I just handed in my last essay, so this is a particularly apt title. I'm also going to finish up the stove saga, see?

The chimney needed another coat of plaster and lots of tiles needed cutting last time. We'll start with the tiles.

Originally we bought a tile saw. Looks a lot like a hacksaw. All human powered and that. We'd kind of forgotten that floor tiles are quite a lot stronger than wall tiles. GG tried. She cut (slowly) through most of a tile. It made nasty screeching noises that had me running from the room - think fingernails down blackboard but amplified.

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Moving on with the story of the stove. We cleared out the fireplace and got it swept, so at the end of the last post on this we were back to brick on the bottom half of the wall. I know a brick chimney in a living room could be a feature and all, but the bricks weren't particularly pretty ones and besides, then we'd have to take the plaster off the top half of the wall too, so we decided to replaster the bottom half. Oh, and render round the back of the firebox, because apparently plaster can explode. Nice.

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Right. I know. Long time no hear. Still, I've got photos now! Woohoo!

I'll catch up in a couple of posts I think - don't want to make them too long. When I last showed pictures... Oh... Ages ago... We'd reached the stage where the old fire and surround had gone, but further destruction needed to be achieved before we could start to rebuild for the new stove.

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A quick, useless post with no pictures, which it desperately needs but I haven't got them off the camera yet. I know, that's a dreadful excuse. Rubbish.

Our stove went in on Friday (finally) - yay! It's been an interesting process with some new DIY skills picked up on route (mostly by GG) and at some point I will do some picture-heavy progression shots. Gotta be said, I love burning stuff. Oh yeah. 

I've performed some minor surgery on my Trek 1000. I've been struggling since they took my desk away at work. My Kona needs me to wear my cycling shoes and carry a change of trousers (no mudguards) and shoes. My Brompton is geared too high for the hills, and I'm not quite sure where I want to lock it up. Mostly taking it all the way to work is just added hassle, unless I have good reason. And the Trek? Needed cycling shoes, was too high geared, and the handlebars were all wrong for comfortable braking. So, I've added a rack (so I can use panniers), changed the pedals for some platforms with toeclips, and subjected the bars to a flip and chop job. I'm trying to change the gearing too, but I'm having to wait for the parts. Rode it this morning, and it felt... Well, dreadful if I'm honest. Don't get me wrong, the bike felt good. It was my legs that didn't. It's been a while, I'm badly out of shape, and it showed. Now I have no excuses on which bike to select though, so hopefully I'll get right back on it.

The garden is continuing to continue. The batch of seedlings I planted before Easter are dying and getting munched in the coldframe. I think it got a little too cold for the tomatos. The verbena St George I planted has been eaten - I think the snails have found it. I'll have to keep an eye on my beans and peas. Still, it's all trial and error, right? The aubretia I grew from seed last year is now flowering, and it goes really nicely with the flowering current out front, so some things work well.

And in knitting news I have completed the yoke of my Spicy Jack jumper (which I know I still haven't posted anything proper about - sorry), and started on both sleeves. The colour work is looking better than my first attempt. It's all good.

So, more on the stove. Today we had a nice man come round to tell us it was possible. In order to get his opinion, we had to make some minor modifications to our current fire setup...

That's what it looked like when we moved in. Not the most hideous gas fire ever I suppose, but still. Not really to my taste. So, it's gone.

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