Badger Towers

A few months ago I posted about the things I would like to be able to do.  The status of these things will now be updated, to make sure you’re paying attention.

We’re still living in Badger Towers 2, in the 2nd bedroom.  Our stuff is still piled high in the first bedroom while we sort out the rest of the house, but some of it is now in the loft and office. 

There were several things I wished I could do in this situation.

• Change clothes outside of the bathroom (we have no curtains)

This one is only partially resolved.  The thin temporary curtains we bought from habitat probably provide an erotic show to the neighbours when we have the lights on.

• Eat a meal in my own house (no kitchen or fridge)

We’ve started to eat in the house! The kitchen is mostly installed apart from the gas to the hob. Which means being a bit creative in cooking since nothing can be browned or fried or stir-fried.  We have a steamer though, so that helps.  Probably the biggest problem with eating in our house is the lack of chairs to sit on.

• See my dining room without a cement mixer in it

The dining room no longer has a cement mixer. Instead it has the table we got with the house, some dust sheets, a temporary kitchen work surface, decorating stuff, some spades, a fireplace, rubbish bags that missed the last skip. And no chairs.

• Let Steev out in the garden (no back door, no guarantee she’ll return)

Steev, our lovely adopted cat, not only has a catflap, but also has an RFID tag which the catflap reads.  She can come and go as she pleases, and she always comes back so far.  Unfortunately she’s not keen on operating the catflap door with her head because it needs a slight push to get through. We leave it propped open in the hope that one day we’ll be able to scan her and put the in/out status on Twitter.

• Unpack

We’ve unpacked gradually over the past 4 months, but only with an ad-hoc approach.  This has left stuff strewn across the first bedroom.  I still have a limited supply of pants.

• Have plumbing which doesn’t DRIP

The plumbing doesn’t drip.  The pipes clonk a bit though.

• Not to have to scoop Steev’s poop out of a litter tray in our bedroom

Done. There’s a pile of builder’s sand in the back garden which is better than any litter tray she’s ever used. The builders left it there because it was full of poo.

• Use the internet at speeds faster than 17kbps (avg speed of mobile broadband in our house)

Internet plumbed in and working. The CAT-5 cabling through the house installed by Martin, the world’s slowest electrician (but thorough and meticulous and tidy) work very well supplying 20Mbps to each room from the little tiny patch panel in the kitchen cupboard. I call this a win.

• Not have to listen to Kings of Leon/Empire State of Mind/Plan B/Take That or Flashdance every two hours (Builder FM)

Fixed! I actually kept putting the radio on Jack FM (70s-80s) every day, although I soon got sick of that.

• Keep the windows open to watch TV (makeshift aerial poking through)

Still unresolved. The aerial in the wall doesn’t seem to work, but the only way I have of testing this is by using my MythTV server and scanning for channels since our TV is still in storage.

I still feel a bit like we’re camping with running water and no shitting in a bucket, so it was good preparation for this year’s festival.  Living minimally is quite achievable, but I wish I had 10 minutes to sit down and write things like this.