Frosty Brickwork

Been a while since I posted about the house and the garden (well, technically it’s been a while since I posted about much at all).  Anyway, in March I moaned about some stuff.  One of those issues was the brickwork around the base of the house.  A nice gentleman posted a comment which I took seriously.  We actually got the plumbing in the bathroom sorted out first, because it was easier.  However, we asked around some friends for builders / brickies they trusted, and one of them popped around yesterday and confirmed it is frost damage, and it’s not a big job for him to fix.  He’s sending us a quote.

There’s no way I’d have the confidence to fix it myself, and we need some re-pointing doing as well.  One of the bricks is partially under the path so we’ll need some cold tarmac as well.  Anyway, pleased we finally started the process of getting it sorted – he suggested once he’s fixed them up we coat them with silicon to keep the frost out.

Here’s the before shots so you know what frost damage bricks look like, and so I can remember how bad it was after we get them fixed.

 

Newcastle

So we went to visit my folks this weekend (mother, sister, her husband and their three kids) and it was good. Ate too much, talked about the ‘old times’ too much, and handed out some presents (no opening them until Christmas).

However, it was marred slightly when we got up Sunday morning and found someone had destroyed the plastic moulding around the passenger side wing mirror and generated enough force to pop the mirror out of the fixture so it was hanging by the wires only.  A piece of the moulding was sitting about six feet away.  The car was parked near my mum’s, in a little parking spot off the road, with the mirrors no where near traffic, but the passenger side one was next to a path.  Very annoying.

I managed to tie the mirror back on with a latex glove we had in the car boot (not telling), and it lasted long enough to get us the half mile to my sister’s place, where we borrowed some black electrical tape from my brother-in-law.  The mirror is now taped on with about 200 feet of tape, and it survived the whole journey south.  I think we’re going to call the insurance company tomorrow and found out how to proceed.

Otherwise, excellent weekend, fun with the kids, and we’ve promised to visit more in 2008.