Saturday 2nd As part of the run up to Christmas, Helen has two band concerts today, both in Wareham. The first one was “Carols at the cross” started at 10:30 so we left straight after breakfast taking the dog with us. Not too uncomfortable for me standing on South Street in Wareham with Lexie and a collecting tin. The two hour stint was somewhat broken up by a soup break half way through. The temperature was hovering between -0.5 and +1.5 degrees C.
The evening concert was at the big Anglican church at the top of Portland. This was partly the band and partly the Portland community choir. Home around 10:30 with a little time to finish packing ready to return to Doncaster tomorrow. Outside temperatures were positively balmy by contrast with this morning as there was just a little drizzle and temperature of 5 degrees on Portland.
Sunday Awake at 5:00 so breakfast and loading finished in time to set off at 6:00. Very foggy and somewhat warmer this morning but soon cooled down and started to snow by the time I got to the M1 end of the A34. East Mids airport was closed due to “heavy snow” on the runway as I went past on the motorway which was down to 2 usable lanes around that area. Visibility was somewhat better by the time I got to Doncaster. Arrived a little after 10 so not a bad journey overall.
I tried to get some work done at Pallington but it was really too cold to make much progress and several of the required tools were at Matt’s house. The plan for tomorrow is to take the flooring, underlay, paint and the electrical fittings back to Doncaster and try to make some progress. We should also be able to get one or more heaters and a de-humidifier to try to help the plaster dry out and make working in the house a bit more bearable
Monday Woke up at 7:15 to find Matt & Annabel were already getting up. Set off for Doncaster after a phone call to pay for the kitchen. Missed the delivery because of a traffic jam on the M1 around the parkway junction. Fortunately the delivery courier re-tried a couple of hours later so by mid-morning we had a kitchen stuffed full of boxes.
Wednesday Started to make real progress with the kitchen. I sorted out the oven housing unit and set the feet to the required height while I was waiting for Matt to join me (at around 11:00).
Multiple trips out (Howdens to sort out Grace’s kitchen, organise the carpet measurement, get longer screws to fix the cupboards through the extra insulation now required in the extension and to get some lunch) before we really got started fixing units to the wall. By the end of the day we had fixed both tall cabinets, arranged the sink unit and built the corner unit to the right of the sink run. The doors are going on to the cabinets as we go so the kitchen is beginning to look pretty good (except for the flap above the oven which is admitted to have been missing from the delivery yesterday and another door which seems to be too short by about 1 cm).
I will need to do some more work on the oven side corner unit tomorrow as we need to add a piece which is shipped at the back because it has the holes for the door hinges. That will mean we can probably have the base units all fixed in position tomorrow and maybe even have the cover panels in place and worktops cut to size.
During the evening I got a call from Matthew because the tenants at Ascot Avenue had water dripping through the ceiling in the kitchen. Turns out to be leaking where the complicated diameter change and split happens at the end of the 22mm pipe run. I had to drain the system and will go back around 9:00 tomorrow to see what can be done to re-solder whatever is leaking. Matt is suggesting we could do a switch to flowplast if that would help.
Thursday I was awake at 5:45 so got dressed and organised breakfast. Heading for Pallington by 6:45. We are supposed to be sorting out the heating at Ascot Avenue from about 9:00 so I organised the tools and loaded them into the car before doing some cabinet installation. The first corner unit has been sorted out and now has a door.
The leak turned out to be due to the complex joint outside the bedrooms upstairs – A 15 mm straight joiner that seems to have a failed solder joint. Two tries at soldering, one try with a flowplast coupler and finally solved using a compression type straight joiner. That all took until just after 12 with both Matt and myself working on it from 10:30.
Afternoon spent cutting out blanking panels and worktop. We managed to do the entire kitchen using just two of the four 3 M lengths of worktop supplied. That leaves us a spare length which can be used at Grace’s house.
Friday Awake just after 7 so I got up, finished my packing, had breakfast and was on my way to Pallington before 8:00.
I started by sorting out the pattress boxes in the kitchen that the builders had buried deep in the exterior walls. Then set the levels for the remaining base units and screwed them together and back against the wall. Towards the end of that process Matt arrived.
We then cut the worktops to length and tidied up the floor ready to put down the laminate. We managed to get the floor down by about 3:30. Looking like a good install so far – Not bad for one week after delivery given that we lost about a day and a half on problem solving at other properties.
Next jobs are to attach the wall cabinets, finish the laminate flooring, cut worktop holes for the sink and hob, wire the hob, plumb the sink and paint walls & ceiling.
Set off to the south coast at 4:00 arrived at 8:40.
Saturday 9th Another morning with the Wareham town band – Helen playing and me collecting donations on the street. Weather started as gentle rain but cleared up into sun and clear blue sky with distant clouds before we finished.
In the afternoon I took Lexie for a walk to the beach at Barton on Sea. There was a strong wind blowing along the coast and fairly big waves hitting the beach again. This may well be the beginnings of yet another named storm (Ellen) which is being forecasted for the rest of the weekend and is generating weather warnings.
At the moment we are not sure whether I will be spending the start of the week in Doncaster finishing that kitchen, in Norwich taking out Grace’s kitchen or staying in New Milton all week.
This evening is Quiz night at LSC.
Monday The theory is that Matt is ordering Grace’s Kitchen today so it gets delivered next Monday / Tuesday.
I set off to Doncaster a little later than usual (6:06) so the traffic was busy earlier in the journey although it still only took me 4 hours and a half.
Started with fixing the end panels around the dish washer space then added a piece of floor, got the water pipes through under the sink and did some of the second fix electrical work. More electrical socket fitting until it was starting to get dark.
Tuesday Awake just after 5 again so I arrived at Pallington before 7.
I started on the proper fitting of sockets and light switches solving a few problems as I went. I also attached the plinth and cabinet end panels for the oven side of the kitchen.
The builders have been installing the underground drainage pipes today which included the drain for the kitchen sink. That was not the cleanest job because it has been raining for a couple of weeks and also today so everything was rather wet and sticky.
Fairly late finish tonight as I wanted relative darkness to be able to use the laser to mark out where the kitchen ceiling lights should be located. I managed to locate all but one of the midline cables so should be able to attach at least one lamp on each row tomorrow.
Wednesday Another pre-7:00 start at Pallington – Lights sorted on every row and a second light on the sink line. Also started to replace the incorrect capacity cable upstairs but now I need one rubber grommet before I can finish that room.
All of the high level kitchen cabinets mounted and appropriate end panel added. I also managed to do the cut-out for the kitchen sink so tomorrow I can fix that down and install the plumbing.
The builders finished the drainage work today so we now have the toilet pipes into the house and can make those operational with a little plumbing work.
Thursday 
Awake early and away from Matt’s house at 6. This morning I worked on fitting the sink and fixing down the worktops. Plenty of progress for a half day. Helen has another band rehearsal at 7:30 so I needed to leave around 12. Ready for Grace’s kitchen work I will be taking several of the tools, some flooring supplies, a sink tap and the china sink with me .
Reasonable journey up until 2.8 miles from the M3 junction at Winchester. There had been an accident on the M3 involving three cars which were being recovered as I eventually went past. That caused about 30 minutes delay but I was still in plenty of time to eat and head for Wareham.
Lexie and I went for a short walk but it was too muddy to go along the river bank.
Friday Helen is taking Lexie to the coffee shop on foot this morning while I went to check on the boat.
The engine compartment and under the floor were both wet again and the water level sensors were being a problem too. The engine compartment one was stuck in the high position (possibly because the bilge pump and it’s mounting block are not attached to the hull) but came unstuck when I fiddled with it. The under table one also stays “on” even when pushed down – I think that means there is water in the supposedly heat shrink treated joints.
The stern strop was wrapped around the rudder again so it is now stored in the cabin along with the pivot rod and tiller.. Possibly the real solution will be shortening the bow strop. I cut out the original loop, moved all the anti-chafe tubing to the new position and did 3 tucks of splicing in the new eye making the overall length about a foot shorter. The original instructions asked for 5 tucks but the ones I did were difficult enough. I didn’t have the insulation tape with me so had to do a 2 turn whipping on each of the 4 pairs of strands then try to saturate that with superglue to get something blunt that I stood half a chance of pushing through. Sometime soon I will do the extra 2 tucks and finish off the ends nicely.
Saturday Today is Helen’s last band performance of 2023. I wasn’t needed for collecting donations today so Lexie and I went for a walk. There was a lot of flooding, particularly in the garden of the mill at the north end of mill street.
We then met Karl & Dawn and had lunch together at a dog friendly pub down on the quay.
Sunday 17th Major travelling day as we are going to Birmingham to cook lunch for Helen’s parents and then heading to Norwich this afternoon to be in position ready for Grace’s kitchen delivery. The delivery has been moved to Wednesday instead of Monday but the early arrival will mean I can do some removal of the existing units in advance.
Grace is working tonight and will therefore be catching up on sleep tomorrow until about mid afternoon.
We set off a little later than intended but arrived in Birmingham around 12:30. Lunch went OK with me doing the cooking while Helen amused her parents.
Headed to Norwich via the M6 and A14 and managed to arrive about half an hour before Grace set off to work.
I managed to make quite a bit of progress in the rest of the day by removing high level cabinets and the separate units.
Monday Matthew was ill overnight and had to attend A&E. He eventually went home in the evening. Obviously he will now not be driving half way to Norwich tomorrow to collect Helen so I am doing the trip in both directions and collecting worktops and more tools.
Grace was home at 9:30 and eventually tried to get some sleep. I took Lexie for a walk across the “wasteland” down to the river and marshes.
Most of today was spent removing the remaining tiles from the walls and floor. The floor tiles were easier than expected because they had been laid on top of lino tiles. I then put down the laminate flooring that we brought from Doncaster. Still need about another 4 planks to finish it off.
Tuesday 19 The plan is to leave around 9:00 to take Helen to Doncaster as she is going to a former band colleague’s retirement presentation tomorrow. Should be around 6 hours of driving so there may be rather little more progress made with the kitchen apart from collecting worktop off-cuts, more flooring and a few tools.
Traffic conditions were good both ways so I was back at Grace’s house at 5:30. Now that I have the extra flooring that part of the job will get finished tonight.
Wednesday 
The kitchen delivery was here just after 8 and has completely taken over both the lounge and front garden. I was able to make an early start on building the units though and by the time I set off to collect Helen from the station all the base units to the right of the sink were in place. As usual the built in oven unit has taken quite a while to adapt to the configuration required – This one has a single oven and a microwave so was more complicated than usual requiring careful measuring to attach a shelf where there are no pre-drilled holes.
Nothing is fixed back to the wall yet because I need to install five more single sockets and re-route some of the existing cables (at least one runs diagonally across the wall which is definitely no longer allowed). There is a minor problem in that the kitchen that was delivered is the one which was originally chosen to draw up the layout (white finish). Grace had changed to a slightly different one about a week ago and that should have been the one ordered. Of course neither Helen nor I knew about that so it was only discovered when she was back from work. She is happy with the original one though so installation can continue.
Thursday 21st Today I attached the oven unit to the wall and installed wiring for the fridge, microwave, hob ignition and extractor fan. All of those are now working.
I then removed the sink unit and started to assemble and modify the corner unit that needs to fit around the boxed in pipes. A fair amount of revised plumbing and it all almost fits – Just need to modify the waste pipes to remove the unnecessary branch.
While I was dealing with that there was a slight drama going on at LSC caused by a broken mooring strop – Fortunate that I upgraded mine before it actually snapped. A boat has been going bow down in the mud when the tide goes out.
Friday Reasonably early start to the day and there seemed to be plenty of progress until I got to the worktop stage.
After another plumbing revision (cold water supply and the drainage), the second corner unit has been modified and fitted. There is just enough space for the end panel, washing machine and the 30 cm cabinet door. That set the required position for the corner post and the dish washer. In turn that set the required position for the other corner unit with the sink plumbing.
Then I cut the new piece of worktop to length and removed the square cut-out for the pipes. Slightly difficult to position especially as the sink cabinet is a few cm from the wall and not screwed back. I then cut the piece from Pallington Grove and when we positioned it Grace realised the patterns & colour don’t match. The new piece is not the one that was on the final specification. Apart from that and the wrong frontal colours, the kitchen is looking good.
Everyone at the landlord group and Magnet will now be off until after Christmas so we cannot do anything about the worktops. The plan is to fit what I can and then re-connect the original gas cooker so we can use it to cook the Christmas dinner. There won’t be a hob or washing up facilities but the oven and original hob will be working.
Saturday 23rd Final fix for most of the electrical outlets and plastered the cable cut-outs and other areas above the final worktop positions.
Added the wall cabinets and larder cabinet so all cabinets are now in place and all but two are fixed to the walls.
Re-connected the original cooker so we have two ovens and a hob. Rather late in the day, I decided to add an accessible isolator for the oven. That will have to go in tomorrow and means we don’t yet have the oven fully installed.
Sunday 24th My plan for today is to get the oven working, remove the problem piece of worktop (probably to the garage) and do a temporary install of the sink and plumbing in the top of the corner cabinet. The drawer unit may also get moved to the garage so there is space to put the old cooker back against the wall. All of that took a little longer than anticipated but I have moved most of the remaining waste into the garage.
After dinner Grace started to try to move everything from the study back into the kitchen cupboards. We will have two ovens, two microwaves and an air fryer to do the cooking tomorrow so we may not be able to find all of the utensils but there will be a good selection of cooking methods available.
Monday 25th – Christmas day
Lexie and I were up early – Lexie panting a lot and in need of a drink at around 7:00.
I ended up cooking everything from the bacon sandwich breakfast through to the Christmas dinner. The kitchen is finished enough to be usable but needs worktops, re-installation of the sink, fitting the final two units & gas hob. It certainly helped to have two ovens (the new electric one only has a single shelf which doesn’t help) so the turkey crown and roast veg went in one and the pigs in blankets sausage meat and stuffing balls went in the gas oven (after an initial attempt at stacking the baking trays on top of baking dishes which didn’t work).
Veg slightly over cooked (no hot trolley to keep everything warm and the sausage components needed finishing off in the air fryer) but otherwise all went well.
Everyone enjoyed the dinner with the slight downer in that Helen had somehow managed to pack her Baileys but not the Prosecco or wine.
My presents were mostly clothes that Helen had bought on behalf of Grace. Also another small hairbrush to replace the large one I have used for the last 50 something years and toiletries from Svetlana’s family. Grace also gave me an “observers book of small craft” that had been found in a second hand shop somewhere – Has a snapdragon 27 in it but not the three different variants of my boat.
Tuesday 26th
We are returning to New Milton today, hopefully in time for Beth & Jon to arrive from Bicester. Plans for today are that Helen & Grace are going into town to look at the sales. As well as transporting them, they also think I am doing a turkey pie.
My priorities are finishing tidying up, cutting plinth pieces, adding the dishwasher socket inside the sink cabinet, securing the IKEA plumbing system, taking apart the bookshelf that Beth is having and possibly also a short walk for Lexie.
The sorting out was somewhat affected by an unexpected leak in the washing machine waste caused by the lousy silicone sealant. This meant I had to re connect the pipes using better silicone and without it going under the units so that it was easy to check. Grace is meant to be leaving it to set and then testing it tomorrow.
We left sometime around 3:00 having eaten the turkey pie. Arrived home a little before 8. That was about the time that Beth & Jon left Bicester so we had a little time to un-pack the car before they arrived.
Thursday Beth and Jon left around 9:00 and had an uneventful journey home. We left shortly after that to go and sort out the admin at the caravan storage ready to move the van on Saturday.
Saturday 30th We set off at 9:00 to go and move the caravan from Crossways to the storage site. The pitch was very wet and the car had almost no grip at all – Managed to move it about 10 feet before failing to get it turning. The site has a tractor but when I checked with the lady in reception there was nobody there who could drive it.
The motor mover just about managed to rotate the van but then there was no power left in the battery to go forwards. The battery indication before I tried was 12.5 Volts suggesting we have been leaking power again despite the battery having been fully charged some time ago and all the van systems having notionally been turned off..
I solved the problem eventually by getting the car out of the mud and then parking it just about on the gravel awning patch from the adjacent pitch. That allowed me to use the car tow rope to couple the van to the tow hook with the car in a position where it had a reasonable amount of grip and could pull the van towards the exit from the area of our pitch.
I then had to do a slight adjustment of the alignment and could couple onto the car again but still didn’t quite have the right alignment to get past the fence – Again fixed using the tow rope ro pull it nearer to the road.
After all that the journey to the storage plot was easy although it was a little challenging having to do a combination of pushing and car reversing to get the van into the parking space. Again the van battery was not sufficiently charged to move the van even after a 15 mile tow.
My conclusion for the day is that I need to track down where the battery power leaks to and also need to install at least one solar panel to keep the battery charged. Due to not having a split battery system the caravan can be somewhat simpler than the boat or camper van.
Sunday – New Year’s eve
Helen was setting up for the under 4 age group at church this morning so we had to be there for 9:00.
Very windy again today and a lot of waves hitting the rocks because the tide was still fairly high (1st high tide about 11:00 then a stand with another peak at around 3:00).
Tonight we were at the LSC new year party.