One step forward, one back.

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So the en-suite. We were all ready to seal it… and then.

When we installed the toilet, we installed it and used it for months without a problem. Before the rest of the bathroom was even finished, we were using it. Before the shower was installed, we were using it. Hell, before the sink was installed…we were using it.

It was just fine.

Then I installed the bidet – it’s a sprayer with a tee off from the toilet fill connector. It seemed fine for ages.

Then suddenly there’s water coming from under the toilet. Not unpleasant, dirty water. No. This – so far as I can tell is clean water. Initially I thought it was water from Kathryn and I cleaning the tiles. It was just a liiiiiiittle tiny trickle of mostly dried up water. So I mopped it up.

And it continued.

And it continued.

And so I hunted around – the tee valve that connects the bidet is dry. The connection from the wall is dry. The tiles around the toilet are dry. The run of pipe between the toilet and the quarter-turn valve on the wall is dry. The run of pipe between the tee and the bidet is dry. The dry doesn’t have any drips on it. Running my hand all over the inside of the back of the toilet is dry.

I do not understand where this f’kin water is coming from.

I have turned off the water supply to the toilet. It still creeps out, so it’s ooozing out from either the cistern (which we flushed, but which still has about an inch of water in the bottom), or the bowl. Of course – being a single piece toilet it shouldn’t be able to leak from in-between.

So where the hell is it coming from?

So now we’re just waiting to see – when it does finally stop – which bit is empty. If it stops and the cistern still has water in then…we have a significant problem. Although we can unmount the toilet, but because it hadn’t leaked we sealed around the back edge of the cistern…so it’s going to be a spectacular pain in the arse to get it moved.

Anyhow, so there’s that.

We have, however, spent some time at the weekend cutting…the fire doors for the attic! These, plus the bathroom being functional* are what are required for permit sign-off, and they’re done! Well, they’re cut:

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We also cut the pantry door, which is a bit more of a complex beast. I’m going to need to run around the edge of that with the trim router, which I should do before we oil it.

Then, in a spurt of unexpected productivity today – I cut some more skirting boards.

Quite a lot of skirting boards… and other random trim pieces.

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I have, in fact, finally hit the point where I need to get more wood. Which is pleasing, because this stuff has sat here for nearly a year. Possibly more than a year. I also – almost – got up the enthusiasm to do some work on the kitchen shelf. Although for that I need a 2 x 12″ board, which I don’t have yet. But the thought did actually enter my head, which it hasn’t until now.

But, yes. I spent a lot of time today measuring and cutting – and working out what bits I could do without other bits. But now I need to get the wood for the trim around the en-suite bathroom door which is a bit of a complex beast. That and the bathroom (main) also needs trim. BUT – I’ve realised I do, in fact, have a rabbet bit – which is something I didn’t think I had – which will suit (I think) the trim that has to overlap the tiles. The whole trim-thing continues to be a total mare because to get stuff to fit the plaster – I had to plane the backs of the trim that’s around the doors. That means it’s a weird thickness…

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Which means that the skirting boards need to have some sort of finishing corner on them to make them not look stoopid.

We won’t talk about the other corners, because the part of me that knows I should round off the cut end with the 1/8″ rounding bit is shouting louder and more incessantly.

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I keep telling it to shush, and that no-one… *no one* but us will care. But it keeps whining about it. It’s most upsetting and means I’ll probably have to do that too on Saturday, before we can oil these bits of wood.

But it’s quite exciting. There’s quite a few bits left to go, but the stuff we had in the garage has made a big dent in the remaining complicated bits of skirting. After this it’s the bedrooms which are a mare because they’re full of stuff, but less of a mare because they’re mainly just two or three straight walls. A single cut-to-length, then oil, then install.

In other-other news, I finally replaced the temporary wire that ran to our second charger with a new correctly rated wire (the old one was…suboptimal and running near capacity). I also buried it to the proper depth, which was a bit of a mission:

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I also *finally* got around to changing the faulty breaker…for another faulty one. Irritatingly, it turns out that the used breaker I got to replace the breaker turned out to be faulty, and the person selling it declined to take it back (which was only an issue because COVID meant I spent 2 weeks not changing it and went outside the return period). I gave up and… y’know what, I bought a brand new one. From Amazon. Because… well, in other expensive news, it turns out my aged phone is no longer getting security updates.

It’s about 6 years old, and I’m rather peeved to have to replace it because it still seems to be fast enough and works really well. But – I do use it for my job, and so it’s pretty handy to have something with a really good camera. The OnePlus 6 has done incredibly well – producing some astonishingly useful footage since it manages pretty good 4K with stabilization. But… yeah, it’s time with no security updates coming.

So… I took the plunge, and now I wait for the shiny expensive object to arrive. Meh.

* ish

KateWE

Kate's allegedly a human (although increasingly right-wing bigots would say otherwise). She's definitely not a vampire, despite what some other people claim. She's also mostly built out of spite and overcoming oppositional-sexism, racism, and other random bullshit. So she's either a human or a lizard in disguise sent to destroy all of humanity. Either way, she's here to reassure that it's all fine.