A frugal life is an easy life!

We have had the pleasureable company of the better half for the last two weeks, so of course the number of jobs that "can" be done has increased.
I struggle to finish one job at a time, so don't take any more on, until what I get the job in hand finished. With the rendering completed three days into her summer break, there's lots of mess, cement on windows, scaffolding, stones all over the back, etc.
Upstairs windows have been scrubbed (four times on the outside) to return them to some kind of normality. The scaffolding is only this weekend coming down and finally being taken away, which leaves just one other major job to be worked on, fitting our multi fuel burner.

To the untrained eye, it is relatively easy:
* Take out the old back boiler and fire
* Smash the brick out to make the hole big enough
* Clean up the remaining brickwork
* Fit the retainer tray for the flue to go through
* Lift burner into place then start small fires

If only it were that simple...
The boiler, fire and upstairs tank have all been removed, along with old unused pipework, which also involved pulling out the airing cupboard that was nailed into the walls back in 1972. Draining off all the water from pipework and tank in the process.
Next I had to remove the plaster from the wall to find where the lintel is in the existing brickwork - this is vital, as the whole burner project will need to be signed off for the building regs, or it would invalidate the home insurance. There has to be minimum gaps in width and height from top of burner to retainer tray.
This done, we could now start knocking out the brickwork around the old gas fire, taking it back to the red brick pillars where a coal fire was fitted pre 1972.
Of course, the brickwork then needed repointing as chunks came out during removal.
Weeks of waiting (and grief from the better half) finally our friend came to sort it out.
In the meantime, plonkhead here had the brainwave to look for alternatives to pointing the red brick, which involved picking up some glasroc boarding - as advised by the company that sold us the burner (Google "Natural heating" very efficient and way cheaper than the local showroom prices round here).

I ordered the boarding in at £70 for two 8 foot sheets, it doesn't come cheap. As my friends will know, not all goes well for me, so once the side panels were cut, the Mrs Frugal advised me that if fitted the boarding would make the width to small for the building regs. (Why I wasn't told of this before I cut them, you tell me!)
I measured it all up and sure enough, it would be too small a gap, so that option was done with. It didn't help that none of the red bricks were level.
After tracking down two alluminium strips - to hold the retainer tray in place - these were drilled into the red brick (took ages) and we were ready for the rendering.
Five buckets of render later, and the base coat is on, it must be mixed with lime I am told to prevent cracking - which it has already done just whilst drying out. The red brick walls have had to be PVA'd in prep for the sand, cement and lime mix to go on.
As it stands now, I am weeks behind schedule fitting it in, I've wasted £70 trying to speed things up, got a bag of metal rawl plugs that did not fit the hole size advised by the engineering firm that sold them to me.
However, I am hoping that said tradesman will land tomorrow and skim the finish and place a stone flag in the base. After that all that remains is for a cardboard cut out to be used and then a template made so we can cut out the retainer plate that's been sat in the kitchen for weeks, along with bags of sand, sharpsand, cement and lime.
Things obviously take time and I know it's a constant frustration, but I want the job doing right as it's got to last. No good rushing a job then having to take the burner back out and fix shortcuts made. By the end of August we should be just about ready for winter, meaning work can start on the inside.
I've already been sounded out by Mrs F, that the wiring hanging down from the ceiling "can be moved no problem" *sigh*

Tradesmen:
Despite ranting about all and sundry on here, I do have a lot of time for tradesmen.
If they offer good value, I will first take them on and secondly, pay them a healthy tip.
Just because I am frugal/thrifty, does not mean I don't recognise good value when I come across it. Good value for money goes hand in hand with trust, the local tradesmen will be rewarded with a decent tip and follow on work.
Tradesmen are useful to know - not least as they can give free advice, but also they can be trusted. The stories I hear about people paying thousands for a tradesman to do two/three days work would make your ears curl.

Time off?
Whilst many of you have been taking your well earned summer breaks, here at the building site, we have been getting things in order for the winter ahead. Yes it has involved long hours - plastering up until 11.30pm is no fun - but the money I have saved has been substantial.
For example, the cheapest relatively local quote for fitting the burner came in at £650 - when I broke it down wages were way in excess of £25 per hour. Who do you know gets paid that?

I will think back to the past few weeks when I can sit on the toilet or in the bath, without a force ten gale blowing through the unprotected breeze blocks. At minus 5, this experience was no fun.
It should be noted though, that despite giving the appearance of being a workshy lazy twonk, I do actually need to have a break, even if only for a few hours, to catch up on sleep or spend sometime with the family.
It has been more than five years, plus one new sprog, house building and renovations inside and out, etc, since our last holiday. I am hoping with this multi fuel burner in place that now the choice is there to go for either the gas boiler or the burner, we shall have enough of a saving (which I estimate) will be in the region £500 by the end of winter. This would buy a flight to the sun!

Health visitor:
I end my wittering with a note about our health visitor. We are very lucky, in that A, Our health visitor is younger than most and has been there before with her own children, and B, We don't see her very often!
Today was sprog2's two year check up. Conveniently taking place at the building site.
Arranged for 9am (Who's idea was that??) we had to wake up sprog2, which made her tired and grumpy. Although Mrs F didn't care, wasn't bothered, the house was semi scrubbed from top to bottom the previous day. Mrs F was hoovering at 8am this morning!
I came downstairs and thought I had walked into someone else's home or a timewarp..... washing out on the line? Both settees were hoovered, toys tidied away neatly, etc. Very efficient!

Who was this mysterious cleaner? Henry the mild mannered janitor?

I am not a fan of health visitors. Don't get me wrong, they are needed I think, but the information that the NHS gave my mum when she had me back in the 1960's I think has changed very little ever since. They just dress it up differently in todays world.
The one over riding factor - from my experience of them - is that they are menhaters!

No matter how many jokes you try to crack to lighten the mood, they don't even titter (maybe my jokes I'll grant you) they cannot seem to get their heads around mum working and dad taking care of the sprog full time.
We were then told about how sprog2 should be feeding herself with a fork and a spoon by now, she should be able to throw without falling over - three witnesses that she can do this we have, lucky to avoid serious injury as she threw a large plastic musical television at my mum's bonce - how is she doing with her writing? Can she drawer circles?
Yes, she can write with both hands, has been able to hold a pen/pencil correctly since she was 8 months old, she recognises animals, etc.
I know that the manhater wasn't taking a blind bit of notice of what I was saying, as despite three warnings about how much the sprog loves bags, especially bags with zips on, whilst firing general questions and going through her rehearsed patter, promoting the local drop in centre, which I find a pointless place, sprg2 was opening her bags (all three of them) and taking things out.

"Do you understand how to deal with her refusal to do things when she has been asked?"
Now this could go two ways, I could appear thick and play along, so that the manhater could reel off another 10 minutes of rehearsed mantra, or I could answer in a way that would prove once and for all, if they were listening to a word I was saying... I went for the latter...
"Yes, it's ok, I have a big stick and if that doesn't work, we've built a cellar!"

All I got back was, "In that case I shall be making a phone call to children's social services" with a sarcastic grin.

I know I shouldn't antagonise people and often, I am my own worst enemy,  but it should be remembered that it is my home, my child, who is my responsibility until she is leaving home.
I must be getting old, as I somehow managed to keep my gob shut just long enough for her to go... I obviously have not built a cellar, nor would I put sprog2 in one had I got one, it would cost me too much in electric and I'd have to buy a bulb!

I know health visitors, you are not all like this, but it has to be said, that many of the ones whom I have had visit, do not take much notice of fathers. Fathers have some important things to say and viewpoints on bringing up a child and should be taken seriously at all times.