Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

I am very happy with the low-VOC, acrylic, off-white paint in the interior of my home. (It's used for trim.) Except for where it is dusty it looks no different to when it was painted.

 

Where such paints do fail is on exterior surfaces that are subject to lots of temperature cycles. My front door is such a place. It gets full late afternoon sun and has a pretty extreme temperature cycle every day. Within a couple of months the paint blistered. While the house was still in the builder's warranty period, it was redone with extensive effort to roughen the surface of the door* so the paint would stay adhered. This worked for a little while. A few years later the blistering is back.

 

* Which did not please me much.

 

Oil-based paints are the right solution for this situation.

 

The other location where the paint failed was on the MDF fireplace mantel. The fireplace is natural-gas fired in a self-contained box, vented to the rear. Normally it operates with the fan. When the power failed during February's ice storm I had the fire on (without the fan). After several hours I could smell the paint baking (the mantel was very warm to touch) and I had to shut down the fireplace. Under these conditions the paint yellowed slightly, but it is only visible under very close examination in good lighting. I doubt anyone would notice it.

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[Barry O]

Umpiring for 6 and a bit hours then driving back from midsomer norton is very tiring. Even worse when the M42 Control Room can't be ar$ed to reset the maximum speed on the road after rush hour..pah!

Sleep well

Baz 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[JohnDMJ]

 

4 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

For colour I wonder if my Grandad's old method would work. He spent a couple of years on the painting gang in the days when they mixed their own from linseed oil and white lead. He always put a bit of blue into the white paint to give a better finish. Just like your Granny putting Reckitt's Blue in the white washing to make it look brighter. 

 

Anyone remember Daz washing powder's "Blue Whiteness"?

[Mark Saunders]

16 minutes ago, JohnDMJ said:

 

 

Anyone remember Daz washing powder's "Blue Whiteness"?

That was why there is blue powder in many of them as it was meant to show ‘laundry blue’ was already included!

[pH]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

 Previously I have always used oil based - and given the choice would do again; sadly the EU(?), having stuck their nebby in and banned many of the desirable (other opinions may exist) substances that made oil based paints the wondrous thing they were. 

 

Don't blame the EU for that. Here in Canada you can't get oil-based paints any more, either. I regret their disappearance, too!

Edited August 4, 2021 by pH

[leopardml2341]

Mornin'

 

Why is it that when you set an alarm because you have zn earlier than usual start, you always wake up 2hrs before the set time.............

[TheQ]

At the Moorings Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

A good night's sleep of 4.5 hours +2 hours +1 hour ish.

 

Paint, water based doesn't work well on boats for obvious reasons, so oil enamels are required.. costing upwards of about £25 for 750ml.... When repainting the keep right sign, I also had to paint the back door of our post box. ...which faces south, the north side, the postie uses was perfectly ok. My remaining stock of red oil paint is getting low.

 

I seem to remember a cattle crossing on the A66, it's still there, but it looks like it's not been used for many years.

 

Horning, meaning the place of the people between two rivers. Technically that would be stretching it a bit today, as the current village is a mile up river from the church, though the remains of St Benet's Abbey , which is even further away from the village is still in the parish. Originally the River Ant and the River Bure ran either side of the Abbey grounds, but some centuries ago the Ant was diverted cutting the Abbey off from the rest of the Parish.

There is no record of when this was done, what is now called St Benet's straight was also dug on the Bure , shortening the river. The monks or more likely their serfs are the likely labour.

 

Today's pictures a Misty Morning @ Horning, the mist is now lifting as the sun has now appeared.

 

 

Down river

 

Up river.

Time for muggacoffee no2.

Edited August 4, 2021 by TheQ

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.  It persisteth down and the hens showed no inclination to come out of the hut. Also Freesat is obviously not working so no watching the tele.

 

After out adventurous morning more jobs got donw, the former mayor's grandson arrived and dug out 3 tree stumps. He's 16 and drives a mini digger, tractor, trailer etc very well.  He was suitably rewarded.  He's off to 6th form college, or whatever it's called at the end of the month and will have to travel and board.  I taught him the english term, Weekly boarder to impress his teacher.   Then a friend who is going to be doing the evening shift for the chickens came for tea and a good evening was had till the girls decided to go to bed.  The car is mostly packed and just a few things are left to do.  Hopefully the journey will go well and we will get to the ferry in plenty of time, meeting Olddudders for a coffee on the way.  

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Hopefully the journey will go well

I am sure it will. Aditi has had conversations with various people she knows through her French group and they haven’t had any problems due to current regulations. 
Tony

[TheQ]

Today's programme.

At 07:00 I'll start getting the four rescue boats out,
08:00 flags up as the cannon fired
Then go out putting the buoys out.

Today's programme.

Races are about an hour long.

08:45 ish return to the club house for bacon butties and a muggacoffee.
09:15 out on the river for the first start,
09:25 Allcomers B dinghies 12 ft to 17.5 ft
09:30 Allcomers C experienced dinghy sailors in boats up to 12ft long
09:30 Allcomers C beginners in boats up to 12ft.

10:30 the bigger boats come out, 6 starts at 5 minute intervals.
12:45 the really big boats come out , up to 45ft long for a 2hour race.

13:45 4 starts with bigger fleets as some of the above are combined.

15:15 6 starts.

16:15 the big yachts are out again for another 2 hour race.

17:00 a special juniors only race.
17:05 serviceman's and Ex serviceman's trophy.

18:00 I collect all the buoy.s
18:45 start putting the rescue boats back to bed.

[Andrew P]

Yesterdays visit to the Garden Centre was very pleasant indeed. Coffee and I had a fresh chilled Apple Pie slice, and that went down a treat.

I bought a second hand book from their library, John Peel, biography, so looking forward to reading that.

 

The weather is dull and overcast again today, so back to normal for this time of year, the shorts have been put away again now, and the evenings are drawing in.

 

One of the Grandsons, his much better half and two Boys will be visiting this morning from Grantham whilst here on Holiday with his Mum, We always enjoy seeing them and the Boys are so polite but fun.

 

I now need to splash some water over this old body of mine so that I don't smell like an old man. 

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and keep well.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is a very pleasant morning here. I have been out and put the rubbish bags out and a couple of bins. 
I spent some time yesterday weeding the front lawn and then clearing the patio of foliage. I had spent the morning getting what was Matthew’s room ready for visitors this weekend. Our nieces (plus their parents!) will be staying overnight on Sunday. They are then going to somewhere near Hastings for a week. 
I don’t think we will be off to Hyde Hall gardens for our walk this week. It is flower show week and while that has been enjoyed in previous years it is crowded so wouldn’t be a good idea for me to me there. 
Have a good day. 
Tony

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Her indoors has an appointment later so guess what? I am up ready for a mugatea wether I want one or not. Pah!

 

Motorway services.. going down stopped at one on the M42at Junction 2. Petrol at £1.35  a litre) was cheaper than some garages we passed in Somerset. It was also very crowded with a few younger people maskless.

 

On our return we stopped at Gloucester Services. Better choice of food, less people not wearing masks...

 

Why bother with expensive electronic roadsigns when the lazy so and sos in the control rooms can't be ar$ed to use them properly? The M42 is a bad example... mind you because of that some of the numpty drivers don't bother to slow down.

 

I shall drink my mugatea then wield the Shark, clean Beast then hunker down away from the projected deluge.

 

Stay safe!

Baz

[polybear]

9 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

I have used some of those modern imitation water based quick drying paints. Absolutely useless in most cases except for the primer as a first coat on wood for rubbing down.

For my last paint job I used Dulux Non-Drip Gloss on Dulux Trade undercoat. Expensive, high VOC, but it went on well and seems to be holding up against the wear and tear of the kitchen. I never use paint which says 'brushes clean in water' for top coating woodwork. 

 

My thoughts entirely - I'm also of the opinion that water based paints don't withstand knocks nearly as well as oil based. 

 

9 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Just like your Granny putting Reckitt's Blue in the white washing to make it look brighter. 

 

Bear still has some "Dolly Blue" in the cupboard; I see that Amazon are selling it now (I thought it was long gone), now called "Crown Blue"

 

9 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

ps in my experience modern white oil based paint tends to yellow more if it is not exposed to daylight

 

Yes, there's a lot on the 'net about yellowing being worse in dark corners etc.

 

8 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

And I bet , should you move house,  some Philistine will paint the lot

 

My Boss & SWMBO spent literally weeks totally redecorating a deceased relative's house (every weekend, on a house 200 miles from where he lived) prior to sale.  The new owner didn't even move in - he bulldozed the place so he could build his own house.

Ever seen a grown man (almost) cry.....

 

8 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Ava and I went into the kitchen and we once again made a tray of rocky road cake and like last week, she took most of it with her when she went home. 

 

 

In other news:

I see a young 13 year old GB girl has won a Bronze doing very clever stuff with a 4-wheeled plank of wood (making her the youngest ever GB Medal Winner); many of us were making Airfix kits at that age....

And I note that if "Total Number of Medals Won" were to count then GB would be in Bronze place; sadly they go by who's got the most Gold.  Fix.....

 

Bear plans to finally sort the Wall Tiles into different shades of colour as a starter for ten; I had primed up the Tiler for a potential "Bear will be ready" as from next Monday, but since I'm still waiting for the splashback to arrive it's looking decidedly shaky ......

 

And finally:

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/sarah-gilbert-vaccine-barbie/index.html

Now I wonder if "Action Man" will follow up with a "Captain Cynical"......?

[pH]

8 minutes ago, polybear said:

My Boss & SWMBO spent literally weeks totally redecorating a deceased relative's house (every weekend, on a house 200 miles from where he lived) prior to sale.  The new owner didn't even move in - he bulldozed the place so he could build his own house.

Ever seen a grown man (almost) cry.....

Quite common here. Certain older neighbourhoods are considered desirable, but the houses are not up to the latest fashion standards. So a house will be bought, knocked down and a modern house (often a monstrosity) built in its place.

 

With a continuously increasing population, zoning regulations can be changed to allow ‘densification’ - apartments and townhouses built in what were areas of ‘single family’ homes i.e. detached houses with big gardens. To do that, realtors will create ‘land assemblies’ by buying up several adjacent houses then selling them to developers.  We’ve started getting flyers saying things like “No need to do any more upgrades or even maintenance on your home - sell it to us ‘as is’”.

 

There’s a better than even chance our house (built in 1976) will be a knockdown when we sell it.

[New Haven Neil]

9 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

And I bet , should you move house,  some Philistine will paint the lot

 

A friend who worked for the 'Big Railway' moved to York in the late 70's early 80's (age clouds the exact year) for promotion (civil engineer) and bough a quite grand 1930's house down there.  It had the most superb panelling in the hallway and stairs, bearing a distinct varnished teak look.  Turns out the house had belonged to a senior person from York carriage works.....but yes, no doubt someone has painted it by now.  My friend 'did well' and had to move to London.  Something to do with Kings Cross. 

 

Poly, my metric tools wouldn't fit that Norvin, and no doubt it sounds like a bag of them anyway.  One of the things that puts me off old Britbikes, valvegear that sounds like the oft quoted Hesketh issue - two skeletons copulating in a dustbin. Cam quietening ramps hadn't been invented.

 

Morning!  19c and not looking too bad.  Unlike stupid me, who got up early to take my car in for a transmission service ('sealed for life' auto transmission fluid isn't a good idea IMHO, and you CAN change it!) and then noticed my watch was showing the wrong date - the car is due in tomorrow. Pah!

 

As Mrs NHN is home today having had a hip bursa injection yesterday I will no doubt 'come in useful' while she takes it easy. We only have one decent hip joint between us.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A bright sunny start to the day here in England’s northwest. The skirting boards and architrave have just been delivered and I have just stacked then in the office for now. The cellar is drying nicely but I will leave it for at least another week before I do anything else to the room. 

 

My first task today today is a walk to the doctors for my 3 monthly hormone injection, this is currently successfully keeping my cancer at bay, so I do not want to be forgetting that. An hour or so later Sheila will be at the doctors for her 6 monthly diabetic review, so I will drop her off, so that she doesn’t raise her blood pressure with the walk etc. I will then carry on with the cupboard refurbishment, I have 2 new side panels to mark out and cut as well as trimming a little of each door. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

[Erichill16]

Morning All,

was just about to have bath but I  think I’ll leave it this morning! Yorkshire Water got the road up in the village.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, looks like it's going to be a hot one, then we get a week of showers, the fields round the village are being harvested, so the house is covered in thunder bugs, boy do those things make me itch, one even got inside my old pc monitor and died in the corner proper distracting it was. Bike ride later when it cools down and maybe another trip to the sea. Stay safe and well.

[TheSignalEngineer]

When we sold my parents flat we thought about redecorationg but decided against it, just did a deep clean. Fortunately I found some old tins containing most of the paints used so was able to touch up any knocks and bits that needed filling. Muddling skills come in useful in such cirvumstances.

From 1975 to 1981 we lived in a house built (stretching the meaning to the limit) in 1971. The standard of it it's a wonder it is still there. 

[AndrewC]

48 minutes ago, pH said:

Quite common here. Certain older neighbourhoods are considered desirable, but the houses are not up to the latest fashion standards. So a house will be bought, knocked down and a modern house (often a monstrosity) built in its place.

 

With a continuously increasing population, zoning regulations can be changed to allow ‘densification’ - apartments and townhouses built in what were areas of ‘single family’ homes i.e. detached houses with big gardens. To do that, realtors will create ‘land assemblies’ by buying up several adjacent houses then selling them to developers.  We’ve started getting flyers saying things like “No need to do any more upgrades or even maintenance on your home - sell it to us ‘as is’”.

 

There’s a better than even chance our house (built in 1976) will be a knockdown when we sell it.

SWMBO's great aunt & uncle had a bit of money and were quite snobbish, so back in the 50s they bought the houses surrounding theirs so they could control who they rented to and keep out the riff raff. At the time property in the area was quite cheap. PH will know how stupidly expensive West Vancouver is these days. Especially houses with a good view of English Bay. Each one of those properties was flattened and sadly now are corner to corner monstrosities. The architects should have been drowned at birth. A couple of the homes have never been lived in according to FiL. They are just bought and sold as "assets". Mostly owned by Hong Kong based development companies. I've heard them referred to as "Buy to Leave".  

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. The house that I used to have in Romford has or is being demolished and is due to be replaced with two rabbit hutches apartment blocks. Ironically it was the most recently built house (1960) that I have ever lived in. My favourite place I have ever lived in was my cottage at Burnham-on-Crouch, built in 1862. Tea has brewed, be back later.

[AndyB]

Morning all,

I learnt last night that a dear and close colleague and mentor from my time in the Scientific Civil Service has passed on.

We inhabited a small RAF establishment dedicated to the safety of aircrew; ut secure volent.

It was a tight-knit group and the loss is deeply felt by all who are left. 

 

[PhilJ W]

Sad news from the Czech Republic. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-czech-republic-train-crash-24683341#source=push It appears to be a SPAD, two dead and seven seriously injured.