Week off?

We've just had a week off work so chance to get a mixture of jobs done. We had hoped to be painting eco-emulsion by now but the plastering is taking longer than expected, not helped by the heatwave this week which meant it was drying out too fast.

Instead we got a range of things done including:

• We collected a load of block paviours for the drive from a friend's parents who have had a new patio laid. This helps with our use of recyced materials and is equally good for the budget!
• I installed the ducting and external pipework for the rainwater tank, and the irony of doing it during a heatwave wasn't lost on me. Still need to pull the cables for the pump and controller through, but hopefully the drawcord I've put in won't break!
• Sanded more internal doors, getting rid of the orange stain, and started stripping the island unit. We tried sanding it but decided we needed to resort to other means so have bought eco-paint stripper from the Greenshop. It has done a reasonable job so far, but with several layers of paint and varnish on the island unit it's not been straightforward and has required a lot of effort. At least we've not been asphixiated by fumes, but who knows how toxic the old paint is that we've been stripping off!
• More render painting - this time to the front of Hillside which makes it look a lot nicer!