Random garden pics

Took some pics today as was in the garden:

Grass has got so long, I've needed to use the lawn tractor to cut it. Scalpage the result!

Out of view, but on the left of the first shot are the chickens. There are 10 now. All happily clucking and chickening about.

Greenhouse yet another project!

Out front

With a digger on site (see previous post),it seemed a good idea to try to make a bit of progress on the front garden. Well, the path at any rate.

You might remember this:

That load of hardcore leading to the front door is the path! Well. Kind of. The idea is that there'll be a path, and then a circle at the end. So you'll go up the path, and then instead of a right angle bend left to the front door, there's a circle. Anyway. It'll eventually be York sandstone. For now, it just needed the circle digging out and level with the start of the path. Digger in, and this was the result:

Much of the hardcore is from the fireplace in the sitting room!

That earth bank isn't against the new wall, it stops just at the foot of it, which emphasises how much higher the road is than the front garden. It needs raking out properly, but as the digger's on hire, I did that and not raking. Garden is going to need lots and lots of work!

Stinky poo poo wee wee

Ever since we had the house, we've had problems with the drains. It's been frustrating as the system that this house has is the same as the one in the last house, down to the installer, and that system was 100% reliable.

The only difference is that this one makes use of an existing system, and just modernises it, where the previous one was purpose built as the system in that house wasn't big enough. In any case, there are two tanks, the first is where the business really takes place - the digester tank:

Don't worry, wasn't going to give a proper view of the whole inner workings, but basically there's an air pump that aerates the 'mixture' and gives the bacteria in the tank that live off the contents oxygen so that they can process the waste efficiently. The waste is broken down in to water, which is clear-ish. The water is gently pumped to another tank, which is a settlement tank.

Any solids that remain drop out of the liquid, leaving the top layer of water clear and fit to join the nation's watercourses (so we have a license to discharge into the pond, basically).

As I said, we'd always had problems. The installer came back time and again, blaming builders for putting plaster down the outside loo, the washing powder we use and so on. We'd told him that there was another tank, but he waved us away, and as he'd installed it, we believed him. This time, though, we were fed up, and as we are on holiday (ha-bloody-ha - who spends their holidays like this, for crying out loud?) we had time to investigate more thoroughly. I remembered that the previous owner of the house had provided a diagram of the drains, and so dug it out. Hey presto, two tanks. Lifted the manhole from the 2nd tank - it was so full of solids that there were slugs crawling on the top of it.

Off to our local Machine Mart to get the blue hose pictured in the above, and pumped out the tank. It was at this point I wished that I'd bought a longer hose, because instead of giving our rose bed a good feed, it's clegged up the lawn like some sort of environmental catastrophe:

That is what lives at the bottom of the settlement tank. Because there's no air pump, and because I doubt it's ever been emptied, it's black because the process of decay is anaerobic. It also stinks. A clean up operation is pending.

Having pumped the tank out, the outlet pipe was visible, and so that was rodded. It was clear that there was a blockage. I assumed at this point that the old clay pipes had collapsed, so bought a plastic pipe and an adaptor to get onto clay. I also  ordered a little digger for a day's hire (that's Jem on the right - he's our helper on the weekends, and as it's the summer hols, he's also doing a couple of days here and there)

Digging up the exit pipe revealed a couple of things - one the clay pipe did have a small hole in it, but it wasn't collapsed. There was a concrete disc, and under it was this:

It's a valve - the exit to the pond is to the bottom of the photo, the tank to the top. So, if the weight of water is sufficient, then the water will push that round trapdoor open, and the water will exit into the pond. However, if the pond is flooding, then the valve will shut, preventing a backwash of water into the sewage treatment system. It's very clever, and we didn't have one of these at the last place. Needless to say, the valve was jammed shut. A bit of digging and poggling later, the valve was fully operational again. Jem and I also fixed the broken clay pipe:

And we also put back the concrete disc, for now. It will need a proper manhole cover in case this happens again, so for now, it'll have to stay like this until that arrives and gets fitted.

For now though, we have a fully operational sewage treatment plant! Exciting.

What is incredibly annoying is that the installer (who also services the plant annually, and empties the tank) has obviously never emptied the settlement tank. He's also been happily taking our money to investigate the problems we've been having, and never actually found the root cause of the issue. He's basically been taking the mick. In addition, if he had actually diagnosed the issue, he might have gained some business fixing the thing, and in doing so would have gained our trust and recommendation. Instead, we'll never use him again.

A set of well used drain rods!

More sitting room....

The plasterers came back the next day to finish off.

It took a fair amount of plaster to make the chimney breast flat and even, and the fireplace the same, remembering that the builder's opening was pretty rough. The inside of the fireplace is just rendered. It seems a bit OTT to plaster that out, and it gives a good effect. We might have left it plain brickwork if it hadn't been so rough.

Here's the fireplace again, nearly dry. The hearth has had the self-leveling floor adhesive applied. It's 'nearly' self-leveled! The room has also been 99% fully prepped. Two days of filling and sanding and filling and sanding. My wife doing the lions share of the graft. There's a bit of trim work around the window on the right in the pic below, and a little bit of inevitable filling to get all the edges clean, and that's it. Ready for paint. The picture rail will be reinstated too.

It's really hard to get across the work that's gone into getting us this far, and the room still looks rubbish! Paint will make a huge difference....

There's been some other progress elsewhere in the house - lots of time taken cutting and fitting skirting boards and architrave, but it doesn't make much difference to the overall look of the place, so didn't bother with pics of that.

More progress, some finishing touches applied....

The plasters came today. They're going to spend 2 days here and the sitting room will be transformed. Not finished, but having the plaster on, and all the surfaces smooth and uniform will be a huge difference. That's been after about 4 days of hard graft by both of us. Me doing wiring, filling in after wiring, putting plasterboards up (having to cut each and every one of them too), wife doing wallpaper stripping. It's a swiz as it doesn't look better than the last post, even when the boards are up....

There's one other thing - I made the hearth, or at least the base for it. You can just about make that out on the far side of those saw horses. The chimney breast was a pain, with much messing about to get it not even all that even and level.

If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it.... a ring main that is. And some CAT5E too. These sockets will be hidden in a cabinet, and that one high up will be behind the TV.

Anyway, as I said, the plasterers came and have done a bit - you can see where I've covered the RSJ - this room was one knocked into two (not by us - in the dim and distant)

This one just shows the fireplace a bit better on the far side of the Heath Robinson scaffold the plasterers will use to do the ceiling.

In other news, the boy's room got a finishing touch - he's now got a Star Wars storm trooper threatening that soft toy chicken....

Should be more progress to report soon!

not done, but certainly dusted....

Yesterday, we left the sitting room with this view. Today's task was to cut the channels for the wiring for the first fix electrics. I want to get the room ready for plaster. I guess this post marks a first. Mostly I post the 'during' shots. As in the room isn't at the 'untouched' stage, and it's not finished (unless it is). Some of these really are during. As in while the work's going on, rather than the 'beginning of the day' and  'end of the day' shot.

So, then, above is where we left it yesterday. Below is the same view today, in the middle of the chasing out. Good job I was wearing a face mask....

But not for this shot!

Again, lots of dust, followed by the result once the dust had settled . You can see we've not tackled the stairs yet....

This is the end of the day shot. Carpet is up and out, electrics and data points chased out, bit of a tidy up. That sofa on the right will be picked up by the council in a week or so.

A view toward the front of the house, which is the back of the room, or that's how I think about it at least. Dual aspect, or so the estate agents would have it.

This is the view towards the front door. The bottom of the porch used to be timber too. It's brick now and looks much better as it ties in with the house nicely. The dining room is on the right.

The porch is currently storing bits and bobs - mostly wiring and tiling/flooring stuff. Hope to get this finished up soon.

The porch from the outside. Very much a 'before' shot. Or kind of - the brickwork you can see wasn't there when we bought the house as above, but the rest is more or less untouched.

More soon....

Getting serious once more....

...but first a few odds and ends...

 The front wall is finished, at least as far as the bricks:

The gate posts look a bit incongruous without gates. They're on order, being fitted mid-August. We also need another house sign for the wall. The one purched on top of the curved bit of the wall will go on the new gates.

Here's where it gets a bit serious. When we bought the house, the estate agent's pics of the sitting room fireplace had it look like this...

Which is only a tiny bit hideous. To be fair, it is a nicely built effort, but the width of the fireplace compared to the fire itself is huge, and that little fire really doesn't have much chance of heating the room. So it really had to go. It will be replaced by a log burner. Which means the fireplace has to go. The builder's opening is what's needed, this is what the housebuilder left for whatever fireplace the person finishing the house wanted. You can see this below in the whole room pic.

Luckily we had that bit of wood lying in the garden. It had come from the playroom fireplace. I just hadn't chucked it out thinking a big piece of wood like that would come in handy at some point. Well, it just did. Not sure how many barrowfuls of hardcore came out of that fireplace, but it's serious when you have a wheelbarrow in the house, and 110V tools (note yellow transformer).

We're having  a bit of a blitz on the inside of the house for a few weeks. Want to get this room ready for plaster over the next week or so. Then we can decorate and have Mark the floor man back. This room needs a few more things like radiator covers and a cabinet built to house the electrical/electronic gubbins. The hearth and fitting the log burner will also make this a longer process too. I'll also need to make a swingy-arm thing for the TV. So a fair bit, but looking forward at least to having this room modernised!