Monday 27 February 2017

First exams done

I know it's been ages but today I had my first set of exams as part of my uni course so I finally have 5 minutes to myself. James has been fantastic taking on even more of the household responsibilities and building work to enable me to spend evenings and weekends studying.

The less said about the ineptitude of the university and their exams the better, suffice to say it was a somewhat stressful day but at least I am one module through the programme, even if I may need to do some resits.

A few weekends ago we put another of our vegetable beds back in place and finally put in the strawberry plants that we dug up last year. It seems that at the moment everything we do is last minute. It was snowing whilst we planted but I really needed to get them in whilst they were dormant before Spring starts to show it's face. I also put in some Spring bulbs I ordered last autumn that should have been planted months ago. I'm not sure if they'll come to anything being put in so late. I think this next 6 months I am going to have to put any non-essential jobs on hold until I'm done studying.

James has finished the plastering in our new room, along with putting on the skirting and architrave. He made some window sills and fitted them. Bless him he's even taken over my job painting and the room suddenly seems to be almost finished. Yesterday he even fitted the facias on the plug sockets and fitted the light shade and curtain poles.

The fire place in our bedroom has been a bit of hard work. When we investigated the fireplace it became obvious why I had been completely unable to stand the Rayburn being lit when I was pregnant. The flue pipe only went as far as the first floor and was spewing smoke into the space just behind the fireplace which had been covered loosely with some particle board. You can see where it was leaking around the mantle piece. Thank God the smell made me feel so ill, all that carbon monoxide would have leaked into where we were sleeping. The carbon monoxide alarms were both fitted into the rooms where the burners were as per recommendations so were never activated when the fire was lit.
We have put in a floor as we don't intend to use the Rayburn again in it's current incarnation and will get a new flue fitted when a burner is fitted into the extension.
The chimney breast was a pain to get boarded and plastered, especially in the tiny alcove but it looks good.






Yesterday I took the kids on an hours walk in the local woods to atone for spending so little time with them recently. Luckily they're happy with their dad most of the time but it's difficult and I feel guilty for neglecting them.


I will take some pictures of our bedroom in the light and post on here soon.

5 comments:

  1. wow that was a close escape, it beggars belief what some people do, wishing you well with your exams.

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  2. Man you were lucky with that flue pipe, doesn't bare thinking about what could have happened!

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  3. Kirsty - if you were closer i could babysit the kids, jambaloney could put them to work shovelling snow, james could work on the house and you could study. i promise i would feed ther kids only good, organic foods that were ok'ed by you and james. and you would not have to feel so guilty.

    your kids are growing up in a lovely environment - i love how you and kev alviti are raising your kids - it gives me hope for the world. please stop feeling bad and realize that you are showing your kids what hard work is all about - both you and james are showing them!

    please be tender with yourself and james - it will drip off onto the children if you both take care of each other! i send you much love and support...and know how hard you and james are working! your friend,
    kymber

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  4. We had a similar problem with our water heater about 15 years ago. We switched from electric to propane. The guys who installed the new heater just put a vent pipe to the outside on it. When the weather turned cold, the air outside was denser than the air in the basement. That caused a reverse flow, and when the water heater came on, the whole house instantly flooded with carbon monoxide.If we hadn't had multiple detectors throughout the house, all of which went off, we'd all have been dead. I had an electric fan fitted to come on and force the air out of the house through the vent after that.

    You've got a good husband there. You two work as a unit, and that's good.

    Congratulations on struggling through the education system. I had some experience of that in the late 80's, and I hated it. But once your goal is accomplished, it will all be worth it.

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  5. So glad the fireplace is in proper working order now. Alls well that ends well!

    Hang in there with school. It's a real test of endurance, but it will be worth it once you've finished the course.

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