April 10, 2011

We have had quite an eventful weekend. We ordered a houseful of new interior doors which were delivered on Friday. And we then hired a super-duper all singing, all dancing nail gun to to put them up. When we went to get the nail gun, the car wouldn't start. And once it did, it overheated. On Saturday we attempted to put the doors (including their frames) up, it turned out that the super-duper all singing, all dancing nail gun was actually useless. The few test nails I tried, either went too far through the wood or not far enough. Great. On the plus side it was only rented and we hadn't spent a fortune buying it. So we went back to the days of old, and used a hammer to put up the doors. And then today (Sunday) we added the trim to all the doors we put up, so we are now ready for the carpet fitters to come and re-carpet the hallway. We were also informed that our replacement basin should arrive this coming Friday, so we can put that into the bathroom and the whole living side of the house will be complete. Result!! We also had the start of summer today as the temperature was near 80F (25C for y'all metric folks). Back to winter tomorrow though.

April 5, 2011

My how time flies when you're having fun. It has been a while since my last post, but once again I have been a busy little bee. We have the second bathroom 99.9% complete. I have 2 small holes to drill and we need to get a replacement basin (I broke one trying to fix a leak). Other than that it is done and ready to use. This includes a posh new waterproof shower system, lots of tiling, underfloor heating, heated towel rail and sliding door. Quite a bit of new stuff compared to the last bathroom. While that has been going on, we have successfully removed all the wallpaper from the entrance hall and repainted it all. We have stripped the banister of its hideous beigeness and it is ready for painting. We have hung the study doors and bought Tanya a desk to match my own. Now that her new job means she can work from home, she was invading my space. We also had a few ridiculous quotes for flooring and replacing our fireplace. And we finally got the radon gas situation in the basement fixed. And the biggest news of all was the purchase of a new car. While not exactly new it is very nice. A 1965 Ford Mustang Coupe. All 289 cubic inches of V8 goodness. 289ci is 4.7 litres to you non-US folk. She has a few issues, but nothing major and we have been driving it around for a month now. That has been us in a nutshell. Till next time.

January 8, 2011

Happy New Year!! Yes I know it has been a while since my last post. But I've been busy... We finally finished the tiling. And with the tiling out of the way the serious business of putting in all the bits that make a bathroom a bathroom could begin. The shower head went in. I had to do some plumbing (proper plumbing with soldering and a blowtorch thingy) to get the bath spout installed. The toilet went in as easy as, well, something getting flushed. And the HEAVY vanity went in. Although the made for looks European bottle trap caused some difficulty and was replaced by a bog standard (geddit?) p-trap. So our bathroom was ready for use, barring a few cosmetic issues (toilet roll holder and towel goody), for the beginning of the year. Since then we have repainted the study, replaced the blinds in the study, replaced the fan in the study and moved my desk three times. We finished painting the walls in the hall outside the bathroom. Hung a door in the bedroom. We have also started to remove the hideous wallpaper in the entrance hall. This will be a tough and difficult task as it is two stories high over the stairs. Hmm, fun! We also replaced the fan in the second bedroom and have the master bedroom fan still to install. I've started the demolition of the master bathroom and am currently left with just the shower floor to pull out. All three inches of very solid concrete. We hired a dumpster to remove all the rubble, so we at last have a garage again. Hopefully I will be able to start working on the new master bathroom in the coming week. I'll see how much I get done before we go to see the frozen Niagara Falls next weekend. TTFN.
PS Check the pictures of the finished bathroom in the link to the right.

December 13, 2010

We have FINALLY made a start on the tiling. All the full tiles have been laid and the cut tiles have been cut ready for bedding in. By the end of tomorrow we should have a lovely new bathroom floor. We have also completed all the painting in the bathroom. And we some how managed to get the vanity up the stairs over the weekend. Damn thing weighs as much as a car, so hopefully when we put it on the new tiles it doesn't go straight through them. We have updated the pictures so have a look and you'll see the start of the new floor.

December 6, 2010

After a short break, we are back in full swing. I collected the doors for the bedrooms and the spiffy new sliding door for the bathroom last week. The new blinds for the bedroom also arrived a few days later. So it was with much excitement that we spent most of the weekend painting and sanding doors. We managed to put the blinds up on Saturday night and constructed the bed frame. The doors for the second bedroom went up yesterday, as did the sliding door for the bathroom. So with the second bedroom 99% complete we have officially moved into a bedroom and my study is a study again. Result! Pictures have been snapped and will be posted in due course. Today was spent putting the floor back into the bathroom, but this time with better screws and filler in the joins. I'll let that set while I paint tomorrow, before the tiling can begin.

November 24, 2010

We're making progress. We have primed all the drywall, and waterproofed the concrete areas around the tub. Need to let it all dry (which will happen while we are on holiday again) and next week we can start painting the walls and start the tiling too. So maybe only another two weeks at most before it's all complete.

November 20, 2010

Much to report this time. We have completed drywalling the bathroom. At last I hear you say. But to be fair, that is one tough job. I can see now why it is one the most contracted out jobs in DIY. We are now onto probably the second most contracted out job, which is the plastering/mudding/spackling depending on where in the world you are. To me, it is the polyfillering in the gaps between the new wall boards. And I hate this part as much as I hated putting up the drywall in the first place.  The other major improvement we have done is on the right hand side of the blog. We now have pictures. Yes you read that correctly. Pictures to go along with all the words. Now I don't have to write so much ('cos a pisha is worth a thousand words!)