Tiled
Posted: Sun 15 March, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work Leave a comment »Excuse the braindump waffle, but I’m tired…
Anyway, the kitchen is now completely tiled. Herself has done a fantastic job with the tiling itsef, and I’ve done what I can with the tile-cutter (something I’m actually good at) and with mixing the tile adhesive.
We’ve still got the grouting to do, of course, but at least we’ve got the majority of the work done now. The only bits that remain are the verdammt grouting, and then having all the kitchen unit doors replaced (which will now happen after our week’s holiday) but when that’s all sorted, the kitchen should be done. And a happy day that’ll be.
A Weekend On The Tiles
Posted: Sat 14 March, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work Leave a comment »During the week, Herself has finished off tiling the walls in the redone kitchen – and bloody good they look too.
It’s taken longer than expected (and there’s still all the grouting to do) mainly because I don’t think either of us had really understood the sheer scope of the project. There’s one hell of a lot of tiles, and some decidedly awkward bits – not least the window-sill, and the wall where the sink is.
But it all looks fantastic – and once it’s done, I’m almost certain there’ll be a couple of photos put up here. Don’t hold your breath though, it won’t be ’til April…
In the meantime, this weekend will be spent doing the floor tiles. Still a big job – the tiles are the same beasts we’ve used in just about all the other rooms, 45cm square 10mm thick vitrified ceramic things that need a proper industrial tile-cutter. Yep, hired from HSS again – I suspect that over the length of the house project, we’d have actually been better off if we’d bought one, but there we go. That’s hindsight for you.
Still, by Monday we should be done on tiling – with the exception of the bloody grout, of course. Just don’t expect much in the way of updates while we’re doing it.
DIY (Again)
Posted: Sun 1 March, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work 1 Comment »Call me sensitive, portray me as a geek with no practical skills, whatever – but I really fucking hate DIY.
This weekend’s effort has been to put on the new doors for all the kitchen cupboards – supposedly an easy job, only for me it’s not. Not helped by the fact that we never seem to have the right tools for the job – this one involved needing to get a new drill bit, because for some reason all our 5mm drill bits have disappeared – which drives me completely crackers, and really gets to me.
The problem with the cupboard doors was that – of fucking course – the holes for the hinges aren’t in the same place as they are on the old doors. Which means either a) drilling new holes in the doors (risky) or b) drilling and sorting new holes in the units. We’ve opted for b), as a) is decidedly dodgy where my lack-of-talent is concerned. Only even that is too complex for me, so it all becomes stressful and annoying.
I’m aware of my limitations on these things – I’m OK with some of the basics, but I’m better as being an assistant (at best) or – far preferable – paying someone else to do the stuff I can’t do.
To me, it’s better to have work done professionally – it saves on the stress, hassle, and crap all round.
Cat Flap – Reactions
Posted: Tue 24 February, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Getting Organised, House Work Leave a comment »Reactions to the newly installed cat flap have been varied – and in some ways, quite funny.
Psycho Cat still has significant issues with it, for reasons known only to himself – he doesn’t like going out through it, but is fine with coming back in through it. Go figure.
Personally, I suspect that he just likes it now that he has people who’ll let the little git out, and he doesn’t want to let go of that.
At the same time, Hound thinks the cat flap is great. It’s magic (in her opinion) when the cat walks through the door – but because it’s also a transparent flap we’ve found that she will sit outside and look through it so she knows what’s going on inside at the same time.
Finally, the neighbourhood cats think it’s great – they’ve got a new place to visit, and they do so. Yesterday we had a visitation from one of them (who we call Bill – there’s two cats, Bob and Bill – no good reason, just seems to work) and he slept the entire day on our bed. Psycho Cat wasn’t amused by this, and Hound did absolutely sod all – she’s a shit guard dog.
With luck, Psycho Cat will soon decide to go out the bloody flap as well as come in through it – and then we’ll be happy.
New Cooker
Posted: Tue 24 February, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Getting Organised, House Work Leave a comment »Today we’re getting the new cooker installed, and finally getting rid of the old shitty electric one.
We’ve opted for a gas cooker, as it’s infinitely preferable to electric. But because there’s no gas supply to the village at all, it means it’ll be fired using LPG bottles outside the house. We’ll see about the efficiency of it, but by all accounts it should work out pretty well.
It’s going to be interesting though – normally Hound would go in the car while this kind of work’s going on, but today my car’s in the garage, getting the brakes checked. At the last service I was told they’d need doing before the MOT comes up – and that’s due in the next couple of weeks as well, so it’s best to get it all out the way before the MOT.
So I’m not quite sure yet what I’ll do with Hound, but I’m sure we’ll work something out.
DIY
Posted: Sun 22 February, 2009 Filed under: Domestic, House Work Leave a comment »I may have mentioned before, I really hate DIY – I’m not massively practical at the best of times, and it all comes to a head when it comes to All Things DIY.
This weekend, it’s been a bit of painting (which I don’t mind in general) and also dealing with skirting boards all round the new kitchen bits. That’s included cutting loads of mitre joints (the ones where each side is a 45° angle) which always bring out my failings in spectacular style. Some of it is down to not having the right equipment (something else which drives me cackers) but even the simple practicality and logic for cutting these damn corners drives me crackers.
We had already got a mitre-block for guiding the saw at the correct angles – but it’s not big enough to handle the skirting boards, so yesterday I ended up going off and getting another mitre thing specifically for larger items like skirting-boards. It’s made the final bits today a lot easier – although I’ve also carved chunks out of the block itself, due to the fact I’m also shit at using a saw in a straight line. We’ve got some other mitre stuff do in the next few weeks, so I’ll probably organise getting something else in place for those.
Still, the skirting boards are done now – and all told the job’s not too bad. In that way, it’s fairly satisfactory – but I still find that for the most part, DIY is infinitely less fun than most people make it out to be.