Archive for the 'I do PROPERTY stuff' Category

Whitby Cottage update – January 2014

Well how useless am I at keeping the blog up to date?  I’ve been taking the photos and have a massive backlog to catch up on.  In my defence I’m a bit short on time.  I’m cramming by day job in to 4 days a week so I can spend three days on the cottage. […]

Fighting West Bromwich Mortgage rate hike

A little aside from the regular topics that I cover but this is part of campaign being organised to fight back against the Banks.  We all know the banks will try anything to squeeze more out of their customers but we can always shop around and the get the best deal.. That’s what I did […]

Dwarf Walls in the Attic Rooms.

So I’ve got a roof on the wash house,  I can now get a boiler in, the pipe work is laid through to where it needs to be.  So at first glance it doesn’t seem such a big step to get the hot water flowing and the central heating running.  However the radiators need fitting […]

Ventilation Duct Manifold 1 to 3 Home Made

This is probable the first mention of the MHRV (Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation) so here’s a quick run-down of the thinking behind it. The Cottage will be a  holiday let,  if it was just us I probably wouldn’t  have gone to the time and expense of installing the system, we would open windows and turn on […]

Lead Flashing on Pantile Washhouse

Yes I did eventually get around to doing this. The lead flashing had to cover  the soilpipe from the bathroom toilet so for a relatively inexperienced lead worker it was a bit of challenge.   The curves and angles made it particularly difficult to measure and cut the pieces before beating them in to shape. Only one piece […]

Attic Roof Insulation and Plaster Boarding

Another fiddly time sapping job to get right but WOW what a difference it makes.  It looks like and feels like progress. Previously there was no insulation in at all just plaster board straight on to the rafters.  That all got ripped out before the new roof was put on so it’s been bare for a good […]

Idea for Insulation Where Space is Tight

The top of the stairs to attic has a landing with an old dormer window.  Head height at the top of the stairs is an issue as is the ceiling of the dormer. The cheeks of the dormer are also short on space. The solution I’m trying here is to provide the maximum insulation possible […]

Timber Window Repairs

FULL STEP BY STEP window repair methods here Timber windows can easily last more than a human life time. As long as the details are right and they are well maintained they should be any real bother at all.  Unfortunately the maintenance bit is often neglected or done with unsympathetic materials.  So we often come […]

Home Made Wooden High Level Toilet Cistern

A bit of woodworking, a bit of fibre glassing and a bit of plumbing. The only fiddly bit was to connect a modified door handle to the cable of the dual flush mechanism.  Hey Presto! a wooden toilet cistern. With hindsight maybe I should have gone for a old fashioned, reliable syphon flush. But only time […]

Cottage bits home to work on

I’m up at the cottage most weekends and working on the day job through the week. In the search for more time that leaves me with weekday nights.  I spent a while on the copper radiator but with that out of the way there’s a few other things I could be getting on with. The […]