77. Scrub patio

You can pretty much read my previous substitutions post about cleaning the decking, and change the word 'decking' for the word 'patio'.

Substituting for the same reasons. It'll be pressure washed in due course.

71. Clean decking

The decking across the back of our garden enjoys growing a lovely black algae over the winter months. It's slippery, and nasty, and a pain to remove. I didn't do it last year, being all pregnant and unable to bend down. The year before, I did it by hand using some sort of deck-cleaner and a scrubbing brush. I took all the skin off my knuckles in the process.

My sister-in-law, Nurse Rachel, asked why I didn't just use a pressure washer. A) I don't have one, and b) I hadn't thought of that. She offered to bring hers (well, her dad's) down next time she visits. However, she's not coming down again until after the 100 days is up.

This item doesn't need doing until then anyway, as we don't tend to use the garden much in the winter months. So I'm shifting this onto list #2. There is a list #2 by the way, and it's growing all the time. And I'm going to be much better at doing it (because I'm not going to overestimate my abilities next time round).

I'm substituting for something nice and frivolous. Read on.

36. Fix lounge door handle

You know when you get a new car, and you haven't quite adapted to its width or length, and you can't judge which gaps it'll fit through? Well I had the same problem when my pregnant body suddenly ballooned, and I found myself hitting my stomach on worktops, and catching my hips on doorframes.

Unfortunately, I managed to do just that on the lounge door frame, breaking the strike-plate in the process. This means that whenever there's the slightest draught through the house, instead of nestling snugly into its frame, the lounge door bumps against the frame with a regularity which will slowly drive you crazy.

This was actually one of the first list items I tried to do, but it turns out that one of the screws on the strike-plate is completely broken, and I can't get it out. I've investigated lots of gadgets which are supposed to solve the problem, but I'm not sure which one will actually work, and I'm loathe to spend money on things which might not work in our current penniless state.

So this item is going on the back-burner for now, as a wedge of cardboard stuck in the frame prevents the annoying bumping, and I'll get to it when I'm back at work and have more disposable income.

48. Sand and paint wooden edge to back door

I've been eyeing this one up for a while, because I love painting wood. However - the prolonged cold, the snow, and the current wet weather means that the wood is thoroughly saturated. I would like to see it bask in full sunshine for several days before I consider painting it, and at this time of year, the sun doesn't hit that part of the back garden at all.

So I am substituting this item for now, but it's going on my Next 100 list, so that I can do it at some point over the summer.

I had a look round the garden for other bits and bobs that needed doing, and settled on pruning the Flamingo Tree.

28. Make functional stereo area

This item was done yesterday, and I'm sure we did plenty of other things as well, but at the moment my mind has gone completely blank and all I can remember is having a nap. Blame it on the baby-brain.

The stereo (and by stereo, I mean crappy living room stereo, not lovely-upstairs-study-separates-stereo) used to living in the old TV table, but it was usurped by the Wii and its accoutrements. We dumped it, along with the downstairs-CDs (you can see the upstairs-CDs here) on top of the 2 cabinets which now reside under the stairs. It's pretty much the only place that's out of the way, and which J-cub can't reach, so it's become a dumping ground for broken things, dangerous things, expensive things, and things-we-don't-want-J-cub-to-eat.

All it really needed was the stereo setting up (including having a special pluggy attachment for my MP3 player, thus rendering CDs entirely obsolete), the CDs sorting out, a couple of boxes and baskets to tidy away bits 'n bobs, and it's done.

I know it seems like an easy list item, but quite frankly, I need an easy list item or two to keep me going. And (drumroll please), it is absolutely the last thing which needed sorting in the lounge so .... lounge complete! Hurrah! Now I just have to keep it like this ;).

Before:

After:

Day 62: Mission complete.

28. Put up shelf in nursery

This is going to have to be my second substitution. Yesterday I was all geared up and ready to put up the shelf in the nursery, the purpose of which was to put the monitor on, and a few toys which are not yet age-appropriate.

When I came to do it, however, I was really uncomfortable with putting it where we'd planned. It was going to go above the cot, high enough that J-cub couldn't reach when he's standing in the cot. Standing there looking at it though, I thought about how much he's grown, and how difficult it is to predict what he will be able to reach in a few months time.

Plus, we have a nifty little blue Ikea stool which stands next to the cot, and which the monitor sits on. There's nothing wrong with that, it works perfectly well, and J-cub can see the nightlight (part of the monitor) from the cot. He loves looking at the nightlight, and when he's crawling around on the floor, he likes to pick the monitor up and press the buttons. I don't want to deprive him of the evident pleasure he gets from that.

So we decided the shelf was unnecessary, potentially hazardous, and might get in the way of any future furniture when J-cub grows out of his cot. This item is therefore being substituted for sorting out the stereo area in the lounge - pretty much the last thing that needs doing in our all-new, all-singing, all-dancing lounge. Yay!

25. Take J-cub to see Santa

Well this is going to have to be my first substituted item. It seems the powers that be were conspiring against J-cub meeting Santa during his first festive period.

First, we took him to see Santa when he visited our village. He was due to arrive at 5.30pm, we duly wrapped up warm and walked around to the village hall. By the time Santa arrived, nearly half an hour late, J-cub was fast asleep in the buggy (with the knock-on effect that he was up until nearly 9pm) and the queue was about 6 people deep and stretched a good hundred yards away from the door. I had no idea there were so many children in this village. It started raining: we gave in and came home. We did get a nice photo with the sleigh though:

Our next attempt was at the village Mother and Baby group Christmas party, where Santa was supposed to come to hand out the Secret Santa presents. He was due to come from the North Pole via Llandeilo, and the heavy snow the day before meant he had no chance of getting out. The party was where we caught our lovely gastroenteritis, so even though there were still 4 days until Christmas, the thought of leaving the house for anything so jolly as meeting Santa was just impossible.

So I have substituted #25 with a reserve item from my quickly-growing 'Things that are not on my list' list. I will be finishing the nursery curtains instead (not necessarily today, I'm just trying to get the list and the blog back on track for now).