Well the mould remover failed spectacularly. So I spent ages cutting the old sealant away from the bath, using the nasty chemical guck to remove the traces (not sure I got all of it out) and putting new sealant in.

Ever tried sealing the edge of a bath behind the taps? Don’t – it’s a fucking nightmare. I found the best way of putting sealant into place was to squirt half an inch onto my index finger, then press/smooth it into place. The best tool I could find for removing the wee beads that leaked around the edge of my finger was a plastic picnic fork. It really worked.

So the bath was sealed late last night. I also sealed around the kitchen units. Neither of look totally professional but they do look OK and I’m quite proud.

I also washed the outsides of the kitchen cupboards, even taking the handles off so I could get rid of 10 years’ worth of grime that had accumulated inside them.

Then I sat in bed, looking for deals on beds. They’re expensive! OK, they’re meant to last ages so the cost per night can be as little as 11p but £400 is far more than I expected.

Today I’ll clean the insides of the cupboards and then go out to pay some bills, chase my bank and buy lining paper for the cupboards and drawers.

I’ve phoned Fife Council to ask about them taking away my old cooker. ‘Special uplifts’ aren’t available until 16th January, so I know I’ll be here at least until then. I suppose this gives me time to buy a new one but I want rid of the old one now so I can clean the floor!

Update (1:51 pm)
The kitchen drawers and cupboards have been cleaned to the best of my ability. The former spice drawer is irreprably stained with turmeric. However at least it’s a clean stain! I’ve also asked Kingdom Housing Association to fix the entry-phone and tried to contact Castle Furniture to get rid of the old bed , sofa and fold-up bed. I think they’re still celebrating Hogmanay.

Next things: food, buying drawer liners and more food!

By the way, my dad’s birthday present arrived in Worcester around 8·30 this morning. Misco have excelled themselves: I only ordered it at 4pm yesterday!

A mac discussion list threw up the following news item. My feelings are:

For the tens of thousands of home PC users: you could have bought macs and saved yourself so much trouble!

For the people who have to use PCs at work: sympathy anyway, redoubled several times over because of this.

For the BOFHs who have to deal with the mess on top of their normal duties, extreme sympathy. Clearing up shit that’s been dumped on you is never nice.

For the perpetrators of virii: you’re all scum. You have no excuse. You see weakness and you exploit it to show off your ‘cleverness’. If you saw someone who depended on wooden crutches, would you reach for a saw and hack up their means of transport, just because you could?

According to Ponden Mill, the standard UK bed sizes are
Single: 3′ x 6′ 3” (36” x 75”)
Double: 4′ 6” x 6′ 3” (54” x 75”)
King Size: 5′ x 6′ 6” (60” x 78”)
(‘ = feet, ” = inches)

My bed is 4′ x 5’ 10” (48” x 70”). Is this a queen size? No wonder I never got standard size bedding to fit!

woke around 11 am after getting to sleep after 2am.

Finally dragged my carcase out around 1pm, carrying a rucsac containing my recycling, the TV cable so I could by the correct cable clips, a 10m ethernet cable that had hitched a ride and some oddments of medication that had leapt from my medicine cabinet into the rucsac.

The recycling centre in Argyle Street carpart had vanished but the one at the union was open. I dumped off paper, plastic, metal and random ancient bedsheets.

The ironmongers was closed so I meandered on to the hardware/DIY store. They didn’t have edging strip (and I’d forgotten to bring the sample anyway) but I bought:

• 15 metres of co-axial TV cable (£6)
• 2 white shower curtains (£15·99 each)
• 2 tubes of bathroom silicone sealant (£6.99 each)
• 2 packs of cable clips (£0·99 each)
• rubber gloves (£2·49)
• mould remover (£3·99)
• superglue (£2.49)
• 3m tape-measure (£2·49)
• a cheap hammer (£4·99)

I wish I’d kept my tools here!

Next to Woolworths & Ponden Mill to price up up bedding. I ended up buying 2 pillows for £5.

(In the middle of all this, my brother called to remind me that we hadn’t got anything for my dad’s birthday tomorrow. That was sorted when I got home. No details yet except a public thank-you to Emily at Misco for friendly and efficient service.)

What’s next?

• clean the mould from the bath seal.
• if that fails, cut the old sealant away, use nasty chemical guck to remove the remnants, then re-seal.
• reinstall the shampoo rack
• install the shower curtain
• seal the kitchen units to the walls (I used the guck to get rid of the old sealant yesterday evening.)
• clean the kitchen cupboards
• put the crockery and cooking gear back in the kitchen, creating an inventory as I go.

I feel another late night coming on!

With a lot of help from the wonderful Ms Curteis…

The bedroom is complete apart from buying the new mattress, duvets and sheets and buying, then clipping into place the TV cable (along with the phone cable).

The bathroom is complete apart from buying and hanging the shower curtain and either removing the old sealant and putting new sealant in its place or finding a way of removing the stubborn mould from the old sealant. I’d prefer the latter since removing sealant is a pain and putting new sealant in its place will be a right pain due to the large gap between the tiles and the bath. My dad recommends Cillit Bang and Sandra Skeldon recommends Dettox.

I fear Cillit Bang will attack the bath as well as the mould and being more environmentally unfriendly than sniffing my armpit.

We’ve also touched up the hall, including repainting all the doors and their surrounds.

Tomorrow (er, later today) I’ll venture forth to try to buy lots of stuff and take the first loads to be recycled.

Meanwhile I get to sleep in my bed, in my bedroom!

I footered about before tackling the bathroom because I knew it would be the mankiest part of the whole proceeding. The lounge and kitchen will take longer but they’re nowhere near as manky.

I started by trying to clean away the layer of brown/black mould on the ceiling. Uurrggghh! Some of this mank doesn’t shift, even when attacked with sugar soap and bathroom cleaner. I think I’ll let it dry tonight and then paint over it.

I then washed the painted walls, the sink and toilet and took a break before starting on the shower/bath area. First thing was to dismantle the shampoo stand so I could later clean behind it. Then I took down the shower curtain rail, dismantled it and cleaned the components. The utter worst was balancing on the edge of the bath, clean the grouting between the tiles above the bath. I don’t think the mank nestling in the angle between the wall and top of the bath will shift, so that’s going to be covered with opaque filler/sealer.

Tomorrow I’ll need to paint the ceiling, the windowsill and retouch the walls where paint has flaked away. I also need to buy a new shower curtain because the old one is ripped and manky past redemption.

I think that’s enough for today!

I’ve repainted the Mystic Mauve (light blue!) bedroom walls completely. There wasn’t enough Green Parrot to even begin to cover the other two walls, so I just rotuched the parts where a TV cable had gouged paint off the wall.

I realised I didn’t have a hope of replacing the connector on the TV cable that goes from the lounge to the bedroom so I decided to replace it. Removing the old one destroyed 4 of the cable-clips that held it in place, so more will be needed, along with a 15-metre TV cable so tenants can place a TV almost anywhere in the bedroom.

I wonder if DIY stores will be open tomorrow. Meanwhile time to eat, put some furniture back in the bedroom and then attack the mank on the nathroom walls and ceiling. Uurrgghh…..

Bedroom floor is swept.
Bedroom walls have been washed with sugar soap, rinsed and are now drying.
Bedroom floor has been mopped and is now drying.

From what I can see, one of the walls I feared needed repainting doesn’t. However I was too energetic in a few spots and so some bits will need touched up. I’ll make a final judgement in daylight tomorrow.

Meanwhile time to curl up with Inspector Rebus and the Pismo, working out how much I’ve spent on what this year.

Back from the pub, I phone a friend. In the middle of the conversation, I notice that my washing machine has hardly got through the program I set off just before I went out. Switching off at the mains, then on again and restart doesn’t help. I think a fuse may have blown but the plug is right behind the machine and getting it out is a 2-person job.

So I return to the attack on the bedroom. Removal of the dust reveals patches of nasty sticky stour on the floor. I’m at a loss to explain them: suggestions please. So I will need to wash the floor as well as the walls.

Meanwhile I have an excuse for not washing!