17.10.22 Bringing order to chaos?

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 Monday 17th 49F. Overcast. Expected to be continuously cloudy all day. Remaining mild but breezy. Up at 6.30. My lower back is aching as usual.

 The lounge demands a complete change to the layout. The 1970s three seater settee no longer dominates the brick wall. It had to be destroyed to allow me to remove it while working alone. When a hospital bed was to be brought in for my dying wife. Who was still in hospital at that point. With only a week left on this earth.

 This is one of her fastigiate, red oaks. We spent hours harvesting acorns from public car parks. She would grow then on in pots until they could be planted out in the garden.

 I now have up to four comfortable armchairs for seating. One of the four is spoken for as an upstairs TV chair. The dining table remains a dumping ground but has now been rotated 90º. Then pushed against the left wall. I'm not completely sure I like it there but it breaks the mould.

 It could go along the right wall under the three southern windows. This would place the table much nearer the kitchen. If that really mattered. I don't ever eat at the table. I eat upstairs on a tray on my lap. Either at the computer or watching TV. The table is too tall for a keyboard. So can't easily double as a computer table. 

 If the dining table was moved to the kitchen it would require the fridge freezer be moved to make room. A large table in a kitchen against a blank wall? This desperately needs a new window. Time and expense are against this idea for the moment. It would be claustrophobic without a view. Do I still need an antique pine kitchen table and four bodgers elm, dining chairs? A smaller, square table could be found at a charity shop. The rickety dining chairs don't get enough exercise to be a problem in the short term.

 The double bookshelf units have the capacity for all the large and modern books. Except that the shelving units look awful stacked. Do I still want a room full of books? I no longer look at books. Except for rare searches for a reference. 

 An Internet search can usually answer most questions. Books do not have a search box. Nor are they updated. My near eyesight is declining. Small print is becoming very difficult even with a magnifying glass. Of which I have three in fixed stations. Or I would instantly lose them.

 I have a large, dark oak bookshelf. Which presently acts as storage for boxed china and glass. Providing a room divider upstairs. In the open triangle against the chimney. Beside my computer chair. I can just see over the bookshelf when seated at the computer. For a view of the top half of the new bedroom window. If I moved this large and heavy bookshelf back downstairs. It would literally open up access to the bedroom. On both sides of the central chimney. The head of my bed is against the chimney. Dividing the bedroom into two.

 My wife's bed is still there. Pushed against the left sloping attic ceiling. Without it, there would be room for all my clothes. Without the untidy rail standing out like a sore thumb over on the right. The rack was actually a good idea at the time. To allow me to discard the two, poorly accessible wardrobes. Containing clothes which hadn't been looked at for over two decades. All of my wife's clothes and most of mine have gone to charity shops.

  I now have lots of removal boxes containing books. They are heavy and there are enough of them to dominate the lounge floor. They can only be dragged across the carpet with difficulty. This makes furniture moving an added burden. Repeated handling is hot work and a bore. So I need a proper plan before I even start rearranging anything. It's not just a matter of shoving and pulling things around. As if dragged by a cursor on a screen. Now there's an idea... 🙄

 8.00  Time for a walk.

 It took most of the distance to rid my back of pain. Several flocks of geese went over. In random directions.

 Back to measuring the lounge for a totally opaque room design app Planner 5D by Microsoft. Sod it! I don't have enough hours left to learn their nerdiocy. It will have to be a physical drawing with scaled, movable furniture rectangles of paper. Or, I could use PhotoFiltre. Let's try that instead.

 None of this is [probably] remotely interesting to my readers. However, it is vitally important to me. Firstly, to record the attempt to bring order to the present total chaos. To save me wasted time and effort. To give myself a public goal. Which gives me the necessary impetus to complete the task. 

 I can pretend my few readers are my audience. Both critical and willing me on. This is a tactic I have used before and it seems to work for me. Just discussing problems in text is a valuable tool. It makes me think much more clearly. As I add further iterations to the original ideas. All I have to do is delete the earlier text. So I look like I came up with the best idea in the first place. 

 The lounge is a completely fresh start for me. With the only limits the physical boundaries of the room's own dimensions. Drawing it as an empty box gives me new insights into its space and potential. Wiping away 26 years of habitual acceptance of the former status quo. 

 The previous furniture is no longer a fixed starting point. It is all potentially disposable. Except for the new/old armchairs. Which are much more flexible in their possible arrangements. Than the old and battered, 3-seater settee/sofa. 

 I don't see myself moving downstairs to watch TV in the evenings. This would require wall mounting the TV. With reflections off all the bright, southern windows to contend with. Curtains are flexible but a bore. 

 It is always warmer upstairs. For good and evil. Being cooler downstairs, during hot summers, would be a blessing. I slept downstairs during the recent hot weather. Now I have the new stove. To keep me warm in winter downstairs. This would probably increase log consumption. Because I would be warmer upstairs for the same heat output. 

 I have had plans for warming the kitchen and bathroom from the stove in the lounge. This would require sealing the two exterior doors properly. Replacing the [rear] main entrance door is a very high priority. There are daylight gaps all around it! A porch would be great but would require a lot of work when I am still rather busy elsewhere.

 The double-glazed, double greenhouse doors, to the front hall, could be better sealed without too much effort. Thicker sponge draught strip would do it.

 Can a single stove warm 100 m^2 on 1.5 floors? The old stove certainly couldn't. That was severely handicapped by water heating. It couldn't do that and warm the house at the same time. The new [modern] wood stove is amazing in its output. Nor does it have to heat water.

 Making good progress. The bookshelf is in the same corner but now facing along the brick wall. It has completely lost it dominance in the room. The dining table is still end-on to the left wall. Pushed against the wall beside the bookcase. There is plenty of room to reach all four dining chairs. Leaving the major area of the lounge free to house the armchairs with newly relaxed spacing. I can't easily rotate the three, individual armchairs to face into an arc. So I have placed them nominally on the updated drawing.

I measured the kitchen for the dining table. It would overlap the sink. Not a good idea at all! A tiny table with a chair or two by a new window will be a future possibility for the kitchen. It is still very much an unfinished project. I was looking at moving the hinges to the other side of the kitchen door to the front hall. Then the door could fold back against the hall wall. At the moment it obscures a potentially useful corner opposite the working surface. I had electrical sockets installed in that corner for future development. 

 I have just had an SMS. To say my entrance hall, pastry coloured, floor tiles have arrived at the builder's merchants. I have been putting off laying the self-levelling compound. There are loads of YT videos on the technique. Years ago I used it on the kitchen floor but with limited success. I didn't have enough compound! It ended up a bit bumpy in places. You only get one go to get it right!

 15.00 59F/15C. Very mild. I have brought home my hall tiles and some shopping.

 17.00 58F. It has rained this afternoon. Still 63.8F/17C upstairs. 60F/15C downstairs. I opened the greenhouse briefly into the house earlier but the sunshine didn't last long. It feels rather cool indoors. I may have to light the stove later. Just to give temperatures a boost. If the fabric of the building gets too cold then it takes more heat to raise it back up again.

 I lit the stove with one log on the kindling and let it burn itself out. Indoor temperatures, the adjoining doors to the kitchen open rose by 2F.

Dinner was one of my awful omelettes.  I had chicken, mushrooms and eggs to use up. All of them should have been eaten days ago. After a good quarter of an hour in the frying pan I poured the beaten eggs and a little milk over the top. The result was a mess but fine to eat. The image is even worse thanks to the flash catching the steam. I have boosted the contrast to cut through to the hideous reality.

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16.10.2022 A solo career as an old fart.

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 Sunday 16th 52F/11C. Windy with thin, straggly, grey cloud crossing from the SW. Expected to gust up to 18m/s later. 35mph? Up at 7am. No pain in my arm or shoulder but my back feels as if I have been lifting. I bet it was those lower cupboards. Of the units I dumped at the recycling yard. I had to lift them in and out of the trailer. Chipboard furniture is heavy.

 The lounge wall is still white overnight. Being lighter and much plainer I thought the wall would recede. To make the room seem larger but it hasn't. It could be the brickwork texture. Though interestingly [?] the painted brick wall looks far away when viewed from the kitchen. As seen through the two, glazed, intervening doors.

The hall and bathroom are getting far too bright with the hall's LED lights on. I may need to tame things down with completely different, much smaller, wall lights.  I am still using a square panel of LEDs. Which was essential when the hall was dull grey and curtained over the doors.  Now it is complete overkill and I haven't even painted the outside door yet. The pine boarding, which I used for making the door, is almost black. From decades of condensation in the darkness of winter. The blackness is probably some kind of mould.

 It was suggested I buy a commercial shed door. I'm not sure whether these are insulated to modern standards. I may still make a new door myself. From grooved plywood over foam insulation. The problem is finding somewhere flat. With enough room to assemble it indoors. Ready-made doors wouldn't be the correct size.

 I definitely want some glass in a new door. For more natural light in the entrance hall. Glass might be thought a security risk. Though toughened glass is an idea. If anyone really wants to break in they can probably use a window to gain entry. If I make my own door I can use clear polycarbonate.

 9.30 Windier, but Sunshine from a clear blue sky. Morning coffee is over. Despite the wind I was far too warm in my down sweater on my walk. A beautiful Red kite gave an aerial display parallel with the lane. Maintaining a safe distance without changing course. The neighbour's dog is noisy this morning. Repeatedly barking for no obvious reason. The car hasn't moved for days. The second car has been absent. My back is better thanks to the therapeutic walk.

 I keep questioning my motives for changing so much in and around the house. Am I trying to make a complete break from the stagnation of the unchanging decades that went before? Am I leveraging my sudden freedom to create more light and space? Simply raising my comfort levels? Sick of the untidiness and general appearance of squalor? Am I proving, if only to myself, that I could have done so much more? Without the leaden hand of my late wife regarding all such projects. So that I took my creative skills outdoors? To build observatories.

 Am I making the place attractive enough to sell? Unlikely. Where would I go? I couldn't buy a secondhand shed on a postage stamp garden in the UK. Not for the price of my house in Denmark. The rural, isolated cottage, we sold 26 years ago in Wales, is now worth almost half a million pounds. It's value has increased by a factor of seven. Albeit with some improvements and modest enlargement.

 Our/my hovel in Denmark has hardly appreciated at all over that time. The estate agent's recent valuation depended entirely on the house being improved to modern standards. He was quite clear about that. A huge amount of work is required given how little has been done over the years. Nothing much, at all, after my initial burst of improvements two decades ago.  New floors, doors, windows, roof, dormers, insulation, build new kitchen, new bathroom, board three ceilings, enclose the balcony, heating, plumbing, drainage, etc. 

 My recent activities are more cosmetic in nature. Nothing has really changed in the overall, external appearance. Except for the new, bedroom window. Still much to do. To clad the gable end inside and out. Here, I am still pondering my options.

 The expansion of the parking space and removal of so much "shrubbery" has largely been for my own benefit. More light, space and the freedom to maneuver the car. Space for the eye to wander freely. Beyond the nearest tree or towering hedge.  

 I am now 75 and still enjoying remarkable health and fitness. So I am maximising my remaining energy largely for my own benefit. Knowing that it could all suddenly end. An injury would put paid to any hope of making the house a much more pleasant place to live. Sickness might make me vulnerable to an old people's home. Or sheltered accommodation. Mobility, by car is, essential to any plans to survive out here in the countryside for as long as possible.

 There still so much to do. Not least the removal of so much of the house's contents. Most of it has no particular value. Yet I cling onto it for all its close associations with my wife. It seems disloyal to get rid of too much of it too soon. As if I am turning my back on well over half a century of constant companionship. Yet, if truth be told, the connection to my wife is no more tenuous. Than exchanging a few coins in a flea market or charity shop and moving onto the next. 

 Perhaps time will loosen the bonds? Right now all I want to do is cry. At her continuing absence from my life and my surroundings. I still call out: "Only me!" as I come back indoors. Often with a chuckle. At my own silliness. I talk to my self quite regularly but usually only briefly.  Usually to warn myself of potential dangers, clumsiness and scolding myself for silly mistakes. My habitual guide in these things is no longer around to keep me safe. I still see-saw between misery, harsh reality and the inevitable freedoms. Which come with a solo career as an old fart.

 11.00  The priming of the remaining brick wall is completed.  I have just been offline. To undo all the "knitting" involved in getting an Internet and telephone connection upstairs. Cables have snaked all around the lounge for years. Up the walls and along a ceiling beam to reach the middle of the brick wall. Where the optical fibre router is situated.

 I needed to create a clear space to paint the wall primer. I have now moved the router PS cable to another mains socket out of sight. I can't put the wireless router downstairs. Because I'd probably lose my wireless connection to the observatory. So I'm thinking hard about alternative, less visible routes for all the other cables. If the beam was painted white then the cables would be less much, hideously obvious.

 Meanwhile I have cleaned the eastern, lounge window inside and out. The window was never accessible. Not while there were ornaments, large, tall and small,. All crammed onto the window sill. While others hung from the window latches. 

 I mustn't be too harsh. I claimed the corner window for my technical collection of interesting, mechanical objects. This lot inevitably spilled onto the bookcase just beneath the window sill. To collect dust and cobwebs as being completely out of reach. Due to intervening furniture.

 Which reminds me: I have to line, or frame all the window reveals in the lounge. They have been lined with sawn wood [as shuttering] for all the decades since I replaced the front windows. Which previously, had been plane pieces of glass. Simply siliconed into the bare brickwork!

 I replaced the glass with wooden, cottage-style windows. With four small panes each. To match the style of the rest of [most of] the windows in the house. We spent a lot of time deciding on the exact shade of turquoise-green to paint all the windows and woodwork. Ending up with three shades. From light to dark. It all seems so very long ago now. 

 12.35 I have opened the greenhouse to let the 68F/20C warmth indoors. The washing up is done. That "somebody" never got around to it last night.[Again!]

 I am going to take down the shade net. It just looks very untidy. Rolled up on top of the greenhouse. It took only a minute or two. I untied the cord at each end and the net slid effortlessly down to the ground. There was an Emperor dragonfly attached. I had to gently lift it off. Because it didn't want to let go!

 12.45  The clocks are creaking towards lunch time.

14.00 Tremendous downpour. Absolutely torrential!

 15.30 I just finished painting the remains of the brick wall in the lounge. It doesn't look too bad on a sunny day. As expected, the room seems so much brighter.

 16.45 Time for afternoon tea and a toasted marmalade roll. I have earned it.

 What to do now the wall is painted? It would be silly to fill the room up with the same boxes of junk again. I'll have to move them elsewhere. The bookshelf can go in the left corner against the brick wall. To  minimise its footprint and make more space for the dining table. 

 I have already filled it with tubs of her stuff. Just to get it off the floor. Double handling again and again and again. 

 Now I really ought to look at her cupboards and chest of drawers. See what I can do without. Or move elsewhere. To become more useful but more invisible. I doubt I have the strength to get the antique, oak, chest of drawers upstairs. It is large and very heavy. A shame it's not much use in a kitchen. That would have been easier and it might even have looked the part. I wonder if it can sit somewhere else in the lounge?

 18.30  I am trialling the dining table end-on to the left wall. Instead of end-on to the window. I have the bookcase units stacked in the corner against the brick wall. They look far too heavy. Far too dominating. They make no sense singly on the floor. I would have to go down on my hands and knees to browse the book titles. I'll sleep on the problem. 

20.00 By artificial light the room is suddenly looking larger and completely alien. So many possibilities are rearing their ugly heads.

 Dinner was fish fingers. With tinned tomatoes dumped on top of  pasta and peas. No pictures. I forgot. [Again]

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15.10.2022 More white = more light!

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 Saturday 15th 54F. Dark grey.  Up at 5.40. Still haven't lit the stove again. Still 64F/18C upstairs. It feels quite cool. So I am wearing my battered, old, down jacket while I am sitting still at the computer. The new 19C/66F maximum rule is going to be hard [at] work for many. 

 I am still using "we" instead of "I" in conversation. And "our" instead of "my." Old habits die hard.

 Have you ever wondered if those who make the headlines might not have? If only they hadn't been so ugly. Perhaps they became so ugly as a result of the evil churning within?

 7.45 Getting light now. Rain on the front [southerly] windows. I am going for a walk anyway. 

 8.45. Morning coffee. It wasn't raining. A low, dark and misty cloud layer began to break up overhead. To reveal pinky-orange fluffy stuff against the blue. The problem seemed to be an unlimited supply of the dark stuff. All queuing to fill in from behind. It wasn't at all cold out there. I was too warm in my winter jacket.

 

 A large, brown bird of prey went over. Maintaining a bee-line for the SW despite my presence. Staring up at it through my binoculars. It could have been the female of the pair of white tailed eagles I saw the other day. 

 Immediate plans for today: Fill all the screw holes in the brick wall in the lounge. I'll drill the plastic plugs out first. Then deliver the stuff in the trailer to the recycling yard. Deliver the large bag of my wife's clothes to a charity shop. I had found more of her clothes in a hidden chest of drawers. A lot of decorated wooden boxes, tins and others stuff can go to the charity shop too.

  I drilled and filled the screw holes in the brick wall. Then did my deliveries in the village. Before returning home in drizzle. Though it soon stopped.

11.20  The sight of the previously pink, sanded bathroom door demanded my attention. So I lifted it off the hinges and laid it on a trolley in the kitchen. A quick blast with the orbital sander was followed by a thorough wiping down. The outside of the door is now painted white. To match the hall. I shall have to paint the door frame now. More white = more light! 

 Next I have to brush and vacuum the brick wall in the lounge. To remove cobwebs and dust. Then priming.

12.00 The brick wall is cleaned and thoroughly primed. I went over it with the roller again and again. Two hours drying time before overpainting. So I could paint it this afternoon.

 13.50 Lunch over. I had better go shopping. My tins of Rema1000 baked beans have a fault. It is lucky I read the Danish news. There is a recall.

14.30 The major part of the wall is painted. There is a smaller area on the other side of the window. I quickly paint rolled the wall first. Then followed up immediately with a 2.5" brush. My arm and shoulder are aching slightly. I deserve a cup of tea!

The images show my progress. The roller hardly touched the grouting. Making the brushwork essential and its effects dramatic. The last image was taken before the sheen had gone off. The paint is supposedly matt when dry.    

 The camera doesn't seem to capture the texture straight on. Which is very obvious to the eye. So I took a picture at 45º in natural light. The windows are on the right but it is overcast outside. It looks as if I have the wall well covered. It may not need another coat. I'll see what it looks like tomorrow. The walls in both halls looked finished but still needed another coat to remove the patchiness. Which had only appeared overnight. The wall may only need paint rolling to flatten the surface.

 I finally went shopping. Only to be told that the recalled beans are fine. Neither staff member knew anything about the recall. A phone call to the boss confirmed that identical beans to those I had just returned were safe. Despite having identical dates and bar codes to the warning on the news. 

 The Danish Food Ministry is also warning people not to eat the batch with the following date. 30.11.2025 Bar code: 5705830004314. To return them to the shop or throw them away. I returned them for a refund. All very odd.

Dinner was chicken and mushroom curry. It was okay but needed more fluid/sauce with the meat. The overall effect was a bit dry. The mushrooms were almost indistinguishable from the diced chicken. So I probably won't bother again.

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