I did my quarterly visit to the local dump in Inagh this morning so I can relax until October when it is my turn again. Two next door neighbours and I take it in turns to take all our rubbish (garbage to those of you who speak North American English) every month, which is very handy as it costs us no more than €120 per annuum. We’ve had this arrangement in place for several years now, ever since the then rubbish collection company that was servicing the area refused to come down our road to take take our rubbish. They did us a big favour really, as it would cost each of our households a minimum of €300 p.a. if they had signed us up to their service.

We had our 3 solar panels installed as part of the new roof in mid-January 2007, and are very pleased with the results insofaras we have had hot water almost all of the time since then. For the first time ever we can now fill the bath with really hot water for a piping-hot soak! There is always hot water for any shaving, morning ablutions, and any of the myriad bits and pieces in the kitchen. The electric immersion has not been switched on even once.

I thought I’d post a photograph of the Metre that comes with the installation - this was taken last Friday afternoon. As you can see it is showing a temperature of 157.3°C! The two clocks at the top show the temperature in the tank (red button) at 52°C and the temperature in the pipe leading from the solar panels at 49°C. When the former exceeds the latter, it switches itself off (it is off in the photograph).

At long last I can post photographs of the finished, furnished attic. Here they are - one of each end:

The photos don’t really do it justice! It’s been well worth all the effort.

It’s bank holiday Monday night and I’m bushed after spending the last couple of days doing a major clean-up on the house. The amount of dust and dirt that had accumulated since the renovations started at the beginning of the year has to be seen to be believed. I also partially floored the other part of the attic that hasn’t been converted, and which we are going to use for storage - that was difficult given that it is like an oven in there and full of dust also.
At least now we have our kitchen and hallway back in a pulchrimous condition, so all the sweat has been worth it. We now have to tackle the livingroom, the bathroom and our bedroom. That’ll probably take another couple of weeks to complete.

We splashed out today - buying a couple of fold-up beds which will double as setees, a bookshelf thingy, a small table, and an atmospheric lamp for the attic! The credit card is still recovering!

As a result, the attic is looking pretty good. I still have to take a photograph and post it here. The monsoon conditions right now aren’t particularly conducive to the taking of photographs indoors. But I promise I will take one and post it here on Monday when the weather is due to give us some sun.

I haven’t posted in the last 5 days because I’ve been busy and wasn’t in the mood in any case.

The carpenter came on Saturday morning and installed the door in the attic, so the job is finally finished. All I need to do now is sand the door and varnish or paint it. We have moved the stuff we had acquired for the purpose (a dividing screen, some rugs, a set of wooden trunks, two comfortable chairs) up into the attic so it is now officially functioning. There are several things still outstanding, however, such as low shelves to hold the small library section that will go there, a music centre or hi-fi, folding beds, wall hangings, and a small table. I’ll post a photograph here when I get round to taking one.

Well, I finally got my work on the attic finished with the application of the second coat of varnish to the floor yesterday morning. I’ll leave it dry for the next couple of days before starting to move stuff into it on Friday afternoon.

I’m still waiting for the carpenter to come back and install the little door that separates the attic from the storage area. Hopefully he’ll do so this weekend.

I’m poised to apply the second and final coat of varnish to the attic floor. Just waiting for the mist to clear as I will need both velux windows open for ventilation. Just as I type this the sun has made an albeit misty appearance which heralds the imminent banishment of mist. So I’m off to the attic.

It’s been almost a week since my last post - thanks to the head cold which I have now beaten, and lack of time due to work on the attic floor. I applied the priming oil to the attic floor on Saturday afternoon which took me two and a half hours, and yesterday (Sunday) I applied the first coat of varnish which took me another two and a half hours. I could have applied the second coat of varnish this morning as the first coat was dry, but decided to leave it until tomorrow morning as I had pressing work matters to attend to (namely the VAT Return of Trading Details form for 2006-7 which is a pain in the arse to fill in). The varnish is a Hard Wax Oil from Biofa.
So tomorrow morning first thing I will apply the second coat of varnish to the attic floor - the weather forecast is good which means I can leave both velux windows wide open for ventilation while I do so. Even though the varnish is an eco-friendly product, good ventilation is still required while applying it.

Am I glad the weekend in coming up fast! Even though this week is a ’short’ week due to the Bank Holiday Monday, it feels like it’s been here forever! It must be end-of-term energy drain or something! I got my FETAC Web Authoring modules corrected in the early hours this morning, and the results submitted today, so that’s one major headache out of the way! Apart from that I feel I’ve been singularly unproductive all week (excepting the nearly 6 hours spent on Monday slaving away preparing the attic floor for varnishing) and have been dragging myself around the place.

The electrician appeared at the door at 8 am this morning like a bolt out of the blue. He had lost my number so couldn’t ring. The result is that all the sockets and light fittings have been installed in the attic and are now in full working order. A couple of under-press strip lights that remain will be done tomorrow, and that’s another job done!

We’re off to Killarney tomorrow evening to celebrate my youngest sister’s 30th birthday - we’ll be staying over until Sunday. Looking forward to the break big-time, as we need a holiday!