Tuesday 2 June 2009

Tote that bale

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Tomorrow the walls of this house are going to be cavity-insulated.

"It's easy," I was told enthusiastically. "They drill a few holes in the outside wall and simply blow the insulation in. No mess, no fuss, and come winter, the heating bills will be significantly lower."

Gotta be a catch, I thought.

There was. "You'll need to move breakable stuff off the windowsills, by the way. Just in case."


Now, my windowsills adhere closely to the 'never a flat surface wasted' school of display. Still, it's probably time they had their biannual clean.

A bit later I got, "The vibrations can be quite powerful, you know. Best to take any pictures off the walls. Don't want all that broken glass lying around on the carpets."

Those were the carpets now covered in vases, jugs, pretty stones, driftwood-from-Greece and odd
things made by the kids in Technology ten years ago, presumably.

Heigh ho, I thought, better make a start. Then I walked into the dining room and saw this.



It's a fairly delicate process anyway getting out the one book you want to read without dislodging the rest of the shelf.

And it's an outside wall.

Guess what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the day?

(PS - fortunately daughter is still at uni. A whole bedroom-full of carpet on which to pile books)
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15 comments:

Lorix said...

I love it! I am keeping this post handy to show DH whenever he complains about the number of books I have (not a patch on your wonderful collection!)
Good luck with the insulation, hope it's not too hideous,
Lori x

Unknown said...

Good luck with it all. I come out in a cold sweat whenever I think about builders coming anywhere near the house.

A great collection of books, by the way. Perhaps they're like mine - they breed in the night. ;o)

Jo said...

Love all the books. Reminds me of my office! Good luck with removing them all. A big job, but think of the calories you'll burn!

Kate Hardy said...

Good luck, Jan - hope your builders are as nice as mine were.

Wonderful book collection. Must show DH as proof that I am normal :o)

Jan Jones said...

LOL, Lori ! And tell him that's without all the shelves on the interior wall (please tell me interior walls are safe from the vibrations), 5 bookcases in the living room, one at the top of the stairs, one in the spare room (aka dumping ground) and one each in the kids' rooms

Shirley - you know, that's absolutely it! They do! It is SO not my fault.

Jo - Thank you! I knew there had to be an up-side if I looked at the problem long enough.

Kate - of course you're normal. We are both normal. The rest of the world might be a little out of step, that's all.

Kate Johnson said...

Those walls look like my walls. In two different rooms. Plus all the piles of books that just don't fit on the shelves.

Hmm, maybe I really ought to look into an ebook reader...

Unknown said...

Your dinning room wall looks my idea of paradise! Good luck (don't get distracted reading though!)
lx

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Wow! I thought I had a huge amounts of books. I can see you beat me soundly on that score.

Hope it all goes well.

Jan Jones said...

Ah, yes, the piles in front of the shelves...
It took me an hour to shift them out of the way (exclaiming things like "Oh, I'd forgotten I'd got this" and "Ooh, I remember him") before I even got to the stage where I could reach the shelves.

Oh, and I've put half-a-dozen on the 'bin this' stack!

Jan Jones said...

Liz - it was paradise this morning. Now it has descended into a dusty, disorganised purgatory.

Debs - See above comment. I have now shifted two shelf-loads and my leg muscles are revolting. What I really want to do is put my feet up with a mug of tea and a good book. I'm settling for the tea.

Karen said...

Oh My Lord. I'd have sent to builders home personally. Taking them off's one thing, but you've got to put them all back too :oO

Good luck :o)

Karen said...

"the" builders, that should read. That's how shocked I was!!

Jan Jones said...

OMG, Karen. I'm only just over half-way through (I know it sounds slow, but I'm having to dust all the b****rs as I go and some of them haven't moved for YEARS) and now you tell me about putting them back when I've finished???

Let's see... how long have I got before the university term ends and daughter needs her room back again?

Melinda Hammond/Sarah Mallory said...

LOL Jan. just look on it as an opportunity to put them in order.................

Jan Jones said...

But *whine* they're already in order, Melinda. And I'm only down to M-for-Moorcroft.

Whimper. Need tea.