Month: August 2020

Wood plank prep, new electrical connections, and wired internet

A lot of the wood flooring in our house is painted with bitumen as was the fashion in Edwardian times.  Most of it is only around the edges to create a dark framework for the rug that would be central to the room.  For us, however, it will gum up the sander fairly quickly so we are attempting to flip as many of these planks as practical ahead of hiring the sander in a few weeks.

The old gas pipe (NOT Jackie’s pet name for me) awaits a Gas Safe plumber to disconnect it.

At the same time, we have an opportunity to rewire the house and move some of the radiators (we just ordered some new cast iron ones made from old, original, contemporary-with-the-house moulds).  They will arrive in a few weeks so I’ll have to dive back under the boards at that point to solder new pipework but at least the groundwork is now laid for that.

The bitumen coated floors are dry and worn but flipped they are only dry and awaiting sanding, stain, and varnish.

Meanwhile, the house only has a bare minimum number of electrical outlets all in inconvenient locations so that the rooms have been cluttered with extension cords since our arrival.  This is no longer the case.

The landing at the top of the stairs is a de facto junction box containing all the cables from 12 decades of the house.  Some are thin, bare wires!  Others were obviously an improvement on these but all the insulation crumbles upon handling.  A third batch appears to have been replaced in the last 30 years or so with the ones we currently (ha! . . . pun) have.  We are replacing all the conductors we find with overrated lines (26 – 34A, 2.5mm² wires for 6A and 16A breakers and 35 – 46A, 4mm² wires for 32A ones).

While at it, I sent the satellite cables under the floor as well thus shortening them by almost 20 meters to a mere 8m (we picked up a couple of extra channels with the increased signal strength).   I added a new quad LNB to the dish so we can have a tele in the bedroom (a sign of age, true, but I still haven’t succumbed to the Laz-E-Boy recliner with built in cupholder … yet).

The pipe is an old, disconnected gas line that went to gas lighting and radiant heaters back in The Olden Days

Finally, we also wired the house for the internet using CAT6 cables — and, yes, I know they are already superceded by CAT7, but there is really only negligible difference to see between these and CAT5 for our purposes which do not involve either gaming or Bitcoin mining.  The digital service line to the router/wifi modem also took a dive under the boards and the equipment was moved to the larder under the stairs.  We now have web sockets in our bedroom and living room for the tele’s streaming services and in the living room and office for computers; anywhere else, it is back to WiFi.

Tiles to Add to the House Archive

This week’s fireplace removal held some surprises including the old hearth made from some delicate (china clay) tiles.  The glazing — but not the paint — peeled away with the cement render in most cases and many of the tiles disintegrated so we’ll have to replace them when we get the cast iron fireplace inserts of our dreams (still ONLY in our dreams).

The glazing from the tiles that came loose is still integrated on the levelling render some oaf poured over it decades ago.

But, the nicest one will eventually join other bits we recovered from the house’s history — like the wallpaper remnants and the various bits of old lino.

An intact — save for the glazing — hearth tile above the broken one from the header photo of this post, below. There are a couple near the chimney that still have glazing on them and one of those can go to our hoarders’ pile.

It is definitely an archive we are making and not a revisionist history display, though.  I am even keeping a mottled tile from the most hideous fireplace — if not on earth, then — in the house:

Naturecraft is stamped on the back…a clue to the mystery of what company must be held to account for this crime against architectural detailing.

 

Fireplace Refurb #2

We took off work from Wednesday till after the Bank Holiday to get back into some major refurbishment jobs in the house.  One depressingly ugly bit in particular had to go (soon to be joining the other hideous fireplace taken out before the lockdown).

The hearth broke free with some manual hammer and chisel action but to break it into pieces the two of us could carry took the rotary hammer drill:

Back to the chisels and crowbar, we managed to tilt the mantle off the chimney exposing the front and the insulating wool I stuffed into the chimney until we can find the right insert for the refurbishment.

We’ve been busy but the marking on the back, we hope, will give us a clue to the date and location of manufacture (J thinks the 30s, I think the 60s, we both think nearby).

Perhaps as near as Wednesbury?

Clearing the rubble, some of the original hearth was exposed beneath 6 inches of render:

More of them were broken or permanently attached to the rubble than not.  The last photo, below, shows the state of things at the end of Wednesday (before we salvaged what we could of the remaining, stuck tiles).  We’ll try to find an entire set similar to this one to replace this old hearth but for now we are luxuriating in extra space and the removal of angst the old, ugly fucker imposed.

Here it is today:

New Smethwick Kebab House

I considered ordering some samosas at the Red Cow but had I started snacking whilst sitting down I might be there still, today, 3 days hence.  Instead, I drank up, hit some Jack Herer in the car park, then continued my run toward ToolStation.

The main drag in this bit of Smethwick is a melange of Asian shops but I quite fancied some kebab meat (it has been ages) so popped into the New Smethwick Kebab House.  Knowing how disgusted I would be with myself afterward, I opted for the smallest portion…the Döner wrap.

Delicious and with a strong hint of aromatics from the Indian kitchen’s larder.  Disgusted, indeed, but left wanting more (which, I guess, covers a lot of my activities these last 6 decades).

 

The Red Cow, Smethwick

Pub #2445:

The run home from work, Tuesday, would eventually only go as far as the ToolStation in Oldbury (who knew a 100m spool of three conductor cable rated to 32A would be too heavy to run with?); the next commuter run would have to wait.  On the way, I stopped in the Red Cow for a break from the heat.

 

I had been saving the visit for a meal as this is known as one of the better Desi pubs in the area — not surprising with the number of Sikh and Hindu temples in the buurt.  This trip, though, it was quiet save for the one other cider fan chatting to the bartender from across the room and over the BBC sport news on tele.  I had a seat offering a view of the kitchen and, when we do finally start going out for dinner again this will be on the shortest end of the short list.

Kitchen Refurb #2

The kitchen, laundry, and WC are so interconnected that working on one impacts the others.  We had taken up some porcelain tile at the entrance to the laundry revealing 1908 quarry tiles in good shape under a layer of cement render.  The next step was to pull up the rest of the kitchen tiles to assess what really lies beneath.

They looked awful but we were determined to see them close to original.  Some muriatic acid was recommended to etch away the stains and loosen the larger blobs (note, this was a couple of months before the brute force method I employed on the dining room quarry tiles).

Still, there is much to do (cabinets; plaster walls and ceiling; put in an access hatch to the ceiling crawlspace; level the subfloor; and, install underfloor heating, sink, stove, dishwasher) but it is all on hold until we finish the wood flooring, built in closets, and subfloor heating in the dining room.  Baby steps.

2020 Commute 67 of 52 (To): Eat the Weak

Monday’s commuter run had me thinking about The Future.  Not the Trump-In-Prison Future or the Bio-Apocalypse of which we stand on the precipice.  No, just the next few days of household projects.

And, what we will have for supper the next few days since we always eat more lavishly when off work for a while.  Nothing vegan on purpose, mind; that shit makes you too week to wield a can of spray paint (much less a wrecking bar and a sledge hammer).

 

2020 Commute 65 of 52 (From): Sunshine and Wind

I spotted the wee lamb who appeared to be waiting for a bus on the Selly Oak side of the campus on my way into work.  The fine weather you see there held all day and despite spending my day in a windowless basement lab I was able to spend an hour and a half on the run home in the late afternoon.  Incredible breezes exceeding 20 miles per hour and all at my back.