We do still have this door to nowhere. And not unrelated to that, earlier this week we had some good news.

To be continued...

We got our TV mounted and our dining room table returned from storage. And we closed and plastered up another doorway. We still don't have things like skirting board and there's more painting to be done, but 6 months later this place is a lot more practical and comfortable.

At this stage we could get some paint on the walls and some inexpensive laminate flooring down. And we could finally get some of our stuff back out of storage. We had been using an old fridge so we didn't have to worry if it got damaged, so we were able to swap that for the one we had in storage.

On Aug 29th the kitchen went back in. This is a temporary arrangement. We hope to get a couple of years out of it, but there was no point spending thousands on a new kitchen. The chances of it being damaged are extremely high given how the next year is expected to go.

Through this we survived thanks to a microwave, a portable 2 ring hob, an air fryer, takeaways and the kindness of family.and friends.

Thank you to anyone who fed us during August.

The floor boards made an excellent fire one Friday night.

That was to be our 1st major setback. The chipboard floor below the tiles was in an awful state. Pretty soon there were 2 foot shaped holes through what was left of it in the section where we had lifted tiles. It all had to go. The kitchen units came out, more plastering, and a new floor went down.

The hardwood floor from the dining room then got taken up, possibly to go back down again somewhere at a later stage. The ceiling got pulled down, reboarded, and plastered. And we started to lift the kitchen floor tiles.

Next up we closed up the back door as we planned to add kitchen units across there.

Which left us with this. To borrow a metaphor from JFK we had thrown our caps over the wall, but even in this state the entire house immediately felt bigger.

Within a few days the wall separating the 2 rooms came down. Luckily that wall wasn't supporting anything above so we didn't need to install a steel beam or concrete head to take it down.

So I guess it's time for an update on this kitchen/dining room and what we've been at.

This is what we took on back at the start of the summer.

I'd agree with that analysis, but whether we're right or wrong about that there's no doubt that they got an awful lot of shit done in that 97-01 term.

Starmer is pissing a golden opportunity to make generational domestic reforms up against the wall.

Say what you like about Blair, but after 12 months in office he had made the Bank of England independent, held referendums on devolution for Scotland and Wales, was moving the national minimum wage bill through parliament and had signed the good Friday agreement.

Starmer is wasting his majority.

Bus and wet wipes eh?

It's not exactly the Beveridge Report is it?

Clean sweep?

I did not realise it was counted by constituency. Potentially this election just got interesting again.

Do you think a clean sweep is doable for Connolly?

Disagree.

youtu.be/k8DMJ3SGlzk?...