A weekly farmers market is coming to Walthamstow, starting on the 30th September and thereafter every Sunday. I'm really excited, not that Walthamstow doesn't have a good regular market, but this one will have wet fish, shellfish, honey, free range poultry and eggs, fresh vegetables, flowers, soft fruit, bread, organic meat and much more. Plus hopefully some good cheese. Two things Walthamstow lacks are a good bakers and a good place to get French cheese or other soft cheese.
The market is run by the main people for farmers' markets in London, the appropriately named London Farmers' Markets. They've been running them for years in all areas of London and now they are out east. If you live nearby, please come and make it a success.
Recently in Walthamstow Category
We've been in just over nine weeks and have done some serious refactoring of our house in that time. Virtually the entire top floor has been redone and about two thirds of the house redecorated. I've lost count of the number of things that we've done, but somewhere around 500 odd tasks seems about right.
We've had the house rewired, sockets only; had the bathroom demolished; a new one built and installed; plus had several rooms replastered. The front bedroom, the back (baby) bedroom and the bathroom, plus the entire hall, stairs and landing now have smooth solid plaster.
Downstairs, we had an abortive and fraught relationship with a floor sanding person, who walked off the job vandalising as he went and he stole my nice hammer and tape measure. Further replastering in the living room and removing built-in cupboards, there and also in most of the bedrooms.
The house is awash with lovely Farrow and Ball colours, including half a dozen whites. We've learned to tile bathrooms, sand stairs, clean paint brushes, do endless hoovering and countless other jobs to make things right. We've also acquired lots more tools and the knowledge to use them.
All the preplanning was on backpack, then onto sheets of lovely yellow legal pad with a page per room. Tom, Vivvy, Michael, Vicky, Arthur, Doreen, Andrew and Abbie have been amazingly helpful and generous, so thank you all. Lucy has been amazing throughout, you are fabulous.
More photos and recommendations of tradesmen to come and maybe some stuff on doing physical things vs non-physical things, we'll see.
I feel that we own the house properly now, having got to know it so intimately over the past couple of months, from its joists to the curve of the plaster work. There is still a lot to do, but our focus of the past two months will arrive soon, so the rest can wait.
We are ten days in to our house move now and have been racing at it, so far we've unpacked; had a new cooker installed; the ring mains rewired, including some power in the attic and countless other jobs. Rewiring is such a messy job and unsatisfying, as you get little real benefit, other than more and newer power sockets.
We've setup the kitchen and have the second and main bedrooms functioning as proper rooms. Downstairs is still in chaos, the living room is devoid of furniture, bar our sofa and some bookcases, so that we can redecorate it. There was an overflowing downpipe against the front wall, which has allowed water to penetrate the plaster and lift it off the wall in the living room and front bedroom. So we've had the front room replastered and have done the prep so that we can paint at the weekend.
Living in Walthamstow is a really different feel to Forest Hill, we're much closer to the centre of things so life feels more immediate. I guess I even feel closer to London, Oxford Circus is 35 minutes away door to door, so living on the tube is a good thing.
We've an immense amount to do before we can complete unpacking and get ready for April, the house needs more work than we thought, still it is now a project we can put our energies into. Given that each room needs attention, it has become a refurbishment project and not simple redecoration, so there is much higher degree of ownership and involvement, maybe it is the whole house vs flat change, but it is empowering.
There is plenty more to say, so more updates to follow, one thing which we are finding immensely useful is Backpack from 37signals, Lucy and I are using it as a project management tool and it is fantastic for this purpose. Better on broadband, but still really good, in a GTD manner it keeps the details off our minds and on the page, so that we can concentrate on the overall project and not have to remember everything.
