So off we go on another shopping trip. Just what we need, more money to be spent!
Oh well. Look at our shiny new kettle!
Sunday, 31 March 2013
The Kettle Is Dead...Long Live The Kettle
I didn't realise how annoying such a small thing could be! There's nothing quite like suddenly finding yourself unable to make your first coffee of the morning. Evidently, this leads to me stomping around the house until I get my fix.
So off we go on another shopping trip. Just what we need, more money to be spent!
Oh well. Look at our shiny new kettle!
So off we go on another shopping trip. Just what we need, more money to be spent!
Oh well. Look at our shiny new kettle!
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Catch up...Part 2 - The Bedrooms
I realised that, in all the updating, we failed to mention bedrooms! Let's start with a success story!
We figured that we should tackle the master bedroom fairly early on so that we could at least have somewhere comfy to sleep. We didn't like the existing colour scheme, it was too dark, so thought we'd try and lighten it a bit. We also wanted to tidy the walls up a bit as they were looking a bit haggered!
We settled on a colour scheme and thought we'd try our hand at wallpapering too. Don't be under any illusions, we went for the cheating option and found some 'Paste the Wall' stuff that we liked!
Firstly, we thought we'd attack the walls with some Polyfilla to fill a few holes. Or so we thought. This was the end result of the hole-filling expedition...maybe we should have just replastered!
Painting was next on the list, which went fairly smoothly (pun intended!). Which left just the wallpapering.
We approached this with some trepidation, neither of us having any experience. I'd like to think we didn't do a bad job though!
Having decorated, we then hit a small stumbling block. My brother came to visit the house whilst in town. He walked in the door, took one look at the carpet and announced 'You've got carpet moths!' Carpet-whats? Apparently quite common, this was why large portions of our carpets were threadbare. Great! Another unwanted expense.
The next 3 weeks (ish) were spent sleeping on the floor, with the mattress wrapped in a large plastic sheet, just to make sure we didn't attract any unwanted guests! We made an appointment with Carpetright for them to come and replace all of the carpet in the hallway, stairs and landing as well as all 3 bedrooms. We managed to go for the cheapest carpet they offer and still end up spending a fair chunk of money. We did find out, however, that we had bought a synthetic carpet and that, therefore, we shouldn't have any problems with the moths in the future. Bonus!
With the carpet fitted, we were finally able to finish off the bedroom, construct the bed and properly move in to that room. We had a minor issue with the water coming through the front wall of the bedroom not long after moving in there, but this seems to have been a one-off, having had far heavier rain since and not had a repeat show.
So that's the master bedroom!
The other two bedrooms are a different story.
Bedroom two has, inadvertently, become a dumping ground for all sorts of bits which don't currently have a home elsewhere. Bedroom three had some fantastic woodchip wallpaper, which appeared to have been partially and halfheartedly removed by some previous occupiers. We wanted this taken off completely before decorating, so attacked nervously, crossing our fingers and hoping that it didn't pull any plaster off. A day or so later, the wall was stripped. We needn't have worried, it was plasterboard!
So the plan from here on in? We've got a week off together soon, so are planning to hit both of the remaining bedrooms, aiming to complete the decorating in that time. Only then can we finally furnish bedroom three (the study) and make bedroom two the spare bedroom, ready to receive guests at last.
We'll let you know how we get on and we promise to include some more photos to show our progress :)
We figured that we should tackle the master bedroom fairly early on so that we could at least have somewhere comfy to sleep. We didn't like the existing colour scheme, it was too dark, so thought we'd try and lighten it a bit. We also wanted to tidy the walls up a bit as they were looking a bit haggered!
We settled on a colour scheme and thought we'd try our hand at wallpapering too. Don't be under any illusions, we went for the cheating option and found some 'Paste the Wall' stuff that we liked!
Firstly, we thought we'd attack the walls with some Polyfilla to fill a few holes. Or so we thought. This was the end result of the hole-filling expedition...maybe we should have just replastered!
Painting was next on the list, which went fairly smoothly (pun intended!). Which left just the wallpapering.
We approached this with some trepidation, neither of us having any experience. I'd like to think we didn't do a bad job though!
The next 3 weeks (ish) were spent sleeping on the floor, with the mattress wrapped in a large plastic sheet, just to make sure we didn't attract any unwanted guests! We made an appointment with Carpetright for them to come and replace all of the carpet in the hallway, stairs and landing as well as all 3 bedrooms. We managed to go for the cheapest carpet they offer and still end up spending a fair chunk of money. We did find out, however, that we had bought a synthetic carpet and that, therefore, we shouldn't have any problems with the moths in the future. Bonus!
With the carpet fitted, we were finally able to finish off the bedroom, construct the bed and properly move in to that room. We had a minor issue with the water coming through the front wall of the bedroom not long after moving in there, but this seems to have been a one-off, having had far heavier rain since and not had a repeat show.
So that's the master bedroom!
The other two bedrooms are a different story.
Bedroom two has, inadvertently, become a dumping ground for all sorts of bits which don't currently have a home elsewhere. Bedroom three had some fantastic woodchip wallpaper, which appeared to have been partially and halfheartedly removed by some previous occupiers. We wanted this taken off completely before decorating, so attacked nervously, crossing our fingers and hoping that it didn't pull any plaster off. A day or so later, the wall was stripped. We needn't have worried, it was plasterboard!
So the plan from here on in? We've got a week off together soon, so are planning to hit both of the remaining bedrooms, aiming to complete the decorating in that time. Only then can we finally furnish bedroom three (the study) and make bedroom two the spare bedroom, ready to receive guests at last.
We'll let you know how we get on and we promise to include some more photos to show our progress :)
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Taps - The conclusion?
So apparently the taps weren't quite done!
These tricky little blighters turned out to be the problem! Despite stating confidently, last night, that the job was finished, it turned out that they were still leaking every so slightly.
So today, after getting a couple of hours sleep following my night shift, I decided to attack the problem and get it sorted, hopefully once and for all. Stripping the pipes down again was a lot easier today having had the experience from yesterday. I managed to cut the offending olives off fairly easily and replace them. Add some new nuts to the compression joint and I hoped we were ready to go.
Fingers crossed. Turn the water back on again.....Success! No leaking anymore. Another 20 minutes saw me fit the new plug-plunger thingy (edit: apparently called Pop-Up Waste) and we now have a functioning sink once more.
Do I dare attack the bath tomorrow and attempt to change those taps too? I'm not sure...
Olives. Not avocados, as I have repeatedly called them today!
So today, after getting a couple of hours sleep following my night shift, I decided to attack the problem and get it sorted, hopefully once and for all. Stripping the pipes down again was a lot easier today having had the experience from yesterday. I managed to cut the offending olives off fairly easily and replace them. Add some new nuts to the compression joint and I hoped we were ready to go.
Fingers crossed. Turn the water back on again.....Success! No leaking anymore. Another 20 minutes saw me fit the new plug-plunger thingy (edit: apparently called Pop-Up Waste) and we now have a functioning sink once more.
Do I dare attack the bath tomorrow and attempt to change those taps too? I'm not sure...
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Taps - Who knew they could be so awkward!
Our latest foray in to the world of home improvement has led us down the path of tap replacement.
This wasn't so much a choice, as a decision made for us. Two nights ago, the taps in the bathroom decided that they had served their time and that they were no longer required to hold the water back. So, on returning home, we found the taps running and impossible to turn off without isolating the water pipes leading to the taps.
This has meant that the last two days have been spent trying to buy/change the taps. I have absolutely no plumbing experience, which will become quite evident later!
We decided on some nice, clean-cut taps from Screwfix, thinking that we would replace both the sink and bath taps so that everything matched.
Yesterday was mostly spent removing the old tap...
...which was completed today...(ish!).
Unfortunately, my wonderful plumbing skills ended just shy of a proper job. Having connected everything up correctly (I thought), I turned on the water supply again and, to my joy, watched water leaking from the compression joint in the pipe! Time had run out though, so I had to isolate the water, get changed, have dinner and run off to work, thinking that I could return to the job tomorrow.
WRONG!
As if destined by some annoying little quirk of fate (the one that states "as soon as you can't do anything about the problem, that's when it'll rear it's ugly little head"), I got the phone call from home almost as soon as I got to work. "There's water dripping through the ceiling in the kitchen".... Great!.
Annoyed, stressed and stuck at work, the job fell to the lady of the house to try and fix it. Which she did with apparent ease, with the help of our friend, Daz (Cheers dude!). Apparently, it was a simple case of tightening the compression joint. Makes me wonder how I managed to make the job last for most of the day! Anyway, either which way, I think we now have a working, non-leaking and presentable sink tap.
Not bad for a days work. At this rate, the house might be finished before I retire (in 3 decades time!).
This wasn't so much a choice, as a decision made for us. Two nights ago, the taps in the bathroom decided that they had served their time and that they were no longer required to hold the water back. So, on returning home, we found the taps running and impossible to turn off without isolating the water pipes leading to the taps.
This has meant that the last two days have been spent trying to buy/change the taps. I have absolutely no plumbing experience, which will become quite evident later!
We decided on some nice, clean-cut taps from Screwfix, thinking that we would replace both the sink and bath taps so that everything matched.
Yesterday was mostly spent removing the old tap...
...and figuring out what I needed to do to install the new one...
...which was completed today...(ish!).
Unfortunately, my wonderful plumbing skills ended just shy of a proper job. Having connected everything up correctly (I thought), I turned on the water supply again and, to my joy, watched water leaking from the compression joint in the pipe! Time had run out though, so I had to isolate the water, get changed, have dinner and run off to work, thinking that I could return to the job tomorrow.
WRONG!
As if destined by some annoying little quirk of fate (the one that states "as soon as you can't do anything about the problem, that's when it'll rear it's ugly little head"), I got the phone call from home almost as soon as I got to work. "There's water dripping through the ceiling in the kitchen".... Great!.
Annoyed, stressed and stuck at work, the job fell to the lady of the house to try and fix it. Which she did with apparent ease, with the help of our friend, Daz (Cheers dude!). Apparently, it was a simple case of tightening the compression joint. Makes me wonder how I managed to make the job last for most of the day! Anyway, either which way, I think we now have a working, non-leaking and presentable sink tap.
Not bad for a days work. At this rate, the house might be finished before I retire (in 3 decades time!).
Catch up...The Tale of the Kitchen and the Bodged Electrics
Here's a quick attempt to start to bring you up-to-date with what's already happened with the house.
We completed on the house 6 weeks ago. We turned up to find out that the vendors hadn't moved out yet, despite us having the keys. Interesting (thanks for that estate agents)! After an hour spent at a friends' house, we were finally able to get into the house.
We had always planned to have an overlap with our rented house so that we could try and get the ready before we moved in. "The best laid plans..." and all that!
We got on with decorating the kitchen as we were having our brand new "dream" cooker and a washing machine delivered four days after completetion. It was all going so well and then the "fun" started when they came to deliver and install the cooker.
But before that, here's the quick catch-up video of the kitchen decoration...
But before that, here's the quick catch-up video of the kitchen decoration...
The men from Currys arrived with the cooker and, after struggling for 15 minutes or so, managed to get it as far as the lounge. They came into the kitchen to check what needed to be done to install the cooker and almost burst out laughing when they saw the electric cable lying on the floor behind the cooker cavity. A quick look proved that this had evidently been installed by a complete cowboy who had elected to try and run a further 3 double sockets and a light off the cooker ring. We were swiftly told that they "wouldn't touch it with a barge pole" and that it needed to be sorted before they would come back and install the cooker.
Long story short (because it is pretty long!) it took just over 3 weeks to get the issue sorted. A quick run-down of the identified problems included:
- A dodgy spur being run from the cooker switch, far exceeding the fuse rating;
- No earthing to the water supply at all;
- Wires running under the cabinets, through a damp puddle to the washing machine;
- We found approximately 5 junction boxes under the floorboards of one bedroom, resembling something like spaghetti junction!
- Overloaded consumer unit;
- Most of the sockets in the house weren't earthed;
- There weren't any proper "rings" in the house, just a series of long and randomly winding spurs.
So, the electrics are sorted for the moment (well they're legal and safe now at least). The next project is to rewire the lounge/dining room, once we have managed to move out of it!
And we have finally managed to get our cooker installed...
...so at least we can cook now!
We're still living pretty much in the lounge, but we're slowly getting out!
Monday, 18 March 2013
The Raggedy House
So. Six weeks ago (ish), we bought our first house. 'Citing times..and somewhat challenging it would appear!
We thought we'd been pretty savvy in our approach. We spent about 6 months researching all aspects of buying a house, finding solicitors, surveyors etc. After two failed attempts, we finally found our house. A lovely little terrace, perfect for our first place and (so we thought) not too much work to be done.
Unfortunately, we let ourselves be sweet talked out of certain aspects of the purchase such as electrical and plumbing checks. Oops. NEVER let yourself be talked out of these things if you're really determined to do them. We did, and we're slowly dealing with the consequences.
Which leads us to here. This is our attempt to find some kind of cathartic release for the stress and frustrations. So try to keep up, I'm sure there will be plenty more surprises yet!