With a substantial amount of effort there is now about 50% coverage of tiles. I remain terrified that they will crack and disintegrate as soon as I walk on ’em. But that won’t be ’til tomorrow.
However, the result is that my back wants to kill me.
It really does.
I think it may have teamed up with my knees to take out a contract on my brain. When I’m a little less sore, I’m thinking I’ll start work on the tidying.
But first, some news. Wow, those US lesbians with their gangs, and their guns… soon there’ll be no men left…. what do you mean it’s entirely made up?
Anyhow, on to the topic de jour, prevarication. I got Brick serviced by a very nice garage who I’m actually planning to use again to sort out the oil leak *and* sort out the wheel bearing, because, frankly I’m done doing car maintenance for a while. I have the house, the job and the bike all calling for more time than I have; so the car, the car can be done by someone now I’ve got a garage I trust. And I trust them more now.
See, on the list of advisories it had ‘heavy oil leak’ (which is true), and ‘rear brakes low’ which is probably true, and ‘Clutch cable needs replacement – badly frayed’ (along with the wheel bearing being ‘slightly noisy’). So I ordered a wheel bearing and a clutch cable… And they sat in the lounge, then they sat in the corridor. And I prevaricated. Did I book it in *now* or next week? Should I do it myself? I prodded at the do it myself option and didn’t like it, so I left it…
Today I finally decided I would do it myself. Remarkably there was no swearing, even when the circlip disappeared down behind the ‘carpet’ on the driver’s side. There were several utterances about how insane Vauxhall are. But 2.5 hours after I started the car has a new clutch cable. And not a moment too soon; I see now that they weren’t joking when they said ‘badly frayed’. Of what appear to be 8 or 9 strands (each made up of many smaller strands) only two were intact, and the cable looked terrifyingly thin. Next time they tell me something’s in need of replacement real soon now, then I shall believe them :-)
So, maybe I should order some brake shoes, but that really *is* a job I could and should do myself. *sigh*.
Not today though, because once I’ve had this cup of tea over here, I shall be commencing the tile-a-thon in earnest, brand spanking new RCD in hand (or at least, plugged in). And roll of kitchen paper for my nose which has either taken offence to the dust (I suspect, ‘cos it was lousy yesterday), or has rediscovered hayfever because today it’s hot-like-woah. Actually, that’s not *strictly* true, because it is in fact bearable outside. And inside almost pleasant. But the weather is being it’s usual inimitable and unpredictable self; having gone from cold-wet-torrential rain over the past few days to tarmac-meltingly-hot sun today.
I’m hoping it’s dust, because new filters are en-route for the dyson (and actually looking at them, that might explain it’s lack of suck, but I still feel I should give it a once over) and a pack, an entire pack of bags for the Aquavac/Goblin. I never had this problem when I used the Hoover Junior all the time; it just worked… ‘cept when it needed a new belt… ‘course it did cover the room in dust, but hey.
Or at least, sometimes it feels that way as I plod on working on the house.
Anyhow; status is thus:
– Finally finish off internal bathroom plumbing….postponed until the floor’s down. Although I did attached the last of the pipes for the sink; so when the brackets are done I can pop that up and plumb it in.
– Finish screwing down the floor boards.
– Obtain and put up the last baton for the faux end wall in the shower.
– Put up the Cement-board wall (Aquaboard) that makes up the faux wall.
– Screw down the wood (on the floor) which marks out the section that’ll be boxed off (with plumbing inside it).
– Start and hopefully finish putting up the shower door.
– With a bit of luck I might even get to commence the tile-a-thon this weekend. That would be really nice… Because again, it’s an ‘end in sight’ moment.Â
I’ve started the tileathon, only insofar as to lay out the tiles, I need an RCD before plugging in the tile cutter but I’ve decided where the ‘full’ tiles go and where I’m cutting… Now, it’s been a while since I laid tiles so everyone wish me luck; but for now I am going to have a shower and try and wash some of the gunk off me. I spent some time today sweeping up – that room was so dusty. Even after three attempts I still had huge amounts of dirt to sweep up. I would have used the hoover but the builder’s split the bag and I’ve not got around to ordering a new one.
Although I’m gonna get a bunch of bits; new bags for the aquavac and new filters for the venerable DC01; which I’ll also have a go at de-fluffing, because I suspect it’s full of crap.
From the list:
– Finally finish off internal bathroom plumbing; I know I keep saying it’s more or less finished, and it is, it’s just fiddly jobs left. That’s the problem though; they’re fiddly, like, the pipework for the bath taps – I need to know the height of the taps… And the cistern valve. It won’t be completely finished, ‘cos I can’t fit the shower plumbing until the shower’s tiled. And I can’t fit the bath taps until the floor’s tiled. And I can’t fit the sink taps until the sink’s attached to the wall…
– Finish screwing down the floor boards.
– Obtain and put up the last baton for the faux end wall in the shower.
– Put up the Cement-board wall (Aquaboard) that makes up the faux wall.
– Screw down the wood (on the floor) which marks out the section that’ll be boxed off (with plumbing inside it). I’ve bought the wood for this
– Start and hopefully finish putting up the shower door. (doing this nearly killed me and nearly resulted in me being the proud owner of 200 quids worth of bent aluminium and shattered glass)
Not in the list but done:
I’ve stripped the paint off one of the sink supports. There’s one more to do…
“Things I have found dead in my garden”
Following on from the dead magpie, the dead unknown bird (that’d fallen down the chimney breast and is now partially mixed in with the sand and hardcore forming the little section of path I laid) we now have the dead rat/mouse (I suspect it was a big mouse, rather than a small rat) which I found out in my garden today.
Why do they all come *here* to die?! I lived in Bristol for years, and I think I found one dead mouse in the garden in all that time…
In other news, my work(ing on the house) clothes (which I finally decided to wash) aren’t dry yet.
So, the very nice people where I used to work gave me rather a nice gift card from HMV to spend money. So today, after listening to more Lucky Soul and feeing faintly Meh I decided to collar that gift card, log on to HMV.com and spend spend speee… oh.
It turns out that you can’t *actually* spend money from the HMV Gift Card at the HMV online store. This is frustrating because the CD I want is probably not going to be available in Slough’s shonky little HMV, so I’ll probably have to order it. And I bet they won’t have the DVD’s I was going to nab. Grr.
If they’re separate companies it’s bloody cheeky to run them both with the same name, and if they’re not then how hard is it to link the systems together? Not very? The card has clearly got an individual number and you can bet they don’t store the amount left on the card (otherwise it’d be dead easy to defraud them) so…. uh. Staggering lack of competence.
Course it doesn’t say that anywhere *obvious*.
I shouldn’t whine. It’s free money. I’ve also got a tenner to spend in M&S courtesy of a rather nice patient. I may go and buy a new bra. I’d like lots of new bras, but one’s a start.
I have had one of those faintly meh days. That pretty much describes it perfectly; despite variously being quite happy and quite down during the day, overall I just feel very meh. I have no idea why, probably hormones playing stupid buggers again. I have, however, been bad. I spent 8 quid on myself. I don’t really *have* 8 quid to spend on myself, but I’m fed up of the car and the house getting all the lovin’; so I bought myself Megatokyo 5, and pre-ordered the fourth Scott Pilgrim book. Especially since it seems I shan’t be off spending money at the VVOC this weekend. Still, Brick needs a new clutch cable, so driving bloody miles in ‘im’s not really the best plan.
I shall be exercising my right to not work on the car again, and he’ll be off to the garage. Hopefully I can find someone to steam clean the engine bay ‘fore he goes, then I can sort out that leak. Uh, get them to sort out that leak.
I am slowly accepting that there’s one of me. One of me that needs to spend some time doing Emergency Dept skills, and renovating the house. The car can be looked after by this garage for a bit, and the bike just needs two bolts putting in (if we ignore the top speed of 50, at least for the moment).
Anyway, I fear tomorrow’s going to be another long day. I hope to:
– Finally finish off internal bathroom plumbing; I know I keep saying it’s more or less finished, and it is, it’s just fiddly jobs left. That’s the problem though; they’re fiddly, like, the pipework for the bath taps – I need to know the height of the taps… And the cistern valve. It won’t be completely finished, ‘cos I can’t fit the shower plumbing until the shower’s tiled. And I can’t fit the bath taps until the floor’s tiled. And I can’t fit the sink taps until the sink’s attached to the wall…
– Finish screwing down the floor boards.
– Obtain and put up the last baton for the faux end wall in the shower.
– Put up the Cement-board wall (Aquaboard) that makes up the faux wall.
– Screw down the wood (on the floor) which marks out the section that’ll be boxed off (with plumbing inside it).
– Start and hopefully finish putting up the shower door.
The shower door is a bit of a project in and of itself. The instructions are deeply insane; on side A it lists each item and gives it a number; then on side B it says things like “Attach (7) using (14) and (23) ensuring that (9) and (1) are parallel and located firmly in (42) and (24). Locate (7) at 90 degrees to a perpendicular surface and press home (29)”. It also shows the thing arriving completely disassembled, which it ain’t. Ah well, I’m sure it will all make sense. I’m slightly unnerved because I have to screw it in to the lath and plaster wall; and I’m really not sure how strong that wall is, but hey; I guess I’ll find out. The problem with lath and plaster is that it’s not like plasterboard where there’s special huge-n-chunky screws that you can put in to support stuff; no, instead there’s nothing. No one talks about Lath and Plaster anymore… *sigh*.
With a bit of luck I might even get to commence the tile-a-thon this weekend. That would be really nice… Because again, it’s an ‘end in sight’ moment.
As a side point; today I took blood for the first time; apart from having the sharps bin too far away and touching the area I’d just cleaned it really went rather well. :)
See, thing is I have to avoid ranting. I want to rant, sometimes. Like when I came home from work having looked after the person with back pain that radiated around to the centre of their chest… they’d been to see the GP with this pain, and he’d said he’d check it out at their next appointment…
…although that doesn’t beat the GP who informed the person suffering severe central chest pain radiating to their left arm that they should leave the surgery and ring 999. Never mind the handy ideas such as a nice ECG, throwing some oxygen on, or administering even some asprin (hell, I have that in my *car*).
So I tend to leave it ’til I’ve got rid of the urge to rant, or at least minimised it, because otherwise this’ll become like Nee naw, or Random Acts Of Reality, only without the quality of writing that those guys bring to the topic.
So we’ll skip over that; although I have to share that I’ve started doing venepuncture. Which is fabby. Now I can wear my ‘Tapping the Vein’ teeshirt and it really will have a double meaning.
On the subject of music…
recommended Splashdown a little while ago; and I have to say they are fantastic. I’ve been listening to the Stars and Garters album a lot; and also both Redshift and Blueshift. Free music, ‘s pretty cool eh? That faintly leads onto film (it really does), and I saw this link about reactions in Texas to Sicko. Maybe free universal healthcare is going to finally make it’s way to America. And about time.
Uh, what else? Well, what’s been keeping me from updating, apart from obviously working my ass off at work and then working my ass off on the house, has been, well, the house. The bathroom continues, if not ‘apace’ then with as much alacrity as I can manage. I kind of overdid it today, but the benefit of that is I just need to go and get one more hunk of wood and then I can start aqua-boarding the faux-wall at the end of the shower. Once that’s done… well… then I might as well commence tiling. Although right now, commencing sleeping is quite high on the priority list.
[8 days]
So, ‘m off to work in about 10 minutes; I’ve got to find the place that my training course is tomorrow before I go to work so hopefully 5 minutes’ll be long enough.
My random thought is that when I started this project (the house), I made a stupid promise to myself; that I’d not have more than 2 rooms in progress at any one point; because that way lies DIY madness. But of course, that’s only really true if you’re redecorating. You can’t apply that rule to a house; so I unbitched at myself. I’d been thinking, ‘gah’ because I’ve currently got the existing bathroom in bits, the new bathroom in bits, the spare bedroom-come-office in bits, the lounge is about 80% there (I’m going to have to redo the floor, but I now now a lot more about flooring!) and the bedroom (main one) is going to have start coming apart too, as is the floor in the kitchen…
The reason is fairly simple; if you’re redecorating you can kind of restrict damage to that room, and it’s fair enough to say ‘do no more than one room at once’; the only reason I’d accepted two was because some jobs need other people to come in and do them, so while they were getting on with X, I thought, I’d do Y.
But when you’re renovating a house, there’s systems that run to every room that have to be dealt with. In this case, the central heating and the electrics both need dealing with. I can’t connect up (and have fitted) the combi boiler until the day that the central heating is more or less finished. What I may do is cap off the bit that needs to run to the downstairs ones, so that I can just run the upstairs stuff for the moment. But even to do upstairs I have to have the floor up in the bedroom, in the bathroom (actually, that can go down soon). But anyway, I should stop whining to myself about the chaos in the house; it’s really not very avoidable.
That’s not to say it won’t start leaking in the future. But at this moment… *goes to check again* the only thing that’s leaking is one of the compression isolation valves which I threw on to test whether the pipes leaked. I am astonished. I rock.
My house is, however, now home to a hideous cludge:
Yes, that is in fact a hack to get water from downstairs to upstairs before I start attacking the downstairs plumbing. Clicky the picture for a couple more progress shots…
The other thing I did today was go down and charge my mum’s Enfield. It turns out she can’t get the charger connector on, which is somewhat of a bugger; although I might try slathering things in silicone lubricant, since I’ve got some, and see if she can then. But it’s very stiff, even I struggled. This did, however, involve rearranging the garage; the best (albeit temporary) solution we’ve managed to reach is having the car half in / half out.
This obviously won’t really *do* as it’s meant to go on charge for 8 hours from flat (although it took only an hour and a bit today to switch off). Having poked and prodded around the car some more I’ve discovered that it doesn’t appear to have it’s original controller; which is somewhat of a surprise, and that it comes with the front cover of the log for the research project of which it was part. Anyhow, more Enfield and related pictures here. My mum’s already talking about getting more range and fasterness with bigger / more modern batteries and a better controller. She’s not even *driven* it yet!
Still, the MOT’s booked, so hopefully we can get down there and get that done :)
I also took a few random flower shots, so you can get them here…
So, work was tiring and I am waiting for my bed to welcome me into it’s warm fluffy duvetlicious folds, but until that becomes a reasonable thing for me to do (reasonable in the sense of, oh-christ-I-need-to-sleep-right-now-but-it’s-way-too-early-so-I-shall-wait) I’m hanging around.
Which mean that I checked e-mail and discovered that a world of awesome has been posted to me in a jiffy bag. A little spot of supreme awesomeness; yes,
What would be super-nice is if my nipod would reappear. I’ve no idea where it’s gone. Then all I’d need is Kathryn to be back, the bathroom to be finished (although for the first time in a while I really felt like I’d made some (significant) progress today and we really are creeping ever forward), someone to mail me the road waffles book, the new Scott Pilgrim to come out, the Viva to get an MOT, and if someone could pop the two allen bolts in the ‘zed, that’d be a great help…am I asking too much?
I am, incidentally, really tired.
I delayed leaving work today to do a burns dressing; having spent much of the day waiting for ‘stuff I could do’; at the end of the shift we went from having no jobs needing doing to 7 people who needed to be sorted. So I did the one I could do, discharging that patient and making myself feel somewhat better about leaving… even if I did end up leaving somewhat late.
Anyhow.
So that was my day :-)
I have faint feelings that I was going to write more, but I’m too tired and the world is making little sense.
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