DIY SOS!

[Parris]

I know this might not at first seem games related, but in a vague way it is. A) It is keeping me away from consoles B) I have a pile of stuff I need to do for others (Not forgotten OE or Psycho, or Limey or UJ.... list continues!)

However, here's what I am in the middle of. Suffice to say I am reluctant to drag any dev kits out of storage and into this mess right now!

The previous owners had NO DIY skills and I am slowly unravelling their mistakes. For some unknown reason they decided to remove the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. Move the kitchen into the dining room (thus moving pipes, gas mains, electricity cables, sink, cabinets etc etc) and then block a joining door to the living room.

Immediately after that they moved the boiler into a bedroom (?) and built a conservatory, but left 2 sets of doors to get to the one room (?)

So, what you see in the first image is me blocking off the first door, boxing it in with a wooden frame, putting up plasterboard, plastering it and then letting the wife do a bit of decorating.

I've already moved the boiler downstairs again into a cupboard with the vent to the external wall (installed professionally by someone else) and fixed the bedroom so that it is without all the pipework etc.

So, now I am ripping out the kitchen and putting back in a more orderly fashion with new & existing cabinets, re-wiring and generally doing things the way they should have done them in the first place!

Next week I am laying a new floor. I have thus far removed almost 1 tonne of stuff from the property to get to this stage, including 20 rubble sacks of flooring tiles!

There you have it, if you are waiting for me to fix or document something, please come back later! ;-)

[Taucias]

Most impressive.

Nice to see a fellow do his own DIY work. I have a lot of respect for that.

[Barc0de]

amazing! I should call you to teach my dad a few tricks! :\

[Parris]

The only thing I have regretted thus far is walking a mile carrying a sheet of plasterboard (190cm x 90xm x 12.5cm) because B&Q don't cut the stuff and it wouldn't fit into the taxi. I trampled home in the snow without a coat or any gloves so by the time I finally got home I was frozen solid and my fingers felt like someone had taken a lump hammer to them and then heated them up with a blow torch! Not nice. The rest has been great fun... I love doing DIY.

[Parris]

amazing! I should call you to teach my dad a few tricks! :\

Ha! The one thing I could with right now is an electrician as that mass of points and sockets in the back wall are a bit of a nightmare. I am going to reposition them all and call out a Corgi approved sparky to look over it and make sure it's safe!

[Barc0de]

That's the right thing to do! Pay someone who knows, to get rid of the liability and sue them if all goes wrong! ;)

That said, it still takes a lot of balls and patience to do what you achieved. I admire you Sir!

[Parris]

It'll look good when complete. I've got a few ideas, but I always suggest getting the 4 walls up, plastered and at least 1 coat of paint before deciding what to do with the space. At present I am thinking either a dining room at the far end (brown) with a breakfast bar half way up the room, or keep the kitchen completely to the one end of the space and use the rest to create a kind of family living room complete with Xbox kiosk lol (the wife raised one eyebrow at that!)

[PhreQuencYViii]

Awesome! I'm painting my room...I guess that's kind of similair!

[Tomcat]

Corgi guys are gas. Hope you read up on Part P for the wiring regs ;-)

[Parris]

Corgi guys are gas. Hope you read up on Part P for the wiring regs ;-)

Well whichever lol - so long as when the guys turn up they know which one they are!

[the_steadster]

Completely irrelevant, but your lighting in the last 2 photos looks very nice!

[Parris]

Completely irrelevant, but your lighting in the last 2 photos looks very nice!

Thanks mate, they are from B&Q (Our second home at present) as I dislike the quality of Ikea lights and BHS are usually really expensive. I made the mistake once of buying a light fitting costing £200 for a hallway. It was an amazing glass "thing" that cast out beautiful colours across the hallway (a bit like stained glass). We had the hallway ceiling lowered and the sodding builder cut the cord on the light and it crashed to the floor! He apologised but refused to pay for damages as he blamed the electrician for the positioning of the cable. Between the sparky and the builder it became a nightmare and small claims court would have been too much hassle.

This is yet another reason for doing things for yourself. Your mistakes are your own!

[retro]

The only thing I have regretted thus far is walking a mile carrying a sheet of plasterboard (190cm x 90xm x 12.5cm) because B&Q don't cut the stuff and it wouldn't fit into the taxi. I trampled home in the snow without a coat or any gloves so by the time I finally got home I was frozen solid and my fingers felt like someone had taken a lump hammer to them and then heated them up with a blow torch! Not nice. The rest has been great fun... I love doing DIY.

B&Q do, however, sell trolleys. Good for saving yourself from having to carry stuff like plasterboard! :thumbsup:

Nice job! It's looking good (and I never thought I'd be saying that to someone who chooses to paint their walls brown! heh).

[michal99]

When you are speaking of removing a wall, my mother decide to take one out and build another one somewhere else. Guess who had to do that ? ;-) The wall was at the end 2,5 m3 of shit I had to take from 4th floor to a car trailer and then to a yard. Here are a few pic, what I did in last 2 weeks.

[Parris]

B&Q do, however, sell trolleys. Good for saving yourself from having to carry stuff like plasterboard! :thumbsup:

Nice job! It's looking good (and I never thought I'd be saying that to someone who chooses to paint their walls brown! heh).

Never seen a plasterboard 'trolley' for sale, just the small garden ones that frankly look like larger RadioFlyer carts!

As for brown, what's wrong with brown? ;-)

Today I re-wired the entire kitchen, however halfway through I stuck a Stanley knife about .5cm into the palm of my hand, right around the base of my thumb and it bled like buggery! As I was really busy I had to keep going so wrapped a tea towel around it until it stopped bleeding and the wife applied a bandage. I now look like a boxer. Tell you what though, it don't half sting and I think it might have been better to have had a couple of stitches but - bah!
:DOH:

[Parris]

When you are speaking of removing a wall, my mother decide to take one out and build another one somewhere else. Guess who had to do that ? ;-) The wall was at the end 2,5 m3 of shit I had to take from 4th floor to a car trailer and then to a yard. Here are a few pic, what I did in last 2 weeks.

Excellent job - could have done with you around at roughly 4:30pm when I decided to stick a knife in my hand. You could have taken over the work.

[retro]

Never seen a plasterboard 'trolley' for sale, just the small garden ones that frankly look like larger RadioFlyer carts!

http://www.completetoolboxes.com/trolleysflatbed.html

http://www.sitebox.ltd.uk/proddetail...d-trolley.html

http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/backs/

...or ya just pinch the ones they have for customer use... haha!

Sounds like you went from DIY SOS to DIY A&E!

[Parris]

I seriously could have done with one of those and if my plan to convert the attic gets the wife's go ahead I will probably benefit from one. As for health and safety, well yeah! Thankfully there were no lasting ill effects.

I'll post a pic of the end result.

[Parris]

Getting there slowly....

[Tomcat]

the frame isnt straight....