What a difference a month makes
OK so I’ve not posted in a while, I have been busy but my busyness has been interrupted by a spell during which I wasn’t feeling too well, so really I’ve not had the best month, but really all in all, what a difference a month makes…
Hence my lack of posts.
Things could have been pretty bleak but cunningly I hatched a plan and I took the first week of the Easter fortnight as a holiday and with one thing and another I got lots done. I mean I got lots and lots and lots done… seems that a week free and some crazy self-discipline and one can get oodles of work done.
Being disciplined with work didn’t exactly transfer into being diligent at recording what I did each day, I’ll do my best to list off the jobs I’ve completed but really what do I remember doing in detail.
That’ll be last Sunday then? 🙂
OK so this Sunday, that’s as far as my memory will allow me to go back, what did I get up to?
First of all I’ll cut to the chase, at my previous post I’d just started on my daughter’s potential bedroom and the study. I had the floors up, I had some chasing in progress, they were stripped and basically ages away from completion.
Well surprise surprise I’ve not only just gone and (almost) finished them both.
Gasp…
Yes one month on from starting them and they’re prim and proper and ready for a bit of carpet, some curtains and some second fix electrics. That’s it, insulation down, floors down, walls patched, painting done, radiators in and blow me down they’re done.
That’s a bit of a record in these parts…
So getting back to the Sunday, well what did I do this week? Well first of all I didn’t take any pictures all day so I’ll apologise now that the only evidence you have of Sunday’s work is this text, but hey there’s dozens more piccies of the work done over my holidays to elucidate the work done. The work wasn’t particularly interesting so I was lazy, it did however allow me to get load of little jobs done.
First job of the day was to start painting the door frames then realise that it was a bad idea – the doors will be removed later for stripping/painting so why not wait to do it until then??
I then switched to painting above the skirting boards in the study, I’d done some caulking during the week and it hadn’t turned out well. It needed redoing but first it needed repainting. Once this painting was done it was off around the house with various tins of paint retouching little patches that needed just that little dab of paint to make them good.
So what next, hmmm it was the first lovely day of the year so why not retire to the garden and resolve the problems creating the damp patches on the kitchen wall, this then would allow me to finally fit the kitchen. I’d mapped out the problems internally and mapped them onto the external walls. These patches lined up with a badly fitted downpipe, some bushes and a bit of soil sitting a little high on the external wall.
So into the garden I went… I will point out now though that I was in minor agony all day, my holidays of zesty work had left me with a pair of very painful arms. Whether it was a case of double tennis elbow or some tendinitis I don’t know but extending my arms and lifting heavy objects caused lotsa pain in my joints.
Out of the jobs tackled below try to rate them in painfulness in descending order:
- Cutting down three juvenile trees and various shrubs that were growing way too close to the house, basically undermining and causing drips to splash onto the stonework.
- Dumping them in the twig pile
- Digging out two piles of soil that were building up against the outside walls of the building
- Transporting the soil to the soil pile
- Drilling stainless coach bolts into the walls and fixing the loose rainwater angled downpipe
- Sealing the seal between the downpipe and the angled pipe to the drain with some rather gooey pipe sealant
I reckon 3, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6 is about right, however 1 could rise a position if one were to consider the bit when a twig poked me in the eye, ouchies.
Anyway my arms still aching I moved onto simpler duties.
First of all a trip to Screwfix to pick up a ladder towel rail that was on special offer, followed by a much deserved lunch, yes those six points might not sound like much bit they took three hours.
After lunch it was back on with the damp wall problem, by now the outside seemed to be already drying out nicely so I decided to tackle the damp stains on the internal walls. These had now all but dried out, really they’d only suffered during storm Desmond but I now needed the stains covering and sorting.
So up and at ‘em and onto my trusty stepladder and some wire brushing down of the walls first. The walls had stained, there was some salt build up and a bit of flaky paint so this needed a good seeing-to first. Once this was done it was time for some filling so back to the Gyproc Easi-fill for a liberal application of filler to all the knobbly bits left after my wire brushing. Once this was done it was onto some caulking next to allow the filler to set.
My previous effort caulking the study skirting had been done in haste and it just hadn’t been executed well. Having done a bit of research I was now tooled up with a jar of warm soapy water, a box of plastic gubbins from Screwfix designed for the job in hand, five more tubes of caulk and the knowledge that a wet finger and/or similarly wet plastic gubbins was the way forward to a beautiful finish.
I worked on the skirting first refining my technique as I went on, I found that sometimes the finger was best and sometimes the plastic gizmo worked. I later found best results were a combination of both of the skills, use the gizmo in one direction – flat bit to the wall – and then again – flat bit to the skirting, this would remove all the nasty excess that had tainted the previous job, once this was done a wet finger could be dragged along the job to make for a perfect finish.
By the way the plastic gizmos cost £11 and I’ve been informed that a lolly stick just does as good a job and you get a free lolly in the process too.
Anyway once the skirting was done I then proceeded onto the dado and the panelling, plugging all those nasty gaps.
Once this room was done it was then upstairs to the back bedroom and this time it was skirting, dado and coving.
Another job jobbed and both rooms – well apart from curtains, 2nd fix electrics and carpets – are complete.
I was so happy with my newly refined caulking skills I went to the living room and caulked around the oak mantel where it had been nudged from its original position by a heavy handed contractor.
So with a couple of hours caulking under my belt the filler had now had time to go off in the kitchen.
Out with the trusty sander and fitted with an 80 grit sheet I worked away at my filling. Another 80 grit sheet into the sander and progress was slow, ten minutes in and I realised I’d been sanding without the sanding sheet and my sander’s hook and loop surface was a mess of congealed filler – not good. Luckily thought the sheet of sandpaper still fixed to the sander and quick progress was made on the rest of the wall.
Once I was happy with the results, out came the Thompson’s one coat damp seal paint, this paint was excellent, it covered stains while still allowing the wall to breath. Not cheap but the best paint by far for the job, I’d used it before with miraculous results, I would however qualify that statement with the proviso that the source of the damp be tackled and resolved first.
The paint is extra gloopy and takes ages to apply but once on that’s it, allow it to dry and paint over with your required finish and it should hold off any stains forever, well for a long time at least.
I must add though that I didn’t paint the entire wall, although this paint is great I would prefer to have not have to have used it, so sparingly is the watch word here, use it only where it’s needed.
So that was it, a hard day of work topped off by a steep in the bath, a steak, egg and mushrooms, followed by Match of the Day and some kip. Proper contractor stylie…
By the way you may remember that my lovely Makita drill died at the end of the last post – the last post 🙂 – anyway it wasn’t registered so it was out of warranty, I got in touch with Makita and the lovely man Anthony who replied to my emails recommended I just send it over to them, I did and only just last week it was returned for free and fitted with a lovely new motor.
Makita are brilliant.
Anyway what else had I done the intervening time?
- Cut out the copper pipes under the floor in the back bedroom
- Cleared all of the rubble and wood under the floorboards
- Removed old nails from the joist and bits of floorboard under the skirting
- Lagged all the heating pipes, lagged all the other pipes running through the bedroom
- Tidied up all the existing electrics in the bedroom
- Labelled all the cables going to both the rooms
- Pulled a lighting cable through for use in the utility room
- Lagged between the joists in the bedroom
- Fitted the Caberfloor flooring to the bedroom
- Fitted the last of the flooring to the bay window in the study, lots of awkward angles
- Filled the cracks in the bay with mortar
- Refilled all the cracks with Cementone after the first application of mortar refused to go off
- Lined the joist boxed out section near the air vent with DPC
- Made an insulated lid and lined it for the section above
- Refitted a dislodged brick above the air vent
- Shaved air box lid to size and fitted in place
- Stripped study wallpaper under dado rail
- Filled plug socket chases with final layer of filler – chase in study above light switch a work of art to blend in with paper
- Fitted additional wire mesh to the inside of the underfloor air vent – there is already some on the outside, this is just belt and braces
- Fitted DPC to bay window
- Fitted bubble insulation to bay window
- Fitted panelling back to bay window
- Electrics into back bedroom for pendant light and switch
- Filled lighting chases with bonding plaster
- Removed old pull switch and labelled it in attic for future decommissioning
- Fitted coving in bedroom
- Filled joints in coving
- Sanded all the walls in the bedroom and study
- Steam cleaned the dado rails in both rooms
- Filled bedroom walls and ceiling
- Filled downstairs walls – lots and lots of filling
- Filler took ages to go off, I then realised my filler was well past its “sell by date”
- Trip to the shops for more filler
- More filling upstairs and downstairs
- Stripped the paper on the study bay walls and ceiling
- Sanded walls in study
- Sanded walls and ceiling in bedroom
- First coat of emulsion – skim coat – in bedroom and study
- Bedroom first coat of proper emulsion – White Cotton walls, Timeless ceiling
- Study first coat of proper emulsion – Timeless walls and ceiling, White Mist in bay
- Remedial work on paint that wouldn’t dry, the walls in the bedroom in some places were too cold and/or humid to take paint. Getting the house hot and airing the rooms helped.
- Re-filling walls, re-applying paint over and over and over
- B&Q visit to buy out their stock of Timeless paint, as I was wheeling out my trolley a woman asked an assistant “Where’s your Timeless paint, I can’t find any” ooops
- More filling, especially the bay ceiling and walls
- More sanding
- More painting – second coat upstairs and down
- Fill panels beside study windows
- Take delivery of bathtub – bargain on Victoria Plum
- More painting
- Fixed more cracks in the ceiling
- Painted ceiling again
- Moved TV and stand in living room out of bay window – rather a tough job involving a trolley, stealth and lots of dismantling
- Stripped the plastic secondary glazing from the living room window
- Steam cleaned the study and living room bay window frames
- Painted window frames in bay window in living room – first coat
- Painted window frames, surrounds and panelling in bay window in study – first coat
- Second coat to living room frames
- Re-fitted TV and stand
- Second coat to panelling, window frames and surround in study
- More painting
- Fitted downstairs radiator and hooked up to manifold, tested for leaks and commissioned
- Fitted floor panel under radiator
- Fitted upstairs radiator and hooked up to manifold, tested for leaks and commissioned
- Fitted floor panel under radiator
- Cleaned all skirting board ready for fitting, removed all nails
- Painted up a section of skirting with two coats of Satinwood to go behind the radiator
- Re-fitted the downstairs skirting to the study
- Sorted out the skirting for the bedroom, this was in a much rougher state, lots had to be disposed of and I had to find donor skirting from elsewhere
- Fitted the skirting to the bedroom, fitting in donor parts as best as I could
- Plugged all the holes in the skirting upstairs and down with filler and sanded them back once the filler dried
- Fixed a section of coving that had come loose
- Another coat of paint to the panelling and surrounds in the study
- Tidied both rooms, removed tools and brushed
- Painted skirting upstairs and down
- Second coat to skirting
- More Screwfix shopping
And lots lots more, this is the bits I could remember
I seem to be dropping to bits apart from my arms I’ve recently developed a painful problem related to an abscess I had years ago that may need minor surgery, there’s also the toothsome problem with my gnashers that has involved one rather agressive minor operation and may lead to more. I also have tinnitus that would drive an average man insane too, so not too good all around.
Except
I’m a bit of a runner, well actually I was quite a good runner and a year and a half ago I snapped and also tore a ligament in my right ankle. Lots of scans, physio, hopping and balancing later and I think I’m ready to run again. So this week and last I completed three shortish runs, the last was four and a half miles, it was slow but by George I think I may be cured. The broken ligament will never heal, the tore one will, but apart from surgery there’s ways of getting around the broken one, however with physio and the associated hopping etc. (my toe standing on floor joists may even have helped) I hope that is one step in the right direction and that I may be bounding around like the seasoned runner I was in the near future.
Positive thoughts, now just the other ailments and the bank balance 🙂