Your day apart from gardening

[Esther Knapicius]

Thank you @Esther Knapicius I've gone the opposite, I like to do a bit more every year.

well, after a few years, when its all about only ME doing it. it gets tiring. have not had a tree up in years either, again, ME. going to get the tree, bringing it inside, dragging box up from basement, etc, etc, etc. taking tree down, cleaning afterwards, etc. etc. I do bake some extra stuff, cookies, mostly for gifts. I do add a few items here and there. change the fireplace mantel decorations to be a little festive. Only us mostly here anyway. And we sometime plan to vacation somewhere over Thanksgiving or Christmas. Look forward to seeing pics of your decorated holiday home later. Maybe I will unbox my santa this year.

 

[Logan]

Esther I can understand how you feel.

 

[Sean Regan]

A week ago My wife talked me into ordering more pans like the one I'd bought her a few months ago Top of the photo.

But she'd run out of storage space for pans

We had a parcel delivered just now, it could only be one of two things on order, two bare root roses from David Austin or this, which was what it was, an adjustable pan stand. A "necessary purchase."

 

[Esther Knapicius]

@Sean Regan, where will you be placing the pan stand? I don't keep everything pertaining to kitchen in my kitchen. Of those I don't use weekly, or even monthly are in the basement on shelves.

Husband recently away trip was to his nephews home, he is about 36 married to a lovely women about 37 years old. Husband has brought up about 4 times how they have a miss matched cupboards of junk to eat from or cook with. For him to bring it up that many times it must be horrid. But I remind him how his sister visits there often, (the nephews mother) should not she suggest a revamp of their cupboards. Guess I should take it as a complement, about how I keep my cupboards. etc.

 

[Sean Regan]

@Sean Regan, where will you be placing the pan stand? I don't keep everything pertaining to kitchen in my kitchen. Of those I don't use weekly, or even monthly are in the basement on shelves.

Husband recently away trip was to his nephews home, he is about 36 married to a lovely women about 37 years old. Husband has brought up about 4 times how they have a miss matched cupboards of junk to eat from or cook with. For him to bring it up that many times it must be horrid. But I remind him how his sister visits there often, (the nephews mother) should not she suggest a revamp of their cupboards. Guess I should take it as a complement, about how I keep my cupboards. etc.

It's not really my department, but our oven unit has a tall two shelf cupboard above the oven and two deep drawers below it. Pans are in all of them.
I imagine it may go on the bottom shelf of the cupboard.

We also have this huge two shelf carousel in the corner at the other end of the small kitchen.

It's quite clever, you just push in the sprung front "door" a couple of inches, which then locks and you can spin the carousel, if you don't stop it, it will complete a revolution and stop by itself and the door springs back out

Stuff not frequently lives in there.

These photos are quite recent, (last year when I replaced the wallpaper) the kitchen units were installed fourteen years ago. I fitted the lowered ceiling, installed the lights she wanted, did the tiling, laid the floor and did the wallpapering).
My wife designed it in conjuction with a kitchen designer, she wanted all drawers below the work surfaces as with her MS she couldn't manage cupboards below waist level.
She wanted these wide soft close drawers.

Everything still works perfectly.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

@Sean Regan , recall seeing your kitchen when you were painting it. good color with the brown cupboards. I like the pulls, can use your pinky to open should other parts of your hand be full of flour etc. We renovated ours maybe now 8 years ago, pushed the floor plan 18 inches into the dining room, amazing how that little helps. And I was the one that designed it, or picked it out, etc. Discovered a huge warehouse with lots of amazing granite selections in the process, building size of 5 airplane lengths wing to wing, fun walking through that, and selecting.

 

[Sean Regan]

I said the kitchen was perfect but I have this problem once a year.
You can see the inset sink in the work top in one of the photos.
It has a pedestal mixer tap. This occasionally works a bit loose.

To get at it (as I did this morning) I have to remove both the drawers under it. Only possible if the washing machine isn't on, as the door has to be open to let the drawers fully slide out!

Then I have to get in there on my back with an 11mm socket on a long extension and a ratchet handle, find the nut by feel, a torch is useless as the nut is behind the hot and cold feeds and tighten it up! Getting up and down a few times to check if I've tightened it up enough and not so much that the tap won't swing round.
Anyway, job done.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

@Sean Regan , yes, saw the sink there, and the dishwasher near-by and then the washing machine. a really tight fit with all that plumbing about in that area. If I tidy up my kitchen today, will take some shots. and upload.

 

[Sean Regan]

We've no choice, our kitchen is so small we (I) have to keep it tidy.

The design included a "one man breakfast bar," for me, with room for a plate, a mug and a paper, plus a high back chair.
Now the bar has always got "stuff" on it. There's usually a second, hand towel draped over the back of the chair and there could be something put on the seat, like a shopping channel parcel waiting to be opened.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

We've no choice, our kitchen is so small we (I) have to keep it tidy.

The design included a "one man breakfast bar," for me, with room for a plate, a mug and a paper, plus a high back chair.
Now the bar has always got "stuff" on it. There's usually a second, hand towel draped over the back of the chair and there could be something put on the seat, like a shopping channel parcel waiting to be opened.

today, the peninsula is full of papers etc. so no pics today. have lots of legal stuff we are working on. selling a couple apartments to put toward a house down in North Carolina . I want a nice view, lake, or river. See what we can find. House should be done, good and sturdy.

 

[Sean Regan]

My wife has had another of her "What I thought wases."

You might remember (If I mentioned it) three years ago when we had a new boiler fitted, we went from this.



To be left with this, for me to sort out.



I needed to create a fixing for a new door, so made it into a narrow cupboard for the boiler service record and kitchen appliance instruction books, (you can never find them can you?)
Do a bit of "fettling" to reduce the size of the false door on the right. Make a new removable tiled fillet to hide the pipework.
I had a few spare tiles but needed to soak off the ones on the original fillet.



Plus find a firm to make me a new door to match the others in this ten year old kitchen and supply some pelmet.
So we ended up with this. There's a bit of removable pelmet under the middle door, so when the cupboard door is open and the tiled fillet slid away, the panel in the front of the boiler can be folded down for servicing.



Coincidentally you can see the status of the boiler, as the light on the boiler is immediately behind where the door and pelmet meet.
I though I was finished with all that.



This bit of a breakfast bar I orginally wanted for me, just enough room so I could sit at it early in the morning and quietly eat my breakfast and read the paper before going to play golf. It has been inaccessible to me for a few years now as there's always "stuff" on it.
I took it away to take the photos.





What she'd like is a second matching cupboard, to sit next to it.

So I've sent photos to the firm that made the door to see if they could make the cupboard.
I've a matching spare handle and some Blum hinges.

All I'd have to do is pay for it and screw it to the wall. I'm fine with that.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

I am guessing that is an on demand type of boiler. I see the exhaust wedged there. quiet an achievement. Looks well thought out. good for you. @Sean Regan .

 

[Sean Regan]

I am guessing that is an on demand type of boiler. I see the exhaust wedged there. quiet an achievement. Looks well thought out. good for you. @Sean Regan .

Thanks for that.

It's what we call a combi boiler, as was the one it replaced. That one only lasted 18 years.
It was installed by a golf pal who has a "one man gas installation and servicing business." You can always get "mate's rates" from other members in different trades.

Before, we had an old-fashioned Glow Worm Majorca back boiler, behind a gas fire in the lounge. It was here when we bought the house in 1972.
During its life, the gas jets had to be changed when we went on to North Sea gas. We never used the gas fire, the central heating was enough. It was still working when we had the new boiler installed. It meant we no longer needed an airing cupboard with a hot water tank in the small bathroom. So we could have the bathroom renovated.


When they took the old fire away, we had this gas fire installed, my wife designed the art deco fire surround we had made.
Those are "remote control" artificial candles.

The fire was "required in case the central heating broke down." But we've carried on in the old tradition in that we've never used it. Though I did have it checked out when the old combi boiler was serviced and now the new one.

Having that fire installed could have been a pain in 2001.
We were already into the realms of "elf n' safety." The supplier told me that the corrugated flu pipe that went up the chimney from the old boiler would need to be removed and that a new appropriate cowl was required, so scaffolding would have to be errected up the side of the house.
I said, "Don't bother, I'll do it myself." Getting onto our roof is easy enough as we have a flat roof extension to the lounge. Just a question of a ladder up to it and then another from there to the roof. The tiles are rough finish concrete so are easy to walk up. I've put a couple of new TV aerials on the chimney, re-pointed it and the ridge tiles. So I went up there, removed the old cowl, dragged out the corrugated flu and cemented in the new cowl.

Thinking back, I must have been 61 at the time.

Anyway, they made a good job of installing the new fire surround and "living flame" gas fire.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

@Sean Regan . Interesting. the remote controlled candles , hum. really? interesting.

We had a wood stove in our basement when we moved into our house, it was about 4 foot long, and 3 foot wide, with oxygen dials in the front. In the winter we kept that thing fed, it never went out from December till about mid-March. the walls and floors were warm in the house. Used a coal bucket to take out the extra soot, or coals when got to full. Husbands job was to collect all the wood in the summer from various "free" places, use the splitter. My job was to fill the area with the splits and keep it fed. Our heating bill in the dead of winter was $75.00 a month, included electric. The wood stove was close enough to the hot water tank that it kept the tank warm also. We did get rid of it about 9 years ago now, the wood stove. Was a lot of work. Part of me just wanted to keep it, just in case.
In our area, the electric has a habit of going out during a good storm. After the last one , that it was out for 5 days. I said enough, was enough, We have well water, need electric to flush toilets. So we got a whole house generator, and its awesome, when the electric goes out, in 5 second, the generator kicks on and the house is up again. easy.

So was thinking your boiler, that heats water---if you have well water, sometime the sediment from the well gets collected in the coils that causes issues. I know we used to drain our hot water tank at the bottom, just about a bucket full to clear out the sediment from well water. Even if you have a filter, some does collect. We don't drink our well water, just use it for household stuff. But, we might get it re-tested and put in a high end filter system for it this year. So might then drink it.

 

[Sean Regan]

You have to remember my wife has MS, so bending down is a bit of a problem. She doesn't always turn those by the fireplace on.

She has some scented candles from time to time, but only quality ones as the cheap ones don't have a nice aroma.

Nearly everyone in the UK has water supplied by a utility company. They're responsible for sewerage too. There's "no wells in suburbia." I pay about £500 a year, we're on a water meter, as are most people. It's below the pavement outside our house. It's read by "wi-fi" twice a year. Having said that my golf club has an artesian well, but they are restricted about how much water they are allowed to draw to water the greens and tees.

Our boiler's heating system occasionally needs topping up. The water circulates through a drum under it that holds about a gallon of water, this collects any "gunge" that collects in the pipework and radiators. It gets cleaned out when the boiler is serviced.