The Ins & Outs - Polly's Paving Masterclass & Black Out Curtains

Episode Date: February 7, 2024

Join us this week for a paving masterclass from Polly and Jojo's genius techniques for blacking out your bedroom at bedtime.Polly arms us with everything we need to know about what we should be doing in the garden during February and the ladies reveal their celebrity hall passes.This episode is brought to you by Ancient & Brave, who create pure, potent and sustainable supplements to help you think, feel and look your best. Click the link below to check them out now!Sponsorshttps://ancientandbrave.earth/InstagramPodcast - @the_insandouts_Jojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonProducer Andy - @andy_rowe_WebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Hello and welcome to this very exciting episode, as always, of The Ins and Outs with myself, Jojo, and the very lovely Polly. On this episode, I'm going to be telling you about how to use panelling to keep the damp out. Polly's going to be taking on a paving masterclass. I will be solving Polly's vent issue. We're going to be talking about what to do in the garden this month. Book club recommendations.

And I'm going to give my celebrity hall pass. And of course, what's in and what's out. And this week, we are so excited to be sponsored by the absolutely brilliant Ancient and Brave. Now, if you haven't heard of them, Ancient and Brave make pure, potent and sustainable supplements to help you think, feel and look your very best. Now, dude, you know that I've been on Project Skin and it's Ancient and Brave True Collagen that I've been using for the last month. I absolutely love it. And the reason I love it the most is because it doesn't taste of anything.

I mix it into my tea in the morning. You would not know it was there. I mean, the reason I'm loving it is just because their damn sexy packaging. Their packaging is absolutely beautiful and their website is something to behold. Go and check them out at ancientandbrave.earth. Oh, I didn't know you could have an earth.

Love that. Did you know you could have an earth? I didn't know you could have an earth. Good morning, my old girl. Good morning, my darling. How are you? I am better. I've been very poorly.

You have been poorly, you poor pet, haven't you? Don't, don't, wait for it, wait for it. Was it COVID? I know, obviously the first thing my parents asked me. Yeah. Is it COVID? Is it COVID tested? Are you okay? Do you know what? I did test.

Did you? Because I did. Would you always test for COVID? It's one of those things now, isn't it? It's, we all just assume, who knows? Who knows? In years to come, it'll be like, oh, is it flu? Is it COVID? Everyone just assumes it's one of those things now isn't it it's we all just assume who knows who in years to come it'll be like oh is it flu is it covid everyone just this is it the best thing is if you're not feeling

well is ginger ginger shots ginger shots for the win yeah the brilliant ginger shots the super super intense ones they are just so brilliant just like nuking everything the power of ginger i tell you the power of ginger it's very healing isn't it um so i i basically spent the last three days in bed i've watched a brilliant television show oh which i highly recommend called griselda okay griselda out of the list oh my god that's that noise things i'll never ever watch it's about griselda blanco which doesn't sound good when you say it you've got to say it in a Spanish way Griselda Blanco was that German?

that was Spanish that was good yeah so good I think we'll let the listeners decide what that sounded like it's about a

she was an amazing amazing is probably the wrong word female drug baron oh in the sort of 70s and 80s

rock and roll in Miami she was from Colombiaombia colombia colombia although she said it sounds amazing and it's sofia vagara from modern family oh my god she's actually brad's she's brad's crush she's brad's pass do you have a pass you know you have a pass i don't need a pass do i you don't anymore you don't anymore who's your pass my man crush i'm gonna love a to love a bit of Ryan Reynolds just because he just seems like such a nice guy. He's just sexy, isn't he?

But fun. He looks really fun. That's actually Brad's man crush as well, to be honest. Well, that could be fun. Who's your man crush? I really like Alexander Skarsgård. He was in True Blood. He's very tall.

He was in Big Little Lies. Extremely tall, blonde man. It's because we're tall girls. He was in True Blood. He's very tall. He was in Big Little Lies. Extremely tall, blonde man. It's because we're tall girls. I think when you're tall girls, you feel like you need a tall man just to be able to look after you, defend you. Not that we need defending, let's be honest. I think men need defending from us, to be honest.

Or fight them off. Oh, dear. Anyway, excellent show. Highly recommend. So if you... I watched it, like, binge. You know if you if i watched it like binge you know when you get one of those shows that you genuinely are excited to watch the next one and those are rare i think it was brilliant so that's my little recommendation how about you pal what have you

been up to i have actually been outside clearing my garden and i've honestly and i don't know if this is you paul but i've definitely picked up i think there's a reason for this I've really picked up the gardening bug yay and I I think not only because of you but I'll tell you why I think that is because I can't do much in my house at the moment and I just sort of you know as I always say I've just accepted that it is what it is and I'm very happy with it being where it is but therefore I have control in the garden and there's no pressure on me because I don't have anyone anything to prove to anyone or show to anyone that the garden is I'm just kind of learning and and what's this what's that look at this bowl what's that from last year and because it's now our third year here I know now know what's happening to each

of those plants and trees and I'm observing and thinking do I like that not sure and then I I don't know I'm starting to I've got the bug I like being out there rain or shine I've realized I actually just like pottering I get the word pottering now there's nothing better than pottering it's the thing I'm most looking forward to about about being retired what I'm not looking forward to about about it though I have to tell you is again being a tall girl my back when I'm gardening is not not good what do you how do how do people garden all day long with their backs I mean I don't know I'm like is not not good what do you how do how do people garden all day long with their backs I mean I don't know I'm like a crane it's like it's a long way down that's why a lot of people use kneelers I think oh right maybe I need a kneeler but I think even kneeling is not

comfortable for long periods of time is it but that's what the point of a kneeler is pal because it's like a padded thing for you to kneel on but then even you're still hunched over aren't you hunched over your bed well yes at our height yes you are but i'm so happy you've got the welcome to the outie side thank you so much yeah i'm sort of hanging out of the door you know i'm like at the front door like hang in and out in and out and it can't quite you know i love it i love it but there's no pressure for me because it still looks like a dog's doing it and then i have to also thank my my um mates at arlen bloom because they do always come and do an amazing job of doing all the heavy stuff like trimming hedges and we live on a we've obviously got this paddock and it's got footpath and or the whole way around the footpath

just always needs sorting out and it's a real mess so they always come and sort that out for me which is amazing do you know what pal though the biggest joy in hearing you say that is exactly why I love gardens and gardening so much is because gardening is an experiment and you will get things wrong even the best get things wrong but the joy is is exactly as you say getting out there and having a go and it's one of the first things we say to people when they move into a new house is watch your garden for a year if you can watch it for a year you'll learn you'll learn about it and you'll learn what you like what you don't like but also just gardening is constant experimentation and that's the joy it's not meant to be this is the exact way to do everything and you're you're a crap gardener if you don't do it this way it's nonsense

that's the joy of it there is so much more to do out there there's and actually even this year because obviously as you know last year was the first year I planted tulip bulbs and this year there are some I didn't take up and they're all coming up and I'm so interested to see what they look like this year the second time round because I know you always say get them up don't you because they're never going to look as good the next year round well I mean in a border I usually leave them so it's only in pots I remove them but in a border you know as long as they're not offensive because sometimes you get a little bit of an unwelcome visitor and you end up with a neon yellow or a red tulip that you did not want sometimes that just happens must be quite fun to

see where squirrels drop them as well because they like scattering them around don't they in the winter well they like to eat them then oh do they bastards oh my sorry dropped my mic onto books poll our little ins and internet book club so what's your book of the week this week my book of the week which is one that i've been listening to over the course of january is it's absolutely brilliant and it's non-fiction it's it's not self-help i don't like that description but it's a it's a time management book it's called four thousand weeks and it's by oliver berkman quick synopsis quick blood that's about our lifetime 4 000 weeks which is a bit depressing don't think about it too much no i don't think i like thinking

about things in hours and days no but i mean you know all being well if you're lucky we get about 4 000 weeks right but the reason this book is so good is because it's not giving you a load of hacks as to how to be more efficient with your time it's not sort of saying get up at 5am and do an extra hour because I think we've had enough of those and trying to cram more into a busy life what it's actually doing is educating you that your life and your time is finite and so you actually need to make some hard decisions about what you are and aren't willing to do and oh there was this this great I can't remember it exactly so forgive me for for sort of shortening it but essentially the word decide comes from the same origins as homicide suicide which means the death of something and decide is the death of a of an

option when you decide you're essentially choosing one option and allowing the other option to die so which I thought was quite quite interesting so the whole book is about sort of going you can't do it all so you need to prioritize the things that you aren't willing to let go of so it's a lot about sort of eating the frog which means uh doing the thing which is the most important for you at the beginning of the day and the thing that's really spoke to me and I bet it speaks to you too Jojo is he talks a lot about how a lot of people go right I'll just clear the emails and then I'll do the the x the y oh my gosh I do this all the time right I do this all the time and you're supposed to you're supposed to tackle the thing you don't want to do the most at the beginning of the day exactly eat the frog yes so that it doesn't sort of sit with you and

dwell and suck energy from you in all the little things that you're doing so get that horrible thing out the way first don't do the clearing of the emails because you'll find oh whoops i've spent my whole day clearing emails yeah do the thing you needed to do and then clear the emails later and it has been a game changer for me in terms of productivity and making sure that i achieve those really important time sensitive things. So I'm very freeing. You can't do it all. You're going to have to say no to some stuff. Yeah, I'm saying no to things, don't we? That's something that's a new thing for me. Yeah. Brilliant book. Four thousand weeks. Just and actually, I would recommend you listen to it on Audible.

I don't think it's I'm not great at sort of any of those books which are more about business. I think they're easier to listen to than they are to read. Okay, fab. Thanks, Paul. That's a great book recommendation. 4,000 weeks. All right, my friend, let's move into some questions because we've got some great questions today. So Kayleigh, we're hoping to purchase a little Edwardian cottage built in 1905. My dream would be to have it panelled all over inside in true Jojo style. Can there ever be a worry with older properties with damp and trapping in the airflow?

Any tips? Oh, good question. I like this one. Yes, panelling is, panelling was actually, panelling's been around since the 13th century. So it wasn't, believe it or not, it wasn't me that brought it in um i have made it rather fashionable um but no panelling has been around for a really

long time and the reason it was actually initially used was to actually keep damp and cold out so in fact this question is is a real good one um i would first encourage you to make sure that there's definitely no mold before you just go putting panelling on a wall. So check that it's not, if there is damp that potentially might come through, then panelling will be your friend. Just make sure that you're using like an MDF moisture resistant panelling. You can actually get, I think, a sort of foil backed panelling, which essentially will create a thermal layer in inside. However, I would just say, be sure that you have a well insulated house, because I think there's some sort of rules to insulating properties now, where you have to ensure that if there was a fire, it's not a fire risk. So that's the health and safety over.

But genuinely, panelling is a really great way of sort of keeping damp out, if done correctly and used properly. But just take precautions just on what really is going on in the wall. If you really do think there's sort of a bad mould problem or damp, don't allow mould to just sit and fester. Yeah, that's not the dream, is it? No, not the dream. But panelling

will be a great way to keep it keep it out so yeah really good question. Would you sorry I'm just going to just to be really clear about this would you therefore make sure that you had it damp tested first so that you weren't essentially putting a plaster over a problem? I would yeah do you know there's a lot of reports going around at the moment, actually, in the news about mould, living with mould and the dangers of it and mould spurs and health risks. So if you really do think you have a damp problem, I would get it looked at first that you don't have rising damp or anything like that. If you have like drafts, panelling is a really good way to stop drafts coming through as well. Can I just hop on the draft thing for a second yeah so I mean it doesn't really matter because I'm going to change it all but my living room is freezing because I've got those um is it called a trickle

vent I don't know I've got these these but it's massive it's sort of the size of um a paperback book maybe a bit bigger sort of gold with slits but i mean if i put my hand up against it it's like a little howling gale okay it's and it makes my room so cold so the reason that will be in do you have a do you have an open fire in your room or somewhere i have a fireplace yes whereabouts is it like in the middle of the room on the wall you know that's why so if you have a fire an open fire or a fireplace in that room you have to have a hole that's the circumference about honestly about 150 millimeters wide that can go outside that that has to be enough air ventilation for that fire if you sealed up the fireplace you'd probably be able to seal up that hole but that is a regulation especially when you come to redo the house you need to consider that

i had no idea because it makes the room bloody cold it makes it cold i yeah i mean i in one of one of our rooms where we have one i actually got some sheep wool and i stuck it in the hole um because it was so cold this freezing cold air shooting into the room it's supposed to be ventilation it's supposed to be i mean we had our we had these um all of our cavity walls and actually paul this is something you should look at how old's your house i think it's 50s 60s ish yes exactly the same as ours so you've probably got a double brick slip um and then between the bricks of your outside of your house you'll have a hole essentially a gap yeah and in the old days they sort of 100 years ago they would stuff that with a sort of sheep's wool insulation over time that slips down it sort of almost disappears to nothing

with moisture and time and it slips down and then therefore you have no decent insulation on your in your walls so the walls of your house aren't insulated if you literally put your hand against them especially around sort of window areas you can feel the cold almost coming through the bricks yeah it's worth looking at insulating your walls um we had it done and it was mind-blowing it's actually quite we had i've got a really funny story about it actually but what they do is they drill holes all around the outside cavity into the cavities and then they pump it full of these tiny little silver foam balls and it sticks together i thought you were going to say sort of like a goo or like no it's a ball so they actually sort of they can move move a bit essentially um and so the whole cavity is

essentially filled with these silver balls and it creates a sort of you know insulation um that is obviously hugely beneficial if you're trying to warm up your house and therefore to save save on you know heating costs um however when they do that that's when they would usually put a whopping great hole if you've got a fireplace in your house they would probably put some sort of a hole in the wall so it could be that you've had some form of insulation done in your house in the last 20 years or something that's why you've got that vent in your bedroom um yeah but look into that but i'll tell you one thing that's really funny we've got a very funny roof line our house has been added to over the years and our roofs are sort of all a bit mash up

and they went to insulate i think i was i left them too because they were there all day they were here all day and i went out to the shops, came back. They were sort of packing up, ready to go. They were like, see you later. Off they went in their big, you know, this big truck full of these beads. Anyway, sort of wandering around the house. And it's got a sort of slightly funny smell, these beads. So I walked into, opened Ziggy's room, opened her bedroom door.

And the door almost got stuck. And I shoved the door open and that entire bedroom was filled with these silver balls it was stuck on the curtains the toys I mean you couldn't see her toys they'd blasted it and it's when I say it's blasted it's blasted through these small holes and they obviously what they'd done because of the roof line they hadn't seen that in fact instead of going into the cavity wall they'd gone into the bedroom no yeah and they had to come back and like try and remove these balls we were finding silver balls for i mean even still when i'm in the garden i still find these little silver balls like you know in their flower beds but yeah it was not i mean it was it was amusing how did they remove them i mean the kids thought it was so funny because it looked like something from a space it looked like it was just everything

was silver and all her teddy bears were just sprayed in these silver you couldn't see the teddy bear for the silver balls oh my god is it safe is it is they asked they're really safe that's why they're very safe but anyway i would yeah look into it anyone actually that's you know they've got a very cold house you've got your heating going 24 7 do you look into it, anyone, actually. They've got a very cold house and you've got your heating going 24-7. Do look into insulation of your walls, your loft, your floor even. You can even insulate your floor when you come to do your foundations. Yeah, it was helpful. Thank you, Pam. You're welcome. Just hopped on the Q&A there.

This episode is brought to you by Google Pixel. I'm Jessie Crookshank. I host the number one comedy podcast called Phone a Friend. I also have three kids. I need help making every day easier. So I switched to Google Pixel. It's a phone powered by Gemini, your personal AI assistant. Gemini can help you summarize your unread emails, suggest what to make with the food in your fridge, and it helped me achieve a family photo where everyone is smiling at the camera. I didn't think it was possible, but it is with Google Pixel 9. Learn more at store.google.com. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work

with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not, just workouts and classes to strengthen who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. This is from an outie. Samantha is asking, Polly, I've had some very helpful outdoor paving tutorials a little while ago but I was just wondering if you could do a very brief run through of the ones you didn't cover and the pros and cons of them deciding paving very soon and want to make sure I make

the right decision I'm a north-facing garden with a lot of surrounding trees to my modest London garden thank you so much big pink heart Sam okay Sam i've got you she got you girl it is the number one thing that people get wrong and it breaks my heart when we come to a project where the house has been done and they've just cursory the builders recommended this one so we put it in oh no the builders recommended it probably because it was the cheapest um right so paving here are your options you have got sandstone limestone porcelain those are your big format paving that you can choose from and then you've got small format sorry can i try why do i wince when you say porcelain for outside is it the slip factor thing makes me think slippy well i wince a little bit when we talk about porcelain outside okay i'll get to that so

if you want large format you've got sandstone limestone or porcelain and then if you want small format as in sort of the size of a brick then you've got also the other option of say clay pavers and granite sets but let's talk about big size big format paving okay and i'm going to do you the quickest canter through that i can sandstone we rarely use it because it's quite a porous stone where we would use it is around a swimming pool because it's porous which means it's not it's not slippy it's made of sand so obviously it's porous because it's made of sand so liquids will go through it and it will stain very easily so drop a glass of red wine on sandstone and you will be very upset and you

need to clean that straight away you can seal sandstone and limestone, but it only stops the dirt and stains going deep into the stone. It won't stop it completely. Sandstone varies in price, but it's probably your cheapest option. And it's the one that often a builder will put in. They'll put in a sort of tumbled mint or things because you can get them everywhere. But they can be very varied in tone as well. So if you want to avoid that patchwork, I wouldn't always go for a sandstone. Limestone is my favourite. We use it the most and it comes in buffs and in greys. We tend to lean towards the buffs. It's

harder wearing than a sandstone. It's still semi-porous, so it's still will stone. But to me, it's tougher than a sandstone again they vary in price but they tend to be slightly more premium and then you've got porcelain which I know Jojo says make you wince porcelain is um actually quite a good option for a north-facing garden which I know you said you had Sam because not if you've got paving in a north-facing garden and you've said it's got lots of trees it's very shady natural stones could go quite green because they're porous so porcelain is something that we explore in shadier spots because it's not porous at all

it's a printed tile so very very easy to clean what I would say is with whichever stone you're going to use you must check the slip rating slip rating sorry I couldn't say that right because you cannot use interior tiles outside and also you don't want to use such a you may want quite a pale limestone or porcelain in your house you will not want the same level of paleness outside it will be too bright and it's something that we really fight with with clients who want that indoor outdoor look and they might have chosen some beautiful very pale limestone inside but outside that's going to really hurt your eyes show the dirt you're going to be constantly cleaning it so we always try and bring that warmth up and bring that sort of cool brightness down when we're outside.

So porcelain has its place in shadier gardens. I actually had it in one of my old gardens and I loved it. I used to have a sawn sandstone, which was just green all the time because it was so shady and we swapped it to a porcelain. It was the best thing I've done. So I do, and we swapped it to a porcelain. It was the best thing I've done. So I do, there are places for it, but I do feel it lacks soul. Porcelain just lacks soul. You can't get that sort of character that you get from paving,

which has, you know, particularly limestone, has these stunning fossils in it and variation in tones, and it's a natural material. So I'll always be very excited about limestones and really lovely sandstones more than I will a porcelain, which is a printed tile. So there are some very clever ones out there now which are designed to look like a limestone. They're very convincing, but they will always have that sort of slightly monotone feel to them, which means I would be selective about whether I choose to porcelain but for north-facing

it's worth considering can you get tumbled porcelain tumble edge no so the thing I ah yes so you can have a tumbled edge so that's the one thing I don't I don't like so much about porcelain is that it's got a very sharp edge so when when we talk about tumbles by the way guys it's it means the edge where the tile the edge of the tile is essentially sort of lovely and tumbled as opposed to a straight cut tile and tumbled means that you can actually it just feels slightly more organic and it's more natural looking yes and with tumble so we have used there are certain suppliers that will do that sort of slightly wobbly edge to the porcelain it's very clever and it works brilliantly it's more convincing however

where is an absolute pig is where you need to make cuts because it's a yes so around a swimming pool or where you edge suddenly you've you've got this beautiful tumbled edge on three sides and then a slick razor sharp cut i suppose you would have that even if you would had a tumbled edge limestone they have the same no because you can fettle the edge of a natural stone i see i suppose porcelain is essentially glass isn't it isn't it sort of glass well it's a printed tile so if you think about it and also with porcelain there's they're not all created equal so you can have some porcelains the print is only on the sort of top i don't know one millimeter i'm not totally sure the very surface so if you drop something on it it chips you're going to see the whiteness of the tile underneath some the color will be put much further through and obviously

you pay a premium for that but you can't chip the edge or treat the edge in any way with the porcelain because you're going to go into the the non-printed section of the tile and it also the other reason I don't love using porcelain is because it really limits your options in terms of steps and edges because again with a limestone or a sandstone you can have a beautiful curved bullnose and that color is the same throughout whereas if you're using a porcelain you can't bullnose porcelain without having them they have to sort of glue it together and you get a seam we have that we have exactly the same issue inside so when we're using and actually i would i would urge anyone that's thinking of porcelain um inside that has because sometimes people have to use porcelain because of the build-ups of the floor levels same outside so

if you're doing say an extension and the existing house already exists and you've already got your wood floor in that part of the house and then suddenly you're moving into the next part of the house and you don't want to sort of step or level change or whatever it is or you don't want to have to replace the skirtings you might have to go the porcelain please check there's something called the ramp test it's an r rating so it's like essentially a slip rating um and if you're going with anything in indoor areas like bathrooms kitchens hallways you want an r9 rating and then it goes up to r10 r11 r12 r13 um for the sort of really hard traffic wet you know if it's an area outside that gets super wet so inside for instance for us r9 but

probably when you go outside polyard of thought much higher my friend 13 or something isn't it r12 much higher those slip ratings are really important. So what I would say is do your research. Go onto the websites like London Stone or Allgreen. Have a look. Make sure it's got a high slip rating. Porcelain does have its place. We've done some beautiful projects.

And some of the most popular on our social media are ones where they've used porcelain because the client wants something which is relatively low maintenance, easy to clean clean they don't necessarily want it to have a sort of rustic look they want something quite slick so in those formats it's good if there's one thing i could say it's not the thing to scrimp on it's the one thing we really encourage clients to spend their money on there are other places that you can save money i actually what i find really interesting is how how much these ratings and building regulations vary country dependent so here we're pretty hot on everything I mean you can't you can't put new windows in now without having these trickle vents above your windows and things and all sorts of like things we're not allowed to do but you go to like I know Italy or southern europe and you can get away with anything and the tiles oh my god

the tiles in places like italian villas you you go in a or even hotels you take a shower and that thing is like an ice drink when you get out the shower absolutely my dad actually slipped we were in oh god um somewhere literally after my sister's wedding and he was sitting on the edge of the bed he literally was sitting on the edge of the bed and he the tiles were so slippery they were like glass he slipped off the end of the bed poor bastard and he cracked his coccyx on the floor but that honestly they it's so it's so funny how different things are here but just think about that when you make you know when you're when you're doing your own own renovation your own build you're doing a bathroom replacement or kitchen,

the slip rating is so important. Just even... Vital. Oh God, it gives me the heebies thinking about someone slipping over in a shower. Jojo, I've got another innie question for you from Vicky. Hello, love the podcast. I'm normally an outie. Yes, Vicky.

But I have an innie question. Traitor. I have a streetlight outside my bedroom window i bought blackout curtains but the light still seeps in around the frame of the window which affects my sleep do you have any stylish solutions for making the bedroom dark at night oh vicky i feel your pain i used to have that i used to tape the sides of the curtain oh she's saying she's got blackout curtains right yes she does but the light gets in the sides doesn't it oh so annoying it gets in the side i have to tell you what i would do but i tell you we do this a lot in kids bedrooms because um a lot of parents request that in kids bedrooms they have

complete darkness yes so we want nice curtains we want it to look nice but equally it's got to be practical and we've got to keep that light out that sort of 6 a.m 5 a.m light so i would actually honestly just go as far as to recommend a good blackout roller blind i thought you were gonna say that i do just you don't see them when they're tucked up make sure there's sort of they're very natural in color they're blackout they're still could be the same color as your walls get something really close to the color of your walls and they sit right it's just a little roll it's just literally you know five centimeters diameter and it just sits right up inside your recess so that when it comes down at night make sure it rolls a lot of people get the roll the wrong way around you

want the roll to roll down closest to the window side not roll oh don't let it did it roll in front it needs to be hugging the window because obviously the closer to the window it can be the more you're going to shut the light out so get it okay so we've got the blind but then you can still get the light through the sides i i feel like i am vicky i have been there well no then do you not close your curtains as much so that the curtains act as like the side barriers no i think on it genuinely when you've got your blackout roller blind and then you've got your curtain only other thing you can do that's super stylish that if you're happy to spend a little bit more money get a roman blind blackout roman blind and have that as well

as your curtains but have that outside the recess so fitted nice and high as i always say as high as you can the roman blind and fitted outside of your recess so that you've got no trapped no light coming in at all i think that's the issue my friend it's the recess isn't it it's the light out so could it be that vicky's curtains maybe aren't because if they were longer and they sort of sat further outside the recess they wouldn't be able to chink through right if they were wide well black no because blackout curtains are blackout curtains you can't blackout shouldn't let any light through unless they're just lined and they're not properly blackout but blackout blackout so the only thing i can think is that it's seeping outside the edges of the edges left and right side and then a potential bit out the top

so having something like a roman blind that's blackout over the top of the recess or indeed a little blackout that's in front of the window. Don't forget you've got your frame. You've got your window frame on your left and right too. So when you've got your little roller blind coming down, you've still got a bit of give where the frame is. So that should work. But otherwise go a nice complimentary little stripy Roman blind. So we've got a three-point strategy here you're going

for the blackout blind and the curtains and then potentially a roman as well yeah i mean that's excessive i would just do the roman or the roller fine heading to outside outie outie this one is from katherine katherine is wondering february is now here what can we do out in the garden in february polly thanks so much i love the podcast right Catherine let's do this February is the time when I start cutting back the garden so I am a big advocate of keeping the garden in place for as long as possible so leaving those grasses up and all of the sort of nice seed heads that we've left for the winter that we've left for wildlife now is the time to start cutting them down so for me February is probably the time in the garden where it looks the most depressing because we are taking out all of that lovely swishy winter structure from the grasses which hopefully you have in your

garden and if you don't I highly recommend you put some in so you're going to cut down your ornamental grasses it's also a really good time I know the snowdrops feel like they've only just come out but it's a great time to divide your snowdrops. If you've got lots, it's a great time just to dig them up, whack a spade through them and divide them. It's a brilliant way of just spreading out your snowdrops. Or it's a really good time to buy them in the green. And in the green means that you're not buying a dried old bulb.

They actually arrive in the green with leaves. It's the easiest way to spread snowdrops in your garden is to buy arrive in the green with leaves it's the easiest way to spread snowdrops in your garden is to buy them in the green they can be a little tricky to grow from from a from a bulb so great time to put them in too you can also be pruning your late summer flowering clematis so not the ones that are going to flower very soon like montana but the ones that flowered right in late summer you can prune them now as well and then you can start thinking about dividing your herbaceous perennials but it sort of depends on the weather watch the weather because if we're about to get snow I'd wait until March but if it's at the moment it's incredibly mild you can start digging things up it's also a great

time to move things in the garden as well we get a lot of questions about when you should move things in the garden and the answer is you can start doing that now amazing so busy time okay now on to the stupid question although it's actually not a stupid question this is from dan it's actually she's saying it's more of a fun question than a stupid question but which season would you be and why? Oh, stop it. I love this question. What would I be? Oh, I know, I know, I know. Oh, you tell me. What's yours?

I would be autumn. Tell me why. Because I, by the end of the summer, I'm slightly over the fact that it's just, it's been hot, hot, hot. And I just love nothing more than the colours of autumn when everything starts turning. It gets a bit chillier. I mean, I think after a really long summer, all you really want is to get inside a pub and eat a roast.

You want a roast. I want to put my big woolly socks on. I want to start getting warm. But it's the colours for me. Honestly, the colours of autumn. They are literally my branding colours. I think they talk literally my branding colors that I think they talk to my inner soul like those those rusty reds and the olive greens and all those those are my

colors that's my jam autumn is my jam you're spring aren't you I'm not spring I'm like late I am May so I don't know whether we would class that as late spring because i'm not early spring march can frankly do one you're sprummer i'm sprummer i'm sprummer and the reason is obviously nice to meet you it's when it's a pleasure much obliged sprummer in autumn um it is when the garden is looking its best it's woken up it's all to come you've got months of long summer days and you see all your hard work coming to fruition well yes but it's also i love to get up and make a cup of tea and go wander barefoot in the garden and just have a like little commune with the little bees and say hello and i'd like to chat to my plants sometimes god sound a bit insane but i love it and it's warm enough

and it's light enough and you don't have you know the light it's still getting brighter I think it's just such a time of hope and joy so I am a I'm a sprummer isn't it nice though seasons have that wonderful way of when you you look forward to actually all of them you sort of have this like oh I can't wait for that and they have these moments that you really think about it's like oh I love that I can't wait for that it's the joy of this country isn't it the different seasons Jojo tell me what's in what's out what's in has to be collagen yes yeah ancient and brave collagen for me that's gonna be my my new mission I'm excited to give it a whirl it's gonna be luscious hair sparkling skin but people are gonna stop you in the street what's out pal you give me an out give me an I'm excited to give it a whirl. It's going to be luscious hair, sparkling skin.

But people are going to stop you in the street. What's out, pal? You give me an out. Give me an out this week. What's out? Out, I'm going to say bugs. Literally the world and his wife have been sick over the last two, three weeks. Had enough of it.

I've done my time in bed. I'm ready to live life again. So bugs are out. Sod off bugs. Collagen's in. Out, out bugs. Out bugs, out January. Okay, brill. Thanks, Paul. Love you. Love you. See you soon. Bye. sod off bugs out bugs out January okay brill thanks Paul

love you love you see you soon bye whoosh that's a wrap this episode is brought to you by Google Pixel I'm Jessie Crookshank

I host the number one comedy podcast called Phone a Friend. I also have three kids. I need help making every day easier. So I switched to Google Pixel. It's a phone powered by Gemini, your personal AI assistant. Gemini can help you summarize your unread emails, suggest what to make with the food in your fridge, and it helped me achieve a family photo where everyone is smiling at the camera. I didn't think it was possible, but it is with Google Pixel 9. Learn more at store.google.com. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program,

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