24.10.22 Once a hovel. Always a hovel.

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Monday 24th 53F/12C. Up at 4.45. 

 Today I am recording my fluid intake and release. This is as a back up to recent blood tests with an eye on my prostate. Prompted by frequent waking in the night to relieve myself and getting worse over time. I was surprised to discover that the familiar tea and coffee mugs hold only 250ml. 

 For years I had been working on the completely false assumption of their holding half a litre. No idea where that figure came from. Based on this new information my fluid intake may actually be too low. Perhaps confirmed by colourful urine rather than clear. 

 Plans for today: More painting. When it gets light enough. The plywood beside the stairs needs a second coat. I have filled the cracks between the boards to give a more uniform appearance. The stairs will need painting too. When I get around to it.

 The chimney badly needs painting. Both upstairs and down. The chimney is central to the inside corner of the L-shaped lounge. Central and free standing upstairs. Yet it was left as rough, lime render and ugly patches of filler for all the time we lived here. 

 Only one side was covered in antique tiles. From floor to ceiling beside and behind the stove. I fixed the tiles myself from discovered stock in a retired tiler's barn. 

Some of my wife's red oaks catching the early sunshine. The wind vane anemometer mast is actually leaning.

 The rest of the chimney is/was downright ugly. Literally from top to bottom. Now I think back I never sat on the settee which faced into the room. So the chimney was never really noticed. At least, not by me. There are patches of some hideous and very dark wallpaper still to be removed from the chimney upstairs. Another project rears its [very] ugly head.

 7.30 The sky is just beginning to lighten in the east. The trees are moving in a breeze. No stove last night. 65F/18C upstairs. 60F/15C downstairs.

 8.10. A walk to the village. The sky was almost clear with decorative clouds. The sun rising behind the beech trees on the hill. Lots of traffic.

 9.20 Morning coffee over. Time to get busy again.

10.00 The plywood beside the stairs is painted. It still looks patchy due to variable sheen. Perhaps it will be more even when it is dry.

There are, no doubt, some of you who would automatically bring in skilled labour. To plasterboard the entire house, plaster over and then paint. Hovels do not get skilled labour. Which is why they remain as hovels. Even the [supposedly] skilled electrical and plumbing work is completed strictly in line with the hovel status. 

 So you [or rather I] get a plumber. Who cross threads the waste outlet to the trap and walks away. Then fails to notice there is a secondary drain in the draining board. So they didn't bother to connect the supplied hose fitting to the OPEN branch on the trap. You'd think that would have been a clue? No. The [unskilled] client has to point it out to the professional plumber.

 He ignores the general advice to bed an inset, new sink onto silicone sealer. To avoid the working surface becoming soaked in the sawn cut-out. By water running off the sink. Not to mention failing to turn up twice for their appointment. Nor even to acknowledge the presence of the paying client as they arrived. Greeted the electricians and then pushed past me to go indoors.

 The electrician runs exposed cable in wobbly and sloping, plastic conduit. Rather than channelling walls or feeding through ceiling spaces. Has no white sockets or switches in the van. So must install grey. Or a mixture of grey and white. 

 Who repeatedly blows a fuse. Because they lose track of the wiring in a socket. Who leaves with a few gaping holes in the kitchen ceiling for me to repair. From using hole saws where they failed to find a suitable spot for a ceiling outlet. Nor had any outlet cover plates in the van. I was expected to drive to their place of business to collect one and fit it myself.

 My longcase [grandfather] clock has been moved away from the dining table to make more room. The newly painted corner was too good for just stacking junk. The clock is upright but the camera has distorted the image. I was never allowed to run my clocks. Because the loud ticking got on my wife's nerves.

 Then leaves the client to wire up three ceiling lamp sockets through another round hole in the ceiling. That was after drilling a few skewed holes though the walls. To run further conduits highly visibly down the walls and corners. While still failing to provide all the wall sockets I asked for. I was left to fill all the ragged holes he had made.

 Then there's the local carpentry business. Whose boss promised to install my new bedroom widow repeatedly. But never turned up over a period of months. I was lucky the weather hadn't turned by the time I did it myself. Haven't any of these businesses heard of Trustpilot? 

  I had to go into town in the car this afternoon. So didn't get anything done at home. I nodded off when I got back.

 18.00 Windy but 56F/13C outside. It could reach 20C this week. In October! 65F/18C upstairs. Yet it feels quite cool sitting here at the computer. Where I can hear the clock ticking steadily at the bottom of the stairs. It will not be striking. I have enough problems sleeping as it is.

Dinner was cod in batter with tinned tomatoes and peas. Strange picture using flash.

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