Radiators and Elderflowers

A day off for me, today, which has meant, inevitably, getting on with a list of jobs. First was getting the fridge-freezers onto the driveway, and giving them a thorough clean. They, the filing cabinet, and pine desk, were all collected over the course of the morning, and have gone to new homes. The garage is much neater as a result, and the pine desk has been replaced in the front guest room with an adopted antique dresser. That needs a bit of attention, but should clean up nicely.

After the lawnmower's failure last weekend, I then replaced a new switch/capacitor unit, and also lowered and sharpened the blade. It should cut more cleanly, now, and actually works, which is a clear improvement.

I've cut 50-odd elderflower florets, and started a double batch of cordial. That should be ready on Saturday, or Sunday if it's slow. (To the 50 heads, add 6 pints boiled water, 6lb sugar, five thinly sliced lemons, 4oz citric acid. Leave for 2-3 days, stirring a few times, and strain. I also add some wine-maker's stabilizing powder and a Campden tablet, to reduce the chances of spoilage.)

I then did a trip to the tip (sorry, Household Waste Recycling Centre), with a load of left-overs from building work and tidying, and then scurried to a scrap metal merchant to get rid of the accumulated scrap. Most of that's been near-worthless ferrous (a whole £3.80), but the £25 for the old water cylinder is better. That will probably go into the Tatton Park fund for a week's time.

Liz finished her work soon after I got back from that, and together we've hung the two towel radiators in the bathrooms. The guest en suite didn't have a radiator over the winter, as we'd not got one to put up; our en suite had the old radiator (albeit in a different position), which worked, thermally, but was a bit in the way. The new ones fit their spaces really nicely, and were surprisingly simple to put up. I now need to sort out the plumbing, which is a little less urgent, as they're not running. We need to briefly take them down to plaster and paint, and then I can finish off.

I also finished the work under the back guest room floor, where there's a void where the old staircase was. This has a nexus of plumbing, as it's where the central heating flow/return enter the old house, and it's also where the power for the immersion heaters, and the data cabling to the garage go. I took a telephone cable that way, too, and I've now pushed this out into the library alcove, where I'll be putting a telephone point. I also took through another Cat 6 cable, which will mean I can then daisy-chain another telephone point out into the garage, meaning it has telephony, as well as ethernet. Very modern, for an 1841-built house.

All that done, there was just time to vacuum, dust, tidy, wash up, and cook dinner before collapsing. Just.