Right! Where to start?
Oh. Laaaaast week! Yerse...
Well, I spent a huge amount of time and energy clearing space in the loft so that the plumbers could get to the old header tanks! And this after a Monday Night/Tuesday Morning all-nighter to get the bridesmaids finished for pick-up on Tuesday morning! I shifted and sorted and piled and packed and suddenly there was a clear Space! Not only could you SEE from the loft hatch to the far end, but you could WALK there too - without turning sideways! DH got some of our 'spare' shuttering ply (bought many years ago for a cupboard that never materialised!) and laid it down in place of the broken bit of chip board, and we laid the wooden bed base down to provide walkways and a working platform for the lads... By Friday, most was done, and we'd taken a load down the dump (stuff like the HUUUUGE box our TV came in!), and one of clothes and other stuff down the charity shop...
Everything else was restacked in better order. Then DH and James went off to Scout Camp for the weekend, leaving me to start on the sewing stuff!
I shifted the dummies back up to the loft (places had been provided!), cleared and vacuumed the floor, and shifted the treadle, a hand crank, and mum's old 99 into the sewing room. I placed them in such a way that I could use any one of them IN ADDITION to the Lily on her bench and the serger on its! :) I also shifted the hop basket full of rolls of fabric into a corner, and still had space to sew, but no-where to cut anything out... Oh well - there were ready cut projects about if I had time! I spent all Sunday OUT! Went swimming with a friend in the morning, then the two of us went to Bluewater and shopped 'til we dropped! I bought birthday presents for James! :D And a few little things for me, including a VERY silly book! And some Lush soap!
Got home just after six to find two totally wreaked lads awaiting dinner! But dinner was well in hand: veggies all sorted, chicken ready for the oven... Dinner was ready by seven. I'd also cleared my desk on Saturday, so we dismantled the computer and the desk, moved them through to the dining room, reassembled them, and by midnight my hero had me all back on line! OK, so I don't have the colour printer or the scanner plugged in, but I can live without a second printer and the scanner for a couple of months!
Monday morning I got everyone up and ready by 7:45, and at ten to eight the builders arrived! I was expecting them 'some time this week', so eight am on Monday was a welcome surprise! I fuelled them up with tea, and they got cracking. By the time they went in the middle of the afternoon, we had a nice new concrete shed base about 3m by 5m occupying the dead bit at the back end of the garden... They are due back tomorrow (weather permitting) to start erecting the shed. They dropped the nice little surprise on us that they wanted to start on the conservatory on Monday 26th September, rather than 3 October, as they'd had a hiccup in another project and were free that week. Heh! Fun, innit...
At five past eight the plumbers arrived. They quickly got to work, and worked like stink! by 4pm we had a brand new combination boiler in the cupboard in our bedroom, some shiny new pipework in various corners, and everything was neat and clean - except the bits I'd not got round to vacuuming before they arrived! They'd removed the old boiler and some pipes from the kitchen, filled the old flue hole in the wall, and set the new stuff running... I'm rather glad we never found time to finish the kitchen decorating! Now I can have another wall cupboard where the old boiler was! :)
Yesterday (goodness - was it only Tuesday? It's been a busy week already!) I cleared out all the cupboards I could in the conservatory, packing a couple of boxes of charity shop donation, a load for the dump, and a pile of crates of stuff that we need to store for the duration of the building work. This will make carting all the stuff for shed storage 200 feet up the length of the jungle that is our garden a great deal easier! Principally, we need to store several kitchen base units that will be refitted to the new conservatory, the freezer, the washing machine, and the tumble dryer. Most of the kitchen stuff will be stored in the loft. The freezer will need a supply of electrons to keep it going, but we can't do plumbing up there, so washing will need to go to the laundrette... :(
Over the last few days I have also landed three new fun customer projects! :) One will be a bronze bridesmaid gown (tres posh!) for a lass who is 6'2" and a UK size 14. Oh, what a joy that will be! A wonderfully TALL las with a decent figure! I *must* get pix! :) The second is for a Mother of The Bride, and a glorious bluish pewtery shot silk dupion. Dress and jacket - very yummy! The third is a set of costumes for a lass who works in a couple of tribute bands: some ABBA stuff and some Kylie kit! Those will be seriously good fun and a nice change from the bridal stuff.
I also want to get some quilt blocks done, and I'm in the middle of some trousers for my special trouser customer. These are stretch jeans! It's a real change from the poly bridal satin, but stretch denim isn't exactly any better to sew! I wish it wasn't a poly mix denim... Cotton & Lycra stretch denim is usually fun to sew, but this is harsh on the hands and grabs the threads! I'm using carpet thread like stuff for the top stitching, the tension is up to 8 on the dial, I have a size 14/100 needle in the machine, and STILL it tries to make loops on the back! But it don't half go through the serger a treat! :) Next pair will be khaki stretch drill... The Kwik-Sew stretch jeans pattern is quite good, but a little on the generous side!
James said the other night that with all the upheaval that he'd rather move house! I told him it was less of an upheaval than moving... And I should know as I did it about 18 times!
This is why I have been about less the last week or so, and it looks set to continue for some while. Still, we should have the new conservatory up and pruning before Christmas! The only really big decision yet to make is what to floor it with!
Oh, and Big Sis sent me her book to review and correct! So I shall also be doing that over the next week or two!