The Money Pit

Screw B&Q

Dad was here, again, this weekend helping me finish off the stud walls. To do this I had Screwfix deliver a box of 500 drywall screws. Plenty, I thought. We soon got through them though and so, on Sunday afternoon, I had to go to B&Q to buy another box.

To my surprise (although not shock) they don't sell them. Although they sell large plasterboards in this B&Q "warehouse" they don't sell the screws you need to use them. The annoying part of the visit is having to ask the staff if they do stock what you're after, which is always a last resort for me. All of the four people I asked had no idea what drywall screws were and I left empty handed. In desperation I tried their next door but three neighbour, Focus, thinking they might have some.

They did have some. But. They only sold them in packs of 25 and at £2.50 a pack. First of all - what's the point of a bag of 25 drywall screws!? Second - why are they 10p each. Screwfix sell a box of 500 for about £3.50. Less than 1p each. Focus sell them at 10p each. Ridiculous.

Needless to say I returned home with no screws and work on the wall wasn't completed.

On a positive note Screwfix are opening a trade counter in Nottingham this weekend coming. Not  as local as the B&Q, which is just round the corner, but it too will be open on Sundays, which seems to always be when I'm in deparate need of DIY bits and bobs...

I Want One!

I want one of these — Article on Secret Rooms

Nowhere to Put It

Laying in bed last night with my heavily pregnant wife there was the following snippet of converstion:

Her: The baby keeps pressing!
Me: Maybe he* wants to come out.
Her: Well it can't. There nowhere to put it!!

This last line sums up the state of the house at the moment. This weekend gone dad was here and we knockec down the walls that made up the bathroom/boxroom. We opted to bring down the ceiling while we were at it.

As you can see - it's a mess. While we did manage to get one part of the new stud wall in place there's little privacy in the bathroom, spare that provided by the old quilt cover. To this side of the wall is what will become the nursery. As you can see, there's a bit of work to be done before it's ready for a cot.

We rebuilt the walls for various reasons. One of them being that the "original" wall was a complete bodge job. Instead of plasterboard they'd used chipboard. Instead of vertical 3be2s placed every 600mm there were just a couple of 4be3s on their side with long horizontals. Both walls could easily be moved at least an inch by pushing hard enough.

The main reason to reuild the bathroom wall was to move it. The bathroom is this house is not only small but an awkwardly narrow shape. By moving the wall 6" we're hoping it will be less imposing and appear much larger. Obviously we lose space in the boxroom, but that's square and so the difference is less noticable. We hope.

You can see Karen in the photo trying to clean up the mess we made. You'll notice she appears ready to burst. Although she's not due until early December there's always the chance of a premature birth and I really want to have it all done by early November. We'll see.

* We don't actually know it's a he. I just refer to it as one.