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!)

November 16, 2010

In the move to the new site I lost the floorplan of the house. I have just worked out how to get it back again, so for those who haven't seen it, here it is again. The bit in red is the bathroom that all the work is being done on.

November 16, 2010

At last some progress to report. I have successfully put down the new "concrete" floor, and after some serious effort and thinking, I must say it looks rather good. We also started putting up the new ceiling and have gotten half way so far. Given that it is 2 person job, and 1 of them is working, the rest is going up tomorrow night. In the mean time, I plan to attempt putting up the walls and at least measuring and cutting the rest of the ceiling. We had a window company around today to give us a quote on replacing all the windows. 18K. Bit of a large pill to swallow. I am thinking I might put a "donate" button on the site, to raise funds. Yesterday I started the flooring as well as finishing changing the plugs and switches in the bedrooms. I did do some other work, but that effort can be found on my "good housekeeping" blog.

November 14, 2010

Well I have managed to move the blog over to a proper blogging site, where you can and should leave comments. Seems reasonably easy to do. And if you see this message, I can even email my posts directly to the site. Cool no? I forgot to mention earlier that we ordered the new blinds for the bedrooms. They should arrive in a couple of weeks. We also had a message about the new sliding door for the bathroom. It supposedly arrived while we were in the UK. Unfortunately it arrived in many more pieces than is good for a glass door, so they have had to reorder it. It should arrive this week, so I can collect it along with our new cupboard doors and bedroom doors. (These are nothing fancy, just better than the ones we have now)

November 14, 2010

We are back in the US and straight into the DIY. We have successfully attached the bath to the drain with NO LEAKS!! This means we can now start putting the floors and walls down and up. So we have started doing that and so far so good. The only other news we have is that I am probably going to move this blog to a proper blog site. This is so that all you followers can add comments if you so wish. And I know you do. Will let you know how we get on. Obviously.

October 29, 2010

At last. A day where I haven't bled for the cause. Largely because the carpet fitters are here and we are about to leave for the airport. Still I managed to complete the mouldings around the floor and doors before the fitters arrived. The new carpet does look nice though. The chocolate coloured bedroom now looks like the root beer it is supposed to. Still not seeing the earthy cane in the other room though. Well that's it for now. I'll be back in a couple of weeks. Don't miss me.

October 28, 2010

The electrician came and went. Cheaper than originally quoted too, which is always good. We have a new extractor fan installed, new light switches ready for me to connect and some minor work done. Bath drain is still a not connected. Might give that a try tomorrow. Carpet fitters come tomorrow too. In preparation I have been doing the floor and door trims. I have a new found respect for carpenters. Cutting all that wood and getting it to fit seamlessly does take some skill. It helps I guess to have the right tools though. None the less, we have managed to put up almost all the trim. I ran out of both floor and door trim with just a few bits short. I might be able to get that installed before carpet fitters arrive. It'll be a race against time!! Can you feel the excitement?

October 26, 2010

The toilet arrived this morning, so no more trying to aim down the drain. Unfortunately the bath drain leaks so I have undone what I did and will have to try again. Dang! The frame for the sliding door went up as well as some repair framework for the ceiling. Talking of ceilings, the electrician suggested (in the interests of costs) to pull down the ceiling so he can make the desired changes. So I did and in the process I managed to mortally wound my spotlights (my super expensive ones). They still work, but now need to be carefully balanced or else they tip over. 8 bucks just doesn't buy the quality it used to! And we have finished painting the 2 bedrooms now. Just in time as the carpet fitters are coming on Friday, so I have a day or two to put up the new baseboards and door moulding. And that means I get to use my nail gun. Watch out!

October 25, 2010

Not much happened today. Had an electrician around to see how much effort is involved in moving the light switches around and to install the larger than life extractor fan. Comcast also came around to replace a faulty modem. So despite the numpty yesterday telling me that I have a cookies and cache problem (which I've always had) it turns out it is their blimin' equipment at fault. Anyhoo we are now surfing along at a whopping 15Mbps. We think we have the bath installed, but need to double check the drain fits correctly. So we should be able to start putting up the concrete walls around the tub tomorrow. And we started painting the remaining walls in the bedrooms too. So hopefully by the time the carpet fitters arrive, we'll have everything ready for them.

October 24, 2010

Plumber Jim came around Friday and did all the plumbing for the new bathroom. He also fixed the main water valve which wasn't quite working. He helped me lift the 10 ton bath tub out of the way. At which point we discoverd a very dried out birdy. First one of them for a while! And yesterday Bill and Ted Todd came around to help us move the furniture. Good grief! I had no idea our stuff was so heavy. At least now we know why when we move, it is without our furniture. They also helped me move the TTBT into the garage where I can break it up. And because all our stuff is now here in the new house, we spent our first night here. The gas man also arrived at midday so the central heating finally kicked in and we have hot water. Today, Tanya spent most of the day tidying up and making it feel more like home. We have moved into the study while the bedrooms are sorted. But the room is so big, we can also use it as the study. I have successfully removed the studs for the sliding door in the bathroom, and repaired the floor where the plumber needed to make some changes. We also put in the new lighter bath tub, but need a drain to complete the installation. So this week should see us start putting it all back together again. About time too!

October 21, 2010

The gas man tried to turn our gas on last night, but I misunderstood the arrangement, so had gone home. (The other home.) Anyways I have rearranged the gas man for tomorrow morning, so will have plumber guy and gas guy there. Gave bedrooms second coats. Really starting to look good. The chocolate dries really well and looks good enough to lick. MUST STOP MYSELF. Moved quite a bit of stuff over from the other home. Arranged with movers, AKA boys-from-the-workshop-with-big-truck-and-trailer, to move big items on Saturday. Ordered carpet for bedrooms. Hopefully they can install next Friday before we leave for Blighty.

October 20, 2010

Busy day today. I fixed the garage door opener. Had the plumber show up and quote us $1500 to do his thing. Not happy about that but as I think a monkey wrench is for taking the tops off monkeys, it is one thing probably best left to the pros. Carpet guys came to measure up the bedrooms for new carpets. Comcast finally showed up so now we have TV, t'internet and phone. The bagster guy came to collect and I managed to cram a few more pounds into it before he took off. Was seriously worried about the bag splitting and all of my rubble landing in a heap on our driveway. And I did a semi professional repair job on the areas of drywall that needed it. Like where the wall was in the bathroom and the large hole I made when I took the baseboard out the bedroom. One of my best moments that.

October 19, 2010

Not much today. We need a plumber to do his thing before we can do ours. So went shopping for provisions, and with Todd from the workshop's assistance and Vince's van, we managed to get our new bath (HD wanted $200 for delivery of the bath!) and all the new drywall. Ordered our new sliding door as well.

October 18, 2010

We were supposed to have our cable installed today. Waited through their arrival time and got a phone call 40 minutes late saying he was still 30 minutes away. So he is coming on Wednesday. In the mean time I took down half the wall in the bathroom, fixed some of the edges we damaged around the bedrooms, replaced the front door knob.