Those Annoying Little Jobs

Why the hell do  people use portrait mode when videoing something on their phone? Looks totally naff and unprofessional. 

Now we have the lighter evenings I've been trying to do a few jobs around the house, like clean our limestone floors with my pressure washer and and fix a couple of chips in it. When the floors were laid the installers left me with a pot of powdered limestone, a pot of white cement and a pot of lime. I've never had any success in making a hard-setting mixture and have tried all manner of combinations and ratios. Look it up on Google and all you get is companies wanting to sell you their grout, which I ain't doing.

Finally hit on the idea of using a two-pack epoxy glue that I just happened to have lying around and mixing it with the limestone powder, filling the damaged areas with that, and pressing more limestone powder into it before it sets.

As with anything with epoxy glue added to it, the colour darkens on application.  Once dry I thought I might get the limestone colour back with some judicious rough sanding.

No - didn't work. Went back to the grout mix and used about 4:1 sandstone and cement, leaving the lime out completely. Still as soft as chalk. Had a word with our builder and neighbour, Colin, who told me the cement was probably too old - I've had it nearly 4 years, and thinking about it, he's right; cement has  a shelf-life, and 4 years is well beyond that.

Talking of Colin, he's taken advantage of his Mrs being away to get rid of his lawn and replace it with artificial turf. I have to admit that it looks fantastic. It even has fake little dead bits in it to make it look more realistic.

Unlike us, with a whole field, he only has a postage stamp sized garden - but with young kids, so this stuff is perfect.

Talking of grass, the welder finally answered his mobile and will get back to me on Monday as to when he can do the job on the mower cutting deck. So, no lawnmower for the best part of a week.