What a feck up

Never claimed to be good at DIY and never claimed to be decorator. In fact Dean the decorator has banned both me and Jay from cutting in the paint - we're allowed to roller the walls as long as we stay away from the edge!

Couple of months ago Lee suggested painting the en suite ceiling before it was tiled. Totally misunderstood the watering down for new plaster instructions. Read it as 10% water, should have been 10% paint.

If you do it wrong, it is well wrong and peels! Unfortunately it doesn't just all come off in one go, some sticks, for ages.

So basically we have to strip it all off so it can be repainted by an expert (Dean!)

Yesterday morning Jay started with sandpaper, yesterday afternoon we power tooled up. Today I spent a couple of hours after work.

I reckon it may take another half day between us.

If it was just a ceiling would probably have been done by now. But no, it's an attic ceiling, so 5 different surfaces and many, many angles.

So we both ache, I cough and we both have sore eyes.

Lesson learned. Please take note.

PS Corian blog will follow when we have the energy.

Deploy the Sentinels!

Quick post from me today as Al's working a 12 hour shift!

Still knee deep in paint up there this week, but hopefully will get finished after the weekend. I was up there today putting coat number three on the gazillions of shelves in the storage room (which seemed like a good idea when I thought of it, but hate with a passion after all the painting!)

Daniel was working in the kitchen - he fitted the dishwasher, and spent probably over half an hour lifting the microwave by about 3 millimetres so it was in perfect alignment with the warming drawer. You really don't get that kind of finish with a high street kitchen!





Wondering about the title of this post yet? Another thing Daniel did today was to fit the hot tap. This is the little gizmo that works as a normal hot and cold tap over the sink, but also provides instant boiling water doing away with the need for a kettle. The tap part reminded me of one of the sentinels from the Matrix - hopefully it'll be a bit less destructive!

Corian work tops are coming tomorrow, and the last few cupboard doors have been ordered. Apparently they can't be ordered before the appliances are in , because there's a chance they could be a millimetre or two out if the ovens aren't exactly the size the website says they are.

Have we mentioned what a perfectionist Daniel is? I'm not complaining though - I really can't wait to start using my perfect kitchen!

Plaster dust, painting and perfection

One of big annoyances at the moment is dust. It's everywhere. And part of the problem is the builders haven't taken away lots of rubbish. One vacuum has been destroyed. Someone appears to have used it to suck up water! No idea if it went bang, but it's gone to the scrappers. Currently have two bag less ones on the go. Have to clean the filter every few minutes, otherwise the suction dies.

Jay's been painting. To be fair we both have, but I had to work today, so Jay's been on double duty.

Apparently Dean the decorator turned up today. A fast worker compared to us. So glad of his return.

 Jay has discovered that paint is magic. If you use it enough, the paint brush will eventually stick to your fingers.

 Ovens are in. The doors open themselves and slide in underneath. According to Daniel one is a few mills out of line, so it's going to be adjusted.

Also the cupboards either side of the wine chiller, are slightly proud, so they've been whipped back to the workshop for adjustment.

Good to have someone that wants to do a proper job.

Six hob burner. I know someone who's looking forward to that.









Hopefully in this month. The garden has been planned and booked in, hopefully July. You never know, we could be having BBQ's in August. So progress is being made. Hurrah!

Kitchen is a coming

The kitchen fitter started yesterday.

He lost his phone, thought it was stolen by the bin men. Phoned his mother in law, the only number he knew. She would ring the granddaughter who in turn would ring his wife. He was not expecting a response as his mother in law wouldn't be clever enough to pass on my number.

She was. I got a call from an 0300 number, it was the fitters wife. Everything cancelled. Walked up the road to tell him. He was relieved.

Went up later to see them at then end of the day. He'd found his phone in his van. Made me laugh.

 Looking a little skeletal yesterday.

Beginning to take shape. The Corian work tops will be measured for next week. Only two required, one in front of the window. And the other for the island, which will extend out this end, for a breakfast bar. Corian has to be very carefully measured as it can't be altered.

A wall of all the appliances a cook could want. Ovens, microwave and warming drawers.

And a rack for the red wine.

Not to be outdone a wine fridge, built into the island.

The ends will not be open, they're going to have curved doors. Shelves tend to be dust gatherers and not suitable for storage.

Side by side large cutlery drawers, every utensil you could possible need all to hand.

2 Pan drawers below each.

Ovens, fridge and larder behind and hob to the right, everything you need is easy to access. Probably get Jay a spinny chair and she can do everything without standing up.





And the chippies handed back their key, after fitting the bannister. Just after we gave our last key to the kitchen fitter.

Fire! Fire!

Roll on winter.

We now have a fully fitted log burner with traditional oak beam. Feature wall and white internal to be painted.

Supposed to be have several small burns, about 20 minutes each, just to settle it in.

Apparently cleaning and painting comes first. Boo. I like fire.

Sometimes it's crap - a post by Al Mac

Today we virtually finished the doors. We virtually finished the architrave.

No we didn't. We've worked our socks off for several days. But to be brutally frank, the place looks shit. Sorry Jay, I know your laptop doesn't like naughty words.

It seems like however hard we try it doesn't move on very much. The builder has gone on his holiday. Fair enough. But there is so much "rubbish" left. Is it really rubbish or needed moving on, or should it have been binned already?

I feel tomorrow is another day and if I don't remember paying for it, it may be binned. But the bin is already full!

It is now wine o'clock. Cheers x

Storage

Most homes homes don't have enough storage.

This is the cupboard off the front room. Currently housing carpenters stuff.

It's for CDs and DVDs. We currently have 11m of them. The new storage is about 20m. It's also going to store all the games console extras. Not forgetting the laptops. And of course the messless charger.

Basically the front room is going to be tidy. Very tidy.