Final adjustments and excuse photos

src/content/blog/year2024.mdx

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 ---
 layout: ../../layouts/LayoutMdx.astro
 title: "2024"
-date: 2024-11-04
+date: 2024-12-13
 dir: year2024
 image: garden-furniture
-description: jobs jobs jobs
+description: we look to the outside
 ---
 
 import { generateImageHyrdationFunction } from "../../utils";
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Even since we arrived in Bath we struggled to fully enjoy our patio. It was a bi
   src={s("patio-before")}
 />
 
-Well, we decided that it could be so much better and got some people in to come and built us a new one. As always, Ozzy was astonished at the speed at which demolition happens, and after a couple of days in early June we were left with a big mess in the back garden where we used to have a patio.
+Well, we decided that it could be so much better and got some people in to come and build us a new one. As always, Ozzy was astonished at the speed at which demolition happens, and after a couple of days in early June we were left with a big mess in the back garden where we used to have a patio.
 
 <Cards
   images={[
@@ -51,13 +51,9 @@ Work tends to go fast when you're using the right tools, and given that 🎉🎉
 
 The **Power-Wheelbarrow** has a weight capacity of half a ton, and can lift and tilt its bucket into a skip. Super useful when you're having to take all the spoil down the full length of our garden. The tank-style tracks have an amazing capacity for churning up lawns, and it churned up ours with gusto.
 
-The **MiniDigger** is just pretty cute. It can tuck in its treads so that it can be driven straight through a house - we didn't feel the need for a demonstation. They also didn't let us have a go as its quite a bit more tippy than a standard digger.
+The **MiniDigger** is just pretty cute. It can tuck in its treads so that it can be driven straight through a house - we didn't feel the need for a demonstration. They also didn't let us have a go as its quite a bit more tippy than a standard digger.
 
-Between them they made very quick work on removing our old patio.
-
-Despite having these excellent tools, they didn't manage to completely remove some of the slabs of original pennant stone - They dropped them halfway down the garden. Fortunately in a very neat way that happened to expand our mid-garden patio by the 'orchard'. 😁
-
-\*Todo: Midgarden patio pic
+Between them they made very quick work on removing our old patio slabs of pennant stone. They dropped them halfway down the garden, in a very neat way, that happened to expand our mid-garden patio by the 'orchard'. 😁
 
 Whilst the demolition was quick, it wasn't entirely smooth. We'd decided to have the treads of the stairs match the patio, and when they came to remove the old concrete treads, a fair part of the rest of the stairs came with them turning them into a bit of a slide.
 
@@ -68,7 +64,7 @@ Whilst the demolition was quick, it wasn't entirely smooth. We'd decided to have
 
 ]} />
 
-We had a big ol' conversation about various options on how to proceed, but we didn't really like any of the options presented. We could see that there had been several attempts at bodging this staircase previously with assorted bits of wire and cement. The lowest stair was half missing, and was instead made of soil and plant roots. In the end, we decided to get our stonemasonry friends back to come and fix things properly. Of course this adds more time as we need to organise more people, but we thought that it would be worth it.
+We had a big ol' conversation about various options on how to proceed, but we didn't really like any of the options presented. We could see that there had been several attempts at bodging this staircase previously with assorted bits of wire and cement. The lowest stair was half missing, and was instead made of soil and plant roots. In the end, we decided to get some stonemasonry people to come and fix things properly. Of course this adds more time as we need to organise more people, but we thought that it would be worth it.
 
 In the meantime, work continued on the main patio, and by the end of June it was done\*. We chose a porcelain tile as these would be very hardwearing, but mainly: flat (a feature we <sup>were</sup> _looking_ <sub>forward</sub> to). We would have relain the pennant stone if there was enough, but half of it was missing and replaced with concrete or broken.
 
@@ -76,9 +72,12 @@ In the meantime, work continued on the main patio, and by the end of June it was
 
 We were so pleased with finally having a _flat patio_ that we decided to cash in a wedding present from Ozzy's parents - a garden furniture voucher. We couldn't see any expiry date, which is good considering we were over ten years late redeeming it 😀
 
-<Solocard title="The voucher gained interest too" src={s("garden-furniture")} />
+<Solocard
+  title="The voucher gained interest, hehe"
+  src={s("garden-furniture")}
+/>
 
-You can see the start of the work that the stonemasons were doing to the stairs here. The were so unsure about what might need to be done that they refused to give us a quote and instead agreed a day-rate. Watching them work was an education in stairbuilding technique.
+You can see the start of the work that the stonemasons were doing to the stairs here. They were so unsure about what might need to be done that they refused to give us a quote and instead agreed a day-rate. Watching them work was an education in stairbuilding technique.
 
 We found out that each stair is almost entirely supported by the large party wall and the stair beneath - the smaller wall beneath the stairs was a much later addition. This ruled out replacing any of the stairs because we _really_ didn't want to do anything with the shared garden wall, so instead we opted to extend each step forward a bit - increasing the overlap between each step.
 
@@ -106,19 +105,17 @@ Lastly we just needed to tackle sanding and repainting the railing. I feel that
 
 ]} />
 
-Now we just need to wait until spring for the plants to grow back in and it'll be done! We've planted rosemary, some lavender, a peony and a rudbeckia so far. We've ordered some climbing roses. Bets are on for how many will survive the winter.
+Now we just need to wait until spring for the plants to grow back in and it'll be done! We've planted rosemary, some lavender, a peony, a rudbeckia, lots of bulbs and two climbing roses. Bets are on for how many will survive the winter. We'll share some more photos when everything's grown in a bit.
 
 DONE DONE DONE! It only took 7 months - no wonder our updates are slowing down!
 
-**TODO:** Pic of done-ness
-
 ## The Front
 
 Whilst all this was going on, we were having some work done at the front as well. Our front garden wall has been looking a bit fally-downy ever since we got here - another similarity to Harrow 🙂 Given what Bath is like, and the visibility of this change, we decided to take our first dip into the wonderful world of planning permission and listed building consent - Yay.
 
-Fortunately, it was far easier than we expected it to be. We knew that numbers 4-7 of our house block had got their front walls repaired and re-railed a few years before we moved in. What we didn't know was that their consent forms included our house too! And because their work was done within 5 years of the permission being granted, planning for ours hadn't lapsed so we didn't need to do a thing! Nice!
+Fortunately, it was far easier than we expected it to be. We knew that numbers 4-7 of our house block had got their front walls repaired and re-railed a few years before we moved in. What we didn't know was that their consent forms included our house too! And because their work was started within 5 years of the permission being granted, planning for ours hadn't lapsed so we didn't need to do anything! Nice!
 
-Full steam ahead then! We had our stonemasons come round and take the unoriginal bits off, stabilise the lower course, then add a few courses of Bath stone.
+Full steam ahead then! We had our favourite stonemason friends come round and take the unoriginal bits off, stabilise the lower course, then add a few courses of Bath stone.
 
 <Cards images={[
 
@@ -128,7 +125,7 @@ Full steam ahead then! We had our stonemasons come round and take the unoriginal
 
 ]} />
 
-Our favourite ironmongers came back to add in the railings. They have a massive lead time so we had to wait a while before the railings could be installed. They drilled holes in our nice new wall, then the railings were stuck in with lead.
+Our favourite ironmonger friends came back to add in the railings. They have a massive lead time so we had to wait a while before the railings could be installed. They drilled holes in our nice new wall, then the railings were stuck in with lead.
 
 <Cards images={[
 
@@ -143,19 +140,19 @@ It all looks great, but the surface of the garden path is so uneven that it's no
 
 ## The Others
 
-Time for the bim bim bam section of all the small jobs!
+Time for the bim bim bam section of all the other small jobs!
 
 ### Lounge
 
 We moved the mirror to the other side of the room, and painted the walls and bookshelves a bit. We also replaced the radiators as the old ones stopped working. We don't have a huge number of 'before' photos because we forgot.
 
-**TODO** Replace photo
-
 <Solocard title="In progress" src={s("lounge.MP")} />
 
-We got a footstool which has a bed in it - we had a bit of a mixup with the delivery where we received a completely different colour in a mislabeled box.
+We also forgot to take 'after' photos, and we've got our Christmas decorations up now so you'll have to wait.
 
-It's really cosy now.
+We got a footstool which has a bed in it - we had a bit of a mixup with the delivery where we received a completely different colour in a mislabeled box - fun fun fun
+
+It's really cosy now, but it's still far from done.
 
 ### Shelves
 
@@ -168,7 +165,7 @@ It's really cosy now.
 
 ### Basement
 
-The basement continues to be pretty uninspiring compared to the rest of the house. We are mainly using it for storage, though now we've moved the sofa bed down there. We bought some moving straps which are rated for very heavy things, and spent about an hour carrying the sofa out of the front door, all around the side road and up the garden, as the sofa doesn't fit down our stairs. 💪 When we were halfway down the road, we got an offer from our next-door-neighbour to throw the sofa over the garden fence if it would help... (It wouldn't)
+The basement continues to be pretty uninspiring compared to the rest of the house. We are mainly using it for storage, though now we've moved the sofa bed down there. We bought some moving straps (😭) which are rated for very heavy things, and spent about an hour carrying the sofa to the basement. 💪 We had to go out of the front door, all around the side road and up the garden, as the sofa doesn't fit down our stairs. When we were halfway down the road, we got an offer from our next-door-neighbour to throw the sofa over the garden fence if it would help... (It wouldn't)
 
 The sofabed was intended for watching films in the cinema and as accommodation for guests, but it came in very handy for us to sleep in when there was a heatwave!
 
@@ -184,27 +181,43 @@ WHAT'S THAT?? We've unpacked every box!! This means we've now officially moved i
 
 Or rather, we've just transferred things from cardboard boxes into plastic boxes.
 
-**Todo** change photo
-
-<Solocard
-  title="Clutter library - but now you can see what we're storing"
-  src={s("basement-storage")}
+<Cards
+  images={[
+    {
+      title: "Clutter library - but now you can see what we're storing",
+      src: s("basement-storage"),
+    },
+  ]}
 />
 
-We've also done a couple of jobs in the bathroom - replacing the old loud extractor fan with a quieter one, replacing the light with one that wasn't falling out of the ceiling, and repainting and covering the louvre doors with burlap to help a little with privacy. We also "repaired" the slightly leaky shower by turning it off at the stopcock. This bathroom is likely to be a future project - either ripping it out or replacing it in some way. Stay tuned to find out!
+We've also done a couple of jobs in the basement bathroom - replacing the old loud extractor fan with a quieter one, replacing the light with one that wasn't falling out of the ceiling, and repainting and covering the louvre doors with burlap to help a little with privacy. We also "repaired" the slightly leaky shower by turning it off at the stopcock. This bathroom is likely to be a future project - either ripping it out or replacing it in some way. Stay tuned to find out!
 
 ## Excuses
 
-**Todo** Drone footage
-
-- Madiera
-- Nikki awesome LVGO concert
+That's pretty much it for this year. As always, we've been ~distracted~ busy with other things as well. 😄
 
 <Cards images={[
 
-    {title: "We got a drone", src: s("bathroom-shelf")},
-    {title: "Hallway shelf", src: s("hallway")}
+    {title: "Being a Disney Princess in Madeira", src: s("madeira")},
+    {title: "Visiting Bath in Belgium", src: s("belgium")},
+    {title: "Sailing ourselves around the Norfolk Broads (RIP hat 😢, lost at sea)", src: s("norfolk")},
+    {title: "Kayaking in France after a weekend of playing for Contra dancing", src: s("ande")},
+    {title: "Camping with friends in Devon", src: s("devon")},
+    {title: "More sailing on the Solent (and saw this pretty boat)", src: s("sailing")},
+    {title: "Enjoying art at Giverny", src: s("giverny")},
+    {title: "Something something Cheddar Gorge", src: s("cheddar")},
+    {title: "Awesome LVGO concert", src: s("lvgo")},
 
 ]} />
 
+This LVGO concert deserves a special mention as Nikki arranged one of the pieces for it. It was used as the finale and encore and everyone loved it 🥳😮‍💨. Afterwards the composer gave Nikki two limited edition copies of the original game as a thank you. Massive sigh of relief, and definitely worth all the trouble taken!
+
+We also got a drone! Please enjoy some quick shots from our last couple of trips away in Wales and Weston-super-Mare. The unnecessarily epic music is a requirement for drone footage.
+
+<YTVideo src="Hsj6rON1nO4" />
+
+Let us know if you want any gutters inspected 😄
+
+See you all next year!
+
 <NextPrev prev="year2023-1" />

things.md

@@ -38,3 +38,4 @@ We bought a set of wheels to put the machines on, to wheel them in and out.
 ## other things
 
 - Nikki ran the bath half in ~2 1/2 hours and raised £820 and got a massive ice cream after
+- Cool lights for Nozzy?