Having suitably recovered from their hangovers, Sara and Henry’s first job of the day was to drive round all of the bed shops in Reading trying to find a mattress that would get delivered some time this side of Christmas. After at least half a dozen "January 15th"’s, good old Bensons for Beds came up…
“Go Ali, I’m your mother…” (© Supertroopers)
Yesterday Ali King arrived in Reading, fresh and raring to tackle some of our more laborious projects. Having got drunk the night before, we weren’t quite as raring, and definitely not as fresh – but none the less we soldiered on and achieved quite a bit. Despite what it looks like from the photos, Henry…
The Cryin’, The Titch and the Wardrobes…
Yesterday we finally found some floor laminates we were happy with, and we bought 20m²-worth of it (with underlay) from Floors-2-go. We would have liked to have bought real wooden floor boards, but the two main problems with this were the cost (we’re rapidly running out of money!) and the fact that they would have…
In to the depths of the garage we go…
This was Mark’s second day of being extremely helpful, and while Sara drove off to her school Environmental Day for the morning, Mark and Henry set off to the garage to spread their magic. Despite horrendouse hangovers on everybody’s part, they managed to not only fit a new consumer unit in the garage, but also…
Mark “Handy Andy” Nicholls sweeps in to town…
This weekend he had the pleasure of Mark Nicholls company (Henry’s cousin). He swept in to town like a rogue tornado, fixed and improved lots of aspects of our flat, got us drunk and taught us chinese mind tricks. Amongst the items we managed to tick off our "to do" list was: Re-attaching the radiator…
Damp-proof once and for all.
We weren’t initially expecting to add an entry today – the next big day on the agenda was supposed to be this weekend when Mark Nicholls comes down to help out. However, on Wednesday we received a call from "Property Preservations" saying that the men who were coming to do our damp-proofing and plastering next…
Our second junior visitor, plus a visit from the IKEA fairy
Having made what we thought would be a quick trip to the Brentwood IKEA (Diwalli traffic meant it actually took AGES to get there) on Saturday we are now the proud owners of 4 "Leksvik" DVD shelving units, a "Leksvik" CD cabinet and a lovely coffee table – bet you can’t guess what type that…
Resumption of services
When we bought this flat, we were expecting lots of challenges and hurdles, but never in our wildest nightmares could we have anticipated what we have had to put up with for the past 6 days. Yes, it’s true, we had no television reception. Zero. Zilch. Nothing. I’m not quite sure how we coped –…
More visitors, and lots more unpacking.
Today was a day of mixed emotions. On the positive side we received more visitors, this time in the shape of Henry’s parents. They bought with them lots more furniture – big thanks for that – and then we all went out for lunch at the Belle and Dragon. Not only was this a nice…
Painting and Decorating – the onslaught begins!
Day 2 in the flat was spent doing yet more van-loads worth of moving – including the first delivery from the Elliss & Mould garden-centre – plant mangling a guarantee! We also managed to do our first bit of painting – when I say we, I mean Claire – she pretty much did the whole…