lonemagpie

Ants - little bastards are running up and down one of the wooded stems of my raspberry patch. Normally I have no problem with ants, but if the little fuckers are eating my raspberries, they have to be exterminated!

Also the one disadvantage to going into the garden bushes to harvest rasps is the coming out covered in baby spiders and the like...

Well, no wonder the new shower head/hose I got from Wilkinsons on Saturday couldn't get a seal that didn't leak out the back - the actual rubber tube inside the chromed hose exterior is actually snapped clean off about half an inch from the end, inside the cover that screws on to the hand-unit. Whoop de fucking do, back to wallowing in dirty water instead of being rinsed off, until I can get another one, which hopefully will fit on the handset...

OK, so, new toilet seat and lid installed (and gave the porcelain a go with the antibacterial bug-killing detergent while I was at it.)

New chromed shower hose and head installed too, but I can't get the bastard not to leak out of the back of the handheld head no matter what arrangement of gaskets and washers I mess around with. This happened with the previous unit too, which caused it to rust most unattractively.

A search on the internet, however, brings up the suggestion that one really needs teflon tape to make a proper seal with these things, so I shall see if I can get some tomorrow. While wishing evil on the manufacturers and retailers of handheld showers, who don't fucking bother to mention this.

Meanwhile, Lesley has sorted out another three bags of clothes for charity shops (in addition to the three this morning, for a total of six.)

My dad's bringing cutting bench and some appropriate tools for slicing up the chipboard for the floor on wednesday, so I'll be able to make those repairs at the back end of the week.

The stairs have been sanded - and by this I mean with glass paper and a sanding block, since I don't have a power sander, so it's on the knees and be a bit of a scrubber for this one - and are ready for their mahogany staining in the morning.

This means I got a bit covered in sawdust, and- oh, you know what, for those of you about to embark on DIY soon, I'm gonna throw you some personal grooming/cleaning yourself afterwards advice, cos, y'know, it's a messy business. Even when you're doing it to get tidy!

There'll be some about getting paint off later, but for today, the comedic but surprisingly effective way to get sawdust, old dry paint flecks, pieces of plaster crumble, etc out of your hair. (This also, and yeah, I'm speaking from experience, cos, come on we all get it occasionally, works for dandruff or flaky scalp or whatever. And it's unexpected: Go the pet store or pet aisle of the supermarket, and get yourself - wait for it - a flea comb. Yeah, even though you don't have fleas. See, the fine sawdust and bits of whatever are small enough that a regular comb won't catch them, and water will likely stick them to your hair (especially if it's thick) rather than washing it out without several repeat goes.

So, the secret is this - comb with a pet store flea comb *before* showering. That'll bring everything you've picked up from the rubble - er, work site - to the ends of the hair, if not just wipeable from the comb itself, and then just shower as normal- job done.

(And, yeah, like I said, this works for non-DIY related stuff like dandruff or psoriasis too, as a bonus)

Anyway, enough house stuff for today - tomorrow, it's mahogany woodstaining time for the stairs, perhaps some application of the self-adhesive vinyl surfaces to the kitchen units, and maybe, if I'm really lucky, managing to find the bloody cable to connect the phone to the lappie so I can post some of the pictures I've taken over the past week, so you can see how it's going.

(or Anne might comment, since she's here this weekend and is seeing it for herself!)