Jam-up on a leaping tree. Head on! Head first!

[reddragdiva]

• Goofus, Gallant, Rashomon.

I demand my Domestic Goddess ceremonial knickers. I cook, I fuck, and Monday and Tuesday I comprehensively pwn3d the house and garden bit.

Monday evening was a much-delayed visit to Homebase for storage options for the spare room — I will bring out this house's inner Tardis — and assorted other crap. Most of which they didn't have (bathroom storage units that won't become rust farms, mould farms or both) or were crap (the garden loungers). But I did get two more asters (white), a couple of cinderblocks (to make a back door step), a bucket that doesn't suck like the 49p one from Asda (which arkady is adapting into a solar still! Don't break the gadget chain!), vicious weedkilling spray (when it's a sea of bindweed, I'm really not going to hand paint each leaf), a steel-cored clothes line and grilling tongs. Arkady came along and got another Venus fly trap, this one called Audrey II. I am now in the class of person who spends over a hundred quid on a random Homebase visit and asks for their loyalty card.

Tuesday was further rebuilding at ruthi and oscarhocklee's. Arkady did the kitchen and bathroom, while I tackled the hall and the front yard. From overgrown weed pit strewn with rubbish to cleared thing with nicely polished front door. Cookie actually didn't recognise his own house and walked past it. Their landlord needs to be taken out and shot for the eggshell paint that takes marks like a sheet of paper and is literally impossible to clean without taking it off (Arkady: "It's cheap. They buy it by the job lot. Did I mention cheap?") and the amazing banister repair where they put the screws directly into the plaster rather than into rawl plugs in the plaster. Well done.

This morning I have a job interview in Mordor (in darkest Surrey, where the suburbs lie). This evening we are booked to see The Producers, and I only hope the girls are well enough to come out!

Update: The flat inspection went perfectly. Excellent!

Comments

[arkady.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed for the interview; I shall endeavour to be well enough for this evening.

[cookwitch.livejournal.com]

That paint is not only cheap, it's probably watered down too, so what you have, essentially, is whitewash. That's what Fairview Homes used on our first flat. It washed off! Standard building trade practice, allegedly.

Oh and here, have a Domestic Goddess icon.

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Does Mordor mean the local Microsoft office, or does the Church of Scientology have a sysadmin position vacant or something?

[oscarhocklee.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

(and thank you)

Mordor Most Horrid

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the interview... Or is it someplace so bad that you're half-hoping they turn you down?

[reddragdiva]

The far end of the Southern Line. In deepest Surrey, where the shadows lie.

Re: Mordor Most Horrid

[reddragdiva]

It actually seems not bad at all. Three month Unix sysadmin contract with a civil service organisation, £29/hour, 35 hour week. If they like me more than the guy they're seeing this afternoon, I start tomorrow. Income! Income! (flings legs in air)

[reddragdiva]

Oh my goodness, I feel houseproud now! (flings legs in air)

The essential point is that the choice of paint was theirs, so the marks are their problem. The stuff is literally impossible to clean.

[reddragdiva]

And next I shall pwn your b33r collection.

[reddragdiva]

\o/

We'll see you here fiveish and give you another Sudafed ;-D

[shamus9999.livejournal.com]

What spray did you get? I'm being overgrown with hedge bindweed. It must die!

[reddragdiva]

Roundup - glyphosate. Nasssssty stuff. Spray close, wear gloves, wash hands and clothes, don't use anywhere near plants you still care about.

[shamus9999.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's what I've been using. It works but it's only temporary. Bindweed is harder to get rid of than insurance salesmen.

Actually the flowers are somewhat pretty. If it just didn't have the habit of overgrowing and smothering everything else.

The difficult part of using Roundup is that you have to apply it on a fine day with no rain expected for a day or two. That leaves a rather small window per year in which to use it.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

bathroom storage units that won't become rust farms, mould farms or both

If you ever find such an item, let me know. I remain unconvinced they exist.

[reddragdiva]

It's the least ineffective ;-) It SWEARS TO GOD it works if it's had even ten minutes to dry. (Hah.) Though I put it on two days ago and it hasn't rained since then, so we'll see. Then I can plant the asters.

[reddragdiva]

The galvanised metal shelf would actually have worked great. (The space in question is actually under the upstairs flat's back stairs, an otherwise useless space in the bathroom.) It was just way too rickety for the job. The cheap wooden shelves would also work, if I coat them in something reasonably seriously fungicidal.

[shamus9999.livejournal.com]

But if it rains before the condemned plant absorbs it all, the excess washes off and gets in the groundwater or kills nearby ground cover.

[reddragdiva]

Yeah, that's why it's the work of Satan. It's high summer here, so it's as reasonably safe as extremely nasty chemicals can be.