Be Excellent To Each Other

If they're good enough for Arnie, they're good enough for me!

Parkside belongs to Einhell. Einhell are a pretty decent German tool manufacturer, but I wouldn't go assuming Parkside is made in Germany, it's more likely to be made in China. Their batteries are not interchangeable.

The thing is with buying any tool, be realistic about how much you're going to use it. Unless you do it for a living or you're a very keen and competent DIY'er, don't go spending £150+ on a cordless 18v drill if all you're going to be doing is bunging a few pictures up once a year, hanging the occasional blind or curtain rail and assembling some Ikea furniture once every two years. Buy a much smaller cordless drill, 10 or 12V for assembly and screw driving, and buy a cheap corded hammer drill from Makita or DeWalt for £40-50. That will drill into most walls more effectively than a £150 18V cordless hammer drill.

Yeah the corded Black and Decker hammer drill I bought 22 years ago is still absolutely fine. Cordless ones were hopeless back then but I don't think even new ones will be lasting that long.

We are buying a negative-chimney!

So far the upstairs is negative, as are the bedroom, wardrobe and airing cupboard walls that were attached. Tomorrow should see the kitchen and dining room become much more of a single open space.

Bonus "how the fuck do you get 2 chocolate blocks behind one plug socket?!" How the previous owners didn't burn this place to the ground I have no idea - that is an excellent visual but nowhere near the worst of the horrors we've found over the last 6 years.

I really wish I'd taken a photo of the *metal* biscuit tin lid that had been used to blank off a different socket... I think the builders are enjoying this process of discovery too much to be honest, there was a definite air of joviality and disbelief when they came in waving that around.

I haven't added the shots of the extremely mummified mouse we found underneath the wine rack when we dismantled it. Yet.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1A4XrzuYzd3scAcPA

Negative chimneys, chocolate blocks? You want to pull hot smoke in to melt them?

It's all fun and games until the Big Electricity Cable is uncovered and oh shit, is that all the brown bit that's supposed to be safely on the inside, but mice have chewed and chewed and chewed on a large section of it?

I mean, it stopped be fun and games when they said "fire risk" this morning and then again later on when it turned out the cut cable being waved around about to be removed was live.

But this might be Actually Serious.

We have now bought negative-ceiling for the kitchen!

I don't understand why people don't pay lots of money to have strangers come into their homes and smash bits out and throw them away more often!

It is genuinely exciting and often hilarious though.

(The photo album is being updated as we go - does now include mummy-mouse, for anyone sensitive to that kind of thing)

1tb external drive for additional backup of my hooky W11 laptop.

Charity shop find. I lovely Batman belt and buckle.

We are trying very hard to reduce the chances of smoke and melting

So far only one person has nearly electrocuted themselves on that bare-copper trunk cable.


Album updated frequently.

Stage 1 is very nearly done! Plaster(board)ing done, plumbing and electrical first fixes done - some holes in the floor need concreting, some radiators and lights need to go in, and some skirting boards and re-hanging a door in the bedroom!

Then we join the back of the queue and start planning the new kitchen layout.

Corner unit and bookcase. £1.98 the pair. Boom.

When you own a van, Facebook Marketplace is your oyster!

I might go back into the furniture business.

...

....

I get the drawer.

Nuke the site from orbit.

An anti-bought for me - I told Helen I want buy a vacuum and she told me I'm not allowed.

Madness.

That sucks

The second one I've bought. What a pain in the arse they are to fit.

And so much for a '10 year life.'

More Heat!

A spade.



Those pigeons won't move themselves.

Some decent modelling files.

A PO-35 Speak

Again, I don't know what that is... but I want one.

That’s what I’ve always liked about you, Kern. You’re not afraid to tell it like it is.

An entire new ceiling for the living room. Can't show you it as it is now covered in plaster.

"Tencho"-tencho-tencho-tencho

Very much so.

Surely, ceilings are usually covered in plaster, until they're painted or papered over.

They're great for scanning bar codes as well.

Whoaaaaaa...... why didn't anyone pick-up on the picture of a windmill and a suitcase full of money to the right of the front door?

WTF?

You always plaster the board, even if you're going to paint and/or paper. Otherwise you can't ever strip it back properly and have to replace it all when you have to fix eg just the ceiling, because you can't tape the seams.

There is no "simple" job in our house because of this.

We have bought An Tap!

Just the windowsills, shelves and brackets to sort before we're ready for the builders arriving late May to rip everything below the ceiling out!

A Roland 303 clone.

I think we need an intervention

Looks like it either gives you indigestion or the shits.

Behringer use those terrible photos on all their product blurbs, that “Paul Rudd” above is good, but the best is “Ron Perlman”.

How much are they?

Do you want Tall, Venti or Grande?

Which is absolute bollocks anyway as it’s famously a distinctively sounding one trick pony

New running shoes.

"Virtually," eh?

Those are nice..

... if you're 5 years old.

Someone get this man a custard cream, STAT

A Rhubarb and custard, surely.

I weighed my new running shoes and they were considerably more than the claimed ten ounces, coming in at a whopping thirteen and a half stone.