The Money Pit

Keeping the Wine Rack Stacked

Here's something you don't see very often. A full (ney, overflowing) wine rack:

In any house with a cellar it's obviously the done-thing to have a wine rack. Luckily for us we inherited one from the previous owner. As you can see, he had a love affair with MDF.

It's full today for two reasons:

1) We just had our regular Best of Bunch case delivered from Majestic Wines. I know, how posh are we, having wine delivered?! Well, it's free delivery and the wines are reduced. It's a nice way of keeping the rack stacked and we get to try wines we'd probably never try otherwise.

2) Asda have an offer on where all Penfolds wine is 25% off. All those in the photo with red tops are Penfolds. You can't go wrong with them. I'm no real wine buff, but I like to think I know good wine from bad, and I'm yet to find a bad one from them. Get it while you can (as you can see we've done).

Talking of wine. You have to go and see Sideways. It's brilliant.

Having a Crap

Having all but finished the back room (save for those other little jobs that always get left for another time) I'm moving next door to the downstairs loo and the adjoining cupboard. They're both small rooms, so there should be some quick turnarounds and immediate results.

I'd not really thought about the "hardware" for the toilet until Karen said "Have you seen these?" and called me over to the laptop. She'd found some Thomas Crapper toilet cisterns. Instantly I wanted one. Until she told me the price that is. The Thomas Crapper company still make them (look a lot better than the one pictured) and charge more than £1000 for the complete system.

Even at this price I still find myself really wanting one. Why? Not because they are probably still built the way things used to be, although that's a factor, but because it says Crapper on them. I just love the novelty of it.

What I should do is talk myself out of it and pretend I never saw one. What I know will happen though is that I'll not be happy with anything else and will probably end up with one.

Out of interest you might want to know about the relation between Mr Crapper and the crap laid to rest in his loos. Does the word crap come from his name being on so many toilets? Well, apparently so. But there's some confusion as to whether he invented the flushing toilet or not.

Shelves Done

Stop the clock!

It looks a bit messy at the moment. We just piled the books on any old shelf so as to tidy everywhere up.

One thing's obvious: I don't have as many books as I thought ;o) Oh well, it's a good excuse to buy lots more.

So, there it  is. After all this time the shelves are finished and the "back room" is all but complete.  It doesn't seem that long since I was bricking up old doors or since there was no floor or parquet, never mind the ceiling.

Of all the rooms we've done since moving in this one has had the most work done on it and has taken the longest. Maybe that's why it's also the most rewarding of everything we've done. This is the room I will sit in and relax, read a book or admire what I can see about me. Sometimes all the hard work can be worth it.

Thanks dad!

Shelves Fixed To Wall

From the looks of it we might meet the Tuesday night deadline in the nick of time. Here's the scene from earlier today (Dad's slippers, not mine!):

It looks quite a but different now but I'll save the finished photo for tomorrow. My only reservation is that it looks quite "clinical". All that gloss white and metal. Hopefully when the shelves are moved around and it's filled with books and stuff it will gain some character.

See the thinner wood used for the shelves of the upper unit? That's what I bought from the timber yard I complained about. Well, I heard back from them about that. The email to HQ was sent to the local branch. The manager there had a word with the "tallyperson" concerned and then sent me an email today. Naturally it was all "out of character" and he was, of course, merely "having some friendly banter". Now I feel like a right tit. Not because I misread the situation, as I don't think I did, but that returning there will be difficult. The new local timber yard I'll probably end up looking for will probably be a lot less local. God forbid, it might even be B&Q!

Shelves With Books On

I couldn't resist getting a handful of books on them to see how it would look like:

The slight curve to some of the shelves is barrel distortion on the camera lens. Honest!

Look good though don't they?! Well, I'm impressed. Just leaves me wondering what it would have looked like if we'd had the "real" joiner bring his sketch to life. I can't imagine them being anywhere near as good as Dad's. Not only that but Dad's cost a fraction of the price and there's no labour cost. Jake's a happy boy!

Wokking On Friday

Now, as handy as B&Q is, I prefer to shop elsewhere whenever I can. So, today I went to get the wood I needed for the shelves from my local Timber Center. With it being a "trade" (only?) outlet I know not to expect the same "Hello sir, can I help you?" service that B&Q lay on but I don't expect the rudeness I got this morning.

After wandering round trying to find somebody to cut some wood up for me this guy cam over. The conversation went something like this:

Him: What do you want?
Me: I need some wood cutting in two, so it will fit in my car.
Him: Bloody people with cars! Why don't you go to B&Q?! This is a real timber yard!!

At first I'd thought it was merely a gentle ribbing and I was going along with it. Then my tone changed to match his.

Me: I can go to B&Q if you like!
Him: You'll get ripped off!
Me: That's why I'm here!!

When he saw the wood he grumbled something about having to cut it by hand, before skulking off to get a saw (and a calculator to divide 3.9m by 2. I kid ye not!). I thought about telling him I'd brought a saw with me and could do it myself, but there were 6 cuts to do and I wanted to make him do it as he'd been so damn rude.

After a few more insults thrown my way I went to pay. When I came out he told me to pull the car round to load it up. Instead of staying to help he marched off with the parting words: "Thanks for meckin me wok on a fry-dee". I smiled and called him a twat. Hopefully it was just loud enough for him to hear.

Right. The URL to this post is now on it's way to their HQ...

Shelves Coming Along Nicely

Karen has loads of work friends coming over on Tuesday night. Hence it's been set as the deadline to have the "back room" (or library as I like to call it) finished off. The biggest job involved is finishing the shelves, which we're well on our way to achieving. Dad's been here for most of this week (staying over, much to Karen's delight) and this is where we were at as of yesterday:

We've since got it up against the wall and fix the top frame to it. Dad's downstairs now sawing away. I'm about to go and fetch more wood, screws, paint etc. It's a very fine-tuned operation.

I'll post another photo later tonight...

Flat-Pack Shelves Arrive

It's been almost a month since I last mentioned the shelves. Well, they're coming on. Albeit at dad-pace.

Yesterday he came over in my brother's pick-up with a delivery (as below). Bit like a custom-made flat-pack MFI kit isn't it?

The bigger bit at the bottom is the waist-height mid-section which is 15" deep. The others bits are mainly 9" wide and make up the top part.

I'm going to pick dad up in a mo and he's spending a few days here putting it together (didn't come with Ikea-style instructions!). I'll post on progress tomorrow hopefully...

Nicking Stuff

This weekend my dad and I went on the scrounge. There's an old farm house near Mansfield that's been derelict for years and is soon to be demolished, probably making way for more Wimpey homes. Karen mentioned it when we were on our way past and said my dad had his eye on some bits there, following a recent reccy.

Later that day we decided to literally commit daylight robbery and fetch the old stone garden-roller he wanted. It's next to a busy road but has easy access. Despite being in full view of all passing motorists we got away with rolling the stone all the way back to the car and lifting it in to the boot. As I see it most passers-by don't give a damn. The only danger is in the owner passing. Even then it's questionable the they'd care.

Now, I'm not a criminal by any means and I don't make a habit of stealing things. This feels different though for some reason. I know the building must belong to somebody but they've known what's there for long enough to have had moved whatever they were worried might go missing. After this amount of time it's safe to say that the rest of what's there is junk and destined for a skip once the demolishion team move in.

To put our consience at ease we did some good while there. On his previous trip dad had noticed that the main water supply to the house had been ruptured and was gushing water out, filling the house in inches of water.

He'd brought his stop-tap spanner with him (he used to work for the water board) and soon found the water meter and stop tap near the main entrance. You could see the meter whirring round and, having stopped it, I can only presume we've saved somebody somewhere a lot of money when the bill comes.

Do I feel guilty about what we've done? No and I'll do it again!

Help Choosing Colours

Now, I don't know anything about Behr or their products but I know I like their online "Color Smart" tool. You can use it to do alsorts of colour-matching experiments. Nice.