Loggy bloggy
Written retrospectively on the 28th January 2014
Well this is a day I know was very busy and quite significant but I can barely remember what happened.
I know that I had the window people over to give me a quotation and that they arrived very late and that I bought a big hefty lump of wood but that’s about it. Hopefully as I write it’ll come back to me.
Got up reasonably early in the morning to meet the windows salesperson who was to give me a quote on some quite fetching sash replacement windows. The house has some very nice original sash windows and these apart from one I’m leaving alone; well I am getting a quote in on restoring them anyway on Valentine’s Day. The only one I’m going to have replaced is one on the ground floor that’s a wall’s width away from another. This other on first inspection looks like a sash but on a closer look is actually a casement window masquerading as a sash. The intention here is to knock down the wall dividing them and knock both window out and replace them with a French door going onto the garden.
Anyway I seem to remember getting up and getting busy straight away, I think it was washing and fire started before I’d even had any breakfast. I then sorted out the window designs I’d decided upon and awaited my visit at 11:00am. I must have done other work though I remember being terrifically busy all day and an 11am start means three hours without any work, so I find that hard to believe.
Anyway 11 came and went so I got in touch with Jason the window guy and he explained that he’d been asked to do a quotation on a handful of windows and it had turned into seven on some estate somewhere. Anyway he agreed to see me as soon as possible and turned up that afternoon. We measured up the windows, he explained that the windows and colour (cream outside, white inside) were currently the flavour of the month, by far the most popular and would go great with the stonework. I was pleased, but felt a little common. Interesting to note that while upstairs a delivery arrived that had been arranged for a one hour window that was still an hour away, so it was that kind of day, good old DHL the guy was actually letting himself in as I was half way down the stairs, not great.
Anyway as my delivery was early I free for the afternoon to go off scouting for timber for my fireplace mantel, I wanted something beefy.
Put the sat’ nav’ on and headed for a timber yard that had been recommended to me by my fire fitter the other side of Darlington in a yard in Dalton.
Got there and was met with a “you should have phoned ahead, we don’t have much in stock” I was then put onto the owner who marched across his yard swearing into his mobile till we came across a pile of oak beams. The first he singled out was terribly cracked and knotty, “that’s got character” he said, perhaps too much character I thought, there were a few others in better knick and I singled out one that looked just the ticket, albeit a bit long and boring, it could attain character. We headed back to the office and the quote was quoted at £50 for the knotty one and £90 for the long one. I headed back into the yard to make my decision and decided upon the long one. With this I was charged with a very nice chap in a forklift and we sped off across the yard, I got one end of the log, him the other and we lifted into onto the forks of the forklift – me doing my best not stop my eyes bulging out of their sockets, it was a heavy lump of timber.
Getting it back to the main yard I was asked if they’d like it sawn to the size of my car boot and planed down, I thought it was a good idea and went to pay my bill. The bill was a little more than I thought at £108 inc. vat, d’oh and I emerged to manhandle the beast into my car. It turned out that cutting to size wasn’t a problem but it was a bit too fat to plane down and one side was a bit scarred with saw marks, but hey ho I could put this to the back and hide it when it was fitted. I popped back into the office and had a bit of a chat with the owners wife regarding what I was doing and did a bit of advertising for the college where I worked as their daughter was considering going there and after a few minutes jumped in the car and headed home.
On getting home after a gentle drive I realised my dilemma of having a rather large lump of wood in the boot of my car. To tackle this I put two palettes in the garage entrance, reversed the car in and slid out the timber, rather surprisingly it sped out on the slippery plastic I had in the base of the car and if I’d not been careful I could have been poleaxed by it. I stood it on end and gently lowered it onto the palettes, job done, not a single spelk or broken leg, not bad at all.
I’m not too sure but the rest of the day might have been spent starting up this site, though I could be mistaken. There was some washing in there I’m sure and perhaps another call to Sky about my dodgy router. Not sure but I do know it was a busy one.