I have not laughed so much in such a long time... http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/northern-ireland-nightlife-in-pictures-13906774.html?ino=1 This page is in the Belfast Telegraph "Entertainment" section, and oh my word, it could not be more entertaining. In true Hicksville fashion, the "Tele" invites readers to send in their pictures of their big nite out, and indeed must send out their photographers to some of the Provinces big social events. I am sure the editors of the Belfast Telegraph are only too aware of the hilarious nature of this part of therir paper. It features some of the beautiful people of NI out drinking. It seems that the obligatory shot is 2 young (ish) girls so close to each other they seem like Siamese twins joined at the head, or if its a full length shot, joined at the hip. Or maybe everyone is just so drunk they need to hld each other up? The jury is out. Or are we so insecure in NI and worried about our reputation that we feel we have to prove to the wider world that we are really actually quite friendly with full body contact photos? "Look folks, come to Belfast! You don't need to worry any more about which bar to go into because we're all so pally! What you do need to look out for though is having your head fused to that of a perma-tanned, heavily made up, flat-ironed-blond-haired slightly podgy 25 yr old, who just should have kept those orthodontist appointments". The next time you're feeling down in the dumps. Head to the Tele for some really uplifting photos. In fairness, they do look as though they're having fun, so, fair play (as they'd say in Belfast).

I'm back

Oh may goodness!!

Time has run away with me and I have hardly written a word on this blog!

I have been busy, but I am sure you have all been desperate to find out more of my exploits and to have left you for 4 long onths is damned irresponsible.

Well, photos and stories will follow soon!!

xx

kitchen - part 1

The kitchen in the new house is massive. The first time I went in to it, I was completely blown away by the size of it - it is about 24 feet long with a big window at the end overlooking the garden.

In its original state, the outside toilet was in the far corner of the room. Obviously, accessed from outside (hence its name...), but it still jutted into the room. The window on the back wall was off centre, starting in the left-hand corner. When we bought the place there were a huge number of cupboards in the room, and a solid, brick construction in the middle aka the peninsula. Also the lathe and plaster ceiling had many cracks in it, and apparently 27 square meters of wood and plaster falling on your head is not a good thing.

So, what has been done at the moment...
The toilet has gone, and the door bricked up. The old back door has also been bricked up and in due course the back door will be where one of the windows is on the long wall. All the cupboards have gone, the peninsula has been demolished, and the window has been taken out at the back. The wall has been changed to centre the window and made larger, so we will have 7 feet of window over looking the garden. Neither of us is particularly garden-savvy, so we may get a bit depressed looking out our big window at the wild grasses of the lawn, but hey ho. Also the ceiling has gone.

It is so exciting to see the changes. I am really impressed that the builder has been in doing work over the Christmas holidays and just hope that things carry on in this vein. I will add some photos in due course. The next issue is to confirm what cupboards we are putting back in the kitchen! Think we'll need to wait for kitchen part 2 for that though. Bet you can't wait.

Too Cool!

We went and bought a fridge today. Hooray for the January sales. The chap in Curry's was extremely nice and I think we have got something of a bargain. We have gone for one of those American-style affairs, with a freezer on the left and a fridge on the right. An awful lot of these side-by-side appliances have a built in water feature/ ice dispenser which takes up a lot of room in the freezer part. They need plumbed in when there is an ice dispenser, and frankly, living in the Northern Hemisphere there is little call for ice cold water 50 weeks of the year.

So we settled for a Samsung, faux stainless steel front, with a £230 reduction . It may actually be stainless steel, but either way, that's what it looks like. Happily, it is flat fronted too. A lot of them have these big massive bowed fronts to them, for reasons I am not sure of. Also, there is no stupid egg-rack, nor any flimsy shallow cake, or cheese drawers, or whatever they are. Just lots of straight forward shelves on which to put food and drink.

The obliging Curry's man is also happy enough to deliver it in a few weeks when we have a kitchen to put it in, which saves us hiding it in the garage for the next 2 months. So all in all, Hooray for Curry's, hooray for sensible Samsung.

work to do

In brief, the work which needs done is fairly fundamental...

• central heating to be installed (firstly though, gas needs to be brought to the house, not as awful as that sounds as it is already on the street).
• rewiring. If you take off a plug cover scary fabric covered wires wave out at you.
• a steel beam supporting half of the kitchen floor has corroded beyond saving, so needs replaced. This isn't quite as awful as it sounds as there is a basement area, accessed from outside where these beams can be worked on
• bathroom and WC needed knocked together and bathroom redone
• the central window of the bay in the livingroom is held together with some sort of Heath Robinson style arrangement of a bit of wood (looks like a table leg to me) and an old wire coat hanger. I applaud the imagination of the previous occupants but it is not terribly effective as (a) a secure means of shutting the window, (b) an efficient way of preventing draughts or (c) a design feature. Therefore, the bay in the livingroom and a few other windows need replaced with something nicer than the cheap uPVC currently in place. All the windows need done in due course, but we can't afford it and it is hardly essential.
• Damp proof course, or DPC to those in the know
• Wood worm treatment. You're getting a bit itchy thinking about that one, eh?!
• Something needs done to the kitchen.
• The outside toilet should probably go.

So there we have it. We had been looking at houses for quite some time (eg a year +) when we bought this one and in all the other properties even the prospect of repainting the front door was slightly challenging for me. So, it is with some surprise that I found myself agreeing on this house, which will require such a major overhaul. I should add that I am no stranger to a pasting table etc, but the work on this place is not what I thought I would be drawn to.

In the end, when all the above is done, it is going to be a cracker house. When I initially showed it to my sister she said it was "massive, ugly and overpriced". Don't hold back, eh. The SO on the other hand, said that it was the ugliest house he had ever seen and would not, I repeat, Would NOT be prepared to view it. I hope the doom merchants will be proven wrong at the end of the day...

The Sold sign is up

Two months ago we bought a house. We were one couple that the credit crunch hugged rather than hit. In other words, when prices fell we were able to get a house that 12 months previously would have been so far out of budget it wouldn't have been funny. We then became the proud owners of a detached 1930's house with 2 receptions rooms, 5 bedrooms, a large kitchen, bathroom with separate WC, garage and outside toilet. Groovy.
One major issue though was that the house was / is in need of substantial renovation, hence it being affordable.
Therefore, I think the next few months will be filled with the highs, and realistically mostly the lows of house renovation. The plan is to document here what's happening, should my nearest and dearest be interested.