MONDAY MONDAY

And the Porch infill is on the go.

Yesterday Paul laid the base on top of some waterproof plastic.

and put up the side wall frames.

 and then we stopped until today Monday.

And today Monday, Percy joined Dad to build the porch.

He has his own tool belt and is ready with his screwdriver to help, where he can.

he's ready for anything dad asks him to do!

Mmm looks like he's checked dad's measurements!

"Hey Dad ! Did you measure this right? " Percy cheekily calls out..
" You cheeky monkey! " says Dad and pretends to push the flooring up to trap Percy in the corner
" Whoa Dad! I can't get out! "
Dad laughs and pulls the board back helps Percy out ruffles his hair and gives him a job to do.

Hamish sticks his head out the door wondering what all the laughter's about!

Percy helps mum put all the floor insulation down.

Then Dad gives Percy a job of sawing some of the side insulation down so it will fit between the walls better.

Percy does the bottom part saving Dad from having to keep bending down.

Percy also cuts up some smaller pieces for Dad.

Even when Mum calls him in for lunch , he carries on working.

It's hard work but Percy's loving it!

After lunch Dad gets Percy to go round and take some check sizes.

He takes his tape measure and calls out the sizes to Dad , who checks them against his ones.

" How much did you say it was ? " calls Dad
"225 cm " Percy answers

" Are you sure? " Dad calls back
"Yes " shouts Percy checking the measurement again.

Then Mum appears and calls him in for his bath ! after a lot of grumbling and Dad promising he can help him in the week. Percy goes in.... slowly...

Well one of the outer piece's of boarding is up, so it will protect the insulation behind it. This still needs a vapour barrier and slates and then a top cement board which will be rendered to match the house walls but first we need building control to come and check what we've done so far.

a longer view.

So a good start made but tomorrow it's back to work, so things will slow down but we have to wait for Building control so not a problem.


to be continued...



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A reminder that it will be the 1st of September on Thursday this week, so please send in your doll shelf photo's so we can have a nose at whats on September's doll shelves around the world.




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CATCHING UP AGAIN ON SUNDAY!

Well that week just shot by! never had a chance to add a couple of Sasha tales before it's another weekend and a Bank Holiday one at that!

A busy day for me yesterday as I had to work and then we went to friends for a bar b que , however when I was at work a few people asked what i was doing for the weekend and I replied  honestly and said watching my husband start filling in our porch!
I of course am on hand to supply tea and interference! Yes interference, you know , when you say are you putting that there? should you do x y z first? I thought we agreed that we'd ( the royal we'd of course) do it this way?

We had the wood delivered on Monday for all the things that are about to happen around the house.

and it's all in the carport ready to be used. While I was at work yesterday Paul started and cut and put together the base that you can see on the right in the photo.

And this is the porch. we are going to enclose it between the two brick pillars. Moving the doorway forward and putting in a new front door. By doing this we will be able to have a full sized coat cupboard inside on the left and a lovely new entrance.

These are are plans , we have of course tweaked them and will be having a stained glass window and not the six bar glass in the door. Paul will be making the window.

So this morning Paul's been removing the tongue and groove wooden ceiling from this side of the porch because this will be plasterboard once it becomes part of the hallway.

Now a few years back we had wasps going up the edge of the pillar and into the roof space, we don't normally worry about wasp making nests and would just leave them to go about their business. Unfortunately this being so close to the front door and getting more and more wasps buzzing about, we had to have it destroyed.

So today as Paul removed the boarding the old wasps nest slowly emerged!

These nests are such a wonderful work of art, how they have turned wood they have stripped from fencing and trees into building material for their nests.

This nest would normally be a much lighter pale brown/cream but this is several years old so as darkened up.

lots of dirt? at the bottom.

 By the size you can see it had been around for quite a while .

The base.

the sides.

alas these things are too fragile to save and this is the end of that beautiful natural structure.

such fine waspmanship!

x


And so Paul's out there clearing up and getting ready to continue with the build.

Now I'd like my readers/followers of the blog to let me know if you are happy with me sharing all the other things non doll related on this blog or if you are thinking... I  don't want to know /care about that where are the Sasha's!! If the consensus is we don't want this house /life stuff, I'll move it onto a separate blog and just do only doll related posts here. when I do these types of posts I feel like we are sitting having a cup of tea and a chat but some may not want this chat,  So now's the time to let me know .

Moving on to doll related but this time not Sasha , as I mentioned before I have been buying a few other dolls, since my Sasha fix seems to be fulfilled at present.

I have long been fascinated by the BJD dolls ( Ball Jointed Dolls) because of just how realistic their posing is.
So over the last couple of months I have bought myself a few. The one I'm showing you today was the last to arrive although she was the first one I ordered. her wait time was supposed to be 30 to 60 days , so around two months but she did not arrive for four months!

What I loved about her is her quirkiness , she is such an individual style and I wanted her as soon as I saw her , so please meet Suki Sue.

She's with her rabbit sitting in the Alpine bed.

I'm looking forward to getting to know and play with her. Seeing what poses and places she can go.

She's very pale , so will need to be protected from the sun.

as usual I've gone for the red head ! These photo's were taken at the end of the day so are not as detailed as I'd like. I'll share some other's here or on my dolly dreaming blog for those who'd like more detail.

Well I must go and see what Paul's up to plus do some sorting out of my own.

have a lovely bank holiday for those having one and a lovely weekend for those not.

Don't forget to answer my question , so I know where to share these house/life stories.


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SUNDAY CATCH UP

Well the clearing out is going slower than the arriving... but it is happening. I've not sorted out any more doll related items to sell lately but have made a start on the bigger items of furniture and possessions.

We are really doing two things at once, clearing out what we no longer need or have room for and also getting in the things we need for the changes about to happen. So the new radiator for the bathrooms arrived and the wood etc for the new front porch and internal walls will be arriving on Monday. all of which we are having to find places to store.

Paul re sanded the top of the new pine kitchen table and gave it a coat or two of oil and finally it was time to bring it into the kitchen. A simple task you think, no first we had to take apart our old kitchen table and then wash the kitchen floor so all was lovely and clean, then a trip into town to buy some new oil cloth to protect the table, since the oil cloth we had was far to small for the new table.

Then Paul and myself had to carry it from the carport through the back gate across the patio and in the french doors! It is very heavy and hard on the hands! But finally it was in place and it fit!

When we decided to get it two weeks back we forgot that little fact of making sure it was not too big! Paul is very good at knowing whether something will fit due to working with sizes all day and he said it would be fine but when it was delivered it looked so much bigger than I remembered!  Luckily the kitchen is a kitchen breakfast room so big but still we should have checked just in case!

 So here it is along with the new oil cloth.

I was just about to buy the same blue with white spots that I'd had before but the blue did not really match the cupboard doors, when I saw this atlas cloth and decided to go with this instead.

Functional and also educational at the same time!!

Plus the sea blends with the cupboard doors really well! So a good result. However being a lovely big table and our last table being under half the size we only had four pine chairs to go round it ! So off we went back to the place we bought it and purchased another four chairs, we bought two chairs back with us and will collect the other two today. It will save us when family or friends come from having an assortment of chairs gathered from around the house to seat everyone.

Now today I am going to clear out lots of my bed linen..... I hope .... does anyone else have lots of bed linen more than they would ever need but in such perfectly good condition you cannot bring yourself to give away to charity or recycle? Well I am hoping by the end of today I will own only what I truly need ...... I tried this last weekend and only had three fitted sheets in the get rid of pile and a cupboard full to over flowing!

Now a few dolls left but a few dolls have arrived ! None of which are Sasha's so you won't be that interested. However I have purchased a couple of items of Sasha clothing which is going to arrive next week, so will show off the things I am keeping as a couple of them are for the raffle at the Chat n Snap in October.

Well I'll report on if I managed to clear out most of the bedding etc next Sunday, the weather here today is glorious, windy ( I love the wind) but bright and sunny too! So hoping you all have a great week ahead, I'm off to sort linens....


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A LUCKY CATCH

Somehow Toby's managed to grab and hold onto the diving board!

Slowly he  drags himself back to the fence, the board bounding about underneath his trembling body.

Gripping the fence , Toby rests, his face white with shock on the diving board, he takes deep breaths fighting back tears.
After a time he tries to move but he cannot seem to make his body respond ! He does n't know how long he lays there trying to calm himself.
Lost in a world of his own he does not here anything until

" It's okay Toby I'm here " he feels an arm go round him and hears the words, calm and wonderful.

"Got your self in a bit of a pickle here I see " says James soothingly , stroking Toby's back
" J J  James." Toby's voice trembles tearfully " I  I nearly fell... "
"but " James calm voice soothes " you didn't.. you managed to save yourself and grab the board "
James had seen it all from the bedroom window, he'd hit the floor running the minute he'd seen Toby manage to grab the board and stop his headfirst fall!

" I  I did ! " Toby smiles through his tears " But I don't know how ! I did but I did "
" Yes you did and now I think I should help you back down , what do you think? "

"Please James I'd really like to get down to the ground "
"Okay do what I say "

Slowly and calmly Jame's helps Toby get from the board back onto the fence, always keeping one hand on Toby so he knows he's close by.

"That's It Toby, slide back slowly and we'll soon be able to climb down". It takes a while with James giving Toby lots of help and encouragement but finally they are back on the ground, well nearly!

"What were you doing up there Toby? " asks James now they are both safe
" I was going to practice to become an Olympic diver "
" I see , you know they don't actually start at the very top board you know "
"They don't? "
" No they start by diving off the side and then the smallest diving board and then as they get better they move up until one day they are diving off the top one!!

"Well no one tells you that! " says Toby getting a little colour in his face , to James relief  " I could have saved myself having to climb all the way up that fence!"
" Yes you could have" agrees James " but then did you ask anyone about how those divers get to be so good at what they do? "
"Well no"

"If you are serious about being an Olympic diver, you need to start at the bottom and work your way up to the high boards " says James " and you'll need a coach to teach you plus you'll need to practice before and after school for a couple of hours everyday"

"A couple of hours everyday? " repeats Toby stunned " Can I not just do a dive from each one and then try the top one.....well not today... maybe ... next week "

" Nope sorry Toby, you have to train for thousands of hours at each stage before you move up "
" Thousands! " gasps Toby " That's more than ... than one whole hundred! "
"Yes it is " smiles James " come on lets go inside and talk about it "

" Good idea " agrees Toby turning round " I'm feeling quite cold now and would like some hot chocolate "
" Hot Chocolate ! I could go some of that myself " agrees James " lets get you warmed up and then we can talk about all the different sports you could win a gold medal in "
Toby starts forward " James ? "
"Yes "
" We don't need to tell Mum what happened .. do we? "
James shivers " No I think it's best we don't tell Mum this time " They set off for the house, James knowing Mum will have to know sometime but not yet, he does not think he could tell her without crying ,he needs to get over the shock himself first! Then he looks up and sees Mum waiting white faced by the back door, Toby sees her too! Suddenly he starts running to her, tears flowing down his cheeks, she grabs him in  a big bear hug and no one says anything.... for a while.


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