Busy day chez Chateau Midden

Will Fixit arrived today to replace the downstairs loo; and unintentionally caused a domino effect.

To backtrack ...

There is a tiny cloak-cupboard next to the front door in the hall.

When Mum last visited many years ago Alzheimer’s meant she had forgotten how to climb stairs, so I hired a commode from the Red Cross and put it in the cloak-cupboard in case she needed to pay a visit.  Mum and Dad were staying in a hotel with the siblings who had driven them up.  When the time came to return the commode I realised the closet was just big enough for a real loo and consulted Will Fixit who installed the smallest available at the time.  We painted the little room but left the coat-hooks in place; these have been used for hanging hats, bags, umbrellas, walking sticks, over-trousers and rain-jackets in little drawstring bags.  It is also where the welly-puller-offer and cat litter tray live (so much nicer than in the kitchen) and occasionally cats and humans go together.

Mother passed away in 2003 and, apart from replacing the lino, little has been done

A few weeks ago I noticed the pipe from the cistern to the bowl had streaks of red and blue on it.  The plastic cistern had a slow leak and when the water coming out evaporated it was leaving bits of bloo and pink cistern block behind.  Pretty but worrying.  Hence the need for a new system.

The first domino was last night when, in preparation, I removed all the hats, bags, umbrellas, walking sticks etc. and put them in the living room.  The potted scented geranium on the windowsill and has gone outside for a summer holiday.  The four dragons that lived around it are now on the living room windowsill.

This morning all the spare loo rolls, loo brush, plunger, bleach and spare cat litter was moved, and the cat litter tray taken away, emptied and left in the sun to sweeten.   
The walls were dusted down and the floor hoovered so that Will Fixit had a more pleasant work environment.

As well as installing the new loo he fixed a loose board on the half landing (“before someone goes through”), put a bit of board over a hole Ferretfingers picked in the bath panel, fitted an overflow pipe onto one of our water-butts, tried to solve the recurring problem of out drippy kitchen tap and glued the outside of the front door letter box back on.

The new loo and cistern system is considerably smaller than the old one.   
I now have five clear inches between my knees and the door when enthroned.   
Hopefully this will encourage other family members to close the door when they perform.

When all was done Will Fixit, Fester and I looked at the paintwork in the loo and agreed that it had done well considering it had been there hearly twenty years, but what with the new loo being so much smaller and exposing bits of unpainted wall and windowsill ….

Fester said “We need to give it a wash and brush down and slap on some white emulsion.  Have we got any white emulsion?  What about brushes?”

Then “The bath panel – what about that pink paint left over from the living room?   
We could use that.”

I think he may have heard me muttering about “the Royal we” to Will because, after I’d dug the brush and paint out of the garage there he was with a stirrer and up to the bathroom to do the first coat of pink on the bath panel.   
Whereupon the brush handle fell off.

(Now I’m not one to complain but the bath is a slightly orangey pink whilst the once white panel is now a more strawberry cream shade.  The colours don’t so much scream at each other as whisper spitefully.)

Having broken the brush there was nothing for it but an after tea trip to Wickes;  where we bought a tin of white emulsion, two new brushes, white gaffer tape, superglue and a pair of new ear-defenders for Ferretfingers.  Because when you go to a store like that you have to have a good look around and invariably find other things to buy.

As I type this I can hear a gentle knocking beneath my feet as Fester finds his DIY mojo in the downstairs loo.

According to him “The last time I did anything like this was back in the 1980s.”