Recently Viewed

I don't often sit down and watch a thriller, but this one was quite interesting. I just found it a bit hard to accept Michael Douglas getting the better of Sean Bean!

One amusing aspect of this film was Michael was driving around New york in the same type of vehicle as I own - a Landrover Discovery!! Albeit a different colour, newer model, steering wheel on the wrong side, etc....

Day 2 of the wrecking crew!

When I got home form work today, I decided to continue ripping out more bits from the en-suite!

This time it was the turn of the radiator. After turning off the taps at each end, I losened one of the nuts at the base, and put a small bucket underneath. Then I undid the bleed valve at the top and left it to drain.




Meanwhile, I decided to tackle the shower cubicle. This proved to be my first real problem. I could not see how each segment was attached to each other. In the end I had to remove the

Entire glass panels all at once, and then set about trying to dismantle it! I left the shower tray alone for the time being, as I will again have to turn off the water supply and drain the water to the shower unit. Before I do that, though, I will need to remove the tiles to get at the shower mixer unit and the pipes connected to it. That is a task I will leave until I have more time.

My wife took a look at the pictures of my progress today, and was alarmed at what I had done! Her daughter wants me to promise that I do not go anywhere near the other bathroom! Maybe next year I will send them off on holiday again and secretly go into the other bathroom.....

Day 1 Of My Bathroom Project.

Today, I decided to make a start on the en-suite bathroom. I took this picture, to show what it was like before I started wrecking it!

This Picture Shows how the toilet looked before I got my grubby hands onto it! My first task was to remove the cupboard above the sink, and the toilet roll holder. These were easy, as I had put them up originally.

Next, I attempted to remove the cistern from the toilet. This proved to be easier than I expected, with only one minor problem. I discovered that there was an special tap attached to the inlet water pipe, which made turning off the supply easy. After disconnecting the pipes to the bottom of the cistern, I turned to the two screws attaching the cistern to the wall. as you can see from this picture, the screws had badly corroded. Luckily, the first one came out without any problem, and the other one had corroded completely away and it wasn't attached to the wall any more!

After I removed the cistern, I noticed that they hadn't even tiled the wall properly! Talk about cutting corners!

My next task was removing the sink. This now required me to find a way to turn off the water supply to the sink and shower. After spending an hour in the loft trying to find a tap that would isolate the en-suite, I had to admit defeat, and resorted to turning off the entire water supply to the house.

I then merrily got to work on removing the sink. The most difficult part was trying to cut through the silicone sealant enough to prise the bowl away from the wall.

As I had turned off the water supply, I had an idea to try and cap the pipes off in the en-suite, so I could turn on the water supply to the rest of the house.

I dashed off to Homebase to get some end caps, and came home and fitted them to the pipes. After turning on the water supply, and finding that I have no water leaks, I am very pleased with my efforts so far.

As I am back at work for the next two days, I will probably tackle the next instalment on Sunday. Then I hope to remove the radiator, and the shower unit. Finally I will get to work on removing the shower cubicle. How much of this I will do in one day, I don't know. I am not going to rush myself on this project.

Some Light Entertainment For Me

As the girls are away on holiday, I decided to treat myself and go to the theatre this evening to see this play.

Currently Showing:

Until 18th July
Chalkfoot Theatre Arts
presents

LAUREL and HARDY
by
Tom McGrath

Tuesdays to Saturdays 7.30pm
Saturday and Sunday Matinees 4.00pm


Call the Box Office on: 020 7287 2875

Laurel and Hardy are dead. So how come Stan and Ollie are the last to know?

CAST:
Neil Bromley and Simon Lloyd

Trapped between this world and the next, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy pass their time in a limbo-like waiting room, reprising old comedy routines, swapping gags, bickering and making up.

They will only earn their passage to "The Other Side" by undertaking an emotional journey through their personal lives and screen careers: but are they prepared to re-live the bad times as well as the good?

Recently Viewed

I've watched this film about half a dozen times already, but I still like it. I first saw it on TV, and ended up buying the DVD!

All by myself

After getting home from work last night at midnight, I was up again at 05:00 this morning to take my wife, daughter and a friend of my wife to Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, so that they can start their holidays. After dropping the girls off, I then travelled up to Kings Lynn to look at a new motor vehicle. As it was a dealer, I pointed out numerous faults with the car. The dealer promised to rectify all the problems, so I have left a deposit and will return next week to see if he has made good his promises.

If I do purchase this new car, then I will confuse my wife and daughter, as they will not recognise the vehicle when I go to collect them again at the end of the month!

I arrived home at 18:00 this evening, and fed the dog. For some strange reason I did not feel hungry myself, until 21:00. I then raided the fridge and nuked the leftover food from yesterday. I still have one more day of food prepared by my wife and daughter before I will have to start cooking for myself!!

One step closer to my holiday project!

Just bought 16 boxes of ceramic wall tiles for the bathroom! Nearly broke the shopping trolley bringing them out to the car! The type of tile I bought is a Natural Marble effect. I worked out that I would need about 700 tiles to do the entire room, and each box contained 44 tiles. I may have left myself very little room for any errors or breakages!

I will take some pictures of the en-suite before I start my decorating project, and hopefully I will report on my progress as I go along (my wife and daughter are on holiday abroad for 2 weeks, and they want to know what I am doing while they are away!).

At the moment, I keep thinking of all the things I need to do in the form of preparation, for instance, removing the cupboard, toilet roll holder (these are easy), radiator, toilet cistern, and basin (these involve playing with water pipes!). Then I will have to remove the old shower cubicle, and remove the wallpaper (could get very messy)!

I have a DIY book that I am looking into, to help give me some hints and tips to make my task as risk free as I can possibly make it. The only unknown element in this project is my own ability to do the work! Whatever happens, I will have an interesting couple of weeks ahead of me!