The Money Pit

Project Shelved

Been slow here lately on the old DIY front.  Work took over. So much so that I gave in and let a joiner in the house to give us a couple of quotes.  What I couldn't believe was the prices he came back with.

One task was to a set of built-in bookshelves. The plan is to fit them against the whole of one wall of our back room. I've been looking for inspiration in home magazines for a while now and found this set that I really like:

This is the photo I showed to the joiner and said "I want something like this". He measure the wall (probably about same size as in photo) and asked no other questions.

I thought it was funny when he said he didn't want our phone number as he preferred to write. At the time I thought to myself that this was maybe because it was so ridiculously over-priced he couldn't bring himself to actually say it.

Turns out I was right. For the shelves he wanted £1,800. Now maybe I have a distorted image of what things should cost. I was thinking something like £400. Tops! £1,800!!? But wait for it, guess what they proposed to make them out of. Maple? Oak? Pine? No. MDF-ing-F.

Needless to say they won't be hearing back from us. Assuming I won't find anything cheaper I'm going to have to go it alone. Something I didn't want to do as making things out of wood (I mean carpentry) is not my strength. Gaps always appear. Good job we want the shaggy look of the shelves in the photo above.

Another task was to build a pair of replacement French doors for the same back-room, that I've yet to finish off. You can see the bottom of the doors in the first photo of this entry. I think they're odd-sized and I can't find any ready built. Maybe I should look harder as they quoted me £800 for the pair. Fitted I'll admit but still it's a little steap. The doors are simpler than the originals as we only want one pane in each side!

Anyway, more on both projects as they progress. Slowly.

Cool Tools

Kevin Kelly keeps a regularly updated website of "cool tools". Not all of them DIY-based but there are some like the Zip-It Drain Cleaner, which is kind of cool. Mainly aimed at American consumers but there's bound to be cross-over.

How Clean Is Our House

You just can't get the staff nowadays.

This morning I heard what I thought was must have been a second post (although I think they stopped them didn't they) only to find it was a hand-written envelope addressed to Karen. Inside I could feel a key. I knew what it meant. Our cleaning lady had quit!

She started in November. Karen had put a note in the window of the Co-op and she called the day after, sounded nice and so started that same week.

In a way we're both glad she quit. Me because I didn't want her to come in the first place and Karen because she didn't like the job she did.

The fact we had one in the first place was an attempt to end the squabbles we had over who should be doing what and how to divide the chores. No matter how much I did, Karen always did more than me and I wasn't pulling my weight. I finally agreed to pay somebody else to do it on the proviso that I would never hear about the mopping on a Sunday. For the three weeks she visited it worked. We were both happier. Me because I didn't get moaned at and Karen because she didn't have any cleaning to do on a Sunday.

It's an odd situation to be in, employing somebody to clean your house. You can see the look on the neighbours' faces when you mention it. It's almost embarrassing to admit to. Being a modern-thinking kind of guy (or at least I like to think so) I don't really have a problem with it. There's nothing to be ashamed of is there? I've got enough to be doing without spending time moving dusting about. I prefer to be actually creating dust ;-)

Anyway, she quit. And so note is back in the Co-op window. Sunday now returns to be being the day of no rest...