OV9

I have a water softener fitted from the previous owners and the utility room sink has a complicated water filter with selectable PH because apparently you're not meant to drink softened water. I never drink the filtered water because it makes me need to use the loo about 10 minutes later and just used the fridge/freezer water outlet which has its own filter but I don't know if it filters out all the sodium. It's acceptable for London water though

Today we found out where the pipes to the kitchen tap run - through the uninsulated roof and wall space behind insulation. I thought we’d been lucky when I managed to get the hot water flowing with some gentle hair-dryer action behind a kitchen cupboard but the cold thawed very shortly after and became a nice water feature.

So now we have some making good of a hole in our lovely kitchen to do, but I think insulating the pipes first might be a good idea…

I have another ruptured piece of copper pipe to add to my collection. What is annoying is that I didn’t manage to fix this one myself. I’m glad I didn’t; I think there would be more making good required than the professional plumber caused.

That's just rubbish.

It’s a bit rubbish but it gives me the opportunity to try this:

Not watched the video, but it has polyfilla on the thumbnail… awful stuff - it always feels harder than the surface around it so when you sand it leaves the repaired area as a bump

Just use “easy fill” - it’s softer, so sands down flat with minimal effort.

I suspect that is clickbait - he uses some proper filler for the larger hole repair anyway.

I’m slowly changing all the internal door mechanisms and handles from the awful, cheap stuff that was here. Have done two doors so far with relatively few issues. Started on my bedroom door and discovered that the door was being held together with a skim of filler and paint. Yippeee, landlord special.

You can get bolt-through screws for door handles - if you can find some that would fit your handles that might be useful to hold the whole thing together.

The new handle came with those, have secured it in place for the now, but I still need to work out the best way to cover up that gap. My engineering brain wants to cut it out then glue in a piece of new wood. But my practical brain knows I'll never do that lol

Leave internal mechanism in the door, protect moving parts with paper or masking tape, fill with 2 part wood filler- put some nails or screws in if needed to support filler

Managed to avoid a costly mistake yesterday when the roofers started work on the new trusses for the barn roof. Thought I should double check with the architect (comms from him are terrible) and he remembered to tell me that the whole front wall is now coming down, so any roofing work now would need to be redone.

jamcg wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 12:33 pm Leave internal mechanism in the door, protect moving parts with paper or masking tape, fill with 2 part wood filler- put some nails or screws in if needed to support filler

Thanks! That's really useful advice

Ascender wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:00 pm Managed to avoid a costly mistake yesterday when the roofers started work on the new trusses for the barn roof. Thought I should double check with the architect (comms from him are terrible) and he remembered to tell me that the whole front wall is now coming down, so any roofing work now would need to be redone.

Good result! Would be really frustrating to have to redo it.

You may remember from the Fleet Running thread that my rear bumper had an altercation with my front wall recently.
The bloke who built our house and is currently working on the one two doors down pointed out the resultant pulverised brick and crack in the wall, keen to tell me that it wasn't his goons that had done it. I denied all knowledge and turned the situation to my advantage by suggesting that it detracted from the look of the houses and would be worth his while fixing it before he tries to sell the next house.

I caused myself a house project over the weekend. Checked the oil tank on Saturday; it was low but looked like we had a bit so I ordered a delivery for this week. Late Sunday afternoon it ran dry, so we had no heating from Sunday afternoon. Fortunately the heating had been on before that so it didn't get too uncomfortable.

Emergency oil order Sunday evening, arrived about 10.30am Monday. I had visions of airlocks or sludge being sucked up... but no, after a couple of hundred litres were in the tank I reset the boiler lockout and it started straight up. Fucking lucky. My wife has bought me 10 bamboo canes for a quid so I can dip the tank more accurately in future, but I think a level sensor that reads in the house is a good idea...

Our old house was on oil and I never ran it dry in over 7 years. I have moaned before about the fact we have a smaller tank at this house. I do feel like it's worth exploring fitting a larger tank.

We're gonna need a bigger tank.

Gavster wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:34 pm

jamcg wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 12:33 pm Leave internal mechanism in the door, protect moving parts with paper or masking tape, fill with 2 part wood filler- put some nails or screws in if needed to support filler

Thanks! That's really useful advice

I was going to suggest using instant ramen and making content out of it

ZedLeg wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 4:47 pm

Gavster wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 12:34 pm

jamcg wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 12:33 pm Leave internal mechanism in the door, protect moving parts with paper or masking tape, fill with 2 part wood filler- put some nails or screws in if needed to support filler

Thanks! That's really useful advice

I was going to suggest using instant ramen and making content out of it

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to court we go... I have a costs hearing at 2pm today, in relation to the hearing in November 2022 where my neighbours were first determined to be in breach of their lease. The judge offered a measly 15% of our total costs from that first hearing, bceause the leases don't set out who pays for costs so it's up to the court to decide, but 15% is outrageously low based on other cases. Fingers crossed we get this bit of the puzzle wrapped up today because it feels like each hearing is simply a segue into another, and another, and another.

I not only wish you well today I also thankyou for making me realise I’ve been spelling Segue wrong for years

Dave!