Monday 1

First day of the holiday and I woke reasonably early but Mr L was already up and at ’em. He informed me that the payment for the van had cleared, the insurance had been sourced and paid for and ferry tickets booked for bringing the van home. All this and he had already put the rubbish out!

So far so good. I set about sorting out some things for the overnight trip. I attempted to remove one half of our double sleeping bag so that it could be aired out – it has not been used since the week that we moved in here, almost exactly eight years ago. I struggled. Mr L struggled too. Then we googled. Eventually light dawned. It’s a double sleeping bag and not two singles zipped together to make a double. It’s permanently a double.

Having wasted time on that for a good hour, we set about moving the first window down to the kitchen. Apparently the first task in fitting a window is to remove the glazing. In order to remove the lazing, we needed to open the window. In order to open the window, we needed to fit the handle. Easy, you would think. Well, we struggled. Eventually I declared the handle to be left-handed, so there was no point in attempting to use it right-handed, as we both are.

After some further struggle it was deduced that the window locking mechanism is right-handed so that the handle is mis-matched. How could they have made such a glaring error? Mr L rang the supplier and came back to wipe the egg from his face. We have purchased five windows. It turns out that two of them are handed one way and there the other. All we have to do is match the right handle to the window. We are not use why some of the catches are left-handed. They just are; using some logic we have yet to fathom.

So, we had a coffee break and then removed the glazing and now the old window glazing is out. This was an easy task – long term readers may recall the day that the window hinges failed and the window blew in during a southerly gale. We had to screw the glazing panel into the frame to hold it, since when I have had to cook without benefit of ventilation.

Glazing removed
Glazing removed: funny how windows appear so much larger when not inserted into a wall

There is lots of ventilation in the kitchen now and the next stumbling block has been discovered; the screws in the old frame are badly rusted and will have to be drilled out. Expletives have been deployed and I am currently hiding under the metaphorical table with the dogs.

Well-ventilated
Well-ventilated

My man seems confident of his ability to fit the new frame. What is concerning me most at this point is the difficulty we shall face in replacing the glazing once the new frame is in. It’s heavy and awkward and will need to be lifted in from the outside, where the ground level is low relative to the window. I am not strong enough to lift it, so I am guessing that I shall be needed to screw the fixture in from indoors, whilst Mr L does his strongman impression outside.

Sounds fraught, to me.

The wind is set to stay in the North all week so the next job will almost certainly be to fit the internal front door (kitchen to porch) tomorrow. There is an expected window in the weather on Thursday, with low chance of rain and reduced wind speed, so the hope is that we can fit the back door after Mr L returns home with the camper van.

There is no urgency for the outer front door, which can happily wait until next summer if need be, but the two sitting room windows and the bedroom one will need to be fitted as and when the weather suits the task. There’s no knowing when that will be and we cannot really plan for it but if the wind remains where it is, we can do the South-facing sitting room window on Friday and the bedroom on Saturday and then plan a night or two away in the following week. We’ll do the East-facing sitting room window when the wind shifts to the West, which it is certain to do at some point. Let us hope that when it does, it does not bring a Gale with it.

I shall have to skip Spinning Group this afternoon as I am Builder’s Mate for the time being and as the old frame is not yet out, there’s no way we can fit the new one in time for me to go spinning.

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