Fiona's Project.

Wednesday 14th of February 2018.

My daughter in law Fiona and family moved back to Derby from Cornwall late last year.
They bought a four bedroom detached house in Oakwood than needed some alterations and TLC.

I volunteered to help - there was the deadline of a month before they moved in !!

Floors upstairs first.

All four floors had the same laminate and all new Taurus skirting.

                                                              Main bedroom

                                                               Second bedroom

                                                                Guest Bedroom

                                                          Fourth / Walk in Wardrobe.

Additional work -

All upstairs doors off then made to fit properly.
Storage cupboard in main bedroom sagging shelves supported.
Radiator in fourth bedroom rehung and leak sorted.
Major leak in main bedroom en-suite shower found and sorted.

Built in wardrobe in the second bedroom - doors removed - casing remade properly - doors rehung - to a good fit this time and a door stay fitted to the left hand door.

Downstairs -

Integrated dishwasher fitted and wine cooler installed - plinth made up from redundant panels + a small infill piece made and fitted.
Water pipework and a double socket behind the dishwasher moved to fit the dishwasher in properly.

The conservatory was cold so we decided to fit two radiators in there - fed from the feed to the dining area radiator - micro bore !! - but we tried it any way - IT WORKS !!!

Plaster chopped out behind the skirting - just enough room to hide all the new pipework.

A big hole drilled through to the conservatory - skirting off - chopped out behind and all piped up - mainly in copper - just the bit through the wall in plastic.

Skirting back on - nice and neat.
A lot of work but worth it - nice and warm in there now.

The garage is now the utility room -

I installed the washer and drier on a 300mm  raised plinth to make it easy to load /unload.
installed all new pipework and waste pipes.

Removed lots of rickety / odd shelves and installed fifty feet of heavy duty plywood shelves with lots of brackets - a solid job.

Made up a Dog wash station from a small shower tray - thermostatic mixer and a shower head with a trigger.
All tiled back splash and sealed up properly with non setting mastic.
I devised a PVC foam board front splash guard - removable on magnets works great !!
A used cupboard and worktop from another part of the family - for dog grooming and dog stuff storage - remade and renovated it.
It even has a powerful dog hair drier !!
Fiona is very pleased with it all !!

There were numerous other little jobs -
Fitting new lights in the dining area.
Making the Bi-fold doors to the lounge work properly.
Fitting the American style fridge freezer and piping up the water supply.
New radiator in the downstairs loo.
New towel rail radiator in the main bedroom en-suite.
Re- fitting skirting in the lounge.
Making the lounge / hall door fit properly.
New lighting in the lounge.
Working with the decorator - taking lights down - banister off and back on etc.
Dodgy wiring in the main bedroom sorted.

Still oddments to do but they did move in on time as planned.

It was a busy run up to Christmas to say the least !!

Mike.

Almost Finished At Barry's House.

Friday 9th of February 2018.

                                                                   BEFORE

                                                                  AFTER


I am very pleased to say that after months of hard work the renovation of the front of Barry's house is complete.
I am very pleased with the result - it might just be the best looking house on the street ?

The list of work completed -

New gutter brackets and gutter sealed up properly.
New gutter on the porch roof.
All the window locks repaired.
New porch roof.
New timber cladding.
Porch roof flashing replaced and done properly.
New PVC cladding between the upstairs windows.
New PVC sills under the cladding.
Rendering repaired ( Barry )
Masonry repainted  ( Barry )
Fascia boards re-painted.

A lot of work - to say that I only signed up to fit a boiler !!

The last job for me on the outside is to replace the rotten sills between the upstairs windows at the back - ( next week ).

Other jobs completed here in the last 12 months -

                                                   Before                          After !

Replaced a back boiler heating system with a new combi boiler and smartened up the airing cupboard a bit !

All the heating system flushed out - a magnetic filter installed - new thermostatic valves on every radiator.

All the loft tanks removed and made good.

Heating loop refill valve + instructions made accessible.

New thermostatic shower in bathroom fitted / electric shower removed and made good.

New drain from boiler in heat proof solvent weld pipework + all new drain plumbing in the bathroom + new brass bath and basin wastes.

New toilet and basin - all new plumbing and waste - new towel rail radiator + vinyl flooring taken an inch up the wall all round ( as in Denmark ).

Bath re-sealed with CT1 ( good stuff ) and new seal to shower screen + reset hinge.

All the tiles with cracks or redundant fixing holes replaced.

A tiled box made to space the toilet from the wall to miss a floor joist with the waste pipe.

Boxing in done with PVC foam board and made removable.
Plus window reveal clad in PVC board - all silicone sealant scraped off  (everywhere ) - plaster filled.

All upstairs door frames repaired with inserted hardwood sections where the hinges were ( shot)
Four new doors fitted.

All the gas pipework in the house upgraded and replaced.

New gas hob in the kitchen with flame failure.

Reclaimed kitchen cleaned / made to fit and installed.

Shelves in the kitchen.
Missing and broken tiles sorted.

Disgusting kitchen plumbing and electrics sorted.

Horrible cooker wiring replaced / re-tiled + under cupboard LED lights made and fitted.

Cat flap through the wall removed / made good / tiled and new skirting + new radiator.

Air brick installed - water supply / power and vent installed for tumble drier.
Water to outside tap made good ( hose pipe originally ) !!!

Base units and washing machine installed with an extra small cupboard in the corner.

Cooker hood vent piped up under the bedroom floor and vented to the outside.

Laminate floor laid in lounge and fireplace installed ready for gas fire renovation.

Badly twisted lounge door renovated by adding hardwood stiffening to the top edge - re-glazed one panel and made to fit.

Original hall floor Laminate removed and re-laid in the porch - new laminate floor laid through from the lounge to the front door - new skirting.
Hall wall damp plaster under the radiator chopped out and replaced with sand and cement.
Hall radiator re-plumbed with pipes sleeved with PVC through the wall.

Plywood door made up for cloakroom under the stairs.

Existing Bi fold doors to kitchen renovated and rehung properly with a new kit.

Front door renovated ( joint opened up ) filled and painted.

Hall - stairs and landing walls stripped of paper - plastered where needed - filled and sanded multiple times until good enough to paint. ( took weeks ).

Completely re-decorated right through the house with Jackie's help.

Really nasty crack in the main bedroom chopped out - PVA glued - filled with sand and cement - plastered and sanded - Gone !!

Unsightly strip of wood removed from main bedroom window - plastered - filled and sanded.

Laminate floor laid to all three bedrooms and landing.

Aluminium trim fitted to the top stair tread.

There has also been lots of little jobs - light fittings - sockets sorting out - roller blinds plus hours and hours of cleaning / hoovering + 25 trips to the tip in my poor little car !!

I have really enjoyed the whole job and am quite proud of the result.

The jobs outstanding now are minor - should be wrapped up an about a week.

Its been a busy year !!

Mike.

February Update

Monday 5th of February 2018

Since the last post - 

The holiday went well - ate and drank too much - lots of sunshine - great place - I feel rested.

A new year thing - cutting down on food and drink - its working - I have lost quite a few pounds so far !!

Fiona's project - I made and installed the dog wash station - she is over the moon with it.

I still have odds and ends to complete but no rush.

Barry's project - back on site two weeks ago - the nasty plumbing problem sorted - a good result - laminate floor - part removed and now relayed - paintwork to touch up - pretty good.

PVC cladding -

Shiplap 150mm wide pinned with stainless pins and the edges with a neat trim.

The hardest part of the job was getting the heavy fibre cement panels down on my own.
I rigged a rope block screwed to the fascia board - lifted the panel - then slid it down the ladder - it worked but not easy.

I still have the right hand one to do - but I have already removed the panel.

I also installed new PVC sills under the cladding.

Workshop project -
The one job that I have managed is to remove the wood burner stove from my unit in Sheffield and install it in the workshop.

It is a 1950's Romesse stove in cast iron that I bought on Ebay about 8 years ago.
It is a rare "Flat Top " Romesse typical of the ones in signal boxes - the flat top was to boil a kettle.

In Sheffield the stove suffered from water seeping down the flue which heavily rusted the top section.
So much rust that I thought it must be very thin by now.
For that reason, I bought another Romesse on Ebay,  ( £50 ) that had a traditional top section in good order - but when I came to install my old stove I realised that despite the rust it was better in every respect than the newer one !!
Needless to say - I have installed the flue here so that no water seeps down onto the stove - it should last another 100 years or so now !!

The new one can be restored to good order and re sold on Ebay at a good profit.

It is now lovely and warm in the workshop which has helped with painting my current project.

Note - I'm burning all the scrap floor boards and skirting saved from all the work last year !!

Dinghy for Blazer project -

This is a very old sailing Dinghy that I bought in a hurry - then found defects that needed attention.
So this winter - on the roof of my poor little car - to derby and into the workshop.

I have removed the moulding for the keel board and glassed over the hole.
Changed the thwart ( seat ) for a new piece of Larch.
Re built the transom with an Iroko motor mount board - Oak gunwale reinforcement and all glassed heavily to the buoyancy chamber ( it was flapping around before !! )
I have added a water tight box for engine tools and spares + an anchor.
I have also added a pair of little wheels to the stub keel to help launching.
It has had three coats of household white gloss to the outside and one coat inside so far.
I also added an inspection hatch to the buoyancy chamber to dry out the saturated foam in there !!

I am very pleased with it now - I still have to -
Re fit the heavy rope fender right round.
Buy and fit vinyl lettering ( T/T BLAZER )
Get it back to Essex before someone pinches my spot in the dinghy rack !!

All for now - Mike.