what lies above

The foulnesses on top of the kitchen cupboards was far from unexpected; they've been glimpsed (albeit not in daylight) several times over the past eight years and have possibly even been dusted once or twice and I once worked in a restaurant kitchen where an occasional task was to clean the grease out of the over-hob extractors where the build-up was far greater but it's still interesting to see exactly what builds up over the years even in a well-ventilated space in which things are fried relatively rarely. Not sure what these bolts are from... we replaced a light fitting nearby quite early on but it was unlikely to have required these so they might have been there since before we moved in. I was wondering whether or not to clean these seeing as they'll be coated in dust next week but eventually did, resorting to a paint scraper when concentrated solutions of washing-up liquid and Jif and a scouring pad failed to separate grease from surface. The removal of the false ceiling above the kitchen-bit means that these cupboards can be joined with a matching pair when the time comes to re-mount them and if I remember I'll leave a dried layer of dilute cleaning product on the uppermost surface to make their next clean slightly easier.

Although a pain in the arse to remove the cupboards were one of the day's simpler tasks. Also on the list Blu-Tac-ed to the fridge (which also had to be moved across the room) was "RADIATORS"; I don't mind fiddling about with wires and will at least attempt to handle non-cosmetic structural materials (I'm expecting the plasterer to completely replace my poor attempt at plasterboarding one wall) but am not qualified to interfere with gases and am not at all keen on pipes with water in. Water's sneaky stuff; I wouldn't mind it so much if we lived on the ground floor but any mistakes we make with it could have terrible consequences for those beneath, similar to those experienced by them when their upstairs neighbour flooded them out of their flat for several months by tinkering with the plumbing. Fortunately the central heating and radiators were updated a couple of years ago so the attachments should still be rust-free and the water to be drained from the radiators relatively clean unlike the browny-black gunk which inhabited the old ones. I couldn't find my smallest adjustable spanner so had a little break to walk to get a new one though I then couldn't have decoupled the big radiator from the valve without snapping the valve in half or potentially wrenching apart the join between valve and inlet so uncoupled the valve from the inlet (collecting the spurts with a towel) then drained the radiator from the single bolt at the exit valve end. The smaller radiator was even easier so I was actually starting to think that I might have got away with it. Unfortunately a little later on I noticed that the hot water wasn't working when attempting to fill the bucket to wash the top of the cupboards. We've had a few problems with the boiler (buy Worcester rather than Vokera if ever offered the choice) and occasionally have to re-pressurise the system. Unfortunately (despite the heating portion being thoroughly switched off) doing this caused water to start spouting from the de-valved big radiator inlet. Luckily I'd switched off the music a little earlier and heard the splattering from the outside cupboard where the boiler lives and managed to turn off the refill tap and grab some towels before too much happened. I had been going to wait for Nicky's return to shift the big radiator but had to swiftly hoick it out of the way at the expense of a scrape to one finger-joint to get at the water spreading on the floor beneath it. A little later the underneighbour popped up to complain of water dribbling into his kitchen but fortunately the floor was wipe-clean-able, the ceiling almost undamaged (we offered to repaint it if it's stained) and the underneighbour seemingly terrified of having to trouble his landlord about the matter, possibly because his landlord might have recently had cause to have words with him due to being contacted by the council after a series of recent complaints about antisocial late-night noise though this theory was not mentioned. The valve was replaced and pressure restored when Nicky returned from allotment/shed work and could closely watch all the valves for any signs of spouting as the system refilled.