Heat!

I really should have thought of a more original title! But it brings me smartly onto the issue at hand. We are enjoying a delightful end of summer and slipping into Fall/Autumn and as a consequence we are having cold mornings. No problem. Well no problem if you have heat! Our heating packed up some time ago and we thought that we would have enough time to contact a plumber (yup, did that) and then they would come back with, reasonable quotes........and here is the rub. The quotes were ridiculous and in  the absence of gobs of money, Mr Fozard, dear husband or in this case 'are you bloomin mad fella!' decided that he would just do it himself. Now for those who didn't have the pleasure of knowing Mr F on the other side of the Atlantic, he has never and I repeat never done plumbing work before! In fact he was know as a non handy man. Now suddenly he is literally a man in plaid. He is known in his own family for telling his lovely handy man dad, that he would use his brains and not his hands to make money when he was out in the wide world! Nice and quite full of himself we might say, so now he is trying to use his brain to make money and having to do handy man stuff as well........there is a lesson in there somewhere I'm sure but probably something along the lines of, don't be so smug. 

 

Never the less we were so buoyed up by the water heating being replaced and fitted by said husband that well he is giving this a go. I was fine about the whole thing until, I happen to go down the basement and realized that he was using a blow torch! "Didn't know we had one of those", I said. he just smiled at me and carried on melting things.

 

The other thing to give me some concern is the drilling out for the vent. I might have to report back on that. In fact there may be quite a lot to report on that event.

 

On the outside of our house as I said Fall is ticking along quite nicely and as such me and Lucy have been enjoying  strolling  at Longwood Gardens. This time of year it is just lovely (actually all year round really) and in the current state of things in my basement, it is nice to get out and have a change of scene. So I have just a couple of pictures of there.

 

As for the rest of the inhabitants of our house they are all just fine and enjoying school quite well. Of course for the 15year old it is more challenging  and we will see what his teachers say to me at 'back to school night', but I think he is fine and all par for the course. Playing soccer with the school is occupying him most days of the week after school and Louie is dancing on 5 days of the week, so he is kept busy too. In fact Louie is dancing at an Apple Butter Festival this weekend. Just a small event at a church but it seems that apple butter is something of the season and people like feeling festive. I personally will be looking for that lady who did glass blowing and was selling her wares~!

Oh my bleep he is melting something!

Agh it is a BLOW TORCH, to me he looked to be a bit close to flammable stuff but what do I know!

His first soldered pipe! (I can't believe I have been reduced to having pictures of pipes on my blog!)



This is Old Bessie, as we like to call her, our old heating system installed sometime ago, as state of the art. She is big, she is old and she ain't shifting! So we have her as a feature of the our house and for those visiting it will be on the tour of things to see. For those that want to know, she is 80 years old.

My plumber aka Mr F, aka him in doors or in this case, him down stairs, said that the red thing is 1500 dollars! We hope that it keeps working. I don't know what it is but it is fabulous and red!

 

This is the man I have been talking about............I would say armed and very dangerous.

Ah Louie looking all grown up with a fantastic Dr Who hat, that was worn every day to school. He looks like a middle schooler now.

 

This is a tree at Longwood and I thought that this fungi was pretty cool, especially as it wasn't on my tree!

The sky was the most amazing blue and I love this shot looking back towards the greenhouses and through the topiary garden.

Sunken Italian water garden........Damian's next project............yes I am kidding

Just a nod to Autumn and soon we will have gourds and it will be celebrating Halloween. I have warned Louie I may dress up too............he was cool with that.............yippee!!!!

 

Oh my there are scary noises from the basement and I am sure I keep hearing him talk to himself! Time for me to leave the building I think.............Just remember if anything happens I did love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Exhausted Already!

So school is started and we are being pushed into the routine, like it or not. Funny you never lose that 'back to school' feeling or that 'Sunday Night' feeling knowing school is the next day!  The weather also decided to turn, although beautiful weather, it is funny just those signs of Autumn coming, some leaves on the ground, nuts along the side walks and I don't mean people, but nuts from the trees and the sight of the yellow bus! and so we begin.

For Louie this is a jump, as he starts at a new school, (Middle School) and he is now at the same school as Isaac. It is a step and the start of him becoming a teen! We have two years and then that full horror will develop. But I am hopeful, his brother isn't too bad.........maybe we will be ok. But the first item on the agenda for being a pre teen like Louie is a mobile phone. So off we trot to the mall, to get Louie his first phone! He was very excited and by day one, he is a texting demon, telling me what bus he is on and when he arrives at school. (He must have heard my mind meld screams as I was waiting anxiously, wondering if he would text me, of course I hadn't asked him to. So much relief that he let me know and continued to for the week.)

The first day of school we were all nervous and up early! 6.00am for this house and they are out of the house by 6.55am to get the bus from the corner. Of course I hadn't read the instructions properly about the buses, that's two in the morning and two in the afternoon. So I didn't hear until the end of the day about how they waited a block too far for the bus at the old stop, luckily the driver saw them and collected them. Then how they didn't make the transfer because they had to go to the bus depo (Louie heaven!). Such fun stories and not a bit alarming to hear that the bus malfunctioned and had to be replaced!!!!!!

But all were returned safely to me at the end of the day and so the week unfolded. Now we slot in the dance classes (I am now counting 5 a week!) and horse-riding and soccer! Oh my, the fun of the schedule.

So by this weekend we were exhausted. But not before the plumber came........aka Damian. He has excelled himself and installed a new water heater. Ours having fully died and as our whole system in the basement makes grown men cry, he did it himself. The heating system also needs replacing, as Damian sorry The Plumber, tells me it is broken and he thinks we have 4-6 weeks to get that done too...............he won't do that as it is a conversion to gas from oil as well............oh the joy of home ownership. So far we don't have someone for that but The Plumber reliably tells me that he is on the scout for that.

Here are some snaps of all the above.

This would be the New Phone

6.45am and tying those laces. Notice the dark outside! yes the sun is not fully up at this time.......

The old pro. Unfazed.



Day One of Middle School and even wearing a school T-shirt. Great outfit Lou!

That's my boy!

Off and out of the house, big bro leading the way.

The Plumber and his Mate

New System, (you can tell he is a professional 'cause he has a special light thingey!)



Proud moment

OK maybe that should have been what you did first, not last! Honestly men and those manuals

No...I am confident and I am The Plumber

Yesterday we saw this in the sky above West Chester and let me tell you it was going at quite a clip. When we caught up we could see that it is a ...........minion.........how flippin exciting is that

I got this back shot as it turned and motored off whilst we waiting at traffic lights...........

Oh more next time. This is already shaping up to be a busy month and Louie will hopefully have his first performance later this month...........phewee.