Hot weather plastering

Dad's doing a good job plastering the living room.  On Sunday he went for the ceiling, starting with full boiler suit and all, but the hotter it got...

Stuart did a great job of greenhouse clearing. 
Now we're getting the living room done.  We're going to put the sofa and a bed in there then move in as soon as we can so the insurance is OK.

Mostly we've been mortaring and plastering.  I did the bricking up the fireplace with only one problem when dad noticed I was putting the air brick in wrong. 

The boys are plastering and MG is upstairs ripping up floorboards and tracing cables.  There's a lot to go in round the fireplace before we plasterboard the chimney breast.

good times and bad times

Between the Bank Holidays.

More progress and a little setback.

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The bathroom's been coming on fast - most tiles on and grouted.  Doves were amazing and replaced the cracked basin no bother.  Phew, thanks doves.  Installing it was a bit tricky - a leaking tap connector - turned out dad had wrecked an o ring trying to tighten a joint enthusiastically.  Then a leaking trap because of the waste pipe being wedged too high in the floor.  The shower trap leaked a bit but he sorted that out with his favourite grinder and a bit of sealant.  The nice corner toilet had no problems until we left it overnight last Sunday.  That was when we found out about how water pressure in the pipes increases at night when everyone's taps are off.  Oh and about the toilet design that has the overflow above the level of the holes in the cistern where you fix it to the wall.  Thanks doves. 

Monday evening after work it was sunny and we were cheery as we drove over.  I took the nice clean towels ready for finishing the tiles off.  Good thing too.  There was water peeing through the kitchen ceiling.  It had been for a while too.  So the laminate (not suitable for bathrooms or wet environments) floor was soaked and the underlay was too.  That was the towels wet then, trying to mop up.  After 3 days there's not been much evidence of drying despite heating turned up.  at least it isn't smelly - yet, though that could be relative because the ceiling still exudes eau de pee.

MG joined freecycle and posted the greenhouse on Tuesday.  Wednesday morning there were 13 emails.  weds evening, stuart came around to squirt WD40 on the fixings.  friday he's coming to take it away haha.

Bank holiday surge

A lot happened in the bank holiday.  The cooker and hob are connected and working after a bit of wiggling and threadin wires and drilling extra room in the cabinets.  We tiled the bathroom floor including the plywood base, we bought taps and a shower.  The grout was too dark, so I scraped it out and put white in instead.  I think I've removed my fingerprints though.The taps were reduced at Screwfix and are nice and chunky, in stromg cardboard overpackaging.  Then when we moaned at the woman that the shower we want isn't in the new catalogue, she found the code from the old one and there was one left in the country - so we collected it on Tuesday.  It had to be a built in thermostatic valve and fixed head because the shower enclosure's too small for one of those hose and rail things.  It's Mira so should be good and the valve plate matches the tap shape - kind of waisted.

The bath legs went missing so MG got onto B&Q who promised to deliver new ones asap.  They turned up later where I'd put them out of the way.  Then when we opened the big cardboard box to get the basin out it was cracked: seriously cracked like it's had a Humpty Great Fall. Never mind, the bath fits in place, with a bit of dad's extra plaster removed and the wastes will be in the right places for the kitchen ceiling joists.

Meanwhile, Colin has the new maps for calling Judy (call of duty - its a game) so he is distracted and we're having a night off.

Moving on - minor glitches

The bathrooom is now fully plastered and we're painting the dry looking bits with special new plaster paint.

Meanwhile on Monday the Appliances arrived for the kitchen.  We went for free delivery (spent almost £1000, should have been free anyway).  which means Curry's give you a 4hr time slot if you phone after 9pm the night before.  Great.  So MG is at the house for 3.30pm ready for the 3.45 start and confident they'd be there before close of play at 5pm.  6.30, no sign, so we went over to paint a bit and take over. Dad didn't have the right guide for the router to do the worktop cutting yet either so that job stopped - so no Kitchen Sink yet.  At 7.30 MG and dad left for the Chip Shop.

Tuesday we did some Fitting in the kitchen and a bit more painting.

The oven would be in if the cable had been long enough, and the fridge would have been in if Dad hadn't had a moment of misjudgement and put the skirting board in making the space too narrow for it.  There was also an issue about needing to open the door wider than 90 degrees which meant we had to stop Colin from changing the hinge side.  

Wednesday MG took granma to B&Q to get her diamond card then we swapped a bigger wall cpd for a smaller one and got a smaller base cpd.  The old base will heve to go somewhere else...

Wednesday we got the new cupboards built and the fridge is in.  Yippee.

The kitchen ceiling still has sheets on it rather than a ceiling.  It makes going to the bathroom at night interesting because the light shines up through holes in the floor from the kitchen.  You have to switch the main light off so people outside can't watch you perform your ablutions through the landing window - still no door then.  anyway it is eerie and a bit unsettling.. There are still some stains round the footprint of the old loo.  The hosepipe is our advanced cistern filling device.  Civilisation can't be too far away can it?

Kitchen and Bathroom Progress

Another 2 weeks of work, planning and internet searching and we have made quite a lot of progress.  The bath's here, shower and toilet and washbasin too.  We collected the kitchen units from B&Q - including Weds over 60's discount through granma, then got laminate flooring fromWickes , spent a day putting it in. ..Meanwhile dad has been plastering the bathroom so we have old sheets tacked to the ceiling to protect the new kitchen as we build it from stuff falling through gaps in the bathroom floor.  Like an Arabian Nights Tent.

It's starting to look good.

Hygiene Issues - not for the faint hearted

You may have noticed there is no Kitchen ceiling.
Dad decided there's so many pipes and wires along there, they need identifying and rationalising.

There's also the Smell.  Right from the start there's been a bit of a piddly smell in the house.  We found wee stains on carpets and dog hairs etc, but taking the carpets out and washing floors with a lot of Strong Stuff hasn't resolved it.  Then there was some evidence of a leaking loo upstairs.  We made the cistern leak worse and had to take it out.  We did the flushing with buckets of water from the basin.  When we took the basin out, MG sorted out a hose pipe for flushing.  It was from the only remaining tap - outside on the wall.

The WC pan was leaking somewhere and every time it was used we had a problem.  MG bought a lootogo from Wickes, but dad wouldn't fit it.(waste of time).  That was when we girls started to go to IKEA for a wee rather than sit on a leaky pan in a room with no door facing the hall window with a view in from at least 6 surrounding houses. (we had been pretty tolerant).

All that leaking has made an ominous Dark Stain on the kitchen ceiling joists.  It also corroded the ceiling!
This cannot go on.  We cannot go on either.