Home Again.

We've been up in Borth again and got lots more done this time. We had an uneventful 4 1/2 hour drive up and the same on the way home. When we arrived the sun was shinning in a blue sky, the air was warm and a warm breeze was bringing us the sound of the waves and the subtly pleasant smell of the sea. Not to mention the shades of turquoise of the sea itself and the distant 'enchanted isles' on the horizon. So far I've only found two drawbacks to Red Roofs; one- that it's not on an isolated Hebridean island which would be my heart's desire but definitely not my head's choice and two- the two street lights, the one by the big bay window goes off at 1.00 and we won't be sleeping in the living room and the other at the bottom of the garden stays on all night. No clear star studded night skies but also no foolish drivers going over the edge of the cliff.

We drove up in the morning and my first job of the afternoon was to pull off as much as possible of the damp wallpaper etc. from the sitting room wall and make a start on demolishing the fireplace. Most of the nasty damp smells had gone after we got rid of the carpets which was a great improvement.

Working on the wall was like an investigation of the bungalow's décor. Starting from the brick inner wall there were; a thick layer of cement render, then a layer of plaster followed by a skin of some sort of sealant under thick textured wallpaper, then wooden battens onto which had been nailed a hardboard fake wood effect followed by another layer of a different textured wallpaper. We had seen that damp was getting in under the aluminium windows and our plan is to have insulated plasterboard on all the outside walls so this wasn't a big deal. I got so far with the fireplace and realised that it would be more sensible to have the builders take out the concrete structure. While I was doing this Peter started on some demolishing of cupboards in the bedrooms. 

I'd started with the living room so that the dust could settle before we assembled the trundle beds that had arrived from John Lewis. The bed frames are fine but as to the mattresses ………. they were a great disappointment being of extremely poor quality and uncomfortable to sleep on though having a proper height bed made all the difference to Peter. Thinking that I didn't need to worry about quality from John Lewis I only looked at the reviews when I was looking at the site to see which tools we might need. Oh dear, every review said how poor the mattresses were. They were really wobbly and I could feel springs digging into my back and shoulders, not what you expect for £400. I shall be having a few words with them tomorrow and also leaving a negative review.

We took all our meals and breaks out on the terrace and while we were sitting out there on Thursday we could hear a voice shouting 'Help!'. A closer look with the binoculars revealed a swimmer in distress near the man-made reef and soon a lifeguard was heading out on a yellow surfboard (top photo) to rescue the swimmer. It's a very gently sloping beach but we'll have to have a chat with the lifeguards about where the rip tides are likely to form.

Yet another beautiful sunset to end the day and cheery waves from the neighbours as they walked to and from the beach. 

More Borth adventures tomorrow.

After some dusty working days it was good to arrive home to more sun and a lovely clean home with everything working. Our work clothes have been washed and dried and a hot shower was most welcome. In Borth the plumber has left us with cold water in the kitchen plus one working toilet and hand basin. We also have one functioning electric socket in the kitchen off which we run the fridge freezer, microwave, kettle and radio. Sort of like camping but better.

PS. I discovered that not only does the fully tiled toilet have great acoustics but if you are on your own and leave the door open you can see down the bendy hallway to sea and sky! (Too high up and far back for anyone to see in.)