Be Excellent To Each Other

I’d already insulated and clad inside a few years back.

I did the first (overdue) oil change on the wood chipper. Despite sitting unused in the damp garage for a couple of years, with fresh fuel it started on the very first pull! Honestly amazed, I was half expecting it to be seized to death.

It was also easier to restart than I remember it being after stall - it seems to love 99RON petrol, which it got because I needed to fill the car and I couldn't be bothered to put another transaction through just for a couple of litres into the can.

This comes after spending most of yesterday afternoon processing felled conifer using (powered) secateurs and garden saw before Helen said "hang on, we should be putting all this through the chipper shouldn't we?" - we'd both forgotten about the bloody thing.

I don’t truly know how this happened. The owner of the nursery Darwin used to go to sent me a message on Saturday:



So I gave her advice as she’d already purchased it, so there was no point saying it was in a terrible state and to just not buy it.

Anyway, then she said ‘can you please revitalise it when you have time’ and I didn’t quite catch that I was going to be the one doing it until too late. Anyway, Russell and I gave it a tidy up over the weekend, and it’s far from perfect but I’m still proud of the before and after:

Before:


After:

Utterly sensational!

(The expectation on you: not so much.)

But gosh. It's lovely.

I did fix the spacing ion the numbered dials before I delivered it to its new home

I hope you charged them a shit load.

Well, I did it for nothing so… no?

Admit it. You made a brand new one to the same spec, didn't you?

I think you should claim it! "That old thing? Rubbish, threw it away - made this, though"

I don't believe in heaven, but I still think Meems is going there. So fab.

That will be the first of many treasures then

Forgot to say it’s an amazing restoration job!

I tidied up the wire for the techno-airer and put a quick shelf above the tumble dryer, and I put some nice multi-coloured storage boxes up there.

I'll put a few shelves above the sink too. This laundry room had become a bit of a dumping ground and I'm aiming to make it a little bit better organised, clear some of the surfaces (like that windowsill) and just generally more useful as a room. I also want to keep my handtools and my cordless power tools in there rather than in the shed.

I also quickly bodged some sealant around the door frame (that's an external door) as there were some significant gaps between the frame and the bricks - big enough to see daylight through. It might just be wishful thinking but it does seem to feel just a bit warmer down there now

I was delighted with the coloured boxes, a nice splash of bright colour.

I would have to insist those labels were removed.

Seconded.

Good work.

I might just turn the boxes round so the label faces the wall

Omg, please remove them or my label spidey sense will be twitching from 15,000km away.

Make sure you peel them like 60% of the way and then leave a ragged papery residue for the rest

Those should peel off easily. I have a LOT (a lot a lot) of storage boxes, and the labels are always made to be removed.

Though GooGone is always a handy thing to have in the house anyway.

Or just leave one little sliver of label. Enough so that every time you walk past it, you think "I should sort that out"

I always just leave them, I figure that removing the labels might harm their future value as collectors items.

I pity the poor wage slave that has to pile of the plastic tubs out of the local Poundstretcher and line them up neatly on the street, only to have to drag them all back inside at the end of the day.

I always imagine old Arkwright from Open All Hours packing up in the twilight