lyrics and smiled. A true "moment" and I was there. Even if you have heard it a million times treat yourself one more time. Grab the hair brush, plug your laptop into your hifi, volume to 11, think of someone past or present and let go. I bet you can't play it just the once! This is what I saw, listen to what I heard. This one is for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6ozSBEc814&feature=fvwrel
And this is the equally excellent official vid of the studio version without Dizzee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZhN65vq9E&ob=av2n
Nice one!
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