Sunday progress

Alan and I spent a couple of hours at the kiosk today sorting stuff out. I continued to scrape paint (as that's all I'm qualified to do), whereas Alan takes on the tough jobs which require a bit of know how. We also removed the one single small plastic pane in the door, and we also had a bit of fun smashing the one pane of glass which we will replace with the Push/Pull glazed sign. We are enormously grateful to the Brookwood resident who passed us at this moment and agreed to sponsor the new Push/Pull sign. We also removed the door closer arm as it will be easier to refurbish it away from the kiosk, plus it means we don't need to jam the door open everytime it gets in the way.

When the kiosks were originally glazed, a layer of putty was used prior to the glass being inserted and the cast glazing frame dropped into place. This putty is really tough to remove, but we have now removed all the putty from the door, which means the inside is now ready for priming.

A few weeks ago, we removed one of the brass door shackles which had jammed and needed work in a workshop to sort out. These shackles hold the leather straps in place which stop the door opening too far. There are four of them in the kiosk and we thought we would leave them in situ if possible rather than disturb them and create more work for ourselves. Anyway, Alan has refurbished the removed shackle, and it looks incredible. Plus, it is just possible to make out the letters GPO which are stamped on the front. GPO stands for General Post Office and is another bit of history/heritage that has disappeared. A great Wikipedia article on the GPO coincidentally has a picture of a K6 kiosk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Post_Office We can buy replacements for around nine pounds each, but seeing as ours are in good condition and they clearly come with historical significance, we'll put the time in to refurbish the other three.

The Brookwood Club poster has now gone into the Kiosk. This is a great poster as it is a list of the future events planned in the club. Coincidentally, it outlines events right up to 16 May, which is the Club's Birthday BBQ and the day we are aiming to get the kiosk finished for. The plan being that we all look at the kiosk and then nip over the road for a pint. We'll change this poster each time the club publishes its future event list.

This coming week, we'll continue to scrape the paint off the third side, and get the door interior primed. Reasonably achievable depending on other committments and the weather.

I've just got off the phone from a Heath Drive resident who has asked to sponsor a large pane to celebrate 50 years living in Heath Drive. The houses in Heath Drive were built 50 years ago. We are extremely grateful for this donation, and that means 18 large panes are now being paid for by residents of Brookwood. There are still six large panes left, and it looks like we'll end up replacing six small panes, none of which are currently being sponsored.