The story of #48
Discussion
Lovely job on that bathroom. 
I may have to steal some ideas from you!
Your picture is called Bluebird at Bonnevile and is part of a series by a Scottish artist called Jack Vettriano. It's a fabulous picture, I have a version on canvas.
I feel your pain on the orange pine skirting by the way. We are coming up to 2 years in our place now and all the original skirtings (house is 1906) were done in that horrible 90's orange varnish.
I may have to steal some ideas from you! Your picture is called Bluebird at Bonnevile and is part of a series by a Scottish artist called Jack Vettriano. It's a fabulous picture, I have a version on canvas.
I feel your pain on the orange pine skirting by the way. We are coming up to 2 years in our place now and all the original skirtings (house is 1906) were done in that horrible 90's orange varnish.
Edited by Ace-T on Sunday 17th March 08:59
Schmeeky said:
Not in London, actually just about as far away from London as you can get and still be in England!
Yup, am single, and the cool thing about that is I can be utterly selfish and do the house exactly as I want!
Good for you ha ha!!Yup, am single, and the cool thing about that is I can be utterly selfish and do the house exactly as I want!
Make sure you change all lock cylinders and get a garage defender lock, so gives some security for tools etc
Ace-T said:
Lovely job on that bathroom. I may have to steal some ideas from you!
Your picture is called Bluebird at Bonnevile
Thank you! I may have to steal some ideas from you! Your picture is called Bluebird at Bonnevile
The picture wasn't planned, but it gave me an idea.. I had these at my mum's place in my car collection from when I was a kid..
It's sorta like there's a theme emerging..
So I went online to find an SSC model, built a shelf, knocked up a small plinth, and got Timpsons to engrave me a small plaque, just because if the other cars are there, I may as well have the currect WR holder as well!
Now to the real fun part -
All the crap had been cleared out prior to me moving in, so I effectively had a blank canvas.
It had light and power, which was a massive plus. Albeit two really crappy energy saver bulbs that took so long to warm up they were effectively useless. Power was a small circuit breaker box and two double sockets in the workshop. The previous owner was a watchmaker and general handyman, and apparently liked to sneak into the workshop with a bottle of vodka to escape the missus for a while!
My plan was to build my own workshop area for general diy, projects and tinkering. No plan survives contact with the enemy though - when I put my car in the garage for the first time, it didn't fit!
It was only two inches too long as well...
So, Mr Wall, I'd like you to meet Mr Hammer!
First task was to brighten the place up. Yup, more bloomin' painting.. Just ordinary white emulsion, two coats, but what a difference! Replacing the two crappy bulbs with LED battens totally transformed the place, instant, bright, lovely!
First decent project for the new shop was to create storage space, some the actual house doesn't have a huge amount of. Somewhere for empty boxes to live, and Christmas decorations and suchlike. The workshop had had a ceiling, so with the wall removed it became a sort of mezzanine, and my plan was to increase the area of that and make good access.
On the photo above, you can see tools hung from plastic hooks attached to a wooden stake. These got reused as rungs on some two-by-four, and the whole lot anchored to the wall. I did two sections, the main one up to joist level, and a shorter section as far up as I could. Add some boards and presto, loads of space! Also ran up a wire for a bulb to finish it off.
I worked for Maplin, and they were a good source of stuff, especially when they were selling off fittings and stuff when they were in administration. For example, the wall mounted component drawers were only £8 each, and the black shelves were I think £15. Green cardboard K-bins were free! The white cupboard was an extra from doing the bathroom.
One rather random (but cool!) thing is that a powerline adaptor reaches the ones I use in the house. It sits on the end of a spur, and goes though another circuit breaker, so it really shouldn't work - but I get about 8Mbps! So I can stream music from my phone into the stereo without having to use data!
Slightly older photo, before I put the stereo in..
All the crap had been cleared out prior to me moving in, so I effectively had a blank canvas.
It had light and power, which was a massive plus. Albeit two really crappy energy saver bulbs that took so long to warm up they were effectively useless. Power was a small circuit breaker box and two double sockets in the workshop. The previous owner was a watchmaker and general handyman, and apparently liked to sneak into the workshop with a bottle of vodka to escape the missus for a while!
My plan was to build my own workshop area for general diy, projects and tinkering. No plan survives contact with the enemy though - when I put my car in the garage for the first time, it didn't fit!
It was only two inches too long as well...So, Mr Wall, I'd like you to meet Mr Hammer!
First task was to brighten the place up. Yup, more bloomin' painting.. Just ordinary white emulsion, two coats, but what a difference! Replacing the two crappy bulbs with LED battens totally transformed the place, instant, bright, lovely!
First decent project for the new shop was to create storage space, some the actual house doesn't have a huge amount of. Somewhere for empty boxes to live, and Christmas decorations and suchlike. The workshop had had a ceiling, so with the wall removed it became a sort of mezzanine, and my plan was to increase the area of that and make good access.
On the photo above, you can see tools hung from plastic hooks attached to a wooden stake. These got reused as rungs on some two-by-four, and the whole lot anchored to the wall. I did two sections, the main one up to joist level, and a shorter section as far up as I could. Add some boards and presto, loads of space! Also ran up a wire for a bulb to finish it off.
I worked for Maplin, and they were a good source of stuff, especially when they were selling off fittings and stuff when they were in administration. For example, the wall mounted component drawers were only £8 each, and the black shelves were I think £15. Green cardboard K-bins were free! The white cupboard was an extra from doing the bathroom.
One rather random (but cool!) thing is that a powerline adaptor reaches the ones I use in the house. It sits on the end of a spur, and goes though another circuit breaker, so it really shouldn't work - but I get about 8Mbps! So I can stream music from my phone into the stereo without having to use data!
Slightly older photo, before I put the stereo in..
Found I had a short tour on video from fairly soon after I'd started work..
https://youtu.be/aLjlYU2ZnfM
https://youtu.be/aLjlYU2ZnfM
One feature of the house was really bugging me, the stairs. The new paint had improved them from what they were originally like, but I still didn't like them, they felt low rent to me.
So this happened!
..and finished off with multiple coats of Danish Oil
Am super happy with the result, it has completely transformed the feel of the place. And imo it was great value for money as well, £500 materials, £500 for the joiner.
So this happened!
..and finished off with multiple coats of Danish Oil
Am super happy with the result, it has completely transformed the feel of the place. And imo it was great value for money as well, £500 materials, £500 for the joiner.
Danm1les said:
How have you got the workmate on the wall? I'm forever moving mine around as its stood on the floor in the garage.
Small piece of wood attached to the wall with large wall anchor type screws, which I think were about 100mm long. They were spares I had left over from attaching the ladder to the wall, so are probaly over-specced for hanging just a workmate!
The hooks are just ordinary metal hooks. Has worked well so far!
Schmeeky said:
One feature of the house was really bugging me, the stairs. The new paint had improved them from what they were originally like, but I still didn't like them, they felt low rent to me.
So this happened!
Am super happy with the result, it has completely transformed the feel of the place. And imo it was great value for money as well, £500 materials, £500 for the joiner.
Good work! So this happened!
Am super happy with the result, it has completely transformed the feel of the place. And imo it was great value for money as well, £500 materials, £500 for the joiner.
I did a referb job on some old painted spindles that had being fitted by an idiot before selling my first house, took two whole weekend and only looked ok not amazing! Saved £500 x 2 but didnt look new and fresh like that.
Daniel
As you can see from the photos of the banisters job, my doors had been installed. Cottage style oak veneer, and handles from a local company. They're not the most expensive doors - £80 a pop iirc, but they look good and are well made. Hung on top quality hinges, which I believe make a huge difference to how they work.
Compared to the original doors it's night and day..
The other door that was bugging me was the front door. Again it had that bloody awful orange stain, and was the weak point in the house's insulation. It also made the hallway feel darker than it should.
So this happened..
Proper sealing and insulation, brighter because of extra glass and brighter because of interior whiteness. Also much more secure than the old door.
Compared to the original doors it's night and day..
The other door that was bugging me was the front door. Again it had that bloody awful orange stain, and was the weak point in the house's insulation. It also made the hallway feel darker than it should.
So this happened..
Proper sealing and insulation, brighter because of extra glass and brighter because of interior whiteness. Also much more secure than the old door.
The summer of '17 I was too busy with getting the interior up to speed to worry about the outside areas, but last year the house was in good shape, so I started thinking about what to do with the gardens. Now, both my mother and grandfather are/were very keen and competent gardeners, whereas I seem to be pretty capable of killing off anything green, so this was going to be interesting..
As it was...
It hadn't seen any tlc for a long time....
So, I took it back to a bare canvas, started painting and thinking about containers.
Starting to come together, the freshly painted fence made such a big difference, along with new shiny sliding bolts for the gate..
Plants-wise I had pretty much no idea, while knowing what sort of effect I was after. Colour needed to be from the same pallet, while there should be contrasting sizes and shapes. Que lots of mooching round gardens centres and chats with me mum.
The big test though will be what it looks like this summer!
Took out the old knackered handrail, and bunged on some trellis from the clematis - found some that was already painted, win!
The only thing letting the side down now were those ugly concrete slabs..
So this happened..
Most artificial grass seems to come in thin strips, but I wanted something that was all of a piece, and managed to find some after loads of searching about. It's also pretty much the cheapest type available as well, and looks far from realistic - but I'm not bothered about that at all. As long as it's green and hides the concrete then it's doing its job!
Overall, I think I spent between 300/400 quid, so an inexpensive project, but with a large effect.
Sitting out in the evening sun, fountain splashing away, some gentle edm/trance on my bluetooth speaker, pint of ale and a book is just bliss..
As it was...
It hadn't seen any tlc for a long time....
So, I took it back to a bare canvas, started painting and thinking about containers.
Starting to come together, the freshly painted fence made such a big difference, along with new shiny sliding bolts for the gate..
Plants-wise I had pretty much no idea, while knowing what sort of effect I was after. Colour needed to be from the same pallet, while there should be contrasting sizes and shapes. Que lots of mooching round gardens centres and chats with me mum.
The big test though will be what it looks like this summer!
Took out the old knackered handrail, and bunged on some trellis from the clematis - found some that was already painted, win!
The only thing letting the side down now were those ugly concrete slabs..
So this happened..
Most artificial grass seems to come in thin strips, but I wanted something that was all of a piece, and managed to find some after loads of searching about. It's also pretty much the cheapest type available as well, and looks far from realistic - but I'm not bothered about that at all. As long as it's green and hides the concrete then it's doing its job!
Overall, I think I spent between 300/400 quid, so an inexpensive project, but with a large effect.
Sitting out in the evening sun, fountain splashing away, some gentle edm/trance on my bluetooth speaker, pint of ale and a book is just bliss..
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