D.I.Y.

Saturday was the first dry, sunny day we've had in ages so I carpe'd the diem and decided to have an orgy of home maintenance. (Perhaps 'orgy' is a poor choice of words, because whilst it was satisfying, the process certainly wasn't that much fun.) Having borrowed a huge extendable ladder from some friends, I was determined to tackle some of the bigger jobs around the house that I had been putting off.

Can I just say at this point that recessed halogen downlights are a PAIN IN THE ASS. There, I've said it. My house is full of the little babies, every room has at least 3 or 4 of them. The entire older front section of my house, the original cottage part, which includes the bedrooms and hallway also has a ceiling height of around 13 feet or so. Picture pint-sized man perched precariously and perilously on a (potentially) pernicious ladder, and not only do you have a lot of alliteration but you also have an afternoon of hijinx.

My friends who renovated this house (I rent from them) also apparently decided to use two different types of downlights, one where the covers pull off and one where the covers screw off. 13 feet up a ladder and I discovered this fact through trial and error, by trying to forceably pull off one of the screw off ones. More than once. It wasn't helped by the fact that some of the covers were jammed, so I had to pull the entire thing out of the ceiling and clamber down the ladder to try and get the covers off.

Anyhoo. ::breathing through the trauma:: Having changed them all the two that light the hallway still aren't working, as I think the transformers attached to them might have blown. Maybe time to call an electrician. Or do without light in the hallway. I mean, walking around in the dark isn't that bad right?

Then I took the ladder out the front of the house and cleaned out the front gutters. There is a picturesque (ish) Australian native tree out the front of my house that, considering it isn't actually deciduous, still manages to drop a shit load of leaves. I call 'false advertising'. My front gutters are now a thing of pristine beauty. You could eat off them really, not that I can think of any reason why you would.

Wait, it continues! I also took the Ladder Of Much Home Maintenance & Vertigo out the back and trimmed the limbs of my tree that were starting to badly overhang my back fence. There's a couple of big ones I still need to get, but I'm going to have to buy a pruning saw to tackle those babies. Me, a pruning saw. Who would have thought it? Oh sure I own a 'lopper' (as apparetly they are called) but really that's just a fancy name for what looks like a huge pair of nail clippers.

I still have a few more jobs to do. The back and side gutters need some attention, but the back part of my house is around one and a half stories tall. Whether I can bring myself to tackle that remains to be seen (and yes, I will get someone to hold that ladder, I'm not that cray-zay). Of course it rained all day Sunday, and the forecast today is rain, and the forecast for the rest of the entire week is rain. So at least I have a little time to steel my nerves for the next perilous ascent.