Upstairs Bath, Fully Functional and Almost Finished

It’s been a long slog.  The coving is painted and still needs to go up and the skirting boards (original) still need stripping and painting and cutting to fit the new room layout BUT the bath is usable and life is good.

We also have some work to do on the door (finish stripping, refurbish the old door hasp and latch — original — before staining and sealing), the towel rail needs fixing to the wall and floor, and the bog roll holder and towel rack (nice, period reflective, John Lewis kit all) still need to go up; but, this is where we are at — £2800 (including over £600 for tools we will use on other projects) for a job the best quote came in at £9000 before “unforeseen circumstances” like difficult ceilings and un-standard sewage connections.  We reckon we saved about £7500 – £8200 …  and only 22 man days out of the 30 the builders suggested.

Don’t try this yourselves.

Related posts (including previous ones, this one and any subsequent):

https://ebpc3.wordpress.com/tag/bathroom/

 

Fireplace Refurb #1

The fireplaces in our house were hideous and evidence of heavy psychedelics mis-use by whoever it was who thought these were a good idea.

They were also eating up the real estate in the dining and living rooms.  We decided that they must go, and so it came to pass that the dining room one was the first dismantled (literally dis-mantled).

The night before the Christmas Skip was delivered, I smacked the hearth with a 4 pound hammer and cold chisel a few times and it separated easily.

Beneath it, evidence of Edwardian Quarry Tiles extending under the laminates.

 

After I finished the skip fill, I found the concrete and tile edifice as easy as the hearth to dislodge if not to shift.

The next day, I filled the corrugated brickwork I had exposed with plaster.  Mixing a thinner batch, I poured a cover for the sand base to the old hearth with the intention of this providing a underlay for the self leveling compound for tiles to make a faux hearth once we sourced a proper cast iron surround.

The bathroom refurb took priority and we continue to live, reluctantly, with this one in this state whilst taunting the one in the living room that its days, too, are numbered.  During this week off to do electrics and (mostly) finish the bath, it too will feel the wrath of the hammer.  For now, this is the state of things.

 

Kitchen Refurb #1

The kitchen is awful but we were initially limited by budget to focusing on the bath and items we could do ourselves.  Longer term (say, going into or, more likely, out of the summer), we plan to

• remove the modern tiling (and, redo the original quarry tiles beneath);
• install sligntly-less-deep but taller cabinets along the long wall only;
• put in subfloor heating to get rid of the radiator;
• shift the washer into the bath at the back (this will soon be a WC and laundry room);
• get a full sized oven and hob (still gas, but modern) with a powerful extraction hood;
• change the sink to ceramic;
• hang much of the cookware overhead on the far wall;
• install a dishwasher;
• and, box in the boiler with a cabinet matching the others.

There’s also a hatch thru the ceiling that is essentially unusable as it is at the lowest part of the slope of the roof — thus allowing head or arms through but resisting shoulders uncharitably.  To install this section of the plumbing from the new bath required flexibility of body that I frankly didn’t think I still had (and my body’s response to employing it seemed to confirm this as a reasonable assumption).  It will shift a few feet at which time I’ll re-insulate the loft; the hatch will probably never be used again but will be there for access to this plumbing and some of the electrics if needed.

We HAVE done one day of work on the kitchen, though.  Until yesterday, it was lit by a bare, fluorescent tube with a failing ballast, yielding an orange-y light equivalent to about a 25W bulb.  We ordered some lamps to replace it and installed them after spending a day removing the Artex from the ceiling — which still needs a sanding and several coats of paint (add that to the massive list at the top of this page).  I expect delivery of some filament style bulbs to complement the modern design of the lamps in a few days; but, for now we can see what we are cooking in the dumpy galley.

The Greyhound and Punchbowl, Bilston, West Midlands

{Update 30 September 2023: Someone set fire to the pub in the wee hours of the morning.  Cocksuckers.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66971299}

Pub #2414:

I put the two packages of 2 meter long coving against a gambling machine and turned to find that the animated conversation at the adjacent bar was about me.  Pointing at the coving, one asked if that was my date.  “She can hold her own for a thin, white girl,” I explained and they turned their mirth to someone else at the bar.

I had the feeling that the Greyhound and Punchbowl is truly ancient.  Looking it up just now, I find that the low timber ceilings are covered in 17th century plaster casts of hop vines and nothing is quite level from centuries of settling (despite a valliant restoration in 1936).  Stone floors, rooms scattered around, the works.  Don’t mind the jackasses at the bar — they probably won’t even notice you if you aren’t toting construction material; and, they might not even be there when you look closely.

The Interceptor, West Bromwich

Pub #2413:

A steel and glass monstrosity, the Interceptor is nothing like its namesake, the Jensen Interceptor (which was manufactured right here in West Bromwich and featured in the sixth Fast & Furious film, none of which I’ve yet to see).  But, it was open at 11 am, Sunday, as I sped between the Argos nearby and the Screwfix in Wednesbury.  Tic.

Touchscreen replacement

Dropped my phone hundreds of times often from height and sometimes at speed and it has sustained dings and scratches but it was only at Christmas when it slid off the couch a mere 16 inches that the screen broke.  I’ve been living with it since but some of the features (like zoom) have been intermittent.

Found a video and the repair looked complicated but tractable.  Bought the replacement digitiser and noticed that the cables were more numerous and located in different places than the video which I only referred to for moral support.  But, everything works, again.   Here’s the old screen (photo taken with the repaired camera, seen at the top of the page):

The breaks multiplied as I took it out of the rest of the phone housing…I’d only been living with the 3 or 4 large, main diagonal cracks before.

2020 Commute 11 of 52 (To): Dead Reckoning

8½ miles first along the canals, then decided to use the sun — on its first appearance in ages — to find my way the rest of the journey to work.

Loads of wrong turns I would have made on an overcast day (some of which I already have done in the past) were avoided.

And, it was a pretty run in.  Wind at my back for a change and only one pressing matter at work ahead of a 5 day break to work on the house.  Hooray.

The Vine, West Bromwich

Pub #2412:

I run past the Vine regularly but, it being so close to the house, I usually am into the final kick home.  Saturday, on the other hand, I just had to pick up a replacement touch screen digitizer for my phone and was taking a leisurely jog in the howling winds back from the Royal Mail depot and decided to give it a shot.

Nice house with a friendly bunch of regulars.  I expected as much, though, it being more of a pub than the other Vine (which is likewise, but differently, spectacular — we had a good lunch there the day we recon’ed the area the first time).

The clue to me that this would be the case came on the tram back from Wolverhampton the night we went to Tile Mountain near Stoke (again, new home related).  Two old, Indian gents were rowdily taking the piss out of the conductor — a young man, say 25 years old — and during all this they asked about the Vine.  He started sending them to the other one and I caught one of them asking wouldn’t Lodge Road be a better stop.  Interrupting, I gave them the walking directions from Dartmouth Street and their attentions, first, then the conductor’s focused on the Americans that know WBrom … or at least the obscure pubs hidden down back streets.

 

The Shireland Bar & Grill, Smethwick, Birmingham

Pub #2411:

The sun was setting on the afternoon commuter run so I popped into the first previously unexplored pub that presented itself, thinking, “as the sunset crawls later and later I will be able to pick up the 3 or 4 others on this route.”  The Shireland was an alright choice.

Mind, it was all large, gangster-acting Indian lads save for one giant white guy telling some story about some dude that cut his wife’s head off, “just a normal guy, never in any trouble, always showed up to work…”.

“Those are the ones you have to watch out for,” I added.  Everyone just stopped and stared at me for a few seconds but what seemed like ages until I shrugged and tilted my glass their way.  Probably a friendly place, though, if you’re not a weirdo.

2020 Commute 10 of 52 (From): All the time I was alone the past was close behind

Overland to have a pub stop.  Friday is good…6.8 miles despite the awful winds.

Got a note from a friend with a scanned note to her from another friend (sent approximately 36 years ago).  I’ve been smiling  un-self-consciously about it all day.  Once away from work, I realised I MUST share it.

I believe our Pat was an atheist and certain he was raised Catholic.  The stationery was just whatever was convenient — this “church” was around the corner from a shack he and I and some other fellows (at least two of whom committed suicide) rented (and experimented within) for a few months.  I saw Jerry Lee Lewis do a gospel set there 6 or 7 years earlier when it was transitioning from a long-closed cinema to its evangelical future–talked my then 85-year-old grandmother into taking me to it by pushing the church angle.

Without further explanation (other than we did a LOT of acid back then), here is a transcript of everything on the note:

International Brotherhood of Hipsters
←this is the cool pistol, the official symbol of the I.B.H. GOTCHA! Hey, don’t you go changing.  Cpt. Moist official hipster president

First Fellowship Holiness Church
1980 North Hill Street Extension
Welcomes you to our regular church services
Times as follows
Sunday School………………………….10AM
Sunday Morning Worship………..11AM
Sunday Evening Service…………….7PM
Wednesday Evening Service………7PM
Pastor Rev John D Madaris
Come and listen to old time singing and preaching.
Parents bring your children to our Sunday School Classes. We have well qualified teachers for each class.
Kids and young people bring your parents to our services to listen to singing and preaching like they heard when they [were] little.

Words of Wisdom by P. W. Murphy
Complete fulfillment of life begins with the discovery of some significant coincidence in the events happening around you. It begins with a feeling of euphoria, a feeling of being a channel for some form of positive energy that is beyond your limited capacity, the ability to attain universal, infinite consciousness. When you aspire to that you become oriented to a wider scope, whereupon you do become a channel for powerful outside forces beyond your immediate control.

What’s up? Nothing much here but some mushrooms. That’s right, I just ate some shrooms and I’m moving 1,000,000 mph. So I apologize for anything fucked up that I write. Hopefully you will understand. Todd and I went to see Purple Rain today. It was great so now I’m tripping to the album of the same name. So I’m leaving you for now. I’m just going to write down whatever happens.

Excuse me for interrupting this letter, but, … Hey Gotcha! Zap! MOIST, write!
P.O. Box 124
Sunnyside Ga 30284

The speakers are alive!!

I almost forgot. I’m going to the Virgin Islands with my family next week.

Yes Concert

Bird flight

The cartoon men are wanking on my brain.

Pizza fan

Pokey is dead

What a good trip

Martha My Dear Prudence

Pat