Progress

Are you ready for this? If you have every been traumatised by DIY this might not be the post for you. Go and find someone who's doing some nice calming knitting and have a look at their pictures whilst taking deep cleansing breaths.

So, remember how I told you about the dismantling tendancies of the works from home husband; and you know a picture tells a thousand words....



Well this picture shows most of our empty conservatory. The bit to the right that you can't see mirrors the bit to the left so you get the idea - it's a decent sized room.



All hail the power of lino - that stuff is indestructible - what you can see on the underneath of the lino is the transfer of the mould from the floor boards but the lino itself is intact. The floorboards on the other hand were actually dripping.



That isn't meant to look like that!



One crowbar and one husband later - apparently the floor came up quite easily, what with it being sodden and all. Can you see the white beam in the middle of the picture? That isn't paint that's delightful mould.


More mould - this time on the floor - yippee

The resulting detritus.

It is now clear and cleaned; H has blocked up holes where there should not have been holes, blocked up air bricks that should have been a couple of courses of bricks higher, and caulked everything and anything he could find to caulk. We're now in the process of putting new joists in which will be more suspended and less sat on the floor, and then some floorboards on top. The current plan (which appears to be subject to ongoing discussion between H and our great friend A who is a civil engineer) is then to leave just the floorboards for a bit and see what it looks like in a couple of weeks. If all is well then we're planning on damp proof underlay - which will sit the damp proof course at the same level as the course in the rest of the house, and then a click and fit laminate floor - or so I'm told. My role in all of this is to "hold this" and say "gosh you have done a lot" encouragingly at relevant intervals.

When not "holding this" I have been Christmas knitting. Socks for someone and socks for H, both beautiful, both on Ravelry (here and here) if you fancy a peek - it's somewhere were family cannot go and as I think at least some of H's family have tracked me down, everything is staying a secret this year.

Not so my spinning:


The top one is the second 'straw' of BFL which I finished last night. I've got one more bump of roving to start and finish and then I can try some three ply off three different bobbins - time to re-engineer the lazy ice-cream tub. It looks like there is a lot more on the second straw but weighing them in my hands they feel about the same - only time will tell whether they work out the same or similar lengthwise.

And finally, amidst all of the confusion and piles of furniture, we have now got two little oasii



I think this is the Double Dragon


And this should be Apple Blossom but the labels have fallen off so many times that I've given up being sure which one is which.