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Posts Tagged ‘work’

Flying in February

Posted in Vicarage, tagged , , , , , , on 5 February, 2015| 1 Comment »

We’ve had some builders doing some work on the Vicarage this week. Because they couldn’t actually fly, they had scaffolding put up the side of the house so they could access our roof. There’s been a damp wall in the attic since we moved in six years ago and they’ve at last got round to having a look from the outside. They found the problem – missing flashing and some poor tiling work. So they’ve been up and sealed it all up. We’re pleased it’s been sorted. And I’m even more pleased that I didn’t have to go up there myself – three storeys of Victorian ceilings make for a bit of a skycraper. Especially not in the bitter cold and sleet that came a little later on.

Heading for the sky

Heading for the sky

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Plaster Disaster Update

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 11 July, 2014| 1 Comment »

Our plaster disaster is taking a while to sort out. I think we’re at 5 weeks meeting in the church hall on Sundays now. The builders have been busy removing great chunks of plaster and replacing it, and have been putting protective epoxy on some of the woodwork (I think, I wasn’t taking in the detail very well). They’ve had a lot to do – it all needs painting to match the existing decoration too. A much loved saint from our congregation went on to glory a couple of weeks ago and it would be lovely if the church could be ready for her funeral next week. I spoke to the builders as they finished yesterday and I think we’re going to be on track for finishing in time.

In the meantime, there is an enormous scaffolding structure occupying the whole of the front of the church. Our building is a great space, and pretty flexible as Victorian churches go. But getting scaffolding and builders sorted out is a lot more complicated than when there’s a bit of plaster coming down in the bathroom at home. Various brilliant members of the church have been involved in finding, contacting and appointing the contractor and organising diocesan architects and what not. The Vicar has had a hand on it all – including a trip to the top of the scaffolding. And I’ve been letting the contractors in and out for the last few days. There’s been a fair few people involved.

Next week could be a bit tight and is sure to require all hands on deck with the mops and dusters once the workers have left. We love our building, but it can be quite a lot of work. The photos are pretty rubbish, I’m afraid – but you can get an idea of the scaffolding size at least. The work is going on at the junction between the main roof (painted a shade of orange) and the wall between the nave and the chancel (a version of magnolia). Damp and ants were our problems. Hopefully the epoxy should stop the damp and the lack of damp will discourage the ants and we’ll not have anything more fall from the heights for a few years. I’m staying optimistic on this.

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Cold Vicarage. But Not for Long.

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on 10 February, 2014| 1 Comment »

Just what a tired Vicarage needs on a Monday morning. Early morning workmen arriving before we’ve properly begun the day. But we are very pleased. Because it’s window men. And they have come with several enormous double glazed units to finish off the double glazing that has taken three contracts and about four years to actually arrive.

So it’s a bit nippy in the Vicarage today as great gaping holes are being created as windows are removed. But by this weekend it will be a lot warmer. We are very thankful.

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An Excuse, But An Exciting One

Posted in Church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on 29 January, 2013| 10 Comments »

Only two blogposts this year. But my excuse isn’t the normal one of parish busyness and personal incompetence, although those things are obviously a factor in the emptiness of this site so far in 2013. But the main reason, I think, for bloglessness is some other writing I’ve been doing. And so far nearly 4,000 words of writing (of approximately 40,000 I’ve agreed to) for the BOOK I’ve just signed a contract for!

After my three minutes of fame talking about blogging in a seminar at the Midlands Women’s Convention last October, I was approached by an editor from IVP who asked me if I’d consider writing for them. So I thought about it, put a few ideas together, and suddenly I have a deadline at the end of March and a very tidy kitchen. Of course, housework becomes much more attractive when I have something more pressing and important to do…

Vicarage messThe working title of the book is Messy Ministry – mess being just about my top specialist subject, though ministry rather less so. So do please pray for me as I write to my deadline. Pray for my kind editor who will have to wrestle with the words I write and make them coherent (I’m already discovering that writing chapters is not entirely the same as a whole bunch of random blogposts strung together). And pray that I’ll be able to encourage everyone who wants to do ministry but finds that mess keeps on getting in the way. It’s a scary but exciting project and is proving a challenge for all of us in the Vicarage.

And if anyone would like to suggest helpful ideas for the book I’d be extra specially keen on that too…

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Underway with the Wall

Posted in Vicarage, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on 7 June, 2011| 2 Comments »

Good news: the slow wheels of insurance, diocesan tender bidding and the sourcing of reclaimed stones have turned and this week we have a hard-working builder in our garden. He is repairing the wall that was stripped of its coping stones by an early morning thief back in October.

Interestingly, sourcing the stones was a bit of a challenge – they couldn’t find enough stones of the right dimensions. Then the builders came across a rather quirky local reclamation yard. The yard wanted to be paid only in cash and wouldn’t invoice the builders in the normal way of companies.

Recently I saw one of the millions of reality police shows on telly, about the team tracking down metal thieves, who found BT and Network Rail cabling in a yard. But only because it was labelled as such. How does a reclamation yard check the origins of the reclaimed items they buy? Noone labels their bricks or paving slabs. What chance that the coping stones going back on our wall came from there in the first place? Not entirely unlikely I’d hazard.

We’re hoping to keep these stones and thankfully, those laid last night stayed there until the mortar had set so they’ll be much more difficult to remove than the ones we lost. Our wall rebuilder told us of another vicar he has done some work for. This chap was so fed up of coping stones being stolen from his wall that he got the builders to take a grinder to them, defacing them so that they wouldn’t be worth anything at a reclamation yard. I have to say, we are seriously considering that option now, to save us from any possible future stolen-coping-stones hassle.

Our wall, the new stones and a well-deserved coffee break

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