English Country Brass
Another marathon effort here from Capital Brass Quintet. This time from a concert of English music recorded in 1995.
1st Half
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House Numbers
We've got new numbers for the house:
One on the side wall:
And one at the bottom of the front steps:
These can be quite expensive to buy, rather than do that I thought I'd make some. So off the local Trago to purchase some numbers. . . .
Night at the Theatre
Trawling through the archives I have some old recordings from the Capital Brass Quintet. I've now converted them from tape, makes for some interesting listening - if not always of the highest musical standards. . . . This is the first of several concerts I have. More to follow in due course.
The recordings below come from a concert given at St Mary's Church Littlehampton on 14th April 1997. Looking back it seems amazing that we played such a long concert - much have had chops of steel in those days 
1st Half
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Playroom toy storage
The problem:
Toys everywhere!! 
I've looked around at storage solutions in the shops and nothing seems to be quite right. Too small, wrong shape, wrong size and mostly far too expensive. So Jo has ordered one of these:
I got this pic a couple of years back online somewhere and can't remember - if anyone recognises it please let me know.
Function
The unit needs to be large enough to store all the kids toys. Under the base we'll need some large pull out 'bins' in which to throw stuff that's lying around. The top section needs shelves and drawers to organise books, drawing stuff etc neatly. It also needs to fit into 2 spaces - the current playroom and also the new one which will be in the house extension once that's finished.
Sawdust drop box – part 2
Got another hour in the shed last night to finish this off.
Top and bottom attached, more silicone, sticky stuff.
Drilling holes in the upper baffle:
Front siliconed and ready to go on:
A solid box:
Sawdust drop box
I'm shortly going to begin the construction of a large unit to store all the kids toys in. This is going to be made from moisture resistant MDF. If you've ever cut this stuff you know what a mess it makes. It gives of a very fine dust so as well as breathing protection I need a better solution to collecting all that dust. I don't have room for a proper dust extraction system but a vacuum does a reasonable job of collecting dust from my hand power tools. In order to make the vac last longer and not require bag changes so often I'm knocking up a quick drop box that goes just before the vac to collect most of the shavings.
So here's a pile of materials, some ply, wheels and hardboard:
Cutting pieces to size with circular saw and homemade guide rail:
Boards cut to size:
New front door
A purchase from our local salvage yard.
Needs a lot of work to get it in good condition. First all paint needs to be stripped by hand (don't wont to risk the joints by dippping). Then some sanding before scarfing in lots of new bits. Then it will be onto paint. I'm going to spray the door, as it is going to take lots of coats, probably in this order: primer (sanding/filling), primer (sanding), undercoat, undercoat, 3 top coats. I'm going to try and get a really good finish with a high shine on it which is going to take lots of coats and sanding.
We struck hardware gold in Trago Mills last weekend and bought all the fittings for the door at great prices. I'll post more pics as this one progresses.
Cupboard Gone
We have a small room on the first floor between the two main bedroooms. Eventually this will become part of the landing and stairs to the attic will be in this area.
At the moment there is a cupboard in the way:
Not anymore:
Also revealed was more lovely wall covering:
Summer rain – garage gone.
So another week, more rain, beginning to feel like groundhog day. As all the jobs are outside at the moment it make's it very difficult to make any progress on the house.
This week we had some more visits from timber frame companies - looks like we have 3 or 4 possible suppliers on that front. Groundworks people are taking a bit longer to get back to us though . . . .
In the couple of days we had that weren't raining I got a change to clear a bit more lawn and also knock down the back of the garage.
Couple of hours with a sledge hammer 
Very therapeutic!
Veg intentions
It's the good life - or maybe not. No chickens and pigs in this garden -at least not yet. We do however intend to grow some fruit and veg. In order to do that you need somewhere to grow them. Having done some background reading it seems that using raised beds is a bit more straightforward than having a plot. So beds it is, which calls for some more wood construction - always welcome
First job is to drive some stakes into the ground, get them level and then screw some boards to the sides. All the wood is pressure treated.
Once that's done on all four sides it's time for more digging 
to fill each bed with earth:
Next is to lay some membrane around all the edges and to cover with woodchips:
I've covered a couple of the beds with more membrane as we won't get the chance to plant this year and want to keep the weeds out. Here's also some more views back to the shed:
