The man from the Clapham Omnibus

I went to the North Whidbey Sportsman's Association's range in Oak Harbor Washington and took part in an IDPA Event which included a .50 calibre stage . I do not know how I did and i do not care either but was glad of the oppertunity to fire the .50 BMG . Recoil was not as bad as I expected but the blast wave parted my hair !

I contracted out both the garage door and floor .  Sometimes it is bettter to leave things to the experts ! Click here for some more pictures of them  being done !  

House Wrap     Now the roof was at last in place it was time to make the home weatherproof . The first stage was to protect everything with " house wrap " . This is a semi permeable material which allows the building to breathe but prevents rain from penetrating . It is similar to " Gore-Tex " in clothing allowing water vapour to escape but keeping liquid water out . It comes in 3 foot and nine foot rolls . I bought nine foot rolls but as I was working on my own cut some of it in half to make it easier to fit .        The product is simply wrapped around the whole building initially spanning window and door openings and stapled in place . A hammer stapler is a good investment here .  .There are also special fittings but in my view they are too expensive to justify their use . Lets hope the manufacturers do not work on the legislators to mandate them at some time in the future . The lowest piece overlaps the foundation by about six inch...

28 foot height limit      There is a mandatory height limit set within the town of Coupeville of 28 feet . This is to preserve the character of the town and to ensure conflicts over new buildings restricting the view from old buildings is kept to a minimum . I was aware of this from the earliest stages of the planning . From my earlier experience in England I was aware that the extra cost of having a full sized basement was not that great over the cost o simply foundations and a crawl space . I actually purchased the particular plot with this in mind . The 28 feet is measured by determining the highest point and the lowest points on the original surface within 5 feet of the finished building . Then the 28 feet is measured from their average - thus with a steep slope such as I had it is possible to have a full sized basement with good windows and functional drainage to the front as the height is balanced by the ground level at the back being much higher . In m...

I just had to share this .   It is  the acting début of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland where I have been informed by a reliable source , a palace insider no less that " she performed all her own stunts " It is also believed that " she received a seven figure sum and a share of the aptly named Royalties " Apparently Licences to kill ( previously known as letters of marque )are also available in limited numbers ( prefixed with 00 ) from the palace website .  Rumours that the Duke of Edinburgh handed Mr. Bond a long list of names starting with Mohamed Al-Fayed are being downplayed though with a look at his website it would seem to be a logical thing for him to do !  No animals were harmed in the making of this film though her corgis were apparently tickled without mercy ! I would also like to point out that Mr. Bond has an excellent RAF trained pilot and you are advised not to try to copy his f...

I have a confession to make . I lied to someone in authority to get what I wanted and guess what I blame the authority ! If they did not have such stupid rules I would not have broken them - they bring the law into disrepute not me ! Many years ago my father Arnold ( link here ) died . We had talked a lot and it was his wish that we erect a bench as a memorial to him on Tennyson's Down - a place he liked and a monument to a great writer . I duly contacted the National Trust who owned the land . They are a charity that my mother contributed to who protect and preserve land and property for the nation to enjoy . L ink Here http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/what-we-do/what-we-protect/for its preservation They were pleased and did say that more benches would be welcome but only at the summit because they valued the openness of the down and did not want this compromised . There is an old bench from the 60's half way up the Alum Bay side which does stand out but is very welcome to r...