The on-going saga of the kitchen floor part 3

We have been rather cramped over the past week with bits and pieces of furniture from the study and kitchen having pride of place in our lounge.  The picture above also shows the tiles in their boxes getting acclimatised.  Actually, we have had stuff all around the house since last October waiting for some resolution in the flooring issue. 

 Hopefully, we shall have everything back in their right places very soon now as the new tile fitters have been working all day.  There were 3 in all.  Two came on Monday and succeeded in screeding the awful mess of the floors. 

 The screeded floors looked sleek and smooth - a far more professional finish than the last ones!  The picture below shows part of the study.

Here is a close up of the floor with lots of little bubbles on the top - resembling the surface of the moon perhaps!  They didn't seem at all worried by this. 

After working non-stop all day and with several hair-dryers blasting away, they have almost finished the job, and, from what I have already seen it looks lovely.  I shall put up some more pictures when it is completed and when we are not shivering with the cold - all windows have been open all day and also the back door!

The new studio/shed

My lovely, talented and very artistic daughter had her super studio/shed delivered yesterday.

The 3 men arrived about 10.15am and decided to pass all the pieces over the fence!  The lorry was parked in the narrow road outside and they just lifted them over. 

It took no time at all to get it all up on the concrete base but as the front was being finished we realised that the door hinges were on the wrong side.  She wanted the door to hang from the right side as you look at the front and had asked for this. The hinges were on the left!  So after many phone conversations with the supplier, (where the men had suggested that she should "give them hell"), they agreed to put a whole new front on it next Thursday.  I don't think the supplier was very happy about this and didn't make it easy for my daughter.  But, when you pay out good money, you do expect it to be right!  They left at about 11.15am - just an hour to put it up.

The inside of the shed looks like the above and the finished studio looks like this:-

It measures 10ft x 8ft and gives lots of room inside for benches and display shelves.  I think she is going to put insulation on the inside of the walls too and, of course, lighting.

The on-going saga of the kitchen floor

On Friday the 'Karndean floor laying experts' came to undo the job they had done at the start of last October.

It has taken all this time to resolve the matter of the non-stuck tiles in the kitchen, study and cloakroom.  They arrived just after 9am and left at 10.40am and managed to have a 15 min break in between!  The picture above shows the cloakroom and the screed intact with the adhesive on top.  It also shows dark patches of dampness where it hasn't dried out over all this time!

They had trouble trying to get some of them up, as the picture above shows.  So they didn't bother to do so.  This tile was just left and shows signs of they way they tried to rip it up. 

 

In other places the underlying screed was pulled up too, so I imagine that those tiles were stuck firmly.  This picture shows the edge of the screed and the base concrete floor.

In other places the screed was left intact and the adhesive can be seen clearly on the top.

This last picture shows the state of the study floor where many tiles kept curling up their edges and corners even  after they had been heated and rollered  down.

I'm glad the tiles have gone but I am shocked at the way the floor has been left.  We had agreed that the tiles and adhesive should be taken away but, as you can see, there has been no attempt at removing the adhesive where it is still on the screed.  I think the next tile fitters will have more to do than they had thought - trying to get the floor level and in a state where tiles CAN be put down successfully.

And another thought, we had also asked for one step of faulty carpet on our stairs to be replaced, but that hasn't happened.  So we are left with the feeling that they do not really care about making sure that their customers are happy.

We did get a refund of the amount we had already paid towards the tiles.  So that's one good point. 

Grandson number 3's birthday bash

Grandson number 3 turned 7 last week and on Wednesday we had a get-together with all four grandsons here for lunch/tea and, of course, the birthday cake.

He had asked me for a chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream filling, so this is the result.  As you can see, it also has jelly bears and giant chocolate drops too!  They loved it and had two slices each!!!  That surprised me.  It did taste good though, although I say it myself. 

There was much playing in a camp upstairs with socks off and then in the garden, using pipework and watering cans, to water the plants in pots.  I think they enjoyed themselves.

Stratocasters

This is what the inside of our shed looks like at the moment.  Just thought you might like to see.

Last Friday Citilink delivered a brand new Japanese-made Fender Stratocaster in fiesta red (left-handed, of course) to my darling other half.  He had been so excited about it and couldn't wait to try it out.Excitement was short-lived, unfortunately, as it wasn't up to expectations!  It even looked different in several ways from the pictures the vendor had up in his on-line shop.    

                                                                                                                                                                        The reason for buying a new one was to improve the quality of sound from the top string, which, on his old, black, American-made guitar, seemed a bit thin.  On this new one the sound was even thinner!!!  So it has to go back.  Looking up the serial number on the neck of this guitar we find that it isn't even a newly-built instrument, but was made between 2000 and 2002!!  No wonder the strings and some of the chromium bits look a bit rusty!  I think it must have been hanging around in the warehouse for a few years not, as the man-in-my-life had been told, just come in.  So we are now awaiting the courier to return tomorrow to pick it up and take it back to Edinburgh.  Sad.  

We even went to Guitar Village in Farnham last Friday afternoon to see what they had to offer in left-handed Strats.  There seems to be one which boosts the volume and sound quality but it is hard to find in a left-handed version.  It is model S1 HSS and it has a Humbucker pick-up on the bridge and so boosts the sound.  They did say they would ring us on Monday to give us a price but so far we have had no call. 

 Anyway, here is a photograph of three Strats together.  The real red one is my brain-box son's, the black one is loved by the one and only m-i-m-l and the sort of coral pink is the new re-issue '57 one which is useless.

A Great Weekend at Center Parcs - Longleat

Last Friday the lovely man in my life and I picked up grandson number 2 from school and drove on to Longleat. It didn't take long to get there and for the last few minutes we drove through thick snow before we joined a queue of cars waiting to check in. The fir trees looked quite exquisite as their branches became covered in huge snowflakes.



It was very difficult finding our villa trying to avoid all the people who were walking all over the roads holding umbrellas over their heads and not looking where they were going. We couldn't see the signs as they were covered by falling snow and the roads were steep and slippery. But we got there in the end.

Villa 907 was in a good position half way between the Plaza and the village square so it was fairly easy to get to the main places quickly. The door you can see in the picture was our front entrance. We had a lovely view through the huge redwoods.



The grandsons, son and daughter-in-law went swimming twice a day and they loved it. We all enjoyed the jazz brunch and helped ourselves to lots of lovely things to eat. I only wish we had been able to do what I saw many others doing, that is, eat a big, cooked breakfast and then, a little later, continue with a cooked lunch with puddings and endless drinks! There was a great and extensive climbing play area which was hugely enjoyed by the younger members of our group.



We were greatly excited by the falconer who entertained us for an hour in the freezing cold, rainy Sunday evening in the middle of dark woods sitting inside a wooden shelter. He showed us several owls and flew them, although not for long in the rain as it is not easy to fly when your wing feathers are wet! We all enjoyed his talk and the children were riveted to the antics of the owls. The high point was when all the children held out their gloved hands and Eddie, the tiny owl, flew from one to the other all along the line. Grandson number 4 was so excited he couldn't keep still and wanted to ask lots of questions.

Darling husband was very proud to be picked by the falconer to help - even though he looked a little startling in his hat pulled down over his head. I think he had one of the longest helping jobs of the whole session and he did it beautifully.


We were all exhausted when Monday morning dawned and yet the swimming party still braved the Rapids after their delicious breakfast in Cafe Rouge. I'm ashamed to say the my lovely m-i-m-l and I just spent the time sitting watching the new guests arrive.

Surprise present

On Saturday the ever-lovely man in my life gave me a belated Christmas present.   It was a cardboard box with a handle.  When I opened it I was so surprised I couldn't speak.  It was a Macbook laptop computer!!!!   Wow! And wow! again!  I have always dreamt of owning a laptop and I must say I do fancy the apples - ever since I first put my fingers on a Mac keyboard many moons ago when dreary old, stick-in-the-mud teachers were pushed into the new, technological age of computers.  I loved dragging the icons across the screen to move them about and especially to dump them in the wastepaper basket.

Well, I now own one!  I feel a bit frightened of it though.  I really do not know how to put things onto the screen so that I can use them later.  I suppose it's because I have never needed to (lovely man-in-my-life again).   Anyway, my super duper brain box son (who knows everything there is to know about apples), was really great and sorted it out to get it up and running.  Then, his fantastically organised and clever wife offered to put things onto the desktop and show me how to operate the things I want.  They have both spent hours helping me and I am eternally grateful.   Thank you both.  I know I shall still need more help in the future, so don't go away, please.                                                                                                                                

Of course, my lovely m-i-m-l has shown and guided me through everything too.  He is still getting acquainted with apples though after a lifetime of PCs - which he's crazy about.  How kind it was of him to get me something which is more difficult for him to use.                                                                                                      

If I find out how to get pics onto this site from my new computer I shall add some asap.