28 Days Later

First of all, thanx to Claire for managing the blog singlehanded; I just haven’t had time and I know this blog works best when we both write entries. Today was a milestone; we have finished the Cranfield flat and rewarded ourselves with the afternoon off where we did our old trick of walking along the canal to the Giffard Park for lunch and a bottle of wine or two. Claire felt that we still have too much to do but I managed to talk her into it; I felt the need to just draw a line underneath this renovation and start to plan the last 6 weeks before our big trip. It has taken us just under a month for this renovation which I suppose isn’t bad considering that I had a revision weekend and we have moved house during this time. We now have a few minor jobs around our house and the garden to sort out, and of course, I still have my exam to revise for but it feels like the pressure is off a little now.

This one seemed to be hard work from start to finish, nothing went smoothly. To start with, when you have to rely on contractors, your timing seems to double; you can’t beat doing as much work yourself as you can because it is far easier to plan your own time than somebody else’s. You have to wait for the plumber to take out the old kit before you can even start on the kitchen or bathroom. We also had some ceilings plastered which also slows things down as you have to wait for several days after the plasterer can fit you in before you can do anything meaningful. Then you can’t finish anything off until the plumber can spare another day to fit your sink and bathroom again. The bathroom (and kitchen) is so narrow that a standard 1700mm long bath will not fit in so the walls had to be chiselled out to accommodate it. Snake, the plumber noticed this when he quoted but we decided between us that is would be easiest overall to buy a cheap standard bath and fit it into the already chiselled out wall rather than buy an overpriced non standard bath. Trouble was that the cheap bath we bought from B&Q was a little longer than the one we removed so another 10 or 20mm needed to be taken out of the walls. On the lounge side are two electrical sockets so the plumber was reluctant to knock too much more out that side. Consequently, to get the bath down we had to chisel out about 200-300mm from the outside wall side to swing it into position. The plumber did most of this but it meant that I had to fill these holes in after the bath was done before I could even start tiling.

This property is a mid terrace bungalow, which is unusual, but the whole blog is unusual. It started out life as a block of three terraced Victorian houses on the Bedford road. Someone managed to buy all three and gain planning to build a bungalow wing on the right hand side and a two story wing on the left hand side and converting the lot into 10 apartments. The whole lot seems to be a bit of a mish mash but here is plenty of outside space and we even have a car park. The surrounding properties must hate it as they are all very expensive huge houses and bungalows. From the gardens we have lovely views and I must remember to take a photo next time I am there.

Every time I have to tile around a window, I think, I really must find out how you are supposed to do this but never had. I once got a DVD out from the library showing how to tile the correct way with lots of tips but although it showed tiling a window, it didn’t show how to tile the top or underside of the window. Also, I think that the old fashioned way of tiling a floor is not the best; they teach you to find the middle and start there so that you have equal tiles on each wall. If you have an open room where you can see all four walls then it may be a good way, but for most small rooms you can only usually see a couple of walls and I think it’s more important to have full tiles from where you enter a room and can see the walls. I like to start in a doorway so you see full tiles from there and you only have to cut a small strip from the tiles along the wall adjacent. Anyway, getting back to tiling under the window opening; I found the best way is to cut a piece of wood and wedge it about an inch under the top. Make sure you have cut all your tiles that need to go along this strip and that they all fit before you put adhesive on them. I then spread a thin layer of adhesive on the underside where the tiles will go and another thin layer on each tile. I then fit the plastic edge strip onto the adhesive and put a little more on top of that; take a deep breath and start to tile. I always feel that it’s a bit like spinning plates where you have to keep going back to the ones you have already stuck giving it a little press after each new tile fitted. If you don’t they are likely to start falling; and believe me when they do start falling, they all fall, it’s impossible to recover even if one tile falls. Once all the tiles are fitted, push up the bit of wood to support them and wedge the pre-cut bits of wood to support that. It’s not easy or pretty, but it seems to work for me. If any professional tillers read this please help me for my next renovation by posting tips or the proper way to do it.

Saturday evening we went out with Ian and Jane to the Black Horse along the canal. They have done all our double glazing for four flats we have renovated this year. I have written about them several times before, but we first met them over 20 years ago when I did the self build, also on Giffard Park. Ian and Jane are going to Sydney for 6 weeks over Christmas and New Year and it’s the same 6 weeks that we will be staying in Melbourne, so for us it’s a nice coincidence. They seem to go every year since they first visited Australia, and last year, their oldest daughter, Charlotte went with them but stayed for 12 months taking her year out. These days most kids feel it’s a right to take a year out, what a shame it wasn’t always like that; we have had to wait until we are almost retired before we can even take three months out. I know they do it cheap, but I bet it’s not as cheap as we do it. I really enjoyed talking to Ian again but I think we need several more evenings before we can even start to catch up; they seem to have had as many things going on in their lives as we have in ours.

I suggested to Ian that we organize a self build reunion as it’s probably longer than most people wait before organising a school one. He is right up for it, I think we both have fond memories of that experience, even though it was hard work for 21 months, in our spare time, having to put in 25 hours a week minimum as well as holding down a full time job. Basically, it was 18 people getting together to build 18 four bed detached houses with a garage, but the whole site had to be developed, starting from a field. Even the road blocks were laid by us; well Ian told me that he laid almost all of them himself. He was an unusually hard worker for a young man, almost as good as me and Claire. He and Jane really have earned everything that they own. Ian was 21 while we were building the site and it will need a separate entry to talk about that but there were 2 others a little older than him that were the normal lazy type of youth; one of them we had to fire out when he didn’t turn up for the whole of February and the other (allegedly) stole our plumbing and electrically kit. I may have to be careful who I invite to our reunion.