Sunny.

We've had a bright sunny day with colder winds blowing in from the north. The clocks went back last night so it was getting dark by 5.00. Not being able to sleep in the night I was shopping on-line for a fridge freezer. Not only did I have to find one that was just the right size, I then needed to check what material had been used for the back. There have been a number of articles on consumer programs showing just how dangerous fridges and freezers with plastic backs can be. The fire brigade had to halt their test of a plastic backed freezer  due to the size of the fire. Sadly it is believed that the dreadful fire in Grenfell Tower started in a fridge/freezer. The consumer organisation have published a list of many fridges and freezers showing what the backs are made of and I made sure that I only considered models that had non-flammable backing. That's all sorted now and they'll be taking away our old chest freezer at the same time. 

Right now I'm focussing on packing all the things that are initially going into storage. Among them was the kitchen spice cupboard. All the china had already been packed so you might think it would be a simple job to undo 4 screws and take the cupboard off the wall. The first step didn't take long, box up all the herbs and spices, throwing a few very out of date ones away and combining duplicates.

First there was the nice surprise of the missing piece of the bone china tea-set (badly damaged when a toothpaste dispenser was used as a missile). I always wondered where it had gone and thought it might have found its way behind the kitchen units.

Then, having already spotted that the cupboard needed easing out from the plaster above which had been done after the cupboard was put up, there was the unpleasant surprise of finding that the plaster on the wall behind was blown. Not too easy to see but the shaded line to the left of the centre was where the plaster was bulging out  about half an inch.

Fortunately once I'd carefully taken off the blown plaster it was mostly a thin layer that had been done over the original kitchen wall. I can't do anything about the thick ridge of plaster above but I will paint the wall white when I do all the bits that need painting after mirrors etc. have been taken down.  

I'll also have to paint over the family's height marks on the wall by the front door. I've already printed off photographs to real life scale so they are not lost forever. 

My other jobs for today were to move some things I want to keep, in the outbuildings. A couple of rolls of insulation will come in handy for the new loft which hasn't got any and a large wooden shelf which will be just right to put the digital piano on.