Home decorating.... Again!!

Last year, I had a major crisis when the hot water tank burst. The water poured through the ceiling and left stain marks on the ceiling and wallpaper. So during this holiday, I decided to make a start on redecorating our dining room. the picture above, is what the wallpaper looked like before I started the decorating.









First, I started to remove the radiator. Having done this before, I am becoming confident of doing this without any major mishaps. I just needed a couple of sauspans to drain the water from inside the radiator itself. This particular radiator made it even easier for me as there were valves at both ends to shut down the water supply, so I didn't have to go into the loft and shut down the water supply from there. Once I had losened the nuts at the base, all I had to do was open the bleed valve and let the water pour into the sauspan. When the saucepan was full, I tightened up the bleed valve to stop the water flow, emptied the saucepan, and then repeated the process until all the water was drained.



Soon, the radiator was off the wall. As you can see, there were loads of cobwebs behind the radiator. You can also see that when I last did the wallpapering, I hadn't removed the radiator. I hadn't even bothered to remove the original wallpaper either! I put special end caps onto the pipes to stop any potential leaks while I was doing the decorating. I also removed the support brackets for the radiator. One problem I did have though. The plastic grommets that held the radiator in place on the brackets had become brittle and disintegrated when I took the radiator off the brackets. Luckily, I still had some grommets left from when I had taken the radiator off in the hallway. Now I have only one grommet left, I think I will need to get some more in stock for my next decorating project!







Next, it was the infrared detector to be removed. This involved me shutting down the alarm system (which took 20 minutes of the external siren wailing before it shut up), then carefully removing the sensor, and making a note of the order of the wiring connections as I removed it. As you can see in this picture, you can clearly see the water damage, and also the last time I decorated this room I didn't remove the detector (I didn't have enough confidence in myself at the time to attempt such a task).










I then put masking tape arround the windows, floor edges, and light fittings. Then I commenced wallpaper stripping, with lots of help from my wife and daughter. Once the wall paper was off, I commenced painting the ceiling, window frames and the skirting boards.












Finally, all the preparation was completed< and with help from my wife and daughter, we started putting on the new wallpaper.












It took us two days to complete the wallpapering. We could have done it more quickly, but we only did a few hours each day, as we had other things we wanted to do with our time. As you can see from this picture, the room certainly looks different. Personally, I don't like the look of the wallpaper, but I let the girls choose what they wanted, and they seem very happy with the result!

Home Accounts

This afternoon, my wife asked me to find out how much money we spent on groceries for the last two years. This is quite an easy task as I have a Home accounts programme that I have been using for years.

I first started using an accounts programme back in the 1980's when I had a Commodore Amiga. When I eventually bought a PC, I started to use the Quicken accounts program.

Over the years I upgraded the program until 2003 when Quicken no longer supported the British market and just concentrated on their own American market. I then gave Microsoft Money a try, but having got used to the Quicken layout, I struggled to adapt to the Microsoft version. One aspect in particular was the facility to have the account show exactly how much money I would have in my account on any particular day in the future. Extremely useful if you get paid every 4 weeks and have standing orders spread throughout the month.

I could check this with ease using Quicken. All I had to do was check the scheduled transaction page and the information I wanted was immediately visible. The Microsoft version had a more complicated process to obtain this information. Consequently I have continued to use the Quicken program.

What I did discover today though is that it is not a good idea to delete old accounts that have been closed. I discovered hundreds of transactions from my live accounts that had originally gone to another account, such as credit card payments or mortgage payments, suddenly had no account to send the money to, so the transactions were no longer categorised as they had originally been.

I just spent the last 4 hours re categorising these transactions so that I can now produce accurate reports of where I've actually spent my money!

In case your wondering, our grocery bill increased by nearly £1000 between 2008 and 2009!
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Cherry Tree

This afternoon, we purchased a Cherry Tree. Not the ornamental flowering kind, but the type that will produce juicy red cherries to eat! Now all I have to do is hope that it survives my ministrations and bears fruit one day! Admittedly, I was ably assisted in the planting by my wife and daughter.

I freely admit that I do not have any green fingers! 9 times out of 10 whatever I try to grow just wilts and dies. Though on the odd occasion something flourishes, despite what I do to it!

Gardening is not something I enjoy doing. I consider it a necessary chore that must be done. Maybe one day I will be in a position to pay someone else to do my gardening for me! Or better yet, leave it for my wife and daughter to do instead!

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Not such a Merry Christmas as I had hoped for!

This Christmas everything started off fine, but then things started to go wrong! On Christmas Eve, I had to work until 01:00, and then drive home. Earlier in the day I had stopped off at a supermarket and bought my wife some flowers. When I arrived home at 02:30, she was awake and waiting for me. My wife was overjoyed with the gift of the flowers!

On Christmas Day we were up at 07:00, to take my wife's friend home, after an overnight stay. On the way back home we discovered that someone had made a snowman in the form of a polar bear! Back home, we opened our presents, nothing special, as we already knew most of what we were getting already! (That's because we all went shopping together to get the presents!) It was while I was sitting in the kitchen that the first problem started to manifest itself.

I noticed that every time I moved my left knee, it was very painful. It was fine when standing, or sitting. It was only if there was any movement in the joint that it hurt. I decided to rummage in the cupboard, and dig out the bottle of Cod Liver Oil tablets, hoping that they might help improve the situation.

Later in the morning, it was my task to prepare the turkey for roasting. As I had never done this before, I first searched the Internet, and came across Delia Smiths recipe. So my wife and I duly stuffed, and basted, the turkey with butter, and wrapped it in foil, then put it in the oven at a high temperature for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes had passed, that was when things went wrong. When I went to the oven to turn it down to slow cook the turkey, I noticed that the legs had stretched, and opened up the foil. I took the tray out of the oven and put it on the side I then got some more foil to seal up the turkey again. It was while I was trying to put the foil on the turkey that the tray decided to slide on the worktop and tumble on the floor. In an effort to stop the turkey ending up on the floor, I grabbed the tray with my left hand! That was when I discovered how hot the tray was. Although I managed to save the turkey, I ended up with blisters on my hand. Because of this accident, my wife banned me from the kitchen, and proceeded to cook a beautiful roast turkey dinner! I only wish that I had managed to cook the dinner as I had promised to do!

This morning, when I woke up, my knee was much worse. so I have included taking Ibuprofen tablets along with the Cod Liver Oil tablets. I am also wearing a heat pack on my knee to see if that will help. Personally, I think my colleague WarrenJoffre has been so generous, he has passed his affliction on to me! I just hope he doesn't pass on his back problems too!

Finally, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a prosperous, fantastic New year to you all.

And Pop! Out went all the lights!

Ever since I had the burst immersion tank, I have had problems with my electrics! Because the water had poured through the floor below and affected the wiring to the smoke alarms and the downstairs lighting, I was advised by the boiler engineer to call out an electrician to check the wiring too.

I duly called in an electrician, and he checked the wiring and the fittings, he found that nothing was wrong with them. He did, however, discover that the RCD breaker on the fuse board would not trip every time he tested it. He then replaced it.

That was when my problems seemed to begin!

First it was the iron. I had no problems with it for the years before, now every time I used it, it would trip the breaker! I then called out the electrician believing that the RCD was too sensitive. When the electrician arrived, she did a whole range of tests, and informed me that the iron actually was shorting out, and this was the reason for the RCD tripping. I had to go out and buy a new iron!

On Thursday evening, I decided to clean the oven. First I removed all the metal shelves, and then switched on the self cleaning programme. It takes about two and a half hours to do this. When I open the oven, all that is left inside, is ashes, which can simply be wiped away! It certainly saves on elbow grease!

I discovered the next morning that the light in the oven had blown, so I tried to replace it. That is when I encountered a small problem. The glass cover protecting the bulb wouldn't unscrew! I then sprayed a little WD40 on the thread, and hey presto! the cover came off with ease. I replaced the bulb, and replaced the cover.

I still had not cleaned the shelves and brackets. So yesterday, I started to clean the shelves. It was when I open the oven to replace the clean shelves that I encountered my present problem. When I opened the oven, and the light came on, the RCD would trip! At first,when I removed the bulb, the RCD would keep tripping. At present, I can still open the oven door, without the light in it, and the RCD will not trip. I haven't as yet tried to see if the oven itself will trip the RCD when I switch it on. I was just happy last night to be able to open the oven door without the RCD tripping!

Later today, I will actually test the oven, although I still do not know why there is a problem, with the light. I now wonder if I call out the electrician again, he/she will tell me that there is a problem with the oven, and not with the RCD. I'm not sure if the maintenance contract I have includes repairs to ovens. If not, I then would have to find somewhere that could repair the problem, or worst case scenario, contemplate purchasing a new oven!

My patience is almost in shreds!

It all started a few weeks ago. I had a neighbour knock on my door.

"Your hedge round the side of your house needs to be cut back. When are you going to do it?" He said.

"Er, hopefully later this week, if the weather is fine. Thanks for letting me know." I replied.

Of course, every time I had a day off, the weather put a stop to any possibility of making a start, until last Wednesday, 9th September.

The weather was beautiful, I had a couple of days rest from work, so I started to cut the hedge. That's when I ran into trouble. First I found that the hedge trimmer I had had for 20 years, just wasn't up to the task of cutting the woody stems of the hedge. So after searching the Internet, I finally decided to purchase a new on from Homebase, as I would also get an extra 5% discount off my household bills next month.

So far, so good. Then the garden shredder, I had, started to play up. It kept jamming. Every time I switched it off to clear the jam, it then wouldn't start again for another 10 minutes. I was steadily getting more, and more frustrated and annoyed with the machine. I couldn't continue to cut the hedge, without shredding the cuttings, as I only had a limited amount of space left in my wheelie bin!

On Friday, I finally lost patience, and decided to replace the shredder. Again, I searched the Internet, and I found that Homebase had a Sovereign shredder on special offer for only £120. Again I thought the £40 discount from the shop, plus the 5% discount on my home bills was a pretty good bargain. So off I trundled to the local Homebase store and brought home my new shredder. When I first started to use it, it seemed to work alright. Then my wife came out to help me, and that is when things started to go wrong.

This shredder had a capture bin for the waste. My wife didn't notice it was getting full, and continued to add more branches into the hopper. Eventually she could put no more in. Now this machine is supposed to automatically stop when the bin gets full. It didn't. After 10 minutes of clearing out the debris, I started up the machine again. This time, the machine would not shred the material at all! That was when I discovered that the cutting adjuster was broken!

I took the machine back to Homebase on the same day that I had bought it. They immediately exchanged it for a new one. I went home that evening, vowing I would return the next day with the shredder in it's box unopened, and try and get a refund, as I was not impressed with it's ability to do the job. My wife, persuaded me to give this new machine a try, as she thought that she might have been the cause of the previous machine failing. So, the next day, I assembled the shredder, and gave it a try.

Immediately, I discovered that this machine would not shred anything. No matter how much I tried to adjust the cutters, it simply just kept feeding the branches straight through into the capture bin! This time, when I took it back to Homebase, I got a full refund.

Now my old shredder, had been a Bosch model, and it had worked fine for about 10 years without any problems. I decided that I would go for another Bosch model this time. I spent an evening searching the Internet, to find which one would best suit my needs. I finally settled on one of the top of the range shredders, that will be happy to mulch leaves, as well as thick, woody, branches. My only problem was that I could not find any shop that had this particular model in stock. They all seemed to have sold out! So I have had to order it from an online retailer. Hopefully, it will arrive within the next few days, and I can then continue to cut the bloody hedge again!

Today's a special day for me.

Once again, I have reached another milestone, or is it millstone, in my life. Today is the day when I will be inundated with offers from companies who cater for the more senior end of the age cycle. I HATE being constantly reminded that I am now over 50 years old!

My daughter, once again has completely surprised me with this birthday video clip. I did not realise that the Beatles had even done this. I think it must have been from one of the BBC recordings, or from one of their special records given out to only their fans each year.

I should have a fairly quite day today, just taking my wife to and from work, my daughter to and from school, trimming the garden hedge... Now that is going to take the best part of the day to do! It is a glorious sunny day, so it will actually be quite nice to do. I may even get a bit of sunburn for my efforts!

This evening, I am being taken out to a Chinese Restaurant for a birthday meal. Yum, yum!

Oh and one last thing, yesterday, I have finally completed my en suite shower project, and here's the picture to prove it!

My next project is to wallpaper the hallway, stairwell, and upper landing. I might do this on my next holiday in October, unless we all go away for a real holiday instead!

Celebration time!

Tonight I am going to have a celebration. I will be taking my first shower!!! This afternoon, I finally managed to get the hot and cold water to work! The problem had been the 2 flexible hoses that connect the shower unit to the pipework. Because they were so short, they kinked and stopped the water flow. So yesterday I purchased longer hoses, and now everything is working fine... Well almost!

I now have a new small problem. One of the body jets has split, and water just pours out. I have not been able to find a replacement cap for it, so I have just had to order 6 new jets. I will simply replace the existing ones with the new ones, and then everything will be in full working order.

I have also just bought a new carpet for the shower room, and I will probably fit it either on Sunday, or next Tuesday, when I have my day off from work.

Almost done!

Yesterday was a very busy and long day. I started the final completion of the installation of the shower and towel rail at about midday, and went to bed at about 23:00 when the work was completed.

As you can now see everything is now connected!. On the towel rail, one of the pipes might have a slight leak, which will mean I will have to tighten up one of the nuts. This is a major improvement from when I first tried it out with running water through it! Nearly all of the joints leaked! What has cured the problems was jointing compound.

Now all that is left to do is to test the hot water flow to the shower on Tuesday, when the new hot water tank is replaced. Then I can consider the last addition to this room, a new floor covering. This will be chosen by my wife, both the colour and the texture. So I have absolutely no idea what it will be! She is already looking through the Argos catalogue for inspiration!

Hopefully, later this weekend, I will make a start in tidying up the shrubbery alongside the house (I had a neighbour politely ask me to cut it back). Perhaps I might even be able to sit down, take a rest, and give myself a small pat on the back for getting this far along with my project. Although I will think long and hard about attempting something like this again!

It sometimes pays to be insured

Today, I had a day off work to stay at home and wait for the plumber to arrive. Eventually he arrived at 13:30, and very quickly informed me that it was NOT a water pipe that had burst, but the water tank itself had split at the bottom! Considering that the tank is only 13 years old, I am very surprised that something like this should happen to a copper tank!

I thought the plumber would disconnect the tank and remove it ready for when the new one arrived. Instead, he spent 3 hours draining the remaining water from the tank (the drain valve wouldn't open properly!) and then told me that he would not disconnect the tank, as he was not allowed to leave the pipes unconnected, in case the valves stopping the water flow failed.

Next, he gave me the news that did not make me a happy bunny. A new hot water tank has to be ordered, and will not be delivered here until Monday! Then on Tuesday morning, another plumber will arrive to remove the old tank, and install the new one. Until then, we have only cold water supply in the house. The only way we can have hot water, is by boiling water in a saucepan on the cooker! So for the next 7 days, I will be reduced to strip washes!

The only real good news out of this disaster, is that I will not have to pay anything for the replacement tank, or the work carried out by the plumbers. I had the good sense to set up a contract with British Gas to maintain, my gas appliances, central heating, plumbing, and electrics. The policy costs about £28 each month, but I have been told that the tank and plumbing work alone would cost over £1000. Then there is the cost of the electricians afterwards to repair or replace the damaged smoke alarm.

My daughter now has a job to do for the next 7 days. She has to use a hair dryer to attempt to dry out the floor underneath the tank, and the ceiling downstairs. I may even decide to call in the house contents insurers to see if I can claim on that insurance to repair the water damage to the downstairs ceiling, and the dining room. I'll have to think about that one, and make a decision tomorrow.

Drip, Drip!

This morning, I came downstairs to find that water is still dripping into the bucket. Also as you can see the ceiling is looking decidedly wet. The dining room has water seeping down in the corners, so God knows how far the water has spread from the initial problem. Even more worrying, how do I dry out such a vast area? Answers on very absorbent material please.

Now I have to decide whether to detach the pipework from the hot water tank, and remove it, so that the plumbers can get to where the broken pipe is underneath. Or do I wait for them to come and do it themselves.

I think I will go and have a cup of coffee, and mull this one over for an hour or two. Hopefully the plumbers will turn up before I make a decision one way or the other!

Disaster!

I switched off the water supply while I connected the shower to the pipes. First I switched on the cold water supply, and everything was fine. It was when I switched on the hot water supply that disaster struck. A pipe burst underneath the hot water tank! This is an area that I haven't been anywhere near! All I can say is it was just waiting to happen, and it was the weight of the water filling up the tank that caused the pipe to burst!

Now I have to wait for the emergency plumbers to arrive tomorrow morning to try and find and repair the burst pipe. Once they have done that, I then have to find a way to dry out the whole area around the hot water tank, before the electricians will then come and check that all the electrics are OK. I know the smoke alarms have shorted out, as I can smell burnt plastic downstairs. I just hope that nothing major will go wrong with the electrics tonight, as the fire alarms are disabled until the electricians can come and fix them again.

I contacted my manager at work, and he has allowed me to stay at home tomorrow to deal with the plumbers, and whatever other problems that might arise.

Things were going so well up until now, I now need to let off steam, so ... BOLLOCKS, SHIT, BUGGER, FUCK!!!!! There, now I feel a little bit better!

At Last, The Tiling Is Done!

After getting way behind schedule, I have finally completed tiling the en-suite bathroom! It looks very nice now, apart from the grubby carpet. I am very pleased with the way I managed to drill holes in the tiles for where the fixings should go. the only thing I am a little disappointed with, was my inability to make the tiles match up at the corners!

The next thing to do is install the shower screen. I have no idea how complicated this is going to be, as I haven't even opened the package containing the screen yet! I will open it tonight and start to read the instructions, and probably make a start on Sunday afternoon.

Progress is slow but sure!

At last I have some progress with the en-suite shower room. At least the most important and difficult part of the room has been tiled. Half the room is fully tiled and grouted. Before I went to work, I managed to Plumb back in the toilet cistern, and the sink. The wall cabinet is also installed. I just managed to find time to continue tiling along the other long wall. I think that I should complete the tiling by next weekend.

Then I will have fun trying to install the shower cubicle frame and panels. That is going to require me to start drilling holes on my nice new tiles!!

Finally, I will then connect the shower up, and hope that when I switch it on, the power pump actually works and increases the flow to the shower! If it doesn't, I will have to admit defeat and call a plumber in to fix it!

The final part to this renovation will be to replace the carpet! I have already told my wife that she can choose what she would like. what material she wants it to be, such as linoleum, carpet, cork, or tiles.

Any one got a time machine?

I am rapidly running out of time every day! After failing spectacularly in completing the redecorating of the en-suite shower room (hence the reason for no more new pictures), I am trying to complete the tiling, whilst also embarking on a month of "Win a Mini" events at various DIY stores.

Also I have had to collect my wife and daughter from the airport last Friday, take my car in for repair, this morning, and find time to take the dog for a walk, take my wife to and from work, go grocery shopping, eat, sleep....

Tomorrow, I have planned to take my wife to work, cut the grass in the garden (subject to it remaining dry), commence tiling the second wall in the en-suite. Collect my wife from work and take her to the doctor in the evening, and finally head off to Northampton for my first appointment with a potential new customer!

I am feeling very nervous about taking my wife to visit the doctor tomorrow, as the problem she has could at best result in a course of ultrasound treatment, or possibly an operation! We wont know until we have gone through the process of seeing the doctor first, then being referred to a specialist at a hospital somewhere before knowing what the prognosis is likely to be.

The Tiles are slowly going on!

I have finally started the tiling in the en-suite! I decided to begin on the wall with the most problems, such as the pipes for the wash basin, the window, and the shower cubicle. Also I will have to relocate the wall cabinet. I am not sure if I want to replace it exactly where it was last time, or perhaps lower it a bit.

I am finding the progress very slow as I have to wait for the adhesive to dry a bit before I can grout between the tiles. So far, I have placed 88 tiles on the wall, and I intend to do another 44 tiles tonight before I call it a day and crawl into bed! I then have just 2 more days to complete this project!!

Can I turn back the clock?

This project, has been very slow and fraught with niggly problems. After finally connecting all the pipes, I first placed the shower tray on the floor and connected it to the waste pipe, then I tried to temporarily connect the shower and see if it worked. No water came out at all!!!

I then searched through my DIY book for an answer, and basically I have an air lock in the system. All I need to do is connect a hose from a tap connected to the rising main and the affected pipe, and then use the water pressure to dislodge the airlock.

So once again I trundled off to the local DIY store and purchased some tap connectors to connect the hosepipe to. I then successfully cleared the airlocks in the piping I created. Even better, it doesn't leak either! I now have another problem though. The hot water tap in the kitchen has an airlock somewhere, and I couldn't get it to shift using the rising main pressure. I seem to remember I had this same problem when I replaced the kitchen tap a few years ago, but I cannot remember how I cured the problem last time.

My next problem was with the shower tray. It came with some panels to go round the outside between the floor and the bottom of the tray. If I tried to lower the tray sufficiently so the panels would fit snugly I found there was no room for the waste sump to fit. If I raised the tray to fit the sump, then there was about a 10mm gap! I decided to fill the gap with silicone sealant, as the other alternative would be to cut a hole in the floor, and completely reroute the waste pipe!

Whilst I was busy sorting out the shower tray last night, right at the end, I got a sudden pain in my right knee. Any movement was sheer agony. I had a long hot soak in the bath, and then limped off to bed.

I was woken up at 06:00 this morning by the pain. So I hobbled downstairs and microwaved a heat bag, hobbled back upstairs and crawled into bed, placed the pack on my knee and promptly went back to sleep.

When I woke up again at 09:00 I found that my knee still hurt, but I could at least move it. Throughout the morning, it has been improving, to the point where it is now a constant ache. I personally think I may have pulled a muscle or ligament somehow, and I should be fully recovered in a day or two.

This morning I have successfully replaced all the skirting boards. This afternoon, I commence tiling. Although it is going to be challenging to mark out the exact spots where the screw holes are to replace the sink and cistern again! I will take a picture of my progress later this evening, and post it on this blog so that my wife and daughter can see what progress I have made so far.

Finished work in the loft!

Trying to sort out the pipes to the water pump has been a slow hard slog. The heat in the loft meant that I had to keep going downstairs every half an hour to wipe away the sweat, and have a drink ow water!

As you can see by the picture, I have finally connected the water pump to the pipes. I haven't tested the connections yet, as I still have to connect the hot water pipe to the extension I made in the shower room. And before I can really test the system, I will need to put the new shower tray in place so that the water can drain away when I turn it on.

The final part of connecting the pump was relatively easy. I had to find a power source to connect the motor to. I found a cable that goes to the immersion heater, and created a 3 way spur. this feed then goes up to the circuit breaker box you see, and then it goes to the pump. This spur has a 5 amp fuse in it as per recommendation.

Again I cannot test it fully, as the pump has to have water going through it before I can switch on the power supply. I am pleased to say that electricity is going to the switch, and is definitely not going any further, as I planned.

Now I am off to have a long soak in the bath, and get ready for bed, as I am off to Kings Lynn tomorrow morning using public transport. It should take about 4 hours to get there!

I am one frustrated Bunny!!!

Today has been a day where nothing has gone according to plan! Yesterday I received a phone call from someone who was looking to join my business. So I had an 11:00 appointment this morning. This meant i couldn't really get started on sorting out the plumbing in the shower room.

The person I met was a young lad, and although he seemed interested, he wanted to discuss the business opportunity with his mum! I do not think he will be contacting me again!

When I got home, I started to prepare some lunch, and start bringing in some more tools from the garage. While I was carrying some of the tools upstairs, our dog, Bonnie, decided to go for a stroll! I received a phone call shortly afterwards from some people who had captured her. So off I went to fetch Bonnie back, which was about half a mile away.

I finally got to work on the plumbing this afternoon. First I had to drill some extra holes in the joists so that I could pass two copper pipes up into the loft, ready for connection to the power pump. That is when things started to get frustrating.

Although I bought a 3 metre length of pipe, there is not sufficient amount left to cut to supply the extra piping to and from the pump! Plus the instructions for connecting the pump state that the flexible hoses must be in an upright position. This meant I had to go and get some more elbow connectors. So off I merrily trundled to buy another length of copper pipe, elbows, and a fused spur connection for the electrics.

When I got home, I thought I would start cutting some of the pipe and fitting some of the elbow joints. Then connect the pipes to the pump. That is when I discovered that the connectors to the pump require 22mm copper tube, not the 15mm that I had! Grrrr!

So once more I had to visit the DIY store, and this time I had to buy 22mm copper pipe. The shortest length I could purchase was a 2 metre length! I then had to buy 4 reducers to get the 22m down to the 15mm the rest of the piping in the house is. Finally I remembered just in time that I only have a 15mm pipe cutter. So I bought a universal cutter that will cut the 22mm diameter pipe.

After all that, all I have managed to do today is fit 2 pipes from the shower room to the loft. Nothing is connected yet. I am now going to sit down, have a drink, and a bite to eat, and relax Tomorrow is when I start reconnecting the plumbing.

Halfway There!

I can now take off my "Wrecking Crew" cap and put on my "Repair Crew" cap! At last all the tiles, wallpaper, fixtures and fittings are out. Now all I have to do is repair the holes on the wall where the plasterboard came away with the tiles, or is completely missing. Then I have to extend the hot pipe upwards to the loft, so I can connect it to the power pump. Then I will have to cut the cold water pipe to divert it through the pump as well.

My next task today is to put all the rubbish into the car, and take it to the Refuse tip. Then I go shopping. Items I need to purchase, are - a power pump, plasterboard, plaster (hopefully ready made to patch up the holes), skirting board, copper pipe, assorted compression joints and bends to attach the piping, and finally a heated towel rail. This last item is going to be an ambitious project, as I do not know how I will connect it to the existing central heating pipes. I will go and ask a few experts on the best way forward.