The Curse of Reeth #8 March

The 'Curse of Reeth' has emerged. The first time I stayed overnight in Reeth I dislocated my shoulder and ended up in Darlington hospital. Helen (with Andy) were our first visitors to stay the night (in their camper van). The next day Helen felt unwell and spent two days in hospital. Be warned 😀.

Having mended a leak in one of the main water pipes I was able to repair a broken electric wall shower in the bathroom. Somehow the system was still under pressure and when I undid the nut providing water to the old shower I got soaked. These before and after pictures are not a nice as others. They also omit the fact I was wearing wellington boots during the repair since water and electricity are a dangerous mixture.

Visitors this week were Bill, from the 'SuperHomes' initiative. Bill visited the hovel on Tuesday to investigate renovation activities that will provide the highest standards of energy efficiency with sustainable and low energy measures. He will provide a quantitative report on possible activities and energy savings. Perhaps I should rename the blog - "Hovel to a Super Home".

Ali visited on Wednesday with a wide variety of variety of measuring instruments, including tape measures, laser measures and an awesome extendable pole thing for measuring heights up to 10m. Ali and her colleague Chris will provide architectural plans shortly.

Our final visitors for the week were Helen, Andy and Harley. Andy is a builder and kindly visited to provide his thoughts on what might be done with the hovel. His advice will be invaluable. We have already adapted plans so that we adhere to his mantra of "always work from the roof down". The other gem was that placing copper strips in the top row tiles stops moss growing on the roof. Google offers an explanation "when rainwater comes into contact with copper, its oxidisation releases a residue of copper oxide. The unstable copper and oxygen atoms disrupt the cell walls of organisms such as moss". If it is on the internet, it must be true, so we will definitely do this.

We spent a lovely day with Andy and Helen. We learnt a lot, walked a lot and our dogs had a great time together. Get well sooner Helen.