Whilst nowhere near as ambitious as J.D. and Kris’ project here I have decided to do some work in the garden this year. I’m a few weeks behind writing up my progress so I’ll try and summarise after the break.

You can track my progress in my Flickr gardening set.

Sunday March 29th 2009

Bought these nifty bags for growing the strawberries in.
Planted Tomato, Chilli and Pepper seeds into our new “greenhouse”.
Dug out the base for the path and dug out about half the length of my vegetable patch.

Sunday April 5th 2009

Planted my first early potatoes, “Charlotte” I think, I’ll double check.
Laid more of my path.
Dug out the base and laid slabs for underneath my new shed.
Gave the front and back grass it’s first cut of the season. Blades were set very high so only half a grass box of clippings. I managed to rake out two black bags of moss from the front grass alone.

Friday April 10th 2009

My new shed was delivered and built by Elite Fencing in Airdrie.
Got a 20yard skip and a 3 tonne digger to help clear the ground in the side “garden”.
Did most of the digging out.
Started filling in the vegetable patch.

Monday April 13th 2009

Finished the digging out for the new “lawn”.
Finished filling in the vegetable patch.

Tuesday April 14th 2009

Spent the day in the back garden.
This was “just” a tidy up session.
Removed a dead lavaterra.
Weeded all of the rear flower beds and dug them over.
This was probably the hardest task of the last few weeks, the soil is very clay, I dug some sand through to hopefully improve the consistency.

I have been widening the range of sites that I keep an eye on through Google Reader; my reading list is here if you are interested.

One of the recent additions to my daily reading list has been http://unclutterer.com/ a site that does what it says on the tin!

This got me thinking about how much stuff I have in my home office that I don’t need. As you can see from the reflection I have a four drawer filing cabinet. In the mirrored wardrobes there are a few shelves with lever arch folders too. I decided to have a uncluttering session.

Only once I started to review the paperwork that I religelously deal with and then file as soon as it lands on my desk, did I realise that I am actually a hoarder. Not a lable I would have given myself.

Here are some of the highlights of what I found.

• Every bank statement for every account I have ever had since 1987 (I was 17), even if it is closed.
• Every telephone bill I have ever received, even for previous houses.
• Every mobile phone bill I have ever received.
• Every credit card statement I have ever had.

At that point I ran out of time.

I decided to keep the first of each bill so I can keep track of when I opened each account (unless it is a closed account). See I am a hoarder! The thinking behind this was when my mobile contract is due for renewal it is always a good tactic to throw in; “I have been a loyal customer since….”

I decided to keep all bills/statements from January 2006, giving me two years of complete history. No logic in this other than it seemed like a nice round number.

Conclusions

• Every time I file something, I should bin something.
• I should have a purge every six months or so, time to add a task to RTM.
• Shreading takes a long time (6 sheets at a time, maximum) so don’t let it build up.
• Shreading is a DIRTY job, I now have to vacum and dust my office (and check INSIDE the PCs).

Question

• What should I do with 4 bags full of shreaded paper?

Since we had our extension built we have had continual problems with the isolator switch for the shower becoming really hot. It’s been replaced a few times. At the weekend, the whole hose was plunged into darkness and there was a puff of smike in Emma’s bedroom. One of the carers burned her hand switching the shower off.

A call to a friendly electrician revealed the source of the problem above.

Today the electricians from the builders arrived and completely re-wired the shower and replaced the main breaker.

Speedy service !

It has been a fairly uneventful holiday so far. Did some decorating:

• Connor’s bedroom ceiling (he has not chosen main colours yet)
• Main bathroom
• Upstairs Hall
• Stairs
• Downstairs Hall
• Downstairs Bathroom.

All painted.

Time for a day off now.

Tomorrow, myself Connor and Sarah are off to meet Patrick McGlinchey he is the main instructor at the Backwoods Survival School.

I’ll update here with all of the things we cover.

Ross

What a difference.

Yet again I’m blown away by how quickly the extension is progressing:

This was taken yesterday

As I type, the roofers are crawling over the top and the electrician is crawling under the floor !

Watch this space !

I spoke to the builder, Colin Scott of Scott Builders (who also did the bathroom conversion), this morning so he could arrange access. So, it’s full steam ahead !

In preparation, I took the obligatory “before” photos:

As you can almost just see I have filled in the swimming pool that was under the window.

As the build progresses I’ll be recording the details. See my Flickr Set here.

All of the “simple” items, such as the ramp to the front door and getting a chairlift were done in a matter of weeks of asking, however the major items seem to be stuck in a morass of paperwork and processes within the social work department.

I don’t intent for this to turn into a name and shame session, or alternatively a blatant advertisement but if I see an extreme of behaviour, especially when it comes from an unexpected source I’m going to give plaudits.

Initially we were told in August that the work, a bathroom conversion and a small extension could be done in 3 months start to finish. Of course we were sceptical but this is what they do for a living so who am I to question them. There was an initial flurry of activity; architects came out, we reviewed the plans, we asked for a few amendments, all seemed fine. Then time passed. The official line was that the funding required to carry out the work was not in place.
Luckily, my mother in law has lots of contact with our local councillor Jackie Burns through her work with the community, who promptly told us in no uncertain terms that the funding was indeed in place.

One quick meeting later in order to try and get something done, they agree to split the work into two phases: the bathroom conversion, which only needs a building warrant; and the extension, which needs planning permission.

Then the builders arrive.

Normally this is the most stressful part of the project. However two factors come into play here:
1. We were on holiday
2. Elaine knows the builder

Work starts on the Monday and by the following Wednesday the work is completed and the bathroom is in use. Exactly on schedule. Strangely enough, it was the builder that was putting pressure on us, we were in the shop choosing the tiles and he had the van en-route to collect them. I cannot recommend Scott Building Services highly enough
Only the extension to go. Apparently the plans will be submitted for approval in January but they have yet to come out and inspect the foundations so who knows what will happen.

Watch this space.