Wired!

It’s saying something when someone (and we’re not saying who) would rather spend a long weekend assembling Ikea bookshelves, than nip off for a weekend break in the beautiful city of Bath, with one’s beloved. But here’s the thing. Aaron, our electrician, has this week completed ALL the electrics-related tasks that have been on our list for months. While not what I’d call beloved, Aaron nevertheless stands quite high in my esteem this week. With the elctrical work done, the big studio remodel can very soon begin to move rapidly forward. Here’s how it all went down.

First up, the old “consumer unit” was replaced with a shiny, and up-to-code Box of All Power, which was installed in its new location. Here it will sit happily inside an Ikea bookshelf, behind a door, for all eternity. Or for as long as we own the house, which is really all I care about.

Simon and Ollie came in yesterday and patched and filled the hole in the plaster left by the removal of the skanky plywood plank (hidden beneath a desk, and behind a file cabinet, lo these many years), and also patched up the wonkiness left in the wall left by the removal of dado rail.

Dado rail, by the way, is an abomination when installed in house built before 1890, and certainly does not belong on every wall of a house built in 1970. It’s up there with Artex in home improvement products that should never be used under any circumstances. People who use No More Nails to attach dado rail to the wall are going to the Special Hell, along with the people who talk at the theatre.

Those dark areas in the patching compound indicate freshness. The walls will need a few days to fully cure, but after it turns white we can sand and paint. Once that happens, things will, I am just certain, begin to move at a rapid pace. However, since nothing can happen in this room until the patching compound turns white, the remaining Ikea bookshelves and the new work surface, the skirting board and new trim and all the rest, will have to wait until next week. Which means I can leave this project behind with a clear conscience, and go to Bath, with my beloved, for the weekend.

Sadly, having people in the house this week put me off my podcasting stride, and the new episode of Cast On is only half edited. It’s a good one though. Worth waiting for. And I shall be very good and finish the audio editing before picking up so much as a screwdriver. When we return home, I won’t even look at my studio until I’m done with the podcast. Really. I mean it.

While there may not be a podcast, we do have a winner today. Hearty congratulations to Terri, this week’s winner of Malabrigo sock yarn. Next week I’ll be giving away two skeins of my very own handspun yarn, which will look fabulous knit into Shepherd’s Mitts. Purchase my book before next Friday, and you just might be the lucky winner.

I’ll leave you with an image of the best thing that happened to our house this week, indeed, it just may be the best thing to happen in the history of the world.

That’s not an out of focus image. That is an action shot of the new remote-controlled, shiny, happy, chrome ceiling fan.

Knitsibs, I love it so much. Seriously. I keep finding excuses to walk upstairs so I can look at it. Just look at it.