Work in progress

We have been busy.  I know in my last post I said I was really looking forward to a new project but boy it’s been hard work. On Wednesday we went to the GP flat together.  The first job was to get rid of the 2 cream sofas that the tenant had left.  We realised when we tried to get the first sofa out of the front door why the tenant had left them.  Try as we did, the sofa wouldn’t go through the front door.  At one point we got wedged in the hallway and the sofa was jammed stuck.  It took an almighty shove from Phil to get it unstuck.  In the end Phil got the saw and we had to saw the sofa in half to be able to get it out of the front door and down the steps.  What a nightmare and it took almost 2 hours to get both the sofas out of the flat.  The next job for Phil was breaking down the kitchen units.  This wasn’t so easy because Phil had forgotten to bring the electric screwdriver which would have made the job a lot easier.  Never mind, he managed to get all the units dismantled and then it was my job to take the mucky, greasy units to the tip.  Actually it took me 3 trips to dump everything including all the wall tiles from the kitchen.  It’s looking quite bare, all we need now is a Corgi registered plumber to disconnect the gas hob and the sink and then we are ready to start work. 

Phil had to stop work mid afternoon as he had to go to the doctors’ surgery to get his blood pressure checked.   As usual, we stayed at Sue’s on Wednesday afternoon. Phil went out with the boys and I cooked salmon for supper.  Unfortunately Sue wasn’t feeling too good so it was a quiet night and early to bed.   On Thursday Phil went to the GP flat and started scraping the wood chip from the walls in the bedroom.  Not an easy job because the stuff was stuck firmly. I went to the gym as stripping wallpaper is not one of favourite pastimes.   I stopped off with a Burger King for Phil and then went to pick up Sue as she had another appointment at The Churchfield hospital in Oxford.

The drive was okay and we arrived in plenty of time for Sue’s 2pm appointment.  Unfortunately we had a 40 minute wait until we were seen and then we found out that Sue wasn’t seeing the consultant and the junior doctor that she did see didn’t have her notes from MK.  We know that Sue has to see all the different specialists at Oxford which is frustrating in itself but when they don’t have her notes or results of previous tests, its hard to remain patient.   Sue eventually did get to see the consultant and after the MDT meeting tomorrow she is hoping to get a call from the Churchill to say that they have a bed.  They will probably get her in for more tests but I think she is still a long way from surgery. 

It was a really hot humid day on Thursday and we got caught up in the traffic as we left Oxford.  I suppose given that we didn’t leave the hospital until 4pm we did well to get back to Newport Pagnell just before quarter to six.  Oxford isn’t a million miles away but it does take up half a day getting there and back and allowing time for the appointment and extra time in case the traffic is heavy.  Poor Sue was done in and so I was I; I stayed for a glass of wine and got back to Overstone at 7pm.  

On Friday we drove to MK in the one car.   I dropped Phil off at the flat and then dropped into Sue’s for a quick cuppa.  Thankfully she was feeling much better which was just as well because she was having a dinner party that evening and was busy preparing and cooking.  After tea I went round to the flat to pick up wet soggy wallpaper.   Phil and I then went to Sue’s dad’s bungalow to do a couple of little jobs there and afterwards we went to the café at the oriental shop in Stacey Bushes.  Phil enjoyed his chicken katso curry but my chicken chow-mein wasn’t very nice.  After lunch it was back to wall paper stripping and then we went to DW for a Jacuzzi and a steam.

Sue had invited Jim & Anne along with me and Phil for dinner at her place and very kindly said we could stay the night.  I picked up Anne & Jim from their house to save them a taxi ride and we sat down to dinner for about 7pm.  And what a delicious dinner it was; pate to start, followed by chicken chasseur with green veggies and roasted new potatoes.  For dessert, we had fresh fruit salad and cheese and biscuits to finish.  It was nice to catch up with Anne & Jim and hear all of their plans.  All in all, great food and great company and a nice time was had by all.

It was a foggy start to Saturday morning; I dropped Phil off at the flat and then went to Anne & Jim’s house to pick up a special tool to help strip the wallpaper.  And then it was back to the flat for more stripping and scraping.   Phil stuck to the water and sponge but I worked with the heat blower.  I don’t which was more effective but either way it was slow going.   I don’t know who invented wall chip paper but whoever they are, they deserve to suffer a long and painful death.   I was glad when Harriet turned up at the flat at midday as it gave us an excuse for a break.  This was the first time that Harriet had seen the GP flat and she thought it was in a terrible state.  It is of course, and when you are ripping everything out, it always looks bad.

We took Harriet to the Giffard Park for lunch as we hadn’t been there for months.  In fact I don’t think we have eaten there since when we lived on Giffard Park.  The pub was fairly empty and we all ordered steak and chips.  Normally the food isn’t bad at the Giffard, it is what it is, pub grub but our steaks, when they came, were as tough as old boots and we had to send them back.  I very rarely do this but our waiter was happy to take them away and get the chef to cook us new steaks.  These were fine but to be honest because we’d eaten a third of our first meal, none of us were that hungry.  I will try the Giffard Park again but I don’t think I will bother with the steaks again.  After lunch, Harriet went straight home and we carried on with the wallpaper.  Sue popped by to take a quick look at the flat and we didn’t stay much longer after she left.  To be honest, we were loosing the will to live by this stage of the day plus we were knackered.  

Phil talked about going to work in the flat yesterday but in the end we decided to have a day off.   Phil did draw up the flat in AutoCAD and we plan with us to discuss over lunch.  Lunch was the Sunday roast at the clubhouse.   We studied the flat plan and have more or less decided to do a major refurbishment on the flat.  Phil has been desperate to knock down a wall for a long time and I think with this flat, he may just get his way.  We have decided to knock down the wall in-between the lounge and the kitchen making it a totally open plan.  I think the plan is to go to town on this flat.  New kitchen, new bathroom, slim line radiators, white gloss kitchen, under-floor eating and an ultra modern bathroom.   Its not exactly going to be a project with no expense spared, oh no, we intend to do most of the work ourselves and know where to source bargains but it will be nice to go for a sharper finish than we do with our normal rentals.     

Phil woke up with a really bad back this morning.  I don’t whether it’s because he slept in a funny position or whether it’s because of the wall paper stripping.  This didn’t stop getting his work kit on and going over to the GP flat for some scraping but I decided to stay behind.  I felt a little guilty but I wanted to give the van a good clean and catch up with some domestics which have been rather neglected.  I also wanted to sort some paperwork.  I have managed to do what I set out to achieve but it’s been a rather disjointed day. At lunchtime I forced myself to get in the car and go to DW Northampton for a workout but when I came off the A45 there was a big long queue of traffic which was due to roadwork’s.  I sat in the queue for about 10 minutes and then decided to turn around and give it up as a bad job.   I have finished my ironing and have showered and got changed in my pyjamas.  Yes I know it’s only the middle of the afternoon but it’s so horrible out there that I don’t feel like going out anywhere else today.  I do wonder when our summer will begin; ever since we have put up our gazebo its done nothing but rain.