Sunday 1st March - The Really Big TO DO List

Here goes...

Resurface the Drive   DONE

Clear the Garage    DONE

Have Garage Demolished and Taken Away, (including the asbestos roof)   DONE

I like to start a list with somethings that have already been done and can be crossed through straightaway.  So encouraging.

Double Glazing
We've been not painting the windows for about ten or fifteen years now, as every year we were going to have replacement windows fitted. Then, as soon as we accumulated the money, something would happen - unexpected demise of car, or sudden redundancy, or whatever. It's now about to happen - the deposit has been paid, the options (opaque glass, handles, colour of front door etc) all chosen. We are just waiting for a date.

Our Bedroom
The carpet (if you could dignify the cheap and tatty substance laid over long-since-disintegrated foam underlay by such a name) went into holes many, many years ago. However re-doing the floor remained well down on the list of priorities, after making the children's rooms into better places for them to sleep and study and relax, after replacing the hideous, horrible carpet in the sitting room with a beautiful wood floor, and so on. It is now BEYOND a joke, and probably the next major item in the schedule.

Number 1 Son's Bedroom
He had the little room over the front door. When he moved out - four years ago? - maybe - he took everything he wanted/needed with him. Everything else is still there. Along with all sorts of "stuff" that has made its way into the room from somewhere else. Time for change. Time to exchange the high-sleeper for the sort of bed that grown-ups are happy to use. Time for a whole lot of things to be re-homed.

The Loft
Don't go in there. Because everything that hasn't been put somewhere else in the last 30 years is in the re, waiting to escape. We don't need loft insulation at the moment, believe me. But I lie awake in bed wondering if I will wake up with the contents of the loft on top of me in the morning.

The Bathroom (and the loo)
Back in 2002 it was our silver wedding anniversary and we had a family party here. At the time, both rooms were way overdue for redecorating. We solved the horrible appearance of these rooms by the age-old ruse of stripping off most of the paper and airly announcing that we were partway through the job. That was then. This is now. Nothing has changed. And the suite is a strange orangey-apricot colour that was probably fashionable in 1984. And the taps are just very aged.

The Garden  
This defeats us every year. Sometimes we manage to get one border, or half a border clear. Sometimes we don't. BB mows the grass. The man with the chainsaw and chipping machine does a holding action on the hedges, large shrubs and trees every year. I call it a Green Garden. Or a Low-Energy Garden.

The Shed
Now that the garage has been cleared and demolished, we need to replace it with Which means pick-axing out the porridgy patch of weak concrete at one corner of the base,  and replacing it. Also, levelling the base would be a good plan before we then start thinking about sheds.

The Kitchen
It came with the house. BB rebuilt it, using the same units, during one period of redundancy (we've found that we have never had time AND money at the same moment). That's the only reason that the units are still attached to the walls. I guess this is going to stay well down at the bottom of the list for now.

General Painting and Decorating
Oh yes, that would be nice. The kitchen was painted when it was redone and it made such a difference. The children's bedrooms were painted too at one time. I painted over the wallpaper in our bedroom about 25 years ago. I know that, because I kept Number 1 Son happy (he was about 2 years old) by letting him play with my radio cassette recorder (the one I bought in Indonesia in about 1974). That brings back memories...