The Money Pit

Shelves Updates

As I mentioned, we had another joiner to give us a quote for the shelves. Yet again, it was in writing and was another shock. This time at just over £1k. When I think about it I begin to appreciate why any work done by any tradesman is going to cost. But I still find it hard to swallow when you see the price in B&W.

Talking of black and white, check out his sketch of the proposed unit:

Now, I don't know about you, but I'm reluctant to pay a joiner all that money to build something he can't even draw with straight lines!

Still, no need to worry. Here's all that wood I was talking about that dad's got his hands on.

Notice the door to his garage in this shot? Built it himself!! He's progressing well anyway and I'll post some pics of what he's done so far in a day or so...

How much did the house next door cost?

Watski sent me a link to a website, called OurProperty.co.uk that lists the prices paid for all UK houses bought since 2000.

Annoyingly, you need to register to use the service. Fear not though. I also know of a website that lists login details for 1,000s of sites. Here's a pair of credentials for getting access.

Enjoy. Just don't make yourself too mad, like I did, when you noticed your next-door neighbour paid half as much as you did just 2 years ago...

Which Wall to Shelve - The Dilemma

Before getting as far as building the shelves we've had a major dilemma - which wall to build them on. Before I go on, here's one of those walls:

Notice the stained patches? Course you do. They're impossible to miss! What are they? Well, remember this is the wall we took the chimney-breast out of? Notice that the stains are kind of brick shape and size?

At first we thought they were just wet bricks. Before re-laying them Super Dad had soaked quite a few of them to the point of saturation. Maybe it was just a case of waiting it out as they slowly dried out. But it's been over 4 months since we bricked it up and almost 3½ since it was plastered. Although there's not been a radiator in this room since, I think it has to be something more serious. After all, holding Karen's hair-dryer on them didn't seem to have much effect. Not only that but there's a discolouration to them as well, which isn't obvious from this shot.

We've also heard various thoughts and hypotheses on what's going on. The general agreement seems to be that it's the ammonia seeping out of the bricks. Despite making sure the sooty sides of the bricks didn't face outward they've still caused a problem. The only solution for which, apparently, is to chop of the surrounding plaster and render it with cement (source: Karen's plasterer brother-in-law). Not something I ever wanted to do.

Now, because this is an outside wall I'd never considered building a full-length shelf on it. That was until I gave in an accepted that the stains were going nowhere fast. That's when I started entertaining the idea of shelves on this wall, despite everybody I spoke to advising against it.

The other option is the wall opposite which is obviously the same size and is internal, so no risk of damp problems. Well, using this wall is an option again after the joiner who called yesterday told me something interesting. I explained how we wanted to build the shelves on this wall to cover the patches. He said "Why not try StainBlock?" all matter-o-factly. He then explained how it's a spray you can get from trade decorator's outfits that stops stuff like this coming through the paint.

After a quick Google I found a few similar products, of which, this one sounds most promising. It even mentions soot as one of the problem areas it can deal with. Brilliant.

Anyway, I'll let you know how if it works out. At £11 per litre it had better...

ScrewFix.com

Yesterday I linked to a few products on ScrewFix.com, as I have done in the past. Today I actually bought something from them for the first time. The service was amazing.

I remember when Amazon.co.uk was a start-up and their service was great. You could order a book at 4pm and have it with you the next morning. Those days are long gone and it's now a guessing game to predict when their deliveries will arrive. Luckily ScrewFix aren't in danger of becoming so big as to let customer service slip.

I'd almost forgot what it was like to place an order and then get an email an hour or so later telling you it had shipped. That happened today. Best part being that ScrewFix included free next-day delivery.

Wall to be Shelved

We had another joiner come round tonight to give us another quote for the shelves. He's a friend of Karen's brother-in-law and is "reasonably priced". I showed him the same magazine-cutting and made a big point of telling him about how extortionate I thought the figure from the last guy was.

After a while he said something along the lines of:

So, do you just want the MDF left bare so you can paint it?

Hang on a cotton-picking minute I thought. Who mentioned MDF? I told him I'd prefer real wood and he looked at me like I was a crazed loon. Similar to the reaction I got when I wanted the room plastering and I questioned the use of dot-n-dabbing.

He told me I'd be looking at the figure of the last quote (£1,800) just for the wood. Something I found very hard to believe.

Anyway, I digress. It turns out I probably don't need to look for a joiner or the wood anymore. I've found them both in my dad (from now on known as Superdad). I was round there on Sunday when I mentioned the quote and talked about alternatives. Later on, in his garage, he showed me the huge - and I mean huge - amount of "timber" that my builder-brother, Leo, had acquired. It's Pine and Most of it's 7" by 2" and at least 16' long. Perfect! Superdad's already made a start and has been out buying "dowelling-jigs" and other such curiosities. Lucky for us he wants to get rid of the wood to clear some room. I love it when fate works like this.

My part in it all is simply to source the fixings, of which I've found these examples of bookcase strips and supports.

Another job is to work out some averages for book sizes. Of those I own the range is from 15" deep to about 4" deep. Heights vary from 18" to 4".

I'll keep you posted as we progress...