Kitchen progress

After my first experiments with making my kitchen look better, I had momentum. I wanted to keep going! But there was one impediment. I had decided I wanted new handles. I ordered a few, but then had to wait a while for them to arrive. I didn't really want to go and strip and paint more cabinet doors, as I figured the result is better if you fill the holes you're not using, and then paint over the filler, rather than paint them, then abandon one hole, and then fill that and try to make it look good afterwards. 

It took a while for me to get the message that my new handles had arrived. I was excited! But there was no sign of them. Not by the door. Not in the garden. Not at the neighbour's. They must have been mis-delivered. There was no proof of delivery, so I could not check if there was a picture of a door that most definitely was not my door. Bummer!

I decided to not try this again. It took too long. And being handmade they were quite expensive. And that is worth it, if you know it will be a success. But I decided to just Google some other options, and I came across some quite kitschy alternatives. These might suit what I was doing, and they were very affordable. I decided to buy 5 to try them out. And they arrived the next day. I was back on!

I first provisionally put the handles on the two doors I had painted first. I figured they combined well! I decided to stick with them. They are quite kitschy but it works! So I could put them on the other door I had already done, and now I could do two more doors, as I had handles for them. So I did. And I ordered more.

New handles

The second batch arrived quite early too. So I started working on the sixth door. After I strip them, the first thing I do is drill the new handle holes and fill the old ones. Only then did I realise that the new handles I had bought were the same type as the old ones, but a bigger model! Oh dear.

After some thought, I decided to use the small handles for the smaller doors and the drawers, and the big ones for big doors. That meant leaving two where they were and moving three. It wasn’t much work really. And then I could continue with the stripping and painting business. 

5 doors done! 

With every cabinet door painted, my kitchen looks better. I'm glad! And the weather makes it a relatively quick job! These coats of paint dry fast in such a hot dry summer...

 

Next kitchen cabinet gets makeover

I felt really good about having stripped and painted two of my kitchen cabinet doors, so my hands were itching to do it again. And the obvious next target would be the kitchen cabinet above the oven. Because of the heat of the oven, its veneer had suffered a bit. But my thinking had already evolved a bit from the initial attempt.

The first difference was the yellow paint. I had initially used some leftover paint I had used on the bathroom wall, and some wall/ceiling in the kitchen. But it was probably a good idea to use paint a bit more suited to this particular application. A bit more durable, and more easy to clean. I could still use the same colour.

The second difference was how I would go about it. I had painted the first two doors in situ. I had been a bit nervous about being able to hang them back afterwards. But Neil recommended I try it anyway. He figured it would be fine.

The third difference was the handle. I don't like the handles the kitchen came with. When I was at it anyway, I might just as well change them. I had a little Google and bought a few hand-wrought replacements. They were not the same size; I could only use one of the drill holes. I would have to drill an additional one, and fill up the redundant one. But that shouldn't be too much work.

With that in mind, my first step was to go back to B&Q, to have some paint mixed for the purpose. The next step was to take the cabinet out; I put it down in the conservatory. And this time I applied again two layers of primer, and three layers of white paint, but only one layer of the yellow paint. That would not be enough, but I figured I would wait with the second layer until I would replace the handle. Hopefully, painting the second coat over the filled-up hole would make that invisible.

My plan is to also put a layer of this new paint over the yellow paint of the first cabinets, but again I am going to wait until after I have fitted the new handles. I only bought three; I will see how I like them. I am painfully aware of the contrast between hand-wrought iron and MDF. They would undoubtedly look better on old oak! But it might work. I will have to see them fitted to know. If I am happy with my choice I will buy them for the remainder of the doors and drawers as well. 

If you don't stand too close to this last door you don't notice it is missing a coat of paint. It is helping making the kitchen look a lot better than it used to! I am quite excited about this whole project! Watch this space to see it develop...

Progress

No trace of damaged water pipe anymore

It has taken a long time, but the work is finished! I had already blogged about the electrician drilling into a water pipe, after which the whole pipe had to be extracted from the wall and replaced. That obviously left a big gaping hole in my wall. And the first step of doing something about that was packing it with wood. Then the work stalled. Then I filled the remaining depression up with filler. The next step was to sand the filler down, but it turned out the sandpaper I had wasn't up to it. But by now I have bought new (coarser) sandpaper, sanded it all down, touched up the paint, and then put the light switch back. And now you can't tell anymore that an emergency took place! You can still see a bit of a scar in the wall, but this wall is full of scars. It's just the nature of the wall. I'm happy with the result!

Trying to un-sag the kitchen cabinet doors

When I was working on the kitchen cabinets anyway, I decided I should really do something about the fact that several of them are sagging. I had tried to deal with it before, but with no success. But I had another look at a YouTube video about how to deal with a situation like that, and gave it another try. And this time I figure I made real improvements.

It is a bit of a dark art! But I am quite happy with how it has turned out. Maybe Neil will give me a hand making it even better. He is a perfectionist, after all. And more experienced with this sort of matter. But I am not in a hurry anymore. The way it is now something I can totally cope with!

Before

After

Giving two kitchen cabinets a new look

When I bought my house, the kitchen was in a relatively good shape. I turned most of the rest of the house into a building site. In the kitchen, I basically only did painting. It was not as if there was nothing else to do, but at least everything else functional. But I didn't like the fitted kitchen. The big gripe were the kitchen cabinet doors. They were basically made of MDF with a plastic liner over the top, in an ugly non-colour. And the handles were dull. And to make things worse; the plastic lining of the two cabinets underneath the sink had split. And there was minor damage to the lining of some other cabinets.

I have been dreaming of redoing the whole kitchen. But that is quite a thing! And I know that I don't have mainstream taste. I would really love to have it custom-made from reclaimed wood. Where do you find someone who can do that? And how expensive would it be? If I would try to do it myself, it would take forever.

I had also been dreaming of somehow getting the liner off, and then just painting what would come out from underneath. But I was worried that it would only be easy to remove the plastic where it was already coming off. And that you would end up with the edges refusing. A bit like trying to get a sticker off. It's hard to get the whole thing clean off! And if you don't, you've made the situation worse. 

The big change came when I saw online someone taking a heat gun to a cabinet just like that, and taking the plastic off without any effort. Would it really be that easy? It was worth finding out! It turned out that heat guns are actually quite inexpensive, and also not overly big. It was well worth trying.

After its inaugural task of getting my bicycle mirror fitted again, it was time to be deployed for what it was really bought for. I took off the handles cabinets to get ready.

The original state of the cabinets (except that I had already removed one handle)

It really was as easy as I had seen it online! Point that heat gun at the plastic and it comes off just like that. 

With the plastic off

I then had a rummage in the garage for some paint. I had thought about what colour I would do. The colours already there are white, yellow, and green. I first thought of green on the outside and yellow in the middle, but then I thought it might be a bit dark. Maybe yellow on the outside and white in the middle? But I first needed to put a coat of primer on anyway, so I had some time to think.

With primer

I had some indoor wood primer but it was old and quite lumpy. I put one layer on, which obviously wasn’t very tidy, and then I decided I probably should chuck that stuff away. And then improvised with some outdoor primer.

I had some white eggshell for the inside, but that turned out to have dried up. The yellow paint I had used elsewhere in the kitchen was still ok. So I painted the outsides, and bought some new white paint for the insides.

Finished! 

Two coats of yellow and three of white later, and the handles reinstated, and I could put my new design to the test. Would the paint be able to cope with the kitchen environment? If not, I might sand them down again, and buy some more hardy paint. Once I have decided I have something reasonably sustainable I might do all the other cabinet doors as well. I don't like any of them! I might even do a bit of green somewhere because I can. We'll see! But I am quite chuffed with that I don't have to look at these split sheets of plastic anymore. They were an eyesore!

DIY on days off

There was a lot of DIY left to do after the previous round. And with some days off, I got to do some of it. Some of it unspectacular; repairing clothes, for instance. And, of course, snazzying up the kitchen, and making the trophy shelf. But I also made progress on the erasing the damage done in order to put up my IR panels. And that felt good! You can’t tell anymore that there ever was a panel at the top of the stairs. 

No sign anymore of the mess the installer made

The big hole in the wall due to the installer drilling into a water pipe, which was a much bigger job, is slowly vanishing. In March I packed the big gully in the wall with wood. Now I have put two rounds of filler on top. 

I will have to now sand and paint it, so more work to do, but there is clear progress. Success! 

Hole filled! 

More ceiling work

This is actually a summary of two weeks’ worth of work. I didn't get around to blogging about it after one week. And then these two weeks, a fair amount of progress has been made making the downstairs bedroom ceiling look like a ceiling again, and less like a building site. We're leaving the little hall by the front door for now, as in the long run I also want an electric shower fitted, and the plumbing and wiring for that might have to go through the ceiling as well. No use putting a lot of effort in a ceiling that will be destroyed in a few months’ time again!

This round was basically entirely done by Neil. I did other chores while he worked on the ceiling. I didn't want to get in his way, or compete with him for things such as pallet knives and filler. I'm not even sure what I did the first weekend when he attacked the ceiling, but the second weekend I attacked the big gap in the wall in the living room, where you looked right at the repaired water pipe in the wall. Neil had suggested I first pack it with food or plywood or something, and then put filler over the top. So I started doing that. And I got quite far with it!

There is still a heck of a lot of work to do, but it's nice to see progress. And the ceilings will never look the way they looked in the beginning, but I'm sure we'll get them looking acceptable in the end!

The big work in the bedroom

Small holes getting inconspicuous 

Gash in living room wall having been packed

Garden cleared of tree

I mentioned the neighbour wanted to get the work on removing a tree done before March. And he got his skates on! I had to leave things as they were for a while; busy with work and running activities, but the next Saturday I was on it again. The neighbour had cut down everything he wanted to cut down, so at least I knew that all the wood in the garden was all I would have to deal with. No additions expected!

Still some tree left

Lots of wood in the garden

It was lovely weather and I enjoyed tackling the pile. I started with a hawthorn or blackthorn he had also taken down. And then I did the main tree.

Most of that was quite straightforward. Get rid of the spindly bits, and put the thicker stuff aside to be moved to the garage. But when I got to the bottom of the pile, I reached the really thick trunks, and that was slightly less comfortable. I figured they were too heavy to carry them to the garage one piece, so I had to cut them in two. That does mean you have to saw through a trunk that is lying on the ground. Your saw gets stuck in the ground, and you have to saw while crouching; not things I like very much. But the wood isn't very hard, and it wasn't really a big deal.

I had other engagements in the late afternoon, but I managed to get all the wood out of the garden by that time. It did mean there was quite some of it in the garage, not yet processed. But that would be a chore for another day! I was quite chuffed that the garden was free again. I wasn't sure I would manage it all in one day…

Flogging the excess panel

I mentioned that when the work on the infrared panels was done, I was left with one of them that seemed utterly superfluous. It’s at the top of the stairs. It’s where all heat of the house naturally pools. And nobody will ever linger there. If you are on top of the stairs, you are either entering or leaving the office or the upstairs bedroom. So that panel was not going to be useful!

Jaco and Marjan have a project at home, and it could do with some sort of heating. I offered them the panel at a mate’s rate. And one day Marjan phoned me to discuss that. 

I was going to work in my car anyway, for reasons of bike repair, so I thought this was an excellent opportunity to lug that thing in. Jaco didn't agree; he thought it was too early in the development of their project. But I thought that was a strange argument. Surely you want to know what the panel is like before the project is finished? So I completely ignored him and lugged at that thing with fixings and all to the office.

I think I made the right call. They could try out the panel anywhere in the house to see how they liked it, and discuss with anyone involved in their project on how to incorporate it. And they decided that it was what they wanted, and they decided to keep it.

Now I'm left with a wall with an unnecessarily high number of holes in it. The panel was clearly put up by someone very clumsy. But given that I am in the process of making my ceilings presentable again, after damage having been done to them, I can just add this wall to the list. And when the wall looks good again, and the panel has found a much better home, everybody will be happy!

No panel; just a damaged wall now (I don't seem to have taken a picture of the panel there)

Being inventive with sealant

I made some progress on the ceilings. I put two more backboards in. And the next step is to glue the repair patches into position. And that, obviously, requires an adhesive.

I had been wondering if I should buy something. But I've bought things like that before. I knew I had several tubes in stock; some of them already partially used up. So I decided I should just try to use them again. But it had been a while since I had used them. Would they have dried out by now? And they are tubes; the adhesive comes out of the nozzle, but the nozzle, of course, gets clogged up quite quickly after use.

I first looked at the material I had used for repairing my render. The nozzle was surely clogged up, but there was a complication: this nozzle didn't look removable. And you can always cut it off, but that is a bit drastic. I had a look at the other tube of which I wasn't quite sure what I had used it for; maybe making the conservatory waterproof? Or for (re-)sticking antislip to my garden stairs? 

That nozzle was also clogged up. I took it off, and pushed something through the bung underneath it. There was clearly some material underneath it that wasn't dried out yet. But I didn't see a way of pushing it out. And then I decided to just cut off the entire top. It was either taking drastic measures or having to throw all of it away! And I got rid of the bung. 

I used a little spatula to get to the usable material. I think it worked! I'm glad I could save this compromise tube of sealant. I had nothing to lose! I always like salvaging things through slightly unorthodox methods. And so far it looks like it worked.. 

Starting on ceiling repair

When the workmen started to put in the second round of panels in August, they had to put the wires somewhere. The logical place is in the ceiling, but that means having to get into it. This involves a lot of making holes in the plasterboard. Some small ones, where they just made a hole and left it; or big ones, where they basically cut a part of the ceiling into bits, and sort of stuck them back in more or less the same position when they were done. Both is not very pretty, and needs to be sorted.

Now that they are done it is up to me to sort out the damage. I have never really dealt with this before! I started out with a little instruction video on YouTube. The obvious place to start! And it spoke of backboards and joint tape and all sorts of things. I was learning.

I have now tentatively started. I ordered some repair patches. Plasterboard normally comes in enormous sheets, but of course there are people who take leftovers and sell them on eBay. Suits me fine.

I just started by tracing the outlines of the holes on paper, so I would be able to transpose that onto the plasterboard, and cut out (sub-)patches of the right shape and size. I also started to think about the backboards. The idea is that if you have a hole in your plasterboard, you make sure that you fix something above the hole, and you stick the repair patch to that. That's the backboard. That might be substantial if the hole is big. With small holes you might not need it; maybe the filler you need for putting it in place will just hold it in position.

I didn’t take chances. I screwed some small pieces of wood into the first small holes, and cut a beam to size for a big hole. I didn’t have screws long enough to put it there, though. I will need to buy these. 

I didn’t get very far. But there is a start! That is always the hardest part. It will take a while, but I have faith I will get there. I don’t know how seamless (or otherwise) it will look in the end, but I’m sure I’ll manage to improve it from what it is now! 

Preparatory artwork

Two small holes in the bedroom

Mini backboards fitted

A big hole that needs a big backboard

Tree coming down

In summer, I ended up talking with a neighbour. Our gardens border each other. His garden is higher than mine. And there is a tree standing on the edge; the southern edge of his garden. You can imagine that takes away a lot of light. And he said he wanted to remove it. Was I ok with that? It’s his tree, but inevitably the sawn off bits would end up in my garden. I didn’t mind. And then he said he would let me have the firewood. Even better! 

He said the best time to fell trees is winter. You only have to deal with the trunks and branches; not with leaves. 

He has started now! He’s doing it himself, with a battery-operated chainsaw. And it's a tree with very many trunks, and he is just doing one at a time. And he very kindly chopped up the wood into more or less stove-sized bits. It's great!

He has done two days’ worth of work now, and I have so far quite easily been able to remove the cut bits and put them in the garage I have some old garden wood there; by now it has seasoned long enough so that I can burn it, and thus make way for the new wood. I could imagine that at some point I will struggle to keep up, but I'm sure I'll find a way. And I'm curious to see how the garden feels without that tree towering above it!

The tree in question after the work had just started

Spoils below

Infrared panels finished

It is finished! It is mid-January but it’s done. The previous time the electrician had left with two issues unsolved: several panels without a thermostat because they hadn't brought compatible ones, and a hole in the wall because he had hit a water pipe.

When he showed up again to finish it off, I was surprised to see him and a colleague carry large boxes out of his van. These thermostats aren't very big? But he quickly explained: they were not going to install compatible thermostats; they were going to exchange the installed panels with panels that were compatible with the thermostats they had used so far. That sounded like an unnecessarily labour-intensive way to go about it, but so be it. It did mean more time, more mess, more disruption, more annoyance by the cat.

I got to work upstairs and they sorted things out downstairs. But at some point he wanted to know where I wanted to thermostats. I like them near the light switch. All the controls for a room in one place! And we figured from the light switch, the cable would go up. So we put the thermostats below it. That we had miscalculated. And the man still didn't have the device that detects metal wiring in a wall, so he chanced it. And tripped the fuse. 

The latest problem

He had to drive to Bangor to buy what he needed to fix the damage. But when that was done, he was sorted. He suggested we fix the last thermostat with double-sided tape. Fine with me! And the hole in the wall was not something he could do anything about; he was an electrician. They would have to send a plasterer.

I agreed with the company that they would just take some money off the bill and then I will sort out a plasterer myself. So that's it! I now have a full set of infrared panels! And they work. I did have to bicker with the company about the bill; I suspected they had lost track of what they had actually installed. So I wanted an itemised bill. They were reluctant, but I was right to be stubborn about that; it turned out they were trying to make me pay for the installation of two panels that had been installed in 2022. Cheeky! 

I now don't have to deal with this company anymore. I must say it has been a bit of a struggle! But now I can just enjoy my panels in peace. At last!

Light switch in hallway back in business

Infrared panels are often best placed on the ceiling. Unfortunately, the same holds for lamps. So when I decided to have my whole house fitted out with infrared panels, several ceiling lamps had to yield. I had agreed with the company putting up the panels that they would move some of these lights; this is not a big job if you're an electrician, but it is if you're someone like me.

The problem was a bit that the process took many months longer than expected, and lights are actually quite a good idea. In the master bedroom, the ceiling lamp was moved to the side, which basically means that only half the room now has adequate light. In the little space behind the front door, there was no light whatsoever, so I put a standing lamp there. That was not ideal.

On a day with rubbish weather and Neil and I decided to act. Or rather; he acted and I watched and learned. I could not make sense of the wiring the electricians had left by the front door, but Neil could work it out with some of the equipment he has. And then he just fitted a wall mounted lamp I had bought for the occasion. It is absolutely lovely to have proper light there again!

We also considered the options for the master bedroom. For symmetry, it would be best to just buy another lamp like the one that has been moved. We checked how we would connect the wires, though; that doesn't seem to work. The wires would have to go through the ceiling, but the joists seem to have a crossbar and there's no way you could get past that. So I'll just put up another wall mounted lamp. The same model as the one in the hallway, but in a colour that matches the bedroom. Progress is being made!

 

Light! Next to my infrared panel. 

Looking back on 2025

The years 2024 and 2023 were years of working too hard, and dating and running. That's how I summarised it in my previous year overviews. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler alert to say that you could characterise 2025 like that as well. 2025 didn't have anything spectacular like Athena Swan applications or promotion applications, so this year was clearly less bad than 2024, but there still was a lot of work. It started badly: a student appealed against a whole array of grades. It was quite some work to respond to every accusation they made. In the end none of their appeals were upheld. That seems a lot of work for nothing. And we could just go back to marking, and preparing for the new term. That pretty much went without incident. The only unusual thing was that I got nominated for a highly unexpected teaching award; needless to say, I did not win. 

Work did get stressful for reasons other than workload again; there was another Business Case for Change (a nice term for making budget cuts). This time, our School was doing so well we were not threatened with forced redundancies. We were all eligible for voluntary redundancy though; for me that worked out well, as my nemesis, who had taken me off the Thursdaynighters email list after I had spoken out against misogyny, took the bait and left. It is a pity for the School as it doesn't have a photographer anymore now, but for me it is good. 

Another thing that happened this year was the further rise of AI. In my function of academic integrity officer, I now deal a lot less with students who just copy and paste text from their sources, and a lot more with students who let AI do too much of their work. Next year will be another very interesting year in which we will continue to have to adapt to this! 

In summer, I was very briefly appointed to deal with student extension requests, but before I had properly started, this task was transferred to administrative staff. I dodged a bullet there!

Then the summer, which is always too short, was over and we started teaching again, kicking off as usual with the fieldtrip. I hadn't made much progress with my application for senior fellowship of the HEA! That will have to wait until next summer. 

Term started perfectly doable; my plan for not letting the students creating their own dissertation topics get out of hand this year had worked. And the new way of doing the allocation also helped. But then the marking hit again. And that was basically quite hectic until my birthday. And then there was still quite a lot to do until the Christmas holiday. But at least this year, I could travel to the Netherlands without having to stress too much about the marking that would be waiting for me when I would get back. And just before the University closed, we were told who would be our next head of School, when our current one would retire in late January. In the New Year will find out how he does...

So that was work! What about the dating? Well! It is safe to say the 2025 was a rather spectacular year. I actually started it in a relationship, but we were only five days into the year when that came to an end, through a text message. I was not impressed. I got back on the dating scene, And quite soon found a man who turned out to have made a profile especially to woo me. He had wanted to do that before, but Nick had got in the way. But Nick was gone now! And we had a series of rather enjoyable dates, but he decided in the end that we weren't compatible after all. Back to square one. I was getting disheartened. I suppose I had some dating site burnout. Until when in summer, I suddenly had an urge to have another look. And came across the profile of a certain Neil. He looked like my kind of guy! So I sent him a message. And soon we went on dates. We really clicked and made it official in September. No signs of getting tired of each other yet!

What about running? It was an intensive year! And very enjoyable. Although it started with an impediment: I had some ankle issues at the start of the year. I had seen the physio late 2024, and I was doing my exercises. By February I was back on the hills, and in early February I had my first race. That was Sbrint 'Stiniog; a lovely low-key local race! A good start. And I had also got myself a new toy: a Garmin, without which I rarely leave the house by now. 

In spring, When my Tuesday night Welsh class ended, I started running on the track, and I have become a rather regular participant. I enjoy it! It's good training, and it is quite social as you run with other people, and most of the drills involve breaks, during which you can socialise. It is also logistically easy as the athletics track is quite close to my office. And it turned me into a numerically interested runner. I never paid attention to my pace! I just ran almost everything on feeling. I sometimes kept an eye on my pace, but then I did that the old-fashioned way: just look at my watch and at the kilometre markers (or mile markers) and do some arithmetic in my head. Just looking at your watch and it just telling you what pace you are doing is a lot easier. And sometimes it saves me from starting a race too quickly.

Through my membership of the Eryri Harriers I became aware of the club road championships, and I started registering for all the races that came up in that context. That boosted my race participation. I also added the Borders League. I'm hooked now! In the end, I ran 26 races in 2025, compared to 13 in 2024. I already thought that was much! But 26 is a lot of fun to be had. And was a good year? Well! That depends a bit on how you look at it. I didn't win many medals. I only had two bronze medals in the whole year: at the Pentir Fun Run and the Breakwater 5 mile. The previous year was a lot more prolific: in 13 races, I won 1 gold medal, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal. And then I had 7 category wins, when this year I had 11 in twice as many races. In that sense it looks like I am losing my mojo. But it doesn't quite feel that way. One thing was that I ran PBs in 4 out of the 5 distances I compete in. But you could argue that that is just a result of running more races. I didn't break my PB in the 10k; my most frequently run distance. Several of the other distances I just rarely run, like 5k, 5m, and 10m. I suppose the only thing that showed off my increased training was my performance on the half marathon. I ran three of them; all of them I had done before, and I improved my time on every single one. Two of them by 6 minutes. And I wasn't even chasing PBs. I will do that in the new year! And I have faith in my quest for breaking them all in the new year or beyond. 

One of my last races of the year

On other running notes: I spent an evening with a running coach in order to see if he could give me advice that would lead to me getting fewer injuries. I think it worked! Unfortunately, it did not stop me from spraining my knee during a fell race. But I recovered. And I got me better running bras. Far from trivial!

What else happened this year? Well! I became a stem cell donor. And I needed an emergency repair on my roof. Henco and Maaike visited, and we went camping on Anglesey. I also camped with Kate and Bryn. And the biggest camping adventure was our annual Swamphike. We went back to the Peak District.

Daft Swamphike pic

 

It was not the best year for hanging out with Martin, Susan and Dean. They all moved house; Martin first, and the others later. So now my social circle is a lot more spread out! And moving house takes a lot of time, especially if you move to a very big place, so they were all quite busy. 

In summer I left the cave rescue team. And immediately afterwards, I joined an actual caving club, so I could go underground with their female only group. I did several trips with them this year, including a whole weekend; that was fab! I hope to do more with them in the New Year. And with me not having to spend time on NWCRO any more, I joined the committee of the Eryri Harriers. 

I also tried to use this year to get my entire house fitted out with infrared panels. That didn't really work out! When the year ended, I was still awaiting compatible thermostats for several of them. And I had a hole in my wall. This really should be sorted out in the New Year. At least a problem with my solar panel inverter was solved in between the other work.

In the last few weeks of the year I turned 50. I didn't celebrated big; my birth is always in the busiest part of the academic year. But I think that, except for Kate being ill, it was as good a celebration as that time of the year allows. And I'm enjoying being 50 so far! And I hope to have more fun with it when the racing season starts again.

I suppose the last thing that happened this year that will reverberate in the new year was that a new Head of School was appointed.

So altogether, I think it was a good year! Work was not too bad, running was fab, all was well with the cat, and I found Neil. That's good enough to make it a good year. And what about 2026? I hope that it will be similar. I suppose some things that I know will be different are that I will now be doing secretarial work for the running club rather than for the cave rescue team, and at work I will have a new and completely different line manager. We'll see how that all pans out! For now I am optimistic. Anything I should aspire to? I have already revealed my running ambitions. I will try to be a good committee member for the running club. I will do strength training as I am too old for only running. And I really should send in that application for senior fellowship of the HEA this summer. All of that while still having lots of adventures with Neil!

More panel delay

While storm Bram raged over the country I got another phone call. It was the infrared panel people. This weather had caused a delay, which was understandable. I was booked in for finally having the work, that had started in August, finished on December 18, but they wanted to move that appointment. Well so be it. It’s been pushed to January now. One day! One day it will be done… 

Still not connected 

Infrared progress

I had booked in the installers of my infrared panels in summer. That way I would be well ready for winter. However; it didn't quite go according to plan. The installer left with the job half done, and none of the newly installed panels wired in, so none of them were working. And the company said that they could come back the next month to finish it all off, but that was not true. They had come with too few small panels, and apparently, these just weren’t in stock for a while.

In the meantime, my inverter also conked out, and replacing that was just added to the work to be done by the infrared men. 

After some months we agreed on dates in mid December for the job to be finished. Both panels and inverter seem to be available again! But then there was a positive surprise; someone had cancelled something, so the men could come earlier, on the 1st of December. And I asked the lady who told me that what they would do. Finish the infrared panel installation, or change my inverter. She said all of it. I was sceptical, but we kept the later dates in the diary for contingency.

On December 1st they duly showed up. It was supposed to have been the same installer who had started to work, but he had left the company in the meantime. It was two blokes who had been there earlier; one who I think had installed my battery, and the wingman of the guy who had left. So at least the latter knew something about how the work had been started.

Sam, who had the lead but hadn’t been there the previous time, first asked what the situation was. And he decided to start installing the panels in the landing. When that was done, they proceeded to the inverter. I had been happily working away in my home office while they were installing the panels, but to get to the inverter you have to be in the home office. I picked up my laptop and went elsewhere. And they managed to switch the inverter over, but not quite program the new one yet. That would have to wait until next time.

Panels in the landing! 

The mess that caused

I also asked about the panel in my bathroom. That had been installed really high. That way it is only heating my head! Not quite what you want when you are coming out of the shower. But the man said they couldn't; the cable wasn't long enough. The only thing they could do is tilted downwards a bit, so it would still aim add me a bit more. That would have to do. 

That panel also had a faulty thermostat, but it's turned out it is incredibly easy to change these. He did it right there and then. So at least I have a working panel in the bathroom again!

I also asked him to take away the four panels that had been left in my conservatory the previous time. He was happy to do that. So I have my space back.

All the new panels still don't work. Sam did not realise he would have to bring some supplies for linking it all up. He will have to bring that next time. So it will be very close to Christmas by the time I finally have my new heating installed. Not ideal! But better late than never. I can only hope that everything goes well when they come back in a few weeks’ time. It would be annoying if they would run into difficulty again. Through Sam leaving the company, for instance. It seems that that would be a typical thing to happen! But let’s hope not…

Shiny extension

It was rubbish weather, and Neil and I were at my place. And he is a very tidy man. His house is impeccable! And so is his garden. Needless to say, mine isn't. I try to keep the core of the house presentable, but this is nowhere near his standards. The parts of the house that I don't consider very relevant don't get much attention at all. And one of those parts of the house is the little kitchen extension. It's where the washing machine is, and I keep things there such as a recycling bin, some buckets, and a mop. And I had some items there associated with painting, bike maintenance, and window cleaning. It's not a space you would ever be in in a leisurely way. If you're there, you're there because you are either entering or leaving the house (it's the entrance I use when I am on bicycle), or because you are faffing with laundry, recycling, or cleaning. It doesn't have to be a pleasant space to be in. So I didn’t give it much attention. It was one big cobweb feast. The white UPVC had turned grey, and there were a big hammocks of cobweb hanging from the ceiling. This bothered Neil.

Neil had already pointed out earlier that he would really like to tackle that space. That's fine with me! And now that we had an hour or so to fill before our next activity, and we weren’t particularly keen to be outside, we decided that this was the time. Neil went through the place like a hurricane. I was a bit of an auxiliary. The space isn't very big so you quickly get in each other's way!

As the previous time he took on some neglected chore, he was such a hurricane I didn't even take a "before" picture. So you'll have to manage with an "after" picture. Believe me when I say it is really a difference! It's not fully done; we haven't cleaned the windows, and there is a plant growing next to the washing machine that I should remove, and the space would look a lot better still if we would repaint the low walls and the floor. There also is a tap, and a drain. (It is the drain that burps in heavy rainfall). The stupid thing is that the tap is not above the drain. One of those clunky idiosyncrasies of my house! And Neil said he could easily move that. So that might happen in the future. So this little space might get a lot tidier still. But it is already getting the Neil treatment. Unrecognisable in its tidiness! Maybe one day I'll turn into a respectable citizen…

Clean!

Infrared update

Three weeks after the installers of my infrared panels left mid-task, I finally got a message from the company about the way forward. They said they would come back and finish the work when the small panels, that fit between the ceiling joists, would be available again. The installer had said that would probably be December! So it will be well into heating season that I might get these panels wired in and functioning. That’s a bit of a bummer. It also means I can’t really remediate the damage done until then. And there are no guarantees, of course, that it actually will be December. Oh well. I will have to wait. So be it! 

The bedroom ceiling after I had tidied up 

Wires terminating in the little cupboard with my consumer unit 

Solar panel trouble

‘They are not producing’. The IR installer had his head in the cupboard where my consumer unit is. My solar panels are connected to that. I assumed it was too late in the day to generate electricity.

When I had bought a new phone I had struggled to get access to my apps, including the one having to do with my solar panels and my battery. I used to open them with my fingerprint, but that didn’t work with a new phone, and I didn’t find it straightforward to get that functionality back. And I really dislike that sort of faff. I prioritised the battery app as that gives information about both the panels and the battery. It made it to the top of the to do list and one weekend I sorted it out.

In the beginning, I had been looking at the graphs on the panels app a lot, to see how much I was generating, but first the novelty wore off. Then it became less relevant when I got the battery. Suddenly it didn’t matter anymore if I boil the kettle when the sun is shining or after it has gone down! And then that malarkey with the new phone. I just didn’t check anymore.

The remark of the IR installer did remind me I should have a look at this. And I did. I really wasn’t generating. And hadn’t for a while. Shit! 

I felt really grumpy about that. It’s summer! If your panels are not working and you don’t do anything about it, the best of the season is lost. Why am I not more disciplined? 

I figured initially I should get the company that installed the whole setup to sort me out. But they were very uncommunicative, and also, I hadn’t thought of Neil. He is an electrical engineer and immediately wanted to do something about it. The next time we would see each other would be at my place anyway, and his hands were itching to get to my inverter. 

While he was crouching in my attic space, I sorted out my access to the app again. Which turned out to be a lot easier than doing the same with the battery app. And the app did give some information. Neil decided some of the electronics needed to be reconfigured. That sounded complicated to me, but less so to him. Soon after that session, though, I would travel abroad, so any interventions would have to wait. 

Oh dear

When I’m back I guess we will be back at this. I hope Neil can sort it! I’m useless with this sort of technology. And if not I’ll get a professional in. I didn’t spend that much money on the panels and the battery for the whole shebang to do precisely nothing!