Only a day and a bit until school starts. Liam is worried about having anew teacher in 1st class and Conor doesn't seem a bit bothered about starting Junior Infants. We shall see on the first day how they both deal with the situation. I can't believe they have had 10 weeks off!
We spent some of last week up in Wexford visting grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. The boys bought their bikes and were showing off their skills to anyone that would watch. Conor is besotted with uncle Emmet; even more now Emmet bought him a hurley that has the Wexford colours of purple and gold for a grip. Liam on the other hand bought a Rebel hurl (Cork style) totally by chance - he is turning into a Corkonian!
There was another reason for going up to Wexford. We had discovered a couple of salvage yards in Kilkenny and Gorey and wanted to visit them to see what they had to offer. The boys were happy to stay with the family and be spoilt rotten! The first salvage yard we vistied, in Kilkenny was very organised with everything sorted into groups of similar items. There were various sash weights, guttering items, slates etc. Unfortunately there were no ridge tiles that matched our roll-top originals. We had more luck in the yard in Gorey for those. This yard was in a real state but after searching around we found some ridge tiles for the hip part of the roof that matched ours, in fact enough to probably complete the hips. The owner was confident that he could find the others we needed if we could get the details to him. What a relief! Also the yard in Gorey sell reproduction baths - 900 euro for the one I want, which is comparable in cost to the £650 for the ones I have seen on ebay once you have taken into account travel costs - we would have to collect from the UK. Maybe we are making progress at last...!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Progress? well.....
It has been a month since I last posted. We are still in the mobile but I have resigned myself to the fact that we will be here for a while yet. I really hope that we will be in the downstairs before the weather turns cold again!
We have organised a plasterer to begin work on rendering outside the second week in September and we have hopefully got a good plasterer for indoors too. We were hoping to get the rendering done before we started plastering inside to make sure the place is watertight especially around the windows and stones where the pointing is bad. But we have decided to get the 2 front rooms done in the meantime. All the wiring has been done for those rooms and no plumbing is needed there so there is really no need to wait on them. It will be such a boost to see those rooms almost done. A plumber came last weekend to quote on the plumbing side of things but we haven't heard back from him yet - I dread to think of the cost of his work. A good plumber is very hard to find!
The summer holidays are flying. There is only a week and a half before the lads go to school. Conor is quite excited about starting and it looks like the school has a acquired a new teacher for the massive intake of 31 this year (only 16 last year!). He has suddenly matured in his ways and has grown over an inch too! This week he really showed what he was made of when he taught himself how to ride his bike. I was amazed at his determination. He got upset a few times when he crashed or fell off but he never gave up and is now almost as competent as Liam in going around corners. Unfortunately his bike is a bit small for him - it doesn't freewheel which makes it difficult going down hill. Maybe Father Christmas will be kind to him!
We managed another break after our trip to England too. Some friends invited us to a holiday home in Rossbeigh, Co. Kerry. We only stayed 2 nights but it was fantastic. We had a go at surfing and on a surf-ski. Again the boys' determination showed again - they didn't care if they capsized or fell into the sea in the slightest! I have to say that when the house is nearly done we will definitely get some wet suits and take up some sea sports!
We have organised a plasterer to begin work on rendering outside the second week in September and we have hopefully got a good plasterer for indoors too. We were hoping to get the rendering done before we started plastering inside to make sure the place is watertight especially around the windows and stones where the pointing is bad. But we have decided to get the 2 front rooms done in the meantime. All the wiring has been done for those rooms and no plumbing is needed there so there is really no need to wait on them. It will be such a boost to see those rooms almost done. A plumber came last weekend to quote on the plumbing side of things but we haven't heard back from him yet - I dread to think of the cost of his work. A good plumber is very hard to find!
The summer holidays are flying. There is only a week and a half before the lads go to school. Conor is quite excited about starting and it looks like the school has a acquired a new teacher for the massive intake of 31 this year (only 16 last year!). He has suddenly matured in his ways and has grown over an inch too! This week he really showed what he was made of when he taught himself how to ride his bike. I was amazed at his determination. He got upset a few times when he crashed or fell off but he never gave up and is now almost as competent as Liam in going around corners. Unfortunately his bike is a bit small for him - it doesn't freewheel which makes it difficult going down hill. Maybe Father Christmas will be kind to him!
We managed another break after our trip to England too. Some friends invited us to a holiday home in Rossbeigh, Co. Kerry. We only stayed 2 nights but it was fantastic. We had a go at surfing and on a surf-ski. Again the boys' determination showed again - they didn't care if they capsized or fell into the sea in the slightest! I have to say that when the house is nearly done we will definitely get some wet suits and take up some sea sports!
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