Second Fixes

This week there's loads to report most of which can be summed up by the expression "Second Fix" but we have also continued with the painting, plus sanded the floors upstairs and varnished them. Second fix is mainly Sparks who has cracked on with the electrical second fixing, which involves fitting sockets and switches, wiring up the main fuse board and finally being able to switch things on and see them working. This included the cooker and the socket for the fridge, so that we were then able to bring those two items into the kitchen and Mum spent a happy morning playing "Domestic Goddess" cleaning the fridge and freezer prior to turning them on again. Dad meanwhile was despatched to apply a coat of sanding sealer to all the skirting boards (still out in the barn), architraves and door-stop battens. Once Sparks was through with his electrickery, he wanted to start skirting boards prior to fixing radiators up and continuing into plumbing 2nd fix. It's easier to paint the first coat of sealer on these 'planks' before they are cut to size and stuck to the walls. By Wednesday morning the skirting had been fixed to the main bedroom upstairs and it was time to clean the floors and hire the big floor sander which, through hours of noisy, house-shaking sanding brought these floors to a smooth finish which could be varnished to a beautiful blond sheen. The plumbing 2nd fix connected up all the taps and rads, the overflow and utility room, toilet and sinks and the new stove so that the system could finally be filled with water to check for leaks and unwanted plumbing noises. This also meant we could finally light the stove which was a bit of fun in itself because it turns out we have a fault in a thermostatic air-flap and produced not much except smoke into the room! Not a problem, the flap could be wedged open while we started the fire correctly and a quick phone call to "Stanley" (the company, not another one in our cast of characters!) has an engineer on the way free of charge armed with replacement parts. It was good to get some heat into the Dining room and see the hot water tank fill with hot water. Mum and Dad actually sneaked a shower a-piece on Thursday night, first ones in Roscommon, so that they were able to drive to Silverwoods reasonably clean and fragrant. There are lots more photos of all this but Blogger doesn't seem to like too many in each post, so read on for more in future posts. Deefs