28.01.2025 Plumber has a mud bath!

 ~o~

  Tuesday 28th 39F/4C [7.30] A grey start turning to sunshine later.

  7.30 Up at 6am after a quiet night. Dashing around cleaning and tidying in readiness for the plumber's expected arrival at 7.30. Not yet!

 8.00 66F/19C in the room. I am already sweating from all the activity. No need to light the stove yet.

 Assuming the job doesn't take much time I shall visit my British friend. Then back home again in anticipation of the arrival of IKEA's van with my wall cabinet kits after lunch. 

 Just had a phone call. The plumber isn't arriving until 9am. They didn't even have my address recorded correctly. That's useful, given my plans for today. 🙄

 9.15 He arrived at 8.50. The job only took 15 minutes. He fitted a T behind the toilet as requested. He set the new machine running on a short cycle and it worked. Not too noisy. It rotates both ways. I hadn't expected that. Presumably to reduce tangles.

  Then the plumber's van couldn't reverse out of the parking space! Because the ground had turned to mush with all the recent traffic. I tried putting plywood under the wheels but it didn't help. Shoveled gravel under the wheels. Nope. He called a colleague to help him out but managed to escape just as he arrived. By then it was 9.30. Leaving me able to drive over to see my friend. 

 12.20 Lovely sunshine now. Safely back home. The parking space looks like a tank training ground! I have deliberately parked the Morris to stop the IKEA delivery chaps from trying to drive in. 

 12.40 They have mailed me to say they will be here between 13.00 and 13.40. I had better have some lunch.

 13.00 Now a phone call to say it will here in be 20 minutes. I warned the driver to reverse down my bit of the drive. To avoid getting stuck in reverse gear on the muddy surface. I ran another short cycle on the washing machine. No soap or laundry.

 13.30 Lots of IKEA items were safely delivered. 

 14.30 I have already assembled the first cabinet case. The basic building principles are the same regardless of shape or size. Now I have to decide how high to put it on the wall. 

 Too high and I shan't be able to see what is on the top shelf. Too low and there is no room for storage on the top of the lower furniture. Presently bread rolls and breakfast porridge oats. Too low and it might look cramped for space. 

 Do I want to place the rolls and breakfast in the new cabinet? I'll have to think about that. Breakfast is only once a day. It is hardly inconvenient to reach into the cabinet. Though it may interfere with my larder arrangements. We shall see. I seem to have far too much storage space now.

 16.30 First cabinet completed and hung. My first time with IKEA hinges. Not self explanatory. The sub-microscopic instructions pictures needed an electron microscope! I only have several magnifying glasses. I finally chose a cabinet height to just clear the double power socket. Not that the cabinet interferes with it. 

 Pushed far enough to the right not to interfere with a possible, taller fridge-freezer purchase. The cabinet shelf is only just above my eye level. I haven't decided on cabinet pulls/knobs yet. The white baskets below seem to work well enough. Now I just need to make another one. Then the smaller box to go on top of the oven.

 Dinner was forced on me. I had chicken and sausages at their sell by date. So half of each had to be used up. The same tomorrow. Perhaps a curry?  It was a great combination but I had nothing to go with them except mushrooms. It was fine.

 

  ~o~