Category: House & domestic

A very constructive hour with Harry from the bathroom company I’m intending to use. We spent a long time discussing options for the downstairs – clearly, getting all three of toilet, basin and shower is going to be a squeeze, but he seems determined to make it possible. He’s happy about moving the doorway, and understands that I’d really rather not move the window. He’s in favour of a slightly larger shower – say 700mm. He can also do the electrics. Tiling and flooring to suit, and he can do electrics (light and pullcord switch, extract fan, mirror light).

Upstairs seems a lot more straight forward. He can do the removing of the flue, subject to Building Control confirmation that it’s OK. Should be straightforward, as the lower section in the kitchen has already been removed. So, low cast-iron bath under window, toilet next to it, shelf at tap end (where boiler was), small basin, and he will also do the cupboard building around the new hot water cylinder, allowing decent access. Tiling and flooring to suit.

It’s going to be pricey! However, it means that I can go for just a Velux-type loft conversion , which will be much cheaper, so overall probably a saving as long as it comes in under about £14,000 – ish.

Fingers crossed.

After three assorted visits from Octopus surveyors and installers, I’ve finally agreed how we can make a heat pump work. It needs to be part-way up the garden, so noise does not affect neighbours’ “habitable rooms”. As I don’t own the fence on that side, it means me putting up a line of posts next to the fence, to support trunking and services between the house and the heatpump.

I discover that the fence sits on a couple of inches of soil, and below that is the projecting remaining solid footing of what was clearly once a substantial brick wall, so the posts have to be set about 7cm out from the fence line. And once one gets down 10cm, it’s into solid grey clay …

I agreed that the top of all posts should be to the same level – as the land rises away from the house, the furthest-away posts will be much shorter. I’m going to need to do a total of eleven: today’s effort managed three. Lift pavers, dig out clay, cut post to size, wedge and check with spirit level, pour in quick-setting post-mix. After that has solidly set, hack pavers into appropriate size pieces and re-lay on a bed of mortar, making up around the post so there’s not a rot-inducing hollow. I have yet to screw the caps onto the posts (to prevent rain getting into the end-grain and causing rot). There are, of course, plant-pots and three half-barrels to move out of the way as I work my way up the garden … oh joy!

I’ve got a date of 19th September for the Heat Pump installation, so yesterday was all about starting to sort things for building work. The heat pump work will take the bathroom out of action for about five days, but as I’ll have to remove the bath to fit in the cylinder for the heat pump hot water, I’ll be effectively bath-less for a while after that, until I have the bathroom re-done. So I will be pushing ahead with converting the downstairs loo into a small shower room, which will have the advantage of being available to guests, potential carers, etc (and better for me than a shower over the bath).

Stage 1 of that is to have the doorway moved. A builder is coming this evening to give an estimate – only one responded on Checkatrade, so I hope they’re OK! I’ve already moved the shelves that were between the wall and the fridge up to the spare bedroom, and this morning took out the somewhat dodgy light switch pullcord in the downstairs loo. Phase 2 of shower room is plumber (unless the builder can do it), and phase three is electrics. I have eight weeks to get it done … painting, which will be needed, can if necessary wait until afterwards.

I’m away on the Broads immediately before the heat pump install, so will need to be well sorted the previous week. That means ensuring access to all radiators (most of which currently live behind furniture). The really big job on that is moving the books and book-cases in the spare bedroom, a job that took a lot of yesterday. Still, I’ve manage to create space to fit the large toolboxes in the bottom half of one of the bookcases, which is a major plus point.

The other thing I need to do is to put in a line of 4×4 posts along the neighbour’s fence on the West side of the garden, which will carry the trunking from heat pump to house (and, when the installation is complete, I’ll use the same posts to carry a permanent hosepipe to a permanent tap at the top of the garden). So that’s a fair bit of digging and postcrete needed, plus moving pots, and (if I can manage it!) three of the big wooden half-barrels.

All in all, it’s a very major project.

Way back in 2017 I hand-pollinated my amaryllis, as an experiment. It set seed, which I planted, and grew on the resulting few seedlings. The assorted vicissitudes of life meant that only one survived to flowering, which it did, rather half-heartedly, for the first time two years ago, with nothing last year. So this, nine years after I did the hand-pollination, is the first proper year of flowering.

OK, not the most beautiful amaryllis in the universe! But still, something to celebrate.

Yesterday, I was expecting the gas engineer between 9 and 10. He turned up around 2pm, but was then quick and efficient. The old gas cooker was disconnected and the supply pipe capped off at high level. Today, the electric cooker was due some time between 0700h and 1900h, but thet said they’d send a text at 0630 with a more precise time! Ugh! But I set the alarm for 0625h, and a text arrived at 0635, saying they’d deliver between 9.15 and 12:15. No point going back to sleep … I checked on line, and at 0800h there were five deliveries in front of me, and the cooker arrived at 0920h. Old gas cooker gone into their recycling stream.

Then to some wiring in. Darren-the-Electrician had left me a couple of metres of 6mm twin&earth, and I have plenty of earth sleeving. Access to the cooker terminals needed a metric Allen key (not provided) – considerable rooting through my four toolboxes revealed two sets of Imperial keys before reluctanly disgorging a metric set. So, cooker cabled up OK, then to hang and connect the cooker hood., before wiring in the cooker. Which turned out to be complicated, and in the end I cut a block of wood to space the hood over the electrical trunking in the corner. Which, once screwed to the wall, needed painting, and allowing time to dry. So the cooker hood wasn’t finished and wired in until about 1500h. Fortunately, wiring in the cooker was straightforward, though 6mm cable is awkward to work with. The cooker is currently “running in” – the catalytic lining in each over has to be run at max temperature for an hour (not both ovens at once) before use.

Tomorrow will probably be largely a rest day. Grovelling around doing fiddly jobs 8 inches above floor level (cooker – both ends) or at head height, stretching (cooker hood) has rather trashed my back. But most of the rest of the work is a little light sanding, and a couple of coats of paint on all walls and ceiling, and there’s no urgency.

Gulp!

I’ve just ordered the electric cooker, to arrive on Wednesday. Induction hob, catalytic oven – and really not cheap! Plus the cost of the electrician for three days, to install a supply for it and completely re-do all the slightly-dodgy sockets in the kitchen.

But it’s about 12 years since I moved in and spent money on kitchen stuff (apart from having to replace the dishwasher last month), and hopefully this will all last another decade or so. Washer/dry keeps on going, and will be a no-cost replacement when it does give up as it’s under a perpetual maintenance contract … which leaves only the fridge/freezer as a future major kitchen expenditure.

Gas engineer booked for Tuesday, to cap off supply to old gas cooker. Then a lot more washing of walls and ceiling, followed by painting. Ugh!

One of the more unpleasant parts of the “electrification” project! I will need to redecorate once it’s done, to cover where sockets and trunking have been removed. Ideally, I’d get at least one coat of paint on the relevant areas before the electrican arrives on Thursday, so that I don’t have to carefully mask off new sockets when putting the final coats on.

So, cleaning. The gas cooker throws grease all over the place – not so much from the grill (which I rarely use except for toast) but from the oven, which is vented upwards with the products of combustion and assorted grease. I did clean the ceiling about five years ago, but it was in a dreadful state … the area to the right of the gas pipe is where the cooker lives, and it’s pretty clear which areas I’ve cleaned and which are yet to be done!

Unhelpfuly, Which? reviews every kind of cooker hood, except recirculating ones! So although the rest of the project is based around Which? recommendations, I’m rather on my own in choosing one … washable grease filters and 300+ cubic feet a minute seem to limit the choice, anyway.