The Ins & Outs - Covering your manhole & bath DRAMA

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Polly's bath has gone missing and the Innies & Outies have done some amazing detective work!Jojo gives you a masterclass on dados, Polly has some great ideas for you on how to hide a manhole cover in the garden, while her dusty renovation continues.Plus, Jojo has some strong opinions on LEDs in the bathroom.This week's episode is brought to you by Best Heating! Whether you're planning a renovation or searching for your perfect piece, Best Heating got you covered. Make sure you check them out at https://www.bestheating.com/ and us the code INSANDOUTS15 at checkout to get a MASSIVE 15% DISCOUNT.Best Heating discount Terms & Conditions •⁠ ⁠£500 minimum spend•⁠ ⁠Single use only•⁠ ⁠Valid until 28/02/2025•⁠ ⁠Works on sale items too!InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/Pod Rowe Productions - https://www.podrowe.net/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Green, the colour of true elation Pine on a summer's day See I've been waiting for you Waiting for you Hello Inies and Outies and welcome to this week's episode of the In's and Out's with myself, Jojo Barr and the ever so lovely Pollyanna Wilkinson. This week's episode is sponsored by my very good friends at Best Heating who are helping us all to stay toasty all winter.

Now, these guys I've used for as long as I can remember to supply radiators to all of my projects. So all the radiators you see in our projects are mostly Best Heating. Whatever size or shape or colour you're looking for, they will help you fill your home with beautifully designed heating. So please do go and check them out www.bestheating.com. On this week's episode as you will hear I've almost lost my voice. Polly gives us a download on her trip to Sweden. Dust, dust and more dust. Polly's reno update. She's also giving us her latest bath saga. I'm telling you whether to day-do or not to day-do. LEDs

in bathrooms, manhole covers and Polly sets me a very exciting dare for Christmas. Prepare your ears. Good morning, my darling. Good morning to you. How are you, dear one? Well, I'm a bit better now, I have to say. I don't sound my usual self. Voice has finally returned, hence the delay of our recording, so thanks for bearing with me. Oh, bless you. You still sound a little bit croaky. Were you very poorly? Yeah, I wasn't. You know what? I just felt really, I definitely felt like I could have done with a day in bed, but of course, when your life's as busy as mine and you've got two, you know, two small kids to look look after there's just no time to actually just

sit and stop and rest and actually I think the reason my voice just hasn't really got better is because I haven't been resting it at all um and um I had this week a madness I had two I had two photo shoots this week one was dressing up the house for Christmas um which is here at my house which is lovely um and the second was for the tea store on Friday which was a sort of a bit of newness that we've got going on reshooting the whole you know all the products so that was really fun but I just have had the most intense week of site visits as well and it's like you know client meetings and everything's thrown into one I just think when you I think when you're running a business as well you just don't stop do you I mean even when i had a moment just to sort of pause and lie down i was there with on my back with my sort of phone in the air like answering emails and

yeah it doesn't really stop hence why here we are recording on a on a sunday morning with your kids in the background and brad mowing the lawn brad mowing the lawn out there yeah sorry about all the all the background noise this morning but um but yeah early and i love the fact that we're going to do this 8 30 this morning and then I you got that message being like actually Paul can we make it nine like what are we thinking doing a podcast recording at 8 30 on a Sunday morning and I want to be enjoying a coffee in bed anyway here we are and um I'm feeling so much better but then I have to say then yesterday just as I was like oh thank god it's the weekend finally got through that week made it through a great week but made it through the week and then um Saturday morning I'm lying in bed and it was about 6 30 in the morning and there's just this like mama from the bedroom and

I was like oh why of all of what I just needed you know lying mama like this and I sort of stick I usually stay in bed and ignore it and then she'll come to me and of course rocky I can hear running down the corridor opening trying to open the door and then I just hear this like as though somebody sort of chucked water on the floor oh no I was like oh she's just spilled water all over the floor what's she done and then I and then there was a second load and then crying and I so jumped up bed opened the door and of course she's just puked all, all outside the bedroom door, like all over the carpet and I was like

oh my darling, this little naked, tiny little naked body standing there just pale as anything being sick and of course the bloody sick bug's going around isn't it yeah so that's what I had yesterday, actually it meant a lazy day on the sofa just looking after her and sort of but you know how between sort of pukes and sleeping so it's actually yeah watching and actually the funny

this will make you laugh I do you remember I said um that I was going to have the house dressed up for Christmas and I said there's no way I'm putting a Christmas tree up I'm not that sort of person that's going to have a Christmas tree up before the 1st of December yes well the Christmas tree is sitting up in my living room and it went up and then I'm looking at it and I'm like there's no way I'm taking that thing down to put it back for the sake of two weeks to put it back up again no so um but we're not dressing it okay so it's a naked Christmas tree that that means it doesn't count right it's a naked tree so um but anyway so yeah that's that's that so it's been a mad week but anyway that was a very very long way around to telling you why my voice sounds like sort of slightly squeaky.

It's not sexy at the moment. It's not a sexy one. It's kind of like an odd squeaky one. Oh, bless you. You're on the up. Got to go through the tickle phase. Yeah, but how are you, my darling? How is Sweden?

It was great. Yes, so I had to go to Sweden this week. I was giving a talk at the Swedish Garden Designers Association, which was really fun, actually actually I was quite scared and also you know the old imposter syndrome of being like why have they asked me um came up but it was so lovely it's I love speaking to my peers because it's amazing you all sit around the table went for dinner the night before and out comes all the sort of same things the same struggles everyone feels yeah it's so reassuring I find when I when I meet other interior designers well some of them anyway

that you really sort of feel like a got a camaraderie with yeah and they all get it and they all nod and like oh god you know that yeah what about what do you do when this happens you're like oh yeah so were they were they all sweets or was it from all over the world? They were all Swedes. So I felt incredibly humbled because my Swedish is non-existent. Jot aller lite svenska. I beg your pardon? Jo. Do you speak Swedish? Very little bit.

My ex was a Swede. I dated, I was actually engaged to a Swede. Were you? Yeah, I did. I lived between London and Sweden for about three years when I was about engaged to a Swede. Were you? Yeah, I did. I lived between London and Sweden for about three years when I was about 18 years old. Tell me, say something dirty to me in Swedish. Oh, I can't remember any of it now we're doing.

Vill du ha en liten mygg? That's, will you have a little milk? That's not good. You know when you remember, it's a bit like, you know, really, it depends on how you want to use it. Well indeed. I think it's like any language, you always remember the really pointless stuff like, you know, I live in a nice house or what is your name or things like that. But I can't remember any of it now but it was a really lovely language to learn when I did all those years ago.

Of course. That would have been about 15 years ago. Anyway, so yeah, but Stockholm, I never, so you were in, where were you? Gothenburg. I was in Gothenburg. Which was amazing. Stunning. And what was really interesting, so Mr. Big came to join me after the talk.

And Mr. Big in Sweden is just Mr. Average. Yeah, I have to say. Everyone there is so tall. They're so tall and so beautiful. They're probably, I think. Beautiful, beautiful. They're probably the most beautiful bunch of people. Yeah, they are. They're effortlessly beautiful as well. And they all look a slightly carbon copy of each other.

They all dress quite similar, but just stunning and really friendly. And everybody speaks English. That was a real struggle, actually, when I was trying to learn Swedish. And of course, as soon as they find out you're English. And they all speak English with an American accent because they obviously they don't blur they don't dub TV in Sweden which is great so they all learn really good English but it means they kind of all grow up with American accents because they watch all the films in actual American well I mean it's really interesting as well did you live in America they're like no never been oh it's just the accent

I mean what what I particularly liked about it we both love this this, is everywhere we went, we passed as Swedes. So they'd always speak to us in Swedish first. And then we would just answer in English straight away. And they'd be like, oh, okay, you're English. Tall and beautiful. Thanks, Pal, I take that. Tall and beautiful. Oh, God, I love it.

Do you know what I love so much? I was very lucky because I spent a lot of time with my ex's family. They're a gorgeous family. They're up in the middle of Sweden in Farlan and Borlinge, which is right in the centre. So I got to really know the culture and all the sort of food and the delicacies and it's such a i i love sweden it's such a cool place i'd love to go back there actually with the kids and brad um so um tell me what do you got what did you get did you get up to any touristing very little i mean our favorite thing to do and do city breaks is basically to wander

the streets and eat really good food so that's basically what we did we went to this insane restaurant called human by martin moses it's this michelin star amazing restaurant it was i think arguably one of the best meals i've ever had in my life like a tasting menu situation loads of little amazing bits oh like with caviar just there's little like caviar and dill and salmon and well just loads of fish it was incredible and then so kind of a sweet like all the swedish delicacies but done in a very new nordic cuisine which was insane and then we just wandered the streets and just every shop there is so cool it's just yeah there's

so cool so many interior design you would have been in heaven because it was like minimalist rustic interiors every single shop full of things if i'd had a shipping container i would have filled it okay so best thing you ate probably caviar it was so good really yeah i thought you ate an oyster did you you ate an oyster but you don't like oysters i don't mr big absolutely loves oysters and we'll have them at any opportunity so we went to this amazing um fish church this incredible building yes filled with fish and he had six oysters and i always i'm like i'll always give one a go and see if i've changed my mind and every time I'm like no you're alright, you keep going. Did you have it with

all the bits on, like the shallots and the everything, you just, I absolutely love them, I could eat them every day I love them, I think it's, I think they're definitely like marmite aren't they, some people just have thought can't stand the thought of it, it's the texture some people say it's literally looking like a ball of phlegm, and the

salty phlegm, you can't imagine anything worse than eating it. Andy, I'm sure you'll cut this, but someone messaged me saying it's like eating a snotty pussy. And I was like, oh, God. Oh, God. No, don't cut that. It's like eating a snotty pussy. I mean, I don't know. Yeah.

That's pretty. Was that a man or a woman that said that? I'm curious. It was a woman. It was a woman. So she's obviously heard that from a bloke. That's a very bloke thing to say. That's hilarious.

And then I saw you ate a giant cinnamon roll because obviously those cinnamon rolls are something. Bigger than my face, mate. Bigger than my face. Yeah. So it was, we just ate and shopped and wandered and sort of uh nice swooned over all of the architecture and the cobbles yeah as i want to do so that was amazing and then i've come home to my dust bowl yes how is the dust bowl i guess a quick reno update do you know what it's getting me down now i didn't realize what you meant when you said the dust and just everyone's

always said oh the dust you're like oh yes i'm sure it's terribly dusty but it's the fact that you wipe all of your surfaces leave the room come back and they're covered in dust again like it's a relentless sisyphean task because i guess it's all just floating around in the air never leaving never leaves well this is why and i say it again and again you if you've still got contracts working you can put like a plastic film between the rooms that you walk through got contracts working you can put like a plastic film between the rooms that you walk through every time but you're going to have to get the room professionally professionally cleaned because they're going to have to come around and clean down the ceilings and the walls yeah it's depressing I came back they and they plastered my bedroom while I was

away which is amazing because they were being really efficient but it also meant that just everything you know your makeup everything is covered in dust which just isn't very sanitary so it's it's just gross yeah it's gross but the big saga is the bath saga I would say anyone is going to live in a renovation and in hearing Polly actually say this firsthand I harp on about this so much about why you don't live at home when you've got a renovation going on if you can do absolutely everything within your means not to but if you have to live there genuinely do get this sort of it's like a sort of tarpaulin that you can put between doorways that they sort of tape on that you can climb through it's the only thing that stops the dust from coming through and then also just put things in plastic bags so anything like your makeup you can sort of almost

put in a plastic bag so that when you're you can open up the plastic bag get out what you need don't leave things out on display otherwise you will literally find you're cleaning things for life yeah the best tip of what i've realized now is the more you have out the dustier it gets so you're better just to put all of your bits into boxes and then you get what you need when you do because i just everything every single book in the house every bowl of you name it is covered and I can see myself it's going to be the like next year of dusting isn't it I can see that being a an ongoing fun but then dude the bath I've learned so many lessons through this for anyone that didn't see on my social media I ordered a bath and the bath that I ordered had to be custom done because I wanted it to

have an anti-slip finish which meant it wasn't sort of an off-the-shelfer which meant there was a four-week lead time on it so I ordered it I just sort of shopped around online and found found the sort of one that was going to be available the quickest ordered it didn't think anything more of it and then it was meant to arrive um this week some point. I thought, that's funny. I've not heard anything. And then emailed the online store. I got this really weird email back saying, we're having server issues. And it was sort of all in lowercase. So it didn't look official.

It said, we're having server issues which are affecting lots of people. We'll let you know when these are fixed. And I thought, that's a bit weird so I tried phoning them and you phone and it goes straight to this voicemail going hello do you want to sales one or I don't know aftercare two and whichever button you press it just went like beep beep beep and then hung up and I was like oh god what's happened and the website says um checkout has been disabled down for maintenance and I was like oh god what's happened and the website says um checkout has been disabled down for maintenance and I was like well you can't be down for maintenance if your website's still visible and I was like this isn't good news and um I've tried so it was amazing actually I put

something on Instagram the sleuth thing that's come up I've had people drive past their shops to see if they're open oh my god I have to say this i bloody love i love this is why i love instagram i absolutely love our innies and outies we had an innie drive past and confirmed the lights are on but no one's home um we had people going onto company's house like sleuthing going these are the these are the founders phone them and giving me email addresses it was incredible anyway I've been on trust pilot now and there's there's quite a few people going these people have vanished there's no reply oh no so it's not looking good I think you can get I think you can't did you pay for it on a credit card well here's the thing I paid for it on PayPal

because I had a bit of a balance on my PayPal from selling some eBay stuff. So I was like, oh, I'll put it on that. Apparently, you're still protected with PayPal. Oh, that's good. But I don't know how it works when the company goes under. I think it's different to a company just not honoring it. It's a bit of a harder process to try and get it back, I think, isn't it? It depends how they went under, I guess.

But so many people have said it's really common that bathroom companies go under. Is that a thing? Well, I suppose it depends. Well, we only use reputable bathroom companies, I guess. Yeah. This is why we use reputable bathroom companies, because that sort of thing wouldn't happen. Well, this is it. Yeah.

This is why I shouldn't find my own stuff. If anyone lives in Cobham, I'd love a shower at your house. Do you know what, pal? Do you know what? Like, speaking of our lovely innies and outies last week was world kindness day tell me more um it literally is a day that we're told to celebrate and do little acts of kindness you know things for other people and it it's interesting it's funny it's funny that we sometimes need to be told what to do i'd like to think that every

day should be world kindness day but it was interesting because last week I put a post up, a story up about my mum. My lovely mum. She's 78 years old. She fell over back in end of July and she broke her arm. Top of her arm. So the humerus. Humerus. Which is obviously this big bone at the top from the shoulder to the humerus.

The funny bone. Right in two two like the thing is completely apart and of course she went off to dashed off in a need in an ambulance and of course they sling it these days so you know back in the old days they would have stuck you in a cast they don't do that now because gravity works it's magic and bones tend to come back together and then they fuse and then hopefully it doesn't need operating on but she's somehow in the space of the time that she sort of did it which they did everything right in the first place it just hasn't she hasn't been getting

the aftercare that she's needed and where it's been x-rayed a few times since it's not coming back together and it's it's miles apart she's getting tingling in her fingers she can't move for four months she's not been able to basically use her right arm, which is her writing arm. And it's amazing how with people of that age, how suddenly something like that can really affect their mental health. And she's been she's so active and she's always up and about and doing. And she was a nurse herself for nearly 40 years in the NHS. So I think she's feeling even more rotten about this whole situation. But she's really been kind of pushed to the back of the pile. And I put this up on the story up just saying, please, can somebody recommend where to go, what we do about this whole situation but she's really been kind of pushed to the back of the pile and I put this up on my story up just saying please can somebody recommend where to go what

we do about this because we're now in this sort of situation where she's fallen into into the abyss yes and I was honestly blown away by the amount of messages I received from people like you know my brother's an orthopedic surgeon I've got somebody I can look at this I work at so and so can I see the x-rays like I almost but honestly almost brought me to tears how kind people are and in the end one of my and I feel this is where I feel so fortunate and I feel so incredibly incredibly blessed that we have even a platform because there's so many that don't have these opportunities to put a call out like this one of my one of my expert clients happen to reach out and say this happened to my mum I've got someone I'm going to put you in touch with and she's amazingly literally scooped

my mum up and she's helping like get her sort of pushed through but if you didn't have help like that it's there's what do you do what what what would you do if you didn't have family or people around you and you're stuck in this sort of situation where you can't get looked after you can't get the help you need yeah and it's not the doctors and it's not the nurses because they're absolutely fantastic and they're working all hours and doing everything they can on not enough pay it's the the system is just so screwed up but anyway i just want to say a huge thank you to everybody even on polly's bath situation and on my mom and for just being so damn lovely because It's the system is just so screwed up. But anyway, I just want to say a huge thank you to everybody, even on Polly's bath situation and on my mum,

for just being so damn lovely. Because you don't realise how... Oh, no, it's so... Even those little messages of, oh, my gosh, I hope you get it sorted, sending all the love, like, you know, just means so much. It really does. I think, you know, we give a lot on here. And it's nice to feel like we get it back.

It's really touching, actually's really touching I was blown away I had a someone from the manufacturer of bet the bath was it better Betty Betty Betty Baths yeah bath being like can we help and loads of just loads of loads of gorgeous gorgeous people with with help and advice it's um warms the cockles it does I'm really grateful to you also thank you so much uh now come on i haven't heard what have you learned this week piano wise what's the new what's the new jam oh my gosh do you know what so i have ordered myself so i'm currently on the easiest piano course part one which is seriously boring so i finished that and i've learned i obviously learned my um count on me by bruno mars so i can do that good um i've got here the first christmas tunes i'm going to play

myself i'm gonna i'm gonna learn christmas tunes so we three kings all those sorts of win away in a manger that would sound nice on the piano wouldn't it that would sound nice i'm gonna practice those and the kids i I also bought first Disney favorites. But brilliantly now, you know what it's like. There's apps now where you can, there's an app where you can learn the chords. Because when I'm learning, and anyone out there that plays the piano, gosh, this is, it's like your right brain fights with your left brain. Because you're using your right hand and your left hand.

But you're doing A to G. But on the other hand, you're going backwards. Got it. And obviously you're reading on a top line and then you're reading on a bottom line it's really like your brain just goes and you're like you get this freeze yes and then you're like oh this must be so good for your brain is it an f or g so i can actually feel my cogs like like it's so so good you remember you know dr tara swart taught us about these things later in life i really feel like it's kicking my brain into gear because ziggy's different she's just like ding ding ding you know she's just at it because she doesn't know this feeling of like

this yeah understand this this feeling of learning but it's very different to learning something like on the job when i'm out and about doing interior design every day on the job I'm learning something new or you know finding out something new but it's different when you're learning a physical language or a musical instrument so interesting how engaged your brain it's like you go into this really engaged state where you you can feel it like you know I've got an idea tell me how would you feel about whatever episode is our christmas episode we swap out green is the color of elation to uh a jojo piano christmas classic no well i could play green is the color of the color of true relation well that would be a real highlight all right that's a challenge that'll be a christmas miracle

okay i'll just that'll be so funny just play the song to your piano teacher i tell you what if i if i play if i played on the piano will you sing it well everyone enjoys my singing so much it's they do it's just it's um it's a real gift of mine and on that should we ask should we ask If I played on the piano, will you sing it? Well, everyone enjoys my singing so much. They do. It's a real gift of mine. That's so funny. And on that, should we answer some questions? Yeah, go on then. Okay, I have a question from Amanda.

Oh goodness, you two are saving our house renovation one week at a time. I'm very glad to hear it. Question for Jojo. Is a dado rail an acceptable alternative to panelling or is it a bit weak? I'd to add some character to our lounge we just don't have the time and budget to do the full works yet I'm just worried it's going to look a bit silly even if we use a different colour on the wall underneath big love to you both it's a really funny I see this a lot I see this a lot where people will stick a dado rail so dado for anyone that doesn't know is a sort of one that's at hip height it was actually back in the day called a chair rail because you'd push chairs against the wall and it would stop it

marking the wall so usually you have a dado rail and then below you tend to have paneling of sorts it could be a tank tongue and groove it could be a molded panel it could be a field and shake you know a fielded paneled shakeaker or a shaker style. But a sort of cheap option is to stick a dado rail around the room. You can buy it in huge two-metre lengths from, you know, anywhere. And it looks, for me, I think it's a nice thing to do because it can break the room in two and you can do a colour above and a colour below or you might want to do a wallpaper above and a colour below.

So it gives you kind of a focal break break if you like in the wall which could otherwise just be an expanse of paint um so for that reason I think it's good it depends really on what's going around the room if it's a very big room and you're not covering it up with furniture then I'd say you're probably going to need to add some form of moulded panelling below as well, sort of almost a picture frame moulding. So I would say if it's a small room and you're not really going to see a lot of what's below dado, then I wouldn't bother. Like dado, that's fantastic, stick a dado rail up, you're not really going to see the panels anyway. But I think if it's a big enough room, it can look a bit odd with just the dado so that'd be my advice she doesn't say the size of the room but do you think she should do it as a lounge so I'm going to assume that's a decent size room so if you've got say two sofas and they're pushed almost

against the wall you're obviously not going to see all that molded paneling below and therefore you're going to see the dado just above the sofa and that will give you that impact that you're looking for and that's sort of you'll see elements of this sort of darker paint on the on the wall below but you are essentially painting a wall in a darker color and then your your dado you're going to paint the same color as the as the wall below and then anything above dado height all the way up and over the ceiling is a different color so it's a nice place to like i say it's a good place to break what about the skirting if you've got dado let's say if you've got drop cloth on your day-dough rail and drop cloth below your day-dough rail, do you also paint the skirting in drop cloth?

Yes, absolutely. And I see this a lot where people paint, they leave the skirting. And I always think, God, you're so nearly there and then you don't paint the skirting. You've got to paint the skirting the same colour as your lower wall. You're pulling it all together. And what about the architraves?

Should they all be the same colour as the day-d or as the wall it depends on the color so if you're painting a room dark green there isn't really a rule as such when you're painting the wall and you're and you're coving yeah also known as uh people call it cornice or coving sorry i just call it coving and people don't know what i'm talking about your coving or your cornice can either be painted in with your wall and your ceiling yeah but if you're going with a really strong color like a dark color on your walls um you might not want to take that up and over the ceiling so it it sort of depends on the height of your ceiling as well i this is why i sort of say sometimes i just need to see a picture no i think pictures really helps me put it into context because there is no actually funny enough I had it the other day

I was saying to people remember take your paint up and over paint up and over and then somebody sent me a picture for every can I just let me just jump in there the painting up and over does that apply for all kinds of pale colors and whites pretty much exactly Paul pretty much all pale colors I had someone tag me on Instagram the other day being like I'm going up and over like Jojo said and it was a really dark green I was like shit stop put down the paintbrush oh and why would it have made the room literally because it was a quite a dark room anyway and she was taking the paint from literally floor wall coving ceiling so in that instance I would say don't paint the ceiling if you're going to

go dark all over the walls don't paint the ceiling leave the ceiling because i think it just it gives it that just it break otherwise you're really enveloping if it's dark don't unless you're going to just take a pause moody unless you want that impact of like yeah moody cave yeah good tip i actually saw a really cool um there's something now called, I think it's called duo drenching. So you know we talk about as designers, colour drenching, which is basically where you're going to drench the entire room in the same colour. And we're talking about taking all your panelling, your woodwork, your joinery, your skirting boards, your doors. That's called colour drenching. You can now do duo drenching where like almost half the room is say yellow and then the other color is terracotta

and it's this complete it's really impactful it looks banging had to say it looks really cool i'll try to put some examples up you've got to be quite bold to do that right you've got to be bold you've got to be bold with color yeah color takes a lot of practice to get right yeah i think it's a real you know lean on your color lean on your color experts if you're If you want to go colourful and you want to colour and you want to go bold, lean on the experts to tell you what works together because it's all about those tones. If you're mixing colours, you've got to get those tones right. Okay, so Amanda, the answer is yes, you should put in the Day-Day Rail.

Yeah, do, definitely. Okay, my darling, I've got one here from Megan. Hello, Polly and Jojo. Love, love, love, love your podcast. I look forward to each week my half hour of sanity during my whirlwind toddler's nap. Oh, thank you. A question for Polly, please. What are your tips for hiding or disguising manhole covers in the garden? They seem to be in the most inconvenient locations, two just in the middle of the lawn and two in my borders. We want to put a patio where one of them is, but I don't know how

we would do this. Obviously, we can't just cover it thank you so much i'm rather selfishly asking this question because i've got the same problem so thank you megan so um and this is here she goes again another reason why we always say plan plan it all at the same time because often um things that manhole covers often go in if you're doing any kind of extensions or things and most builders just whack them wherever they feel like, as opposed to going, this would be the most sensible place for it. So wherever possible, we will try and make sure manhole covers are in hard standing, not in a lawn, because if it's in a lawn, there's basically nothing you can do.

It's there. It's why, I mean, some people, I really hate this. Some people will put a piece of artificial lawn in a recessed cover in the lawn to try and hide it but to me then you're just staring at a piece of artificial turf in real grass instead which is just as bad so really uh the best thing you can do is get ahead of it so let's first of all look at as if they haven't gone in yet always try and put it in hardscape because if it's in something like paving you can have a recessed manhole cover where it's where you don't have to have like a black circular one that sits on the top like a giant black dot on your paving you can have one which is essentially like a metal tray

that any skilled landscaper will then be able to cut your paving to the size of that recessed tray and then all you see is this the seam around the edge so it becomes almost seamless so you don't really notice them um so that was that she's so megan's asking because she's she already has them yes if you already have them so it depends where they are so she said she wants to put in a patio and you can absolutely do that so if you've got two in a border and two in a two in a lawn so borders are easy so if you've if you've already got them and you need to deal with them number one if it's in the lawn you can't really do anything we can't hide that unless you add in a border around it and then so if we've

got a board if a manhole is in a border the best thing you can do is clever planting to hide it so you know you can't plant on top of a manhole but you can plant big fluffy billowy things that are going to kind of floof over it for a majority of the year so we will always plant things like ornamental grasses or napetas geraniums you know things that spread that have quite sort of small feet and then spread it's the best thing you can do if it's in a border is just hide it with plants and then if it's she said that she wants to put a patio in and you can't just cover it over no you can't but obviously any good landscaper would be able to redo that for you so that you had paving and then they'd put in a recessed cover they'd make sure all the heights were right and and recess it in so that you're not staring at it

so the general rule is try and get your manhole covers into paving if that's not possible try and hide it in a border the the number one thing we really try and avoid wherever we possibly can is having them in lawn so you think sticking a big pot on it with a thing that just looks crap doesn't i don't like it when that happens because all you're doing and it's the same with sort of any sort of tanks or things we get this a lot people will be like oh well there's a tank under there so we've just put a tree in a pot there and you're like but all you're doing is drawing attention to it well we also actually this is really good advice for anyone who has got um a septic tank we have a drain cover right in the middle of our lawn which is obviously a complete eyesore and it's right in front of the house

so we stuck this sort of um terracotta pot almost the same cover color on the drain on the drain cover and we realized so about a year later i think there was something i can't remember something was going on i happened to move it and the lid just literally went like this it popped off and the septic tank was nearly it needed needed cleaning out and if we hadn't happened to have done that at the time it would have pushed it would have it could have totally broken the septic tank so you've got to be careful not covering drain covers they're there for a reason so if there was a you know yeah i don't know no back up basically so otherwise i guess it would go back into your house so you've got to be really careful don't do that gosh you've got

to be really careful just don't know what we're going to do at ours but can't move it it's just one of those things which is why it's that's the point these whenever you're doing build work just stay vigilant don't let them just put manhole covers in wherever they feel like it's really really important you plan it so that it's something you can hide in future because it's you know once they're in the lawn it's really annoying okay i've got a question from magda hi ladies i have an any question i don't like the look of modern mirrors with an led strip light. So instead to found a basic mirror in a shape I love, I also plan on having a light either side of the mirror. So no need for led strip lights.

How do I get around the mirror being fogged up all the time though? Most mirrors with led lights also come with demystifiers. Ooh, but the one I have my eyes on doesn't any tips or products would be highly appreciated from Magda. Magda girl, you can can't have it all you can't have it all you're very right in not wanting led lights on us on a mirror because that's just quite frankly awful i don't know where all this led strip stuff came i don't know i just i'm not a fan i'm sorry i just i think it's it's one of my biggest turnoffs is LED strip lights on anything.

Okay. Even like in kitchens or anywhere. I just think it's awful and completely unnecessary. So that's my thoughts on that. So yes, Magda, good not putting LED lights in your bathroom. I know what you mean. You get these modern mirrors. They have these LED light strips on the outside

and where they might offer you a lovely sort of glow on your face. I actually think that glow that you get from LED is so false even when you walk out into the real world your face is never going to look like that I'm sorry so um it's like those you know like those ring lights that you get that sort of give you that complete sort of soft glow um so but they give you an even even light across your face so doing makeup and stuff and you quite like the person looking back at you, which is nice sometimes. But I would say, obviously, just having a couple of wall lights on either side is always preferable visually, aesthetically. But when it comes to the demystifying, it's essentially a heat pad.

So it's like an underfloor heating pad behind your mirror, essentially, is what it is. Right. And that's going to stop the... a heat pad so it's like a underfloor heating pad behind your mirror essentially is what it is right and that's going to stop the so it sort of comes on a little button it comes on when you're getting in the shower and there's a bit of steam in the room if you have a really well ventilated bathroom your mirror is not going to stay foggy for very long i think some people think when you have a shower even if you're in there for 10 minutes or a bath when you get out as long as you let cracker you know the door open a little bit let a bit of air out and you've got your fan going it it won't stay fogged up for long anyway and it certainly shouldn't have

condensation running down the mirror if it is you have got a very poorly ventilated room right so sort your ventilation out make sure you've got adequate um circulation air circulation right and that won't happen so no need for said mystifier it's a very it's a very hotel very hotel sort of spec thing that i think sort of new apartment they sort of put those sorts of things in how do you sort your ventilation out what what does that look like you have these um fans that sort of literally fans that go on yeah so when you turn your light on your little it will come on automatically with your light and that will literally circulate air into the room and clear all that um clear all that you know the humidity out and so your mirror should really shouldn't but so here's the thing i have

a small shower room and a small bathroom if I sit in the bath in a hot bath for an hour and the room's all lovely and steamy as soon as I step out out of the so I've always have

I have the fan going yeah which is you know that's new ones these days aren't like they're quiet they're just a little buzz when I step out the bath

I just slightly open I've got a little curtain in my room I open the curtain a little bit and the it's within 30 seconds it's sort of clear and that's it amazing it shouldn't be anything more got the same in the shower you know you should be able to look in the mirror when you get out the shower those your ventilation's whack it doesn't work good tip simple i've got one here from lucy lucy's asking what can i plant around peonies for interest when the peonies have

finished flowering? Because peonies flower for like two weeks. I'm on the fence about peonies. I love them, but they're so fleeting, aren't they? So actually, while I remember, now's the time for you to cut down your peonies. If you've got peonies in your garden, cut them down to ground level now. They'll flower better and they'll leaf better next year if you do um that doesn't go for tree peonies we we do them in spring but what's plant around them well i mean this is a classic isn't it in terms of thinking about seasonal interest peonies flower for approximately two weeks in may ish yeah and then usually we get a heavy rain and they get all turned into mushy tissue paper so really it's a question of asking yourself uh what do you want to hand over to that so they're going to be interesting in May so you've got the whole of June July and August to play with really so then I would be thinking

about some long flowering friends like hardy geraniums and you could mix it up and go with some really nice ones like azure rush is a really beautiful one um which is going to flower for yonks it's going to flower with the peony and then it's going to keep on going until november or you could do a cat mint as well like a napita again it's a purple it sort of depends what color your peony is but i'll just give you a few bits and then you're sort of thinking june july august so then you're moving into your late summer bits. So then I would be starting to think about things like Echinaceas or Agastache, Achillea. The things which come into flower in what I would argue was what I would call the second season of summer.

What you don't want to do is plant a load of things that look great in May, like lupins, for example. So things that, absolute classics, which sort of flower at the same time, and then have nothing when the peonies and the lupins have gone over. So you can even go onto the likes of crocus, for example, and just search by flowering month, and don't go for the ones which are May, June.

Go for the ones which are July, August. Another classic would be salvia. Any of the salvias, frankly, but I mean the sort of most popular ones that we use all the time are something like salvia any of the salvias frankly but i mean the the sort of most popular ones that we use all the time are something like salvia caradonna which is a old classic but that flowers for ages or salvia amethyst if you like a little sort of a bit more of a pinky one would be lovely um so really you're looking at things which are going to work really hard flower for way longer than that lovely peony, which is sort of here now and gone very quickly.

And the other thing I would always say is consider adding some roses in because basically the sort of really roughly beautiful roses, the likes of Olivia Rose Austin, for example, from David Austin, they look really similar to a peony in my view. They're just as tissue papery, but they will flower from May all the way through until about now.

I've still weirdly just got one still in bloom. So that would be a good way of just extending the season is to have some of those roses as well. Then you've got kind of like the peonies and then you can hand over to the roses. Well done, Hal. Thanks for that. I do love a peony. I guess we should really delve into what's in and what's out

this week well in has got to surely be buying christmas presents now right oh gosh it should be shouldn't it getting organized getting organized and buying from i'm gonna say it again please buy from local independent uk sourced companies not big conglomerates okay so in in is buying christmas presents my in is the quest for the perfect chopping board trying to find you know something you do really well did you find one actually at the antique fair well i did so i went to kempton market sunbury antiques at kempton market in surrey if you've not been you should go it's great fun great day out met an inny met a fan met an inny anninarty uh so that was really fun

mr big came too and we basically went hunting for antiques and bought lots of old pots and things but the quest for the perfect rustic chopping board is something i didn't realize would be so challenging but my goodness so in for me is um artisanal chopping boards and out for me is my gas meter oh it's tell me more i don't think it's been replaced since the god knows when i don't know the birth of jesus but it's got really creepy now mate because this is what it sounds like it sounds like um a ghost on a swing oh and it's right in the middle of the house and my kids are going mommy what's that noise oh creepy gas meter it's really really haunting i've uh i've got an out i've got an out for you tell me gladiator the film i went to see it it's now out the new film you didn't like it and brad

and i went on a little date night on friday see it. I love that that's what you went to see. Tell me more. I didn't rate it. Oh, no! No, no. I thought it was really a bit disappointing. It just felt really far-fetched. And, you know, Spartan Warriors in skirts.

I was just expecting a bit more. Just wanted a bit more. Nice to look at, though, pal. It didn't give me. No? No. No. No. No? No. bit more just wanted a bit more you know didn't give it didn't give me no no no not nothing like the the days of no russell crowe and and his gang sadly not no so not but parts of it were brilliant but no don't bother with that one yeah no okay well you know come on let's get back to our

sundays i have to go and dust everything again. Yes, have a lovely day, my darling. Have a gorgeous week when this comes out, everybody. We love you all. Go be kind to everyone. Yeah. Carry on being kind. Lots of love, you gorgeous peeps.

Love you. Love you, darling. Have a good day.