The Money Pit

Kitchen Floor Down

What a busy week we just had!

The plasterer finished in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon. While he loaded his van and got ready to leave dad and I wasted no time in getting the old floor out:

"We" cut down between the gaps in joists so that the floorboards came out easily and were perfect size for a fire.

Two hectic tiring days later and we were laying the new floor. It's now waiting for me to nail the boards down and fix the joists in position.

It must look like dad does all the work. That's not the case. It's just that he likes to do the fun bits and I am obviously never in any of the photos. No, really.

The sparky and plumber are due tomorrow to wire and plumb things like the range cooker in place. Tonight I hope to have the sink bank in place, so we don't have to carry dirt pots up to the bathroom to wash them

There's a whole load of photos of the whole project here.

New Consumer Unit Fitted

The sparky was back today to fix the new consumer unit. He orginally came on Monday to do it, but we decided his time was better spent creating a new ring-main for the kitchen and fitting the back-boxes, so that the plasterer could get on with his work. Today he actually fitted the new fuse box:

In hind-sight I'm really glad I got a pro in to do this and didn't do it myself. I just wish the pro I got was also a perfectionist. If he was he would have taken more care in cutting the wood used to mount the box and he would have stuck the stickers on straight. The kind of thing that is going to niggle me to the point where I remove the box from the wall and replace the wood.

Getting a proper sparky in meant he could test the circuits, which he did and found alsorts of problems. Apparently there's a neutral wire touching an earth somewhere. God knows where! The wiring in this house is a mess. The sparky saw loads of things to which his allow comment was "I've not seen that".

He only charged £160 for both day's work though. Bargain.

Timber Center Redeemed

Remember back in March I had a go at Timber Center? No? Well, I'd all but forgotten about it as well. Until now that is. We need to order a load of timber for the new kitchen floor. I'd tried a few timber yards close by and none could deliver in the time-frame we needed. My only option was to swallow my pride and call Timber Center.

Before I did I dug out the email I got in response to that complaint. In it the manager of the Nottingham branch (Mike) said I should ask for him in person whenever I needed anything and he'd arrange "a good will gesture and some additional discount". I replied telling him that's not what I wanted, but then I didn't know about the new kitchen floor.

So I rang Mike and told him who I was and we laughed it off. He then helped me work out exactly what I needed wood-wise for the new floor. All I did was give him the room's dimensions and explain how we're building the brick pillars in each corner. Once we'd decided what we wanted I could hear him tap away on his calculator for what seemed like ages. I was expecting him to quote some outlandish figure like £300. Instead he said £91.13p. Brilliant.

As a good-will gesture they are treating the wood for free (normally an additional 17%), providing free delivery on Monday (or tomorrow if they can) and gave me a "competitive price". At that price I'm not even bothered about calling round. He even let me pay by card over the phone, which they don't normally do, but would do "under the circumstances".

Here's what I'm getting for the cash:

Three 14' lengths of 4" * 3" treated.
Ten 11' lengths of 5" * 2" treated.
Ten 17mm chipboard P5 boards and ringshank screws.

At the end of the call I told Mike - a really nice bloke - that Timber Center had been redeemed. He laughed and said "I'd wait until you got the wood for that". I hope he was joking...

Green Plaster

How to make a tit of yourself in front of a plasterer:

Ask him what mix is in the render he's using. When he tells you there's lime in there ask if that's why the walls have a green tint to them. Then try and pretend you were joking as he patiently explains it's actually ground Limestone, rather than squashed fruit.

I did actually know it was Limestone. It was just one of those not thinking what I'm saying kind of moment. He thought it was very funny anyway.

Kitchen Progress

It's been quiet here because I've been anything but quiet about the house. It's been all systems go with the kitchen.

Here's how it looked when we came for our second viewing. Not much more than a year ago:

Here's how it's looks from the same view-point now:

All the units are gone. It's surprising how little space they take up when flat-packed. We got rid of most of it in the car at the tip. The rest - including hob and cooker - went in the skip.

In the original shot you can see the boiler cupboard in the top corner. This has been replaced by the new boiler and saved quite a bit of space.

All the back-boxes are in place and there's a new ring main waiting for the sparky to return on Friday to fix the new consumer unit. I chickened out of doing this in the end. Much easier to pay a qualified electrician to do it for you!

The plasterer's hoping to have done by Saturday. Then we've got another job on our hands - replacing the whole floor. In taking up the laminate floor we found a huge (wet/dry?) rot problem in the boards and joists.

There have been several attempts at remedies in the past by the looks of it, but even that is starting to rot. The rotten areas combined with the hole left by removing the old range hearth are about the size of the good floor. Time for a new one me thinks. You can only patch things up for so long!

For the time being the kitchen is now the dining room, where we have the fridge and some make-shift sideboards. Less than ideal as we're having to either order in every night or rely on friends and neighbours to cook for us. Karen is anxious to get back in the kitchen. Needless to say dad and I are on a tight schedule to get the new floor down. More on that as it happens.

Electrician

I seem to be having something of a lucky run with tradesmen - none of the horror stories have come true. Not only do I have a trustworthy plumber and plasterer but I've just added an electrician to the list. This time it's a friend-of-friend thing. Some neighbours know him and he's doing the electrics of another neighbour's art gallery at the moment. Said neighbour called today as he remembered a pub conversation we had about me wanting to swap my fuse board. He knew I'd chickened out of it and had his "sparky" with him who'd mentioned he was quiet for a few days. He came round today and is back Monday morning to do the work.

He confirmed what I already knew: the electrics are in a state. Victorian houses normally are I'd suspect. He gave lots of advice and told me some valuable rules and regs about where sockets should be in the kitchen. After a lot of umming and arring he gave me a very reasonable price of £80 for fitting, earthing and testing.

The earthing needs doing as there isn't really any at the moment. Wires hang loose where they should be attached to the main gas supply. The wire to the water mains is in the wrong place and unsuitably small. There's also no PME - something to do with a decent earth for the house. As it is we're not safe. Along with the other advice he gave was the instruction to call the suppliers and get them to come and fit one.

Getting this done is not going to be easy. My electric is supplied by British Gas. I called them only to be told they don't own the meter and I should ring AccuRead to find out who did. They told me to ring British Gas! I called again and they gave me another number for East Midlands Electric, but it was the wrong number. After googling and wading through the "How much can you save?" pages I managed to find the EME is now part of Central Networks, which is part of e.on. I called them only to find the office is shut. Why is it all so difficult?

Anyway, all being well, the plasterer and electrician will both show on Monday morning and it will all work out ok. The plan is to get a separate ring for the kitchen and run a dead supply up the wall for any future loft extensions.

Quiet Times. Not.

Sorry it's been quiet round here lately. Here's a clue as to why:

It's been anything but quiet here really. We've been having a smashing time in the kitchen. All the old units are gone and there's no ceiling. It's all in a skip on the drive.

We found a lot of "dry rot" in the floorboards and have decided to replace the lot, including some joists. Part of this job is getting rid of the hearth for the old range cooker the house would have had at one point. You can see it here in the middle of the photo.

Needless to say Karen isn't best pleased with the state of the kitchen (or the fact that I'm now off on a stag weekend for three days!). The plasterer is due on the 13^th. I've got a lot to do by then. I'll try and keep updates coming.