~o~
The following monologue is only my thinking aloud on recent progress and future plans. Without anyone to share my thoughts I use my waffle to clarify my own. You can easily skip over this.
A busy week ahead. Not only two days of cooking classes and the museum. I have a doctor's appointment and the council therapist later in the week. The latter's visits are always used as a trigger to put in some extra effort. Deliberately so. She only calls every few months. As a rare visitor, to my rural hovel, I always use the opportunity to try and improve the place.
I have finally taken down the telephone and network cables. Which decorated the lounge ceiling and supporting beam for probably two decades. The fibre router was low on the east wall. The computer and phone were upstairs. The only way to join them was via 10m long cables via the ceiling and open stairwell.
The dark brown, timber cross beam needs to be painted white. Which would have been impossible until now. The beam must have been installed to open up the lounge from the former, two much smaller rooms. The recent absence of furniture will allow me to roll back the large carpet. Which covers most of the lounge floor. I don't trust myself to avoid paint drips and spills. Not even with temporary, poly, floor protection.
Two
table lamps, with the same green shades as the kitchen and hall. Have
taken over lighting duties in the lounge. Multiple cables and lighting
flexes can now be removed from the spaghetti. Now that the computer is
downstairs.
I have also hung a large mirror above the old chest of drawers. Which now sits in the alcove at the bottom of the stairs. The reduction in clutter is achingly slow but inexorable. I keep seeing new opportunities once denied to me. By the excess of furniture and storage boxes. Downstairs storage has become much less of an issue. As the upstairs space becomes more efficient and properly organised.
Open spaces are restful on the eye. The under-stairs space could easily remain empty. For a more relaxed and open feel. Though the gloss, black paint on the stringers must go and quickly! The crumbling concrete floor under the stairs must be covered with a mat. I should look out for a larger one to cover that end of the lounge. There is an ugly gap presently covered by a "mud mat." Between the second, large carpet and the entrance hall door.
I really hate the small chest of drawers under the TV! The TV wall mount, which I recently bought, needs some serious fixings. The foam backed plasterboard will need major help or reinforcement to take the weight. Far more than the few screws and plugs supplied with the mounting plate! Obviously intended for a solid wall. Butterfly screws would probably do the job. Perhaps supporting a load spreading plate of plywood. Which would be invisible behind the TV. Without noticeably increasing the TV's projection from the wall. A few YouTube videos later and I can choose appropriate wall fixings.
8.00 Time for my walk. It is still dark grey and misty but has become quite breezy.
8.30 Returned from my walk. Chatted with my nice neighbour walking his dogs. Then explored the earthworks and captured lots of images.
10.00 Sunshine is breaking through the cloud and mist. I have taken down the two layers of shade nets from the lean-to greenhouse. The difference in light levels indoors is stunning! The nets did their job well in bright, summer sunshine but autumn supposedly arrives tomorrow.
13.00 Back in time for lunch. Returned from a 21km shopping trip. Poor stock control at another branch of the same supermarket chain. No rolls and no milk!
Dinner will be salad. I forgot to buy tuna to go with it. So I'll poach some eggs instead. The grated cheese, which melted on the warm eggs, was delicious. I need to recreate that somehow.
I have had the car battery on charge all evening. It started immediately when I returned the clamp to the negative pole. So I removed the clamp again and will check the voltage in the morning. This will confirm if the battery is at fault. Or whether there is a short somewhere. Which is draining the battery. Even when the ignition is turned off.
~o~
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