Be Excellent To Each Other

...

That's an interesting point. If you showed up in a General's get-up, what would happen?

Replied elsewhere.

As for my bathroom, I've got a couple of months to agonise over tiles and flooring. And then go for beige.

Go for a Batman themed bathroom like mine..

Pfft. If ever I needed someone to built a proper latrine, I know where i'd turn

DBSnappa, clearly.

Or maybe Flis.

Not had to do anything recently. It's all been small jobs like plumbing and I leave that to our landlady's property manager (he's OK I guess). I did have to do some quite extensive work when we moved in, though. Our flat is right on the beach. Like literally about 100ft away but more importantly it's within walking distance of both mine and Mrs JC's doctors and psychs. This is something incredibly helpful to us. Any way, so we decided to take the flat but there was one caveat. The kitchen had seen water damage. Firstly the outer wall of the building is slightly damp, so all of the plaster was removed from the wall above the sink (looking like shite) and secondly the dude upstairs had had a leak and there was a hole in the ceiling.

To make matters worse our landlady (who is so tight you couldn't drive a needle up her ass with a fucking jackhammer) decided it was a good idea to take some nasty very early 90s kitchen and simply stand it in place. So I decided that given we could be here for many years I would sort it out. Obviously I'm no plasterer but I am good with wood and P&D. This took me about two days. I fitted it on treated 2x3 and fitted caravan vents at each end so it could breathe. I got the tiles for the splashback free and all in with the marine ply I spent about £90.



The cupboard on the far left end wasn't there either. I found that under the stairs along with another one I fitted. I also found the sink cut out counter so cut that and put that on the top then edged it with a smaller timber. It's since (the edge) been glossed.

The ceiling (hole free woo)



The finished window.



Then it was time for some fun



Wrap the kitchen.





I'm not so good at papering so I had a guy come in and do that. Then we got a folding table that goes on the wall and some 50's red diner chairs.

Obviously it's not perfect (was never going to be at less than £150) but it's clean and presentable. We've got a load of old number plates etc on the wall above the sink now.

Quotes for the bathroom are in! It's all change for the toilet, shower, sink, floor and tiles because trends change and avacodo doesn't. I suspect we will go for Bloke Number 2 as he will even plaster! He's also the cheapest. Bloke one wanted £1k more, but plastering is a plus plus and Bloke 3 was more than twice the cost of bloke 2. I fail to see what value he can add except for more expensive taps. I have assumed that the quality of the work will be constant as it is only joining pipes and tiling and I would do it but MrsA would just mumble about getting her dad in to do it and then he'd get grumpy when I told him it was shit so variables will be equipment and floors and I don't think it adds the value all that much past a point and if I wanted to be happy in a bathroom I wouldn't have to have a bath with The Child because she's fucking weird.

Is punctuation not MaliCool anymore?

Not when I am having a grumble, no.

My mate's missus spent £700... on a tap!

A fucking tap!

SEVEN HUNDRED POUNDS.

I mean... it's just a tap.

Is it a gold plated Monster tap?

I once spent £100 on a tap. Worst thing I ever bought, half the time it wouldn't let any water out, you really had to force it.

For that money, it'd better be connected to the Internet, have multi-coloured pimp lighting, and dispense hot and cold running champagne at the touch of a button.

Our kitchen tap was over £150 I think and it's fucking crap. The enamel is coming off and it's shit to use. Obviously should have spent an extra few hundred quid.

It's one of those waterfall dealies.

Like this:



but 10 times more expensive

DISCLAIMER: I haven't seen this tap in person. It may well be the best thing ever.

Or... a tap.

It looks stupid and impractical. They pretty much nailed tap design over a century ago.

That looks pretty cool. Sadly, given the hardness of the water here in the Shire within a week it'd lose its chromey charm and be a limescale-ridden silt mound.

Our kitchen tap has one of those type valves where you lift it for flow and move it left and right for temperature. Trying to get water that's a certain temperature e.g. for hand washing is a daily annoyance.

Subtle.

I love those - perhaps I'm just good at finding the right position immediately?

Usually, I say save money on the porcelain provided it isn't too cheap and spend a bit extra on fittings. However, do some research as there are all kinds of expensive shit out there. So, with this in mind, don't buy funky shaped toilet pans as you may find it difficult to source replacement spares such as seats etc, at a later date. I'd also avoid plunger trap/tap sets, you know, the ones that have the plug built into the trap and it's operated via a lever on the tap body. They always fail and usually pretty quickly. Go basic and use a plug. Wand operated mixer taps, as has been pointed out above, aren't worth the aggro.
If the bathroom is upstairs, make sure they put waterproof ply on the floor and not bloody MDF. Put Hardy Backer around the shower enclosure before tiling and cut the edge of the bath into the wall if the floor boards are a bit wonky.

Too obvious.

It's almost like I choose the words I use very carefully.

Yes, you were too obvious in the set-up.

I dunno - people still put non-mixer taps in things. I struggle to work out why.

See, much as I like mixer taps, I think in instances in the kitchen where you have to run the cold tap for 20s to get cold water after running the hot are a huge water waste.

You must have the longest pipes on earth. I don't think I've ever had more than two seconds before it's back to cold again.

Wait, in mixer taps it's done at the tap - so the only place that water should need to travel before it's 100% unheated water from your pipes is the length of the tap!

Yeah the water that's in the bits of pipe that are inside the house will be warmer so it does get colder as that runs through but that's got thing to do with the tap.

The tap would carry some residual heat from the hot water and transfer it into the cold water, but it would a pretty small amount and get cold really, really fast.

I suspect it's more to do with cooling the tap body down and residual heat from the pipes being placed too close to each other. Our boiler is in the loft...

The water from our rinsing sink has started pouring through the casing on our garbage disposal unit, tripping all the electrics.

Being the manly man that I am, I got my big spanner out (oo-er missus) and pulled the garbage disposal off (snort).

Then I unscrewed all the water pipes to check for blockages. After clearing out some gunk, cleaning down the garbage disposal grinding plate and putting it all back together everything worked again!

Then I ran some water again and the house turned off. A man will have to be called.

You have a garbage disposal? Do you live in America?

It's absolutely amazing. I would not be without one now.

Plus it's called The Insinkerator!

What's a garbage disposal for? I've never really understood the concept. I mean they're useful in films of course to make you dig your nails into the palms of your hand when someone starts poking their fingers into one to 'fix' it, but what do they do in real life?

They're fantastic for making a huge noise, stinking up the house and breaking.

All our food waste goes in it, peelings, teabags, etc. It means the main bin never has anything in it stinking away, and it chops it all up and flushes it away down the sink pipes.
Mr Dave - they only stink if you don't keep washing the waste away, and this unit has been installed here since 1991 according to the receipt, so that's not a bad track record (especially as it's probably the pipes that are the problem, not the unit).

In summary, the insinkerator is a must have.

Yeah, you have to bear in mind the one we had was 'looked after' my my mother. Who has an extreme aversion to cleaning.

Joans has been busy sealing the flat roof today. Nearly done!

Looks a good job, Joans!

Does he not have minions to do that ??

So I've got this great big Shadow of the Colossus poster and I've purchased some clear plastic poster holders (surprisingly expensive shit). I'm intending to cut the poster down into eight pieces and shove it on my kitchen wall for the lulz.

I've a feeling this is going to be a disaster so I'll chart my terrible progress here.

Poster plus poster holders.

Done. Weren't so hard.

Now to drill holes and stuff.

Bah. No drama.

Going up on the wall. Still time for last minute fuck ups!

In fact, looks a bit wonky on the right. HNNNGH.

More measuring and holes.

Screwing stuff in.

Just gotta slide the bits together and we're done.

And we're done! I've scratched the paint a bit sliding the bits on but I can get some touch up paint to sort that out.

Whatcha think BeeX?

Further back.