Hello people! Welcome to another Saturday morning stream of consciousness from my head to your eyes and/or ears. Welcome to all new subscribers- come in and make yourselves at home. Do make your presence felt by hitting the like or share button, or, even better, making a comment below.
This week I have been feeling a little weary. The new en-suite (remember the en-suite?) is still requiring a little snagging work. I’m not sure why builders talk about the things that happen AFTER the work is supposedly complete as ‘snagging’. It may feel like a ‘snag’ to them, but it’s a ‘BLOODY GREAT INCONVENIENCE’ to the customer. I shouldn’t grumble really, as the en-suite is, in fact, fabulous, just one or two really tiny things…like the siting of the all-singing, all-dancing bathroom cabinet above the sink (a no-brainer, yes?) means that the reflection of the tap confuses the infra-red sensor that turns on the light around the mirror. By confuses I mean that the light turns on and off at random times, or sometimes it just flashes on and off like a disco strobe, or it’s off when you go out in the morning to the shops and when you come back two hours later, it’s on. Spooky. The answer, other than having the cabinet resited to not over the sink (and what would be the point of that?), is to artistically drape a flannel over the offending tap in order to calm and soothe the sensor so that it works, as it should, only when one waves one’s hand across it. Well, that’s all right, then.
More of an inconvenience is the feeble ratchet on the thing that holds the shower head in the correct, angled position. It works fine at the top of the rod for my husband, but stumpy little me who needs the shower head to be a foot and a half lower (no wetting of hair in the shower please, unless I am deliberately washing it) is plagued by a shower head that starts off firmly erect, but droops over the time I’m in the shower, forcing me to bend my knees lower and lower in order to stay under it…Ah, a snag, says the builder. No, a f***ing nuisance, think I, whilst smiling politely and pinning him to the wall.
Anyway, here is a little gallery of the new en-suite just so you can see its loveliness, in spite of the ‘snags’. It now has a plant or two and some rather lovely deep pink towels and matching shower mat, the colour is called Hibiscus, which feels counter-intuitive because I think of hibiscus flowers as blue…ah, me. (I couldn’t be bothered to take more pictures with the accoutrements in place. My bad). You can clearly see the offending tap which distresses the cabinet so much.
This week was forecast by both the BBC and the Meteorological Office to be dry in both the long and medium-range forecasts. Safe in the knowledge that these august institutions wouldn’t let us down, we booked our decorator to repaint the outside of the house. Changing the colour scheme from a kind of 1930s yellowy cream with red windowsills (rhubarb and custard) to a much sharper brilliant white with grey windowsills. Said decorator (Rich) duly arrived on Monday morning and started the preparatory work. All good (and dry). On Tuesday he started painting the walls. All good (and dry). On Wednesday (I’m beginning to sound a bit like that Craig David song, aren’t I?), it rained. Light, but frequent showers; Rich continued, painting furiously in the dry spells and grumbling into a cup of tea in the garage during the wet. Fortunately dry time outweighed wet time and the painting was more or less finished by close of play on Thursday. Rich had calculated four (dry) days for the work, but the time lost to showers means we have a lovely brilliant white house and garage with grey windowsills…and a red garage door. Busy Rich (so good he’s in high demand) can’t get back to finish everything until June 2nd. Our optimistic faith in the UK’s much-loved weather-forecasting institutions were misplaced. We should probably have known better, but what is one to do? Never organise anything out of doors because it might rain? No, we stiffen our British upper lips and go for it.
So, a word of caution to those anticipating home improvements: it ain’t over ‘til the large lady sings.*
That’s it for this week. I’m exhausted! I’ll write soon. x.
That bathroom is stunning! A cat would look lovely sitting on the floor. 😉
Like the new bathroom. Hope snags sorted soon.