Be Excellent To Each Other

BUT THEN WHAT.

Number 1 is sorted, they taped a placky bag over the shitter hole but not the bath hole, so into a jug then carefully poured away. Apparently evenly massively dehydrated and only needing to go enough to bother testing, my bladder holds a litre. MAN cutting off (or restarting into a much smaller target than you're used) mid-stream doesn't ever get easier does it?

It seems that yesterday I may have drunk more than I had thought.

New bathroom is here! Old bathroom is all gone*!

Putting the former in the latter is paused while some steel rods are epoxied in to try and stop the somewhat concerning "exterior wall moving away from interior wall" state of affairs that has been uncovered!

* Plasterboard is a tosser and I want nothing more to do with it.

£60 extra for Readymix? Fuck that, we'll do it ourselves.

Obviously the Grim... family uses a vintage cement mixer.

Fifty years old (maybe more), a decade since it last moved, and it started first time!


Pro finish!

Nice work. I massacred the back hedge this morning in an attempt to make it tidier. I seem to have just cut a hole in it.

That looks really smart, Grim!!! that's some really impressive workmanship

It appears I am going to have to fix my overn :/

What's up with it? If it isn't heating up any more then most likely the element has blown. It's piss easy to replace.

What are you making there Grim..?

Fan has gone. And as it isn't made for fanless operation, it can kill the element rather speedily.

And as there don't seem to be any straight replacement parts, I have to hope that the generic unit will work.

Don't forget that one of my many jobs was as a builder. And, to be honest, it's really quite easy.


There's going to be a lean-to around it for a car.

My toilet is loose and leaking. Great

More fibre should fix that.

Malc

I didn't know you'd ever worked as a builder. Well, you've retained some awesome skills. You're clearly very handy!

You need to read my origin story: viewtopic.php?style=19&p=601926#p601926

Good read, that

Aw, that feels like a really sincere and personal post Grim... And I think I'd have liked to have known younger Grim.., too, he sounds quite sweet and at some times a bit lost, and it's kind of heartwarming to know that you've felt that way before finding your footing.

I feel I may have been a little drunk when I made that post.

at 12:27pm?

I fear it was from the night before.

Don't make an excuse, you big softie. It's actually really nice when you can see and understand a person beyond a persona.

Shut up, we have internet personae for good reasons, you idiot.

The boiler will only respond for demand for heating for about 90 minutes after it has been power cycled. Given it makes stuff hot and the thermostat on the wall is new, I suspect I need to change the PCB and thermistor. Which is about £100. If that doesn't work then I will probably get a man in.

sounds like a safety cut off, check that first. They can get faulty over time.

Mini-diy update: I finally got fed up enough with the amount of light getting into my bedroom at night, so I slung some blinds up.

From this:



To this:



Now we just need to see how well it works at nighttime.

(Yes, the old curtains are tucked behind the blind. It looks odd but gives maximum light protection. I may take a staple gun to the fucker around the bottom)

I'd imagine that would work quite well at night seeing as it'll be dark outside... Just a thought.

Wait... What? You put the blind over the top of the curtains?

I spent a big chunk of the weekend preparing the box room for its transformation into a proper Man Cave. I have: demolished an old built-in cupboard (built in with 8 inch screws. I mean WTF?), lifted the carpet and underlay, fixed the squeaky floorboards, stripped the wallpaper and sanded, filled and washed the walls.

Still to do: Lining paper, laminate floor, paint lining paper, install blind, put up posters of ladies with no clothes on*

* that last one is subject to approval.

Yes, the old curtains are tucked behind the blind. It looks odd but gives maximum light protection. I may take a staple gun to the fucker around the bottom.

I have recently paid a fortune to have blackout blinds fitting in both mine and the kid's windows. BEST THINGS EVER.

Really? It only involved four holes (and some cutting, but that's because I was too tight to have them made the right size, to be fair).

Ikea do cheap and effective blackout blinds, that can also be used as very cheap projector screens

Blinds on top of curtains is... interesting, i'll give you that.

The pro blackout blinds have channels down the side don't they? No side bleed. The ones I installed in the kids rooms have no such frippery and stop most of the light.

Have visions now of these blackout blinds whirling around in your window alcoves.

They could easily go behind them, but more light gets in. They don't need to be pretty!

Is the name of your sex tape.

These were made to the right size to fit inside the window, fitted (which in itself would have been a twat because I have ridiculously hard-to-drill concrete walls)

I did buy some IKEA blinds but they'd have had to sit on the outside, or cut down to fit and that's just too much faff.

Shut up I'm tired

Is the deeply disturbing name of your sex tape.

I made some curtains with blackout linings for our bedroom a couple of years ago and they really do make an amazing difference.

I have just bought some new fabric to make a new pair, as I've seen some fabric that will look lovely once finished, but the old set will also be perfect in the nursery.

I ordered the blackout lining yesterday (10m... Anyone who has been to our flat would agree that it is mostly made of window...) so I'm looking forward to getting those made and moving the 'old' ones into the other room. We've been decorating in the nursery all weekend. I have completely re-painted to freshen it up, Russell has done all the gloss work (talking of which, has the formula of gloss paint changed a lot in the last 10 years? It seemed to have no noticeable smell of fumes... I remember having to cut onions and place them around the room to get rid of the smell (it didn't actually get rid of it, just covered it over with the smell of onion.

I've ordered a huge whale mural vinyl sticker set from Mothercare, and we have a load of whale/nautical themed things to go in once it is finished, including a couple of quilts i am making with whales and narwhals forming the quilt block.

Got the large chest of drawers built, which should be the only fiddly piece of furniture to deal with. It's all so pretty, lighthouses and whales everywhere

So, next up is a few more rows of whales on the quilt and to get those curtains done, but it will totally be worth it.

I too have thought that about gloss paint.

Still hate painting with it though...

Yes it has. Something to do with volatile chemicals and the environment. You can of course buy acrylic based gloss nowadays which doesn't really smell at all. The worst paint is floor paint though, you need to wear a vapour mask if you're using that.

How is the arm these days btw?

I got three of the neighborhood children (friends of my brother) to paint the floor when I was in London. They did a great job and didn't want anything for it, and they thought it was fun.

Now I see why...

Short answer is "getting there". I can work again, but not full time. I currently have about 50% flexibility in my wrist and strength in my hand, but my wrist is weaker. Strength will come back entirely, flexibility is likely 90-95% but that's going to take a few more months of physio. Thanks for asking.

We took the roof off our house the other week. Not the whole roof, just the tiles, felt and battens. Boring building control reasons as to why, but now it has a layer of insulation over the rafters, breathable membrane, counter battens, tile battens, six roof lights and tiles to half of the roof. I spent the last two days off work tiling and putting flashings on around the roof lights. Biggest DIY project I ever want to do...

Aw man... I painted a room and just put up a whale mural... and now that feels significantly less awesome than someone who has re-roofed their house.

Well done on super-big diY.

Why does the back bedroom often smell strongly of soot and smoke? We have not had a fire in forever and next door are all gas. The chimney flue that runs through the room is not used But joins in the loft with the flue that does (think an upside down Y).

Ghosts.