Day 102: A winning window

Well, I realise that I've been a bit slow in posting comments to go along with the photos, so trying to catch up on things.

Today was window day. After 3 months of staring out the ugly 1970's, dirty, flip up, single pane window, finally we got our new window installed by Falcon Windows. The guys came by and I let them to it. They made quick work of the old window and had the new triple glazed version in place in no time. 

Overall, it looks pretty good and definitely much warmer than the old one. I was hoping that they could push it back further but looking at the frame, this would have taken a lot more building work. They put a small wooden ledge on the bottom which we'll eventually get around to painting. The architrave around the outside looks lopsided because of my shower door installation. The plan is to take out the achitrave and tile around the outside of the window which should make it look a bit more symmetrical. This finishing work is time consuming - I much prefer knocking down walls :)

Day 95: A very rad wall

And the tiling goes on, and on, and on, and on. The thing about Metro tiles is that the tiling is non stop. And then comes the grouting. I've used about 3x as much grout on the walls to cover the same amount of space as the floors. On the bright side, the tiling is almost finished .. er would be closer to finished if we had ordered the right amount, but that's another story (see my last post)

 

Anyway, on to the weekend. I finished off the half row of tiles on the bottom of the far (accent) wall and then did some much needed grouting. As you can see in the photos, the wall looks much more finished now.

 

After letting the grout dry and enjoying some of the nice t-shirt weather, I started installing the heated towel rail. Those ugly things sticking out of the floor are the hopefully well placed pipe ends. After doing a test fit and drilling through the Carbyne tiles for what felt like hours (and several drill bits later) came the moment of truth

 

The radiator fit! My measuring was good. And good thing 'cause these pipes 'aint movin'

 

And then the second test, turning on the water. This test didn't go so well. The pipe ends inside the rad weren't tightened enough (requires a special hex key) so the floor got a bit wet. A second casualty was the chrome pipe covers as these wouldn't allow the compression nut to go on without cutting down too much. So Amazon to the rescue again - pipe key and new chrome slip-on sleeves now on order. The towel rad should be working by next weekend.

 

But at least I had some volunteers to make sure it looked nice and shiny! One genuinely helped and one just posed for the picture (I'll leave that up to people to guess which one)

 

Day 88 - Carolyn's 2nd Post!

I've been reminded on more than one occasion that this is 'our' blog and not just Scott's blog and that I'm under delivering with my updates. So here goes...It's obvious what Scott's been up to, but what about me?  In order to work on floor tiles, wall tiles, grouting, bath panels etc...you need time and peace and quiet...so clearly the kids have been out with me... However, Scott had a slight lull over the holidays waiting for some materials to arrive, and focused his efforts on training his two apprentices.  Grammy & Grampy sent them a table and chairs set for Christmas, so the girls were put to work.  Actually, they really wanted to build it and did most of it themselves with a little help...maybe future engineers like their Dad?  I may not have the expertise to build a bathroom, so I have the glorious job of cleaning and organizing.  I'm turning our downstairs dining room (one day) into a dedicated children's playroom and this is where the table and chairs will reside.

By the way...big 'shout out' to Scott...amongst everything else on your schedule, thank you for finding the time to organize our date night for my birthday.  Was a great evening out!

 

Day 88: Tiring of tiling

Another day, another row of tiles. Will it ever end?

I smoothed out the last bit of wall and laid down some more tiles. In the process, I put down the architrave temporarily on the door so that I could tile right up to the edge. Just need to do a final row at the bottom and grout and the tiling will be mostly finished. 

Unfortunately, I realised that we're once again short tiles. You end up using more of these things than you would think. And I've not had too much wastage from cutting. I think I feel an "I told you so!" coming sometime soon.

Day 81: *@$%€ bath panels

Today I tasked myself with fitting the bath panels. Simple task I thought. Just a couple of screws I thought. Will be finished by lunch I thought. Boy was I ever wrong. 

Turns out that the panels we bought do indeed fit the bath perfectly. Only that's in the showroom, when it's set at the exact manufacturer's prescribed height, when it's not plumbed, on a perfectly flat/level floor and not surrounded by tiles. I'm sure you know where this is going...  The panels didn't fit. The floor tiles brought up the floor too high..  And we're talking less than 1cm. And since the bath is recessed into the wall the side panel is 1cm too long. 

So I had to measure and cut. Cutting involved my 12" saw with a fine blade and when the saw got in the way... Just the blade by itself, a neat trick for softer materials. And now that the panels are cut, I'll need to reinforce them with a wooden frame and attach new fixings to the bottom. So my 10 min job was nothing like it. I've posted photos of what it will look like for inspiration. 

After looking on the internet, I discovered that this is not a case of builder incompetence, and is quite common. The one size fits all is a one size fits none which is why so many people just build their own panels. In a way, I'll be doing that too. 

After the better part of 2 days, I've got the panels roughly fitted now. It will take a little more finesse - but that's for another day. In the process, I added a new tool to the family. It's my get out of a jamb Stanley mini saw thingy. Basically a piece of plastic that holds 10-12" saw blades. Great for cutting bath panels with minimal swearing.

Day 80 : A finished floor

Number one priority this weekend was to finish the bathroom flooring as the remaining 2 tiles finally arrived last Thursday. 

After playing around with a couple of cuts Saturday morning I realised that my plan to cut a 5 cm strip across the doorway would result in a couple of visible rough edges. I opted for the more difficult option of trying to trace out the doorway and angled wall. 

I tackled this by first making a cardboard template to the dimensions of the tile and taking some high tech tools, i.e.scissors, to get the correct shape. Results were good and everything for like it was supposed to. After Care went out and the kids feel asleep, I finished off the grouting allowing it time to dry overnight. Finally on Sunday, I finished it off with a piece of door trim. 

So we've now gone from ugly old floor, to no floor to finished floor. Looking upwards now to the walls. 

Day 75: Reflecting on our work

Bathroom cabinet is now up

 

Day 73: A little history and some archeology

Small discoveries when cleaning out the loft this weekend - a fossilised bird and some pre-war packs of cigarettes. Not sure if the 2 are related but if the bird did smoke 3 packs, then I'm not surprised it's no longer fluttering about. I'm just hoping that one of these days I'll find something old and valuable in the house.

Day 73: Loft in space

This weekend I took a break from the bathroom and decided to escape to the loft. The place was full of creepy crawlies and other nastiness that would have made a good setting for an Indiana Jones film - just add a bad plot and a poorly written script and you're ready to go. 

First I installed some led wall lights, rerouted some wiring and moved the bathroom extractor fan back to clear space. Next I took my trusty Karcher shop vac (Hoover for the Brit's) and filled 2 bags of dust, dirt and other fine things. Yes, that's a desk lamp in the photo. I had to kill the lighting circuit and needed to improvise to get more light. Afterwards, I redistributed the insulation before finally laying down some tongue and groove chipboard flooring. 

Overall, I'm pleased with the result. This will give us some useful storage space for all of our junk. Or alternatively, a penthouse retreat for the next time I put my foot in my mouth. In either case, it will get well used. 

Bathroom floor tiles are due in this week so I'm planning on getting back to the bathroom next weekend. Until then, holidays are over and it's back to the day job.