Week 7 and Running Out of Time ….. August 2014

11 – 17 August 2014:  London

The Saga of the Shower

The installation of the power shower wasn’t quite as straightforward as we had hoped.  The new models have the pipe entries at the top or bottom, our old unit had the entry at the side.  Subsequently the copper pipes just weren’t where we wanted them.  Marks newly acquired plumbing skills just didn’t quite extend to bending and soldering pipes but he persevered with other options and fittings and got there in the end.  

Unfortunately we both missed the rather important note on the instructions indicating that the shower motor must be 75cm below the bottom of the water tank, we were only 50cm and the shower wouldn’t work.  Somewhat of a setback!!!

So a day was lost taking the shower off, getting fittings that would go into the top instead of the bottom of the unit and drilling more holes in our new tiles to attach it lower down. 

When it was finally reinstalled and we turned it all on, you can imagine our dismay when one of the internal pipes at the top was leaking.  Off it came again, we changed over the offending pipe with the now redundant bottom pipe, reattached it again (no mean feat) and presto …. the shower now works.  Just need the bath below it so the downstairs neighbours don’t get water coming through their ceiling!!  

To finish off the shower saga Mark then had the pleasure of needing to replace one tile without damaging the surrounding ones.  More You Tube Videos were watched for handy tips and away he went.  Mission Accomplished.  

Legs At Last

At last the missing bath legs arrived, and after a couple of phone calls we even managed to have some instructions emailed through.  Just exactly how you are supposed to attach brackets and screw the bath to them while it is against the wall is beyond us, but as you can see from the photo Mark sure gave it his best shot and after several hours of hard, frustrating and fiddly work including moving it in and out 4 times the bath is definitely permanently attached.   Now we can finish the bathroom.

Continuing The Kitchen

Mark squeezed some time into his busy schedule to attack the kitchen wall with a chisel and hammer and make a big hole around the gas pipe so the Gas Fitter could come and change our fitting and install our new gas hob.  This meant we had to pull the back off the adjacent cupboard (I knew there was a reason I shouldn’t glue them in as well as screw them!!), we also had to remove the oven which we had fully installed. 

What we hadn’t thought of was that the other benchtop would need to be fitted before the gas pipes could be finally connected by the Gas Fitter, we really weren’t quite prepared for this but had no choice, it was benchtop and hob on, fitting tightened and tested for leaks, Gas Safety Certificate issued and Gasman gone.  The kitchen is now ready for completion.

So Just What Have I Been Doing??

You probably are getting the impression that Mark is doing all the work, and he sure has been doing all the hard bits.  But I haven’t just been sitting back supervising, and making teas and coffees.  The hallway is completely finished (ok, I confess I haven’t finished painting inside all the cupboards).  The paint colour is a little darker than anticipated, it is called “Light Rain” but resembles “Thunder Storm” more accurately, but with “Brilliant White” trim and the light wooden laminate floorboards it is looking great.  It will look even better when we move the oven back into the kitchen!  

I have also finished painting the inside of all the fitted wardrobe cupboards in the bedroom, installed the new curtain rail, built a cover to go over the toilet plumbing, fitted the skirting boards over the new flooring and held down my full time “plumbers mate” role. 

Time Is Running Out So We Have Extended Our Time Here By 3 More Weeks