Category Archives: House

Justice

A couple of hours ago, while drilling a hole in the wall upstairs, with the window wide open, a wasp flew in and attacked me. Taking evasive action ( I jumped off the ladder and waved my arms about to fend off the creature), I narrowly escaped the monster (it was huge). 

Clutching the nearest weapon (shoe), I quickly transformed from victim to hunter. But the beast was nowhere to be seen. 

I resumed my drilling, then, while pushing cables through the wall, I heard buzzing. Looking down from the heights of my ladder, I saw the wasp in the clutches of a fearsome spider. My flailing had apparently knocked the wasp into a cobweb. 

Which is why dust, spiders and webs should be left alone. 

Mortgage

I was so happy to come home to a mortgage statement this afternoon. 

If I’d not had a second (divorce) mortgage, it’d all be paid off at the end of the month. But, still, it’ll all be gone very soon. 

And then it’s party time!

Windows II

We now have a new living room window, after the original was (according to the Police) broken, along with those of 14 other houses in Sheriff Hill\Low Fell, by travellers. 

Unfortunately, this means that we now have one clean window. 

And, since one window absolutely had to be replaced, we thought we’d do something about the kitchen window, less badly broken by a rabid ex wife a few years ago. 

CCTV

Years ago, I used to have a webcam in a window, looking out onto the street. I used a cool little program to take regular pictures and post them to this page (or at least a previous version). 

A recent broken window made me think that I need to reintroduce a camera to the house. 

And so I ordered a CCTV set-up while we were away. While installation is still in progress, I’m impressed with the ease with which I’ve gotten it up and running. 

I’m now up to three of four cameras, although there’s capacity for eight. 

There’s a reasonable 1TB hard drive for recording and connection to our router for web access. And there’s even an app for smartphones. 

Pretty good for only £140. 

Maneki-neko

Unfortunately, our Chinese waving cat is no more. The cat, which is alleged to bring good fortune, seems to have attracted the opposite. 

It sat in our window, reliably waving to passers by for a year or so. Until it was hit by a bottle of beer. And, so, the cat-beer bottle encounter ended very badly. The beer bottle was in several pieces. The cat was intact, but wet and without movement. And the window hadn’t coped particularly well either. 

We’re currently in our local public house, rather than the planned Kings Cliffe. After effecting a professional (equal to Wadds was here) temporary repair, arranging for a replacement, and organising someone to keep an eye on the house (excessive, I know), we’re now discussing a revised departure time. 

I do have a theory that the incident was racially motivated and carried out by non-locals. 

Jukebox

The space previously occupied by the (deceased) jukebox has been empty way too long. So I have begun to construct some shelves.

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A picture of the finished project will follow.

Garden

A slightly blurry picture of our new front garden.

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It may be small, but it was a bugger to get into the car and transport 200 miles. Even worse was the effort needed to remove it from the car (otherwise known as Daisy).

Our front garden may appear small, but it can’t be lifted by a single person. Or even a married one.

339

Days. Yes, 339 days until we’re mortgage free. Regular updates may follow. Particularly from the 309 day point.