Be Excellent To Each Other

I have a friend who bought a roll of PAT stickers because they erre going to take his office kettle away.

MaliCool

Connection box, 'leccy tape and duct tape I guess.

Pleasingly*, the increased water pressure has caused the old tiles to come loose in the bathroom. So hopefully we can sort this out soon. We have the stuff ready to order, just need to check availability of the workforce.

* lie.

I know, but if I just say "I need to PAT your kettle" people look at me funny.

I've gone through power cables a couple of times. Biggest wake up was when I was moving a consumer unit in a basement (only about an inch so it would fit inside a cabinet we were making). My workmate said "don't worry about that metal bar beneath the RCDs, that's the earth bar". It was the live bar... I touched it with the bit holder on my cordless drill, cue very loud bang, big flash, screwdriver bit spot welded into the bit holder and a blown 60amp fuse from the external mains feed.

Yikes. I drilled through a mains cable with a spade bit once. Thank God for earth wires!

Floor tiling has commenced

Waited three weeks for the sealer to turn up for the walls... This bathroom is taking a while but I can only be bothered at the weekend. I think it'll be awhile before I can muster the enthusiasm to hack off and re-tile the family bathroom

So as you've probably gathered Joans and I have put a new kitchen in the house in Stoke.

This is what it was like when the tenant moved out:

And now...

Shouldn't'vealllwed Joans near the electrics

Then we ripped it all out:

The bar is to attach the wall units too as we bought a Metod kitchen from Ikea.

All units were quite easy to assemble and the wall units went in first.

the doors opened and closed and everything!

We then started on the base units to the right hand side.

We'd still got the sink in up until this point, but it was time to come out as we needed to put the extractor in and carry on around that wall.

We did the new cabinet to go around the electricity meter and then the base units underneath there.

the next job was to start on the worktops. We had to start on the right because of how they were set out, and the second one had to have the holes cut out for both the hob and the sink unit.

You jest, but he had to put a plug on the hob and a plug and cable on the oven!

Then it was time for the finishing touches, doors, handles, tiles and an oven.





We think that from start to finish it's taken us about five days, we've really enjoyed it the only downer has been the travelling really and the time it takes. We've learned so much for the whole experience and are both hoping to do it again in the not too distant future. We need to finish our own house off first though (we're making more progress on the utility this weekend, so I'm sure there will be pics to follow).

That's superb!

Thanks Mali, we're both pretty proud of it.

Looks excellent. Can you do mine next?

I'm sure Mali will help you.

Awesome stuff!

"Can you see the wall behind the tiles? No? Right. Job's done".

I had to patch our bathroom tiling.

Seamless.

Decorated my living room, new storage from IKEA..

All this because I bought a new sofa.

Your house is amazing. Are you floaty?

I'm sure I saw that sofa at Gaz and Jem's. Well, similar. Do you all like giant red squishy sofas around there?

My photos do random things.

Yes, you did

Oh, the actual same one? Hahaha, ace.

Don't worry, it's not your pictures. It's the forum. Gaywood said so.

Try not holding it that way

Excellently, that would work

Good old, Steve. He knew his stuff.

Jazzy, can I hire you and Joans to come and sort my kitchen? I really like that.

Do you mind me asking how much it cost? Gaz is on about redoing our kitchen and bathroom before we inevitably sell but I'm not sure if it's worth it (cost vs limited increase in value)

I'm all out of kitchen fitting for the forseeable future I think (unless you want to move a lot closer to us anyway).

I've probably forgotten some stuff, but off the top of my head (and consulting a spreadsheet) :
Base units and worktops were from ikea - about £750
Wall cupboards were also from ikea, but purchased separately, maybe £100?
Sink, hob and extractor were all off ebay, just under £200 in total.
I think the oven was maybe £200, but we seem to have left it off the spreadsheet (note to self, put oven on spreadsheet)
Electrician to put a plug in for the extractor, gas fitter to connect the job and someone to supply/lay the lino - £60 for the gas fitter, but we seem to have forgotten the rest.
Probably a bit extra for little bits and pieces.

Definitely sub two grand, unless I've completely forgotten a few things or got the prices wrong, but probably closer to £1700.

We paid about a grand for fitting for our kitchen last summer, so you could probably get a similar kitchen done for less than £3k.

GJ will definitely tell you that a good kitchen will help sell a house, so if you think it needs doing (ie someone viewing your house will want to do it soon), then I'd have thought the increase in value should offset the cost of getting it done.

Bathroom is easier though

That seems financially viable, although the idea of Gaz and I fitting a kitchen ourselves is hilarious, so we'd have fitting costs on top....

What do you mean? The last two I've fitted have been fine.

Depends on what state your current one is in really, what kind of price you want for it (the house, not just the kitchen ) and how quickly you want to sell. If it needs doing then you are much more likely to get the price you want by getting jobs like that done, otherwise be prepared to knock off the cost to buys plus some more. One of the other arguments is what the market is like in your area. When my sister moved a couple of years ago, they put a new kitchen and en suite, there was nothing really wrong with them, and doing it didn't increase the price of their house, but there was some competition with other properties on the market in the same area and they wanted theirs to both stand out and sell quickly (be one of the favorites if you will). Seemed to work too.

Don't know if this counts, but the Grim... family just baled and shifted about 2,000 bales of hay with a 1960s tractor, a 1950s baler, a pair of 4x4s and two little trailers.

About 500 to go tomorrow.

All of me looks like this.

Hairy?

Overly challenged by perspective?

Yes. Yes.

You really do have tiny tiny wrists don't you? Like a little child

Do I? I've not noticed if I do.

Come to MeatUp and we'll have a wrist-off.

Normal human sized wrists and huge Gruffalo like forearms.

Fucking baler stopped baling, so here it is at the edge of the field watching better balers and thinking about how shit it is.


Here's the "new" baler, which is still from the seventies. The tractor is from 1991 - practically brand new!


I hit up an offroading chum for some heavier bale-transport ordnance. Fuck me, modern defenders are terrible cars. You can see Mr Grim... snr in the background!


And here's what your hat looks like after a day of lugging hay bales around.


All done until next year!

Here is a bonus picture of a fucking useless "dog" with a thorn in its paw.

Ouch.

Fucking hay.

Looks like you had fun.

The people came and took my sink and bath and shower!