The story of #48

[Schmeeky]

Ace-T said:

I like the fact you have chosen several large pictures and hung them at a good height. They are all really nice and bring colour and vibrancy into what could have been quite a bland room. It looks warm, comfortable and welcoming.

Thank you! This is the thing I've tried to do in both the bedroom and sitting room - 'bland' background, but with chunks of colour from the stuff in it. Hence duvet, curtains and the sheepskin rugs you can (nearly) see in the bedroom, and the couch, curtains and rug in the sitting room. I've got a similar thing which I haven't shown you all yet going on with my lighting...

Ace-T said:

Your clock is lovely too, what's the story on that piece?

Thank you. It's a replica grasshopper clock, as designed by the great John Harrison, who solved the problem of timekeeping at sea as an aid to navigation. Before he got to work on the problem, sailors could work out their latitude by using stars and sextant. But they had no way of finding out their longitude. But with an accurate clock, they could compare their local time (by the sun) to the clock which told them Greenwich Mean Time back their in that London, and they could then work out exactly where they were.

The grasshopper works because the two pendulums are linked together, so any movement and disruption caused by the ships' motion is cancelled out.

My old man was fascinated by horology and the history of clocks, and this was his clock.

Edited to add - Mr Duda, the previous owner of this house, was a watchmaker. He'd appreciate this clock as well.

Edited by Schmeeky on Sunday 24th March 11:08

[Ace-T]

Schmeeky said:

Thank you! This is the thing I've tried to do in both the bedroom and sitting room - 'bland' background, but with chunks of colour from the stuff in it.

I have been reading and researching interior decor stuff to give me ideas on what to do with ours and one thing I picked up on is the concept of flow. In a smaller house, picking the same set of colours for the whole house creates an impression of spaciousness and as you have done, you add individual character to each room through furnishings. It's really working for you.

We have just convinced my mum to do the same with her 2bed, 300yr old cottage. Yesterday my siblings and I repainted her upstairs rooms all one colour and it has dramatically improved the feel of the place. My brother is looking at buying a house soon and I think the style of house will be very similar to yours. I will show him this thread for inspiration

Thanks for the clock info, the OH is a horology buff too and likes it too. I think we may have seen the original at Greenwich Observatory.

[Schmeeky]

Ace-T, I recorded a little video for you and your OH -

https://youtu.be/c6Qv-qmA9pE

The little levers bouncing about on the springs makes for a very soothing rhythm as you're nodding off!

[mcpiston]

Just read your thread from start to finish. House looks great, you must and should be very proud of what you have achieved (thumbs up)

[Lemming Train]

Looking good Mike! Some nice handywork there. Are you not concerned about the potential for flooding? You mentioned that the grass outside your back gate is the flood plain so as your house appears to be pretty much on the same level... . I remember reading your old post from a few years ago when your folks house got flooded badly.

[Schmeeky]

Cheers LT!

In the Big Flood of 2015 the water didn't get up to my back fence. And from that height to my floor level is another foot. The current flood defences in the park are due to be improved - the plans are in for public evaluation atm - and the extended floodbank ends up almost exactly level with my house, which shows that the worst predicted flood outcome is still slightly lower than my floor. So I'm pretty happy the place is ok.

It's not obvious from the picture, but there is a slight slope on the field across to the river, and the river banks are quite high.

Edited because of fat fingers.

Edited by Schmeeky on Monday 25th March 10:26

[Schmeeky]

mcpiston said:

Just read your thread from start to finish. House looks great, you must and should be very proud of what you have achieved (thumbs up)

Thank you mcpiston! Yup, I'm very happy with how it's all worked out, even though reading back through this thread I'm like, did I really do all that?!

[Ace-T]

Schmeeky said:

Ace-T, I recorded a little video for you and your OH -

https://youtu.be/c6Qv-qmA9pE

The little levers bouncing about on the springs makes for a very soothing rhythm as you're nodding off!

Thank you! That clock is just a lovely thing

[judas]

Ace-T said:

Schmeeky said:

Ace-T, I recorded a little video for you and your OH -

https://youtu.be/c6Qv-qmA9pE

The little levers bouncing about on the springs makes for a very soothing rhythm as you're nodding off!

Thank you! That clock is just a lovely thing

Thanks for that - very nice bit of kit and I may have clock envy now Pretty sure we saw the original at the Greenwich Observatory last time we were down in London.

[Schmeeky]

The house is a two bedroom jobby, but as I'm single with no kids a second bedroom is unnecessary, and any guests can have the sofabed in the sitting room. So a study/office/den it will become!

No earth shattering plans, just bung in my computer desk, add shelves and filing cabinet and cook for 20 mins at gas mark 8!

As it was with a bloomin' horrible bedstead! The thing on the right blocking half the view is a wardrobe.



And from t'other corner. The other door has shelves and a decent (and fairly new) Worcester combi boiler.





Bare room, painting in progress..



Painted, underlayed..



..carpeted and internetededed.



Computer desk disassembled, fetched over and reassembled.


Speedtest showing 210Mbps!!

Bookcase and more of those excellent and cheap Maplin shelf units.



As the room is today..



In the rest of the house, I like to run a tight ship and have everything neat and tidy - this is the one room where I don't mind a bit of gentle entropy..





Small aside re my guitar. I'd had it since I was 18, and it hadn't aged particularly well. After I'd moved in, restoring it was one of the first projects I did in the new workshop. Have the space to work in, all my tools to hand, being able to solder without have to worry about burning the kitchen table, being able to down tools and leave it without having to tidy up and put everything away - pure bliss!!

Also, the bookcase here is one of the few pieces of furniture brought from My Mum's place. A good solid 1930's bit of proper woodworking! Thing is, I have lots of books, and big bookcases can be bloomin' expensive.. Solution was to divide and conquer. Argos did a small 'wood' bookcase for £18, so I bought a bunch of them. They may be cheap, but they're pretty sturdy and fit in well.

One tucked away in the bedroom with Tom Clancy, Lee Child and various random stuff..



One in the sitting room with Folio Society specials, highbrow science tomes to try and make me look all intellectual, and a bunch more Lee Child.



And one on the landing with Asimov and Clarke, and a bunch of stuff for reading on the throne. The stack on the right is my yet-to-be-read pile!

[RichTT]

cracking man cave. Am i going daft or is that keyboard really small? Is it a dedicated gaming keyboard of some type?

[BigBen]

judas said:

Ace-T said:

Schmeeky said:

Ace-T, I recorded a little video for you and your OH -

https://youtu.be/c6Qv-qmA9pE

The little levers bouncing about on the springs makes for a very soothing rhythm as you're nodding off!

Thank you! That clock is just a lovely thing

Thanks for that - very nice bit of kit and I may have clock envy now Pretty sure we saw the original at the Greenwich Observatory last time we were down in London.

An excellent example of a grasshopper escapement can be seen in Cambridge on Kings Parade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Clock

[Schmeeky]

RichTT said:

cracking man cave. Am i going daft or is that keyboard really small? Is it a dedicated gaming keyboard of some type?

Cheers Rich!

Aye, that keyboard was a Corsair gaming jobby, with responsive 'clicky' keys. Very nice to use, but I found the lack of a dedicated number pad annoying, so I went back to my original Logitech full sized keyboard, as you can see in subsequent pics.

[Schmeeky]

BigBen said:

An excellent example of a grasshopper escapement can be seen in Cambridge on Kings Parade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Clock

Thank you for bringing that to my attention - what a fabulous device!

[Schmeeky]

Am super chuffed with myself right now, have just successfully installed my first mains socket!

My understairs cupboard already had a switched fused spur, and a light, but no socket. I guess my main reason for putting it off was the fear of getting zapped by that electrickery. So I bought one of those neon indicator thingies, and between that and my multimeter managed to convince myself that I had indeed found the correct switch on the house main circuit breaker, there was no current in the wires and I wouldn't get killed to death. The actual wiring and drilling and stuff was very straightforward!

So instead of lying on the kitchen floor getting under my feet, the Dyson has found its forever home...

[Schmeeky]

This'll probably be my last post for a while, I've documented most of what has happened to #48, this post is about what plans I have for the future.

The one room I've not mentioned much is the kitchen.



It's not really to my taste, but it's mostly functional. I painted, put up blinds and installed a light fitting so I can see what I'm doing when I'm washing up.
Eventually I'll get it rebuilt, but it's pretty much lowest on my list of priorities.

Windows will need to be replaced sometime. For a start they're that bloody horrible stain, and the wood is beginning to degrade in places. Modern efficient units identical in colour to my front door and white inside will make a massive difference. Also having units that open properly so I can wash the outside easily will be a bonus. A given I only have the three windows, it'll not be massively expensive..

The biggest project is the replacing of the conservatory roof. Put simply, it's st.




It's discoloured, it's warped, it lets loads of heat out, and lets rain in. A couple of panels have been replaced, but if the panels only have a 19 year lifespan then a simple replacement is not the route I want to go down. There's a company called https://www.supaliteroof.co.uk/ that build proper roofs for conservatories, and turn them into a usable space year round. With a new roof on I'd take out the existing sliding door to expand the sitting room space, and take the chance to add a wood burning stove, with the chimney going out through the new roof. A live fireplace is just about the only box this house doesn't tick, and a proper fire is so much more fun than heating via central heating!


It's amazing how time flies - this time 2 years ago, my offer on this house had been accepted and I was waiting on the lawyers doing their thing, waiting to exchange contracts and get hold of the keys. Such an exciting time for me, and the start of a proper adventure.

Two years on and I am still absolutely in love with this place. It has turned for being a house into a home. I've grown with it - I've learned to be a reasonably competent DIY'er and handyman, and am in the process of learning how to be a gardener.

I hope you've enjoyed coming on this journey with me.

[RichTT]

Have enjoyed it indeed. Like you said, turned a house into a home and learned something in the process. Keep us updated if more happens

[Schmeeky]

[Lotobear]

Was that you in the Merlot mx5 in Kingstown this lunchtime op? I was in the white spider

[Schmeeky]

Ha! Yes it was!

Your Alfa is lovely, was a pleasure seeing it out on the road.