Mostly lemon based

Category: General

  • Contrary to my own expectations

    After a solid hour of lying, eyes embedded in various bits of pillow, I declared that my eyes were better enough and that the weather had cooled enough for me to endure the outside world; or at least, if not, to achieve something inside.

    Fortunately for me, clouds were scudding across the sky, and the sun hid behind them; so I headed out to Halfords to find me a new bike battery (the one on the bike is quite definitely not well – to be fair it’s well up to replacement, I make it at least 4 years old, and it’s been flat (for long periods) more times than I can count) and, well, I’d rather not spend days relaxing waiting for the RAC/AA. So, yeah, that and some spray paint to spray the welding on Brick.

    So off I toddled, and I came back with, amazingly, a bike battery and some spray paint.

    I’m not sure when playing with hideous chemicals became un-fun, but frankly, filling the battery was less enjoyable than I care to recount, sulphuric acid as I recall being quite unpleasant. At any rate, it was filled, charged, and attached to the bike. The bike now has working brake, indicator, and other lights, a new brake disk (which I can’t bed in, because without an MOT…I can’t get tax…and I can’t ride it anywhere to bed the new disk/pads in. Poot).

    Uh, and the car? The car has been spray painted. Quickly, not particularly tidily, and y’know what, I’m going to ring that garage and get them to sort out the oil pressure switch and if it needs it, pump. And y’know what else? It was still bloody hot out there.

    At any rate, in between doing these jobs I also nipped to B&Q and got the junction box, because I wanted to extract the wiring from the bathroom-to-be (currently still a spare bedroom :-) ), this involved removing the socket from that room.

    I now have some plastering to do.

    And I remain unimpressed with the standard of the ‘professional’ rewire. Although at least, the guy who did it has daubed on the many cables that go into the junction box where they go (I need to correct one of them now!). The new junction box is to maintain the ring main, without the socket. I may be able to dispose of it when I’ve got more floor up; I’m hoping so; but at the moment it’s a neat solution.

    I’ve also switched the light switch in the spare bedroom from a wall-switch to a ceiling mounted pull-cord. At some point soon it’ll become the bathroom (I think, when there’s plumbing in there); and so before that I’d like to get all the wiring in… I need some hazard zone 1 lighting though. While I was in B&Q I did have a bit of a stand by the air-conditioners. I am weak, but not quite that weak. Wait until I’m working nights and have to sleep in the heat of the day…. then I’ll be weak.

    Anyway, I also got a concrete specific drill bit, so that pipe should be out of that damn wall quicker than you can say ‘uh, get out the damn wall you evil pipe’. I also got some grey pipe; so it will ‘match’ the other soil pipe. Although I *think* I needed some solvent too, because it’s a solvent joint at the soil-pipe end. But hey, that’s a job for another day. I do need to work out how to remove the globe-taps though, I presume they’re threaded – and that the doojit that attaches to the lead pipe is separate? Anyhow.

    Yeah, can you tell I’m not sleeping well at the moment? With the vague wandery posts? Right. So, what I did do though was work out that the pipes, the copper ones, for the heating, they are not quite as long as would be convenient. So I will probably cut them in a slightly odd place, so I can avoid having two joins next to each other. Uh, and I raised a lot of floorboards. Well, not ‘a lot’ perhaps. But several. There’s now just two between me and all the floor that needs to come up being up. That’s the positive. The negative is that I need to take up the floor I laid so I can put the heating pipes in; that’s what comes of improvising something to do. What I should do is plan. Or more accurately, write down my plan.

    So, tomorrow sees the bike back for a second MOT; and hopefully a pass. And then the keys back to the rental place, and then the Kate for a Doctor’s appointment.

    I’m sure you’re all thrilled by this information… :)

  • No, actually, it’s too hot.

    So I was going to try and sort the oil pressure switch, but it’s *way* too tight, and I fear snapping it. So I am actually going to let a garage handle it. And the service, because quite frankly 31.5 degrees C  (89 degrees F) is too hot for working on the car. Really, too hot. It’s too warm in the house for me anyhow (around 28 degrees).

    Aircon anyone?

    I did get the switch onto the bike, but I can’t check it terribly easily because (our survey said) the battery is flat. So I’m gonna charge the battery until say, early evening, and then try and make progress. I’d go for doing stuff in the house, but frankly, my eyes hurt. So I’m going to lie somewhere and feel faintly sorry for myself. And tomorrow, we shall attack the GP.

  • Ouch :(

    So I’m meant to be doing the car, my plan was ‘service the car, fit the new brakelight switch, if I get time carry on with the bathroom’. Unfortunately, I slept like crap – it was too hot (I had the fan on, which probably didn’t help with…) – and my eyes were sore; so sore. I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror, it looks like I’ve not slept for weeks; my eyes are a vivid red – closing them hurts, opening them hurts. I *seriously* need some different meds, and I suspect, eyedrops from the GP.

    I’m hoping they’ll refer me to the allergy clinic, because the drugs don’t work anymore… Basically, every time I go they put me on different drugs, and every time they work for a year and then after a year they stop working. I should, if I’d’ve thought about it, have switched to one of my other meds that I’ve got kicking around from previous prescriptions.

    Anyhow, so I went to pick up the Viva yesterday; there are artists in this world, and there are also people like Elmyr de Hory; and the chap who welded the Viva – clearly a talented metal worker; the quality of his panels is incredible; it’s beautiful. Unfortunately, like the work of Elmyr de Hory it’s also fake. The patches merely hide the rust, they don’t cure it. Still, it’ll do for a few years, and it stops people falling out of the car ;-)

    Hopefully it also means that an MOT pass is not so far away as to be impossible. We hope.

    I’m thinking, given how crap I’m feeling, I may get someone else to do the service. I’d been considering it because I don’t actually have a decent Jack or axle stands here; but my eyes are so sore that I think the minimum I have to do (i.e. putting the interior back in) is probably not an unreasonable thing to do.

  • More house progress

    Really, this is largely for my benefit, I guess so I feel more like I’m achieving stuff. And today has been a day filled with achievement. When you say to someone, ‘I’m going to move a cast iron bath’ the first thought that comes into your mind is probably not a thoroughly pleasant day; but actually, that’s what I’ve had. I mean, the actual getting it up the stairs bit, that was completely exhausting (and I’ve now got to walk across town to collect the Viva, now it’s ready; expect me to eat more donuts and drink more coffee).

    Anyway, I think that most people wouldn’t think of it as being pleasant, because they don’t have the awesome friends I do, who cheerfully drove 80 odd miles, drove me to collect the van, then sat in a steeenking hot van (with their ever patient dog Pepper) as we flew round the motorway and down to Sussex, lug a bath into the van, drive back and then lift said bath up the stairs and then, without even pausing for a coffee or a cup of Chai headed back the 80 miles they’d come. Stars is what they are; shiny shiny stars. My friends are, in point of fact, made of awesome.

    So, anyhow, having got down there no trouble (apart from the van I’d hired having a hideous, hideous crunch come from the gearbox every time I changed into fourth), collected the bath (which is indeed in remarkably good condition, bar the one foot which needs welding together), and I then asked our generous bath retailer if there was a local drinking establishment which he could recommend. We then partook of very fine ploughman’s lunches (apart from the point where I attempted to eat a slab of butter under the impression it was cheese; I wasn’t alone, ‘meriKate had the slab of butter in her sandwich ready for her to munch on. Yes, Nikki, you get to feel smug; although much amusement was had at ‘meriKate’s discovery of Pickled Onions. Let us just say, she is not a fan)… Anyway having relaxed and feeling slightly less like we were on a van-trip; we piled back into the van and headed home.

    Astonishingly, this also went in a hitch-free way; getting the bath *into the house* wasn’t terribly easy. Not hard per-se, but Rebecca needed to be moved (sans battery) and Cherry moved, and then the bath had to come in on it’s side. Let’s just say, it’s not “light’. Having got it in, crushing only Nikki’s foot. We then paused, and after a bit of a failed attempt, ‘meriKate suggested a fine one-step/vertical/not dying method which meant that we then twirled *heh* it through 90 degrees again, and up it went, resting on the back foot (the not broken one) on each and every step. I’m glad I opted to stop with the decorating on the stairs because… I’ve got some wall to paint! I think I’ll leave it ’til last, actually; when all the upstairs rooms are done then I’ll finish the stairs. The 90 degree corner at the top of the stairs was, amazingly, turned without injury. And finally into the bathroom, enamel intact, feet still attached (well, the three not broken ones), and this is the product of all that hard work:

    Although it looks grubby and tatty, the enamel is astonishingly good, and the outside will respond well to a quick sand followed by a coat of the chosen paint. It’s still got it’s lead pipework, and I’d never realised quite how thick lead water pipes are… I’d always assumed they were sort of copper pipe sized… but no.

    Yeah, so I bet you’re all thrilled by that shot :-)

    Anyhow, the bath has a rather nice little crown on it, and some numbers.

    I’m intrigued to know what the number 10E means, in the triangle? Anyone got any idea? I’m faintly tempted to pick out the crown with white when it’s done. Sort of the opposite of all the other logos in the room…

    But hey. That’s the way my brain works, really. I think, in all probability it’d look best just one shade of blue :-)

    So, just so you know, here’s where we’re at (bathroom wise) – because I’m sure you’re all dying to know:

    The pipe bends a bit in the middle at the moment, that’s just a factor of it not being fixed in place yet; frustratingly I’ve had real difficulty getting through the outer wall, the pebbledash & concrete mauled my masonry bits, so I’m going to have to go to B&Q and see if I can obtain something…harder. I also can’t find my small chisel, which is terribly annoying because I know I have one, worse than that, I know I’ve seen it somewhere recently. But as to where? That’s anyone’s guess. Anyhow…this is the room as a whole

    And now I really *do* have to go and collect Brick.

  • Pissy mood

    I am in a pissy mood today; this is because I need to see the GP and having set my alarm for 0800 I woke up at 0200, 0430, 0630 and then 0915. *Swears at self*. I don’t even remember the alarm going off, although I must have been awake because it was switched off, and I definitely switched it on last night. As if to reinforce the idea that I’ve been a dumb-ass my eyes are itching like mad and my hayfever is playing up horribly in general.

    I am therefore in a pissy mood, and best avoided.

  • Holes and stuff

    So, it’s actually been a shockingly productive day. I’ve spent the time after this morning’s dismal start (the GP opens at 0800, not 0830, which explains why there were no appointments. Thankfully, today’s not been so hot and my hayfever less soul destroying therefore) doing variously the bike, the car, and the bathroom.

    The bike – switching the brake disk for the new one, once I’d got myself the right tool (a T40 star drive, for anyone who cares) was actually incredibly easy. All the screws undid, the disk came off (it was about 3mm thick, the min-think rating on the side says 3.5mm… ooops); and the new disk went on. Despite the dead battery I was actually considering ringing and booking an MOT, but a strange sensation0 came over me. I think we’ll call it ‘common sense’. I checked, and the brake-light switch (which is still waiting for replacement, ‘cos Burwin failed to send one, they said they’ll send one immediately, but then it took them almost a week and a half to send the first order; I may stop ordering from them) has stopped working. I took it apart, but no amount of coaxing could persuade it back into life. So we wait for the new switch to arrive. I have, however, noticed that the alloy’s started to crack up around the bottom – well away from the lever or the cylinder, but it means I’ll look out for a s/h replacement instead of getting it helicoiled, I think. Annoyingly, that’s got all new seals in it, the bloody thing).

    So, having checked that the bike still starts (using a spare battery), I moved onto the second task of the day. The car.

    Let’s just say the accursed thing makes fun of me. I check voltages, they’re wrong, I go to check them again, they’re right, the car starts. Why! Why for have you forsaken me oh continuous and non-intermittent faults! The oil pressure light, that went out, no problems. Although the VivaOC reckon it’s just blocked with crud – so I’ll hopefully whip that out on Friday and see. But yes, the ignition issue continues to baffle me. I’m tempted to change the solenoid just, well, because. Because I suspect it of being an evil turncoat who’s duplicitous nature allows it to pretend that it works while I’m looking at it, but when I’m not allows it to snunk off to the corner of electrical hell (as provided by Lucas, Prince of Darkness) and…well… not work.

    Anyhow, I then removed the passenger seat and alternately went ‘oh god’ and ‘uh, maybe okay…’ and then ‘oh god’ as I stared at the floor. On Saturday the car is going to be attacked by man-with-welder, and I hope we should have less of a rust issue. Actually, apart from the sill (which appears to have been attacked by a monkey with filler (oh god)) and the inner sill just by the rear seats (oh god, rust) and the huge-gaping-hole-in-the-floor (oh dear god, no, and no, I shouldn’t have poked it); it actually looks surprisingly intact. Oh, and the hole where the seat mounting, uh, disintegrated it. Yes.

    Still…. *breathes*.

    Anyhow, having decided that my day was complete on the VIva and bike fronts, I moved inside. And upstairs, to the bathroom…

    No, that’s the bedroom; I realise it looks increasingly like a store room for a bizzare props department crossed with an open plan toilet, but hey. I just thought I’d share the hell of my house at the moment.

    No, this is the bathroom:

    Yes, insane, isn’t it? The floor’s got to be down by Saturday, really. Which is a little stress inducing. Although I saw the boards I need, if I go with chip-board, and I plan to, because I’ve checked and apparently they’re fine with Cast Iron baths, and I now know which kind I need for the bathroom. So yay for me :-)

    My life is just one excitement after another, eh?

    But there was one amazingly positive thing which happened today:

    That, I think you’ll find, is the soil pipe. All connected and ready. Granted, it’s sloping the wrong way at the moment, but that’s just because it’s missing some supports. I’ll cut the wood and pop them in tomorrow :-)

    Raaa, ra, ra.

    (And in non dull news, I spoke to Kathryn on the phone yesterday, which was made of awesome. I love the internet, which allows me to talk to Kathryn despite her being miles and miles away for the not-muchness on the cost front. Ra).

  • Feeling slightly aggrieved at the universe

    So, there I was laying in bed this morning, endeavouring not to rub my eyes and thinking evil thoughts about pollen, and so on. And I planned out my day. It went thus:

    – Change brake disk, brake pads, brake light lens and switch on Cherry. Book MOT.
    – Get quote for oil pump on Viva from friend-recommended garage (because the oil light is persistant in it’s desire to stay on).
    – Hire van for Saturday’s jaunt.
    – Foof with kitchen, and unload the car.
    – Repack hubs with grease, if I can find a jack safe to do such a task with (getting the viva onto axle stands using the pint-pump jack would be…fun). Sort out ignition wiring. Maybe strip the viva’s interior in preparation for the weldathon.
    That was my basic list. I got outside and the power of 12,000 suns burned my skin from my body as I dared to step outside. Well…okay, it was a bit too hot to do car stuff, but, I thought, I could do the bike. But NO! Because impressively I’ve lost my set of star-drive adaptors. Cue cursing about where in frack all my tools have gone (I am getting so close to the day when I flip out and buy a huge-f-off-tool-box on wheels).

    So, I sighed. I then checked through the box of bits and… no brake light switch. ARGH!

    Okay, I think. We’ll get a quote for the Viva. 3 hours later they are still ringing around trying to find someone who has a pump. Apparently the club have pumps. I am about to join…

    So I hire a van (hurrah!)

    I foof with the kitchen and unload the car; incidentally combi boilers are fracking *heavy*.

    And no, I don’t have a suitable jack. Since they’re going to have the engine out and in bits I reckon I may as well ask them to do the service anyhow. But I think to myself – hang on a minute, I could, were I clever, start to sort out the plumbing. Which, it’s true, I could. Except that I can’t find my plumber’s wrench. I have no idea where *that’s* gone. I’ve had it since I moved, but where it’s landed I don’t know. I’m beginning to get a little pissy whenever I can’t find tools (Which is pretty much every time I do a job now). It’s the quick tidy I did for the party that really screwed up my tool finding ability.

    Oh, and my washing line snapped and deposited my laundry; thankfully on the path and not on the weed-killer sprayed side of the grass….

    I’m still feeling remarkably chipper though, I put that down to the fact that the shower and the shower base have arrived. Now I just need to fit them :-)

  • 548 Miles

    Maintaining an average speed of approximate 38 miles an hour, managing a faintly astonishing 36-40 mpg.

    The VIva did well; I fared less well, tired as I now am, and with incredibly sore eyes. I reached home 14.5 hours after I set out with a sink, a boiler and an oven in / on the car. The Oven has annoyingly left a big mark on the roof, but I guess it needed spraying anyhow. The boiler and the sink are still in the car, because I’m fracking exhausted. But I shall get them out shortly…

    Photos, such as they are, from my 548 mile treck can be found here.

  • Running to stay still

    So I went out this morning and collected together the bits I need to fit the toilet; including some random new tools. I got cistern internals, I got an isolation valve, and lots of bits and bobs. 100 quid later and I set to on various jobs. Only it didn’t entirely go smoothly. It turns out it’s harder to get a flush pipe for a high level cistern in chrome than I imagined (it’s an order only part, apparently). So that’s ordered. No where had brackets to support the cistern (well, not nice ones), so I’ll have to buy them (off ebay, possibly).
    The cistern is partially assembled, but for a reason which escapes me at the moment I had to not fit the float valve – I really can’t recall why, but that’s okay. And then I set to on the soil pipe. The soil pipe was meant to be a few hours work. Connector on, measure, cut, and add length of pipe, and then the right angle; then a few bits of floorboard work, and lo, the toilet would have been fitted.

    Instead first up I found that my builders have run the soil pipe so close to the last joist that a connector wouldn’t go on. Cue an hour of attacking the joist (which is not in the most convenient location) to reach the stage when I could actually get the connector in place. Only I couldn’t get it on to the pipe. I’d noticed that the builders spent a lot of time swearing while doing the soil pipe, I’m now aware as to why. It’s fucking impossible.

    After a solid hour, lube, washing up liquid and heating the pipe all having been tried I had a break, returning to it and applying, essentially, brute force…lead to it finally going on.

    So I cut the next section, raised more floorboards – by now I’ve decided that I’m going to have to ditch the original floorboards and have chipboard flooring – but I’m going to have to put a floor down; this has become apparent because the floorboards are too knackered to leave bare.

    Anyhow I go to fit the pipe and…it won’t go on. Brute force, washing up liquid, everything. I do keep managing to open up the clip-together-seal at the end. But it’s not going on, and then the bloody thing went in, but with the clip together seal apart.

    Now, I tried to reassemble the clip together seal with it there, but bear in mind that you can’t reach one side of the clip, because… it’s next to the joist. So I start trying to pull apart the connection. Only the wrong side of it is moving. I tried everything to get the side I wanted to come out but no. No. the fucking thing came apart from the side I’d just spent 1.5 hours getting on. Thus undoing all the work I’d done today, pretty much. And, in the process of getting it off the section of soil pipe that I’d cut? I broke the fucking connector.

    So now I need a new connector and I get to start all over again.

    I have never dealt with soil pipes, I’ve only ever done the clean side of plumbing, and plastic little sink-and-bath waste pipes. In future, I’m happy for it to stay that way.

  • Mornings

    So, I finally got to watch last week’s Dr Who. Bloody hell, that was a good episode, after the previous one; which was a bit of a re-hash (and not as good-er re-hash) of one from the previous series (it had nice sets, but it really missed out from being the same idea again, and being a squished one-parter) it was good to be reminded just how good, and how scary Dr Who can really be.

    I really like the new companion, Martha, but she’s still finding her feet I think – in scripting terms. But this episode, it played so well, I’m really impressed. I can’t wait for this evening :-)

    In other news, my morning has sucked a lot; my hayfever’s acting up today, weirdly I’d got away without any hayfever for ages, and then suddenly this morning I’m all itching eyes and sneezing. The desloritadine seems to have taken it down to managable levels, although my left eye is still driving me gently insane. I’ve got to go to the Drs for a ‘Medication Review’ (*sighs*. Why do GPs do this shite, I’ve got an endocrinologist, if you think for a second I’m going to let you fiddle with my meds instead of him (when he has trouble convincing me to change anything) then you are sadly mistaken), so I’ll use that and see if I can convince them to send me to the Allergy Clinic at Guy’s.

    I am still feeling the tired from yesterday – despite heading to bed at 2245 my body declined to let me sleep for a good half hour longer – annoyingly it spent that time informing me of how tired I was and that I should really be asleep. Hopefully it should resolve, but I’ve got lots to do today (I’m just waiting for the bathroom to reach ‘warm’ so I can shower, ‘cos I couldn’t shower yesterday, ‘cos they were building the pipework).

    Anyway, in a bit I’m going to zip (well, meander) over to B&Q and buy some bits – hopefully I can get the toilet installed upstairs – at least as far as is practicable. I’m hoping I can also lay in the pipework for the bathroom – at least some of the way. Downstairs I’m planning to use some compression joints so I can link it in to the current plumbing and then later when I redo the plumbing downstairs I can whip the compression joints out and put proper yorkshire’s in.

    There’s a few other jobs to do, too.

    Anyway, in non allergy and non-house news; Kara ([info]howlsthunder) has added me on Facebook. I think I went and looked ‘cos Naomi at work was talking about it; and asked if I was on it. A mere month or two later I decided to look (and felt it was rather clunky but joined and then neglected to do anything with it). Since Kara’s friended me on there I’ve kind of felt I should update it to have at least some useful information – so uh, it’s done. Hunt me down and friend me folks :-)

    ETA: I remembered my other news. I’ve lost my fracking MP3 player. I had it when I came back from the cashpoint having got money to pay the builders, and I remember wandering around with it in my hand. But now I’ve no idea where I put it after that. I’ve looked at every obvious surface. In pockets, behind cushions, on the accessible shelves. I really have no clue where it’s gone :(

    Gah.