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By Gareth, May 2, 2009 21:05

Take a look at the photo below:

This is what I had to dig out of our rear garden last week! A concrete block that weighed a ton! Not literally a ton, but you get the meaning.
It is the remains of a washing line pole that the previous owners had kindly left buried just under the surface of our lawn. The pole decided to show its head last week after I had cut the grass, as the soil had been worn away over time.
So not really knowing what it was initially I had to dig up the lawn to find out. I finally lifted it out of the ground, leaving a large hole in the middle of the lawn. It was bigger than I expected, about twelve inches long and nine inches in diameter, and as previously mentioned it weighed a lot.
All that we need to do now is re-seed the lawn and watch the grass grow!

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By Gareth, February 26, 2008 12:34

The garage conversion is taking shape now.

Phase 3 of the project was to add some colour to the walls and ceiling. This was going to take a few coats of paint as we would be initially painting on to the bare brick.

Things didn’t start off too well with my Dad as he started painting the ceiling. With almost his first roller full of paint he dropped a large blob all over his head and face. Seeing him climbing down the step ladder with half of his face covered in white paint was a bit of a comedy moment. Luckily it was only emulsion so it was pretty easy to get off. I just wish I’d got the camera ready to get it on film.

Once cleaned up my Dad and I got going with the first coat of paint. We decided to split the tasks between us. I would go around the room with a paintbrush and do all of the intricate areas, while my Dad got on using the roller.

Getting the paint on the wall was a fairly easy job, the only major drawback being the uneven surface. The surface meant that we would have to get the brush out rather than the roller to get into the nooks and crannies. Another minor obstacle were the central heating pipes and electrical cables, but by using the brushes to get in between and behind them, this was one obstacle that was overcome quickly.

The first coat of white paint went on quite quickly, and in a couple of hours we had managed to cover all the walls and the ceiling. At this point the bricks were still showing through the paint and they looked like they would need one more coat, if not two. We stopped for some lunch while the paint dried.

Once lunch was finished applying the second coat was much the same thing, this time without my Dad’s little accident. Another couple of hours and the second coat was on the walls. At this stage we let the walls and ceiling dry properly overnight so that the next morning we could determine whether we would need another coat of white paint before applying a colour. Here’s what it looked like at that stage:

Next morning after the paint had dried fully the walls still looked patchy, with the colour of the bricks still showing through in places. We decided that another coat would be worth it. It was again another couple of hours of painting to get the final white coat applied, and we again left it to dry over lunch.

Coming back after lunch we found that the paint was still a little damp in places. To fill in the time while it finished drying, we began filling in a few of the little holes in the wall that had been emphasised by the white paint. There weren’t that many but just to give the wall a slightly better finish we filled them in with some polyfilla.

Once that little job was done we pressed on with applying the colour to the walls. Gemma and I were a little undecided about colour, but the decision was easily solved as in the garage was an unopened tub of “Warm Magnolia” emulsion. This had been left over from decorating our bedroom when we bought the house. Better than spending money on something different.

Our plan was to put a couple of coats of the coloured paint on the walls, but when we started it became apparent that we might get away with one. We’d not noticed that the paint was “One-coat”, so it was better at covering the walls.

Sadly, my Dad and I didn’t manage to get all of the walls painted, as we ran out of paint to finish the job. Initially, we did think that we might be able to stretch it but the tub of paint only managed to cover 2 1/2 walls. Dad has kindly agreed to come up in the week with a new tub to finish off the walls for us.

Even though the painting is not completely finished the room is looking really good.

The next tasks will be to put the carpet down and bring in some of the furniture. I also want to put in some electrical trunking to try and make the wiring look a little tidier, and also bring a network cable through from the lounge to hook up the computers.

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By Gareth, February 13, 2008 12:45

This weekend saw Phase 2 of the garage conversion. The target for this weekend was to finish the partition wall, and also install the electrical sockets.

Day 1

Good progress was made on Saturday, putting up one skin of the plasterboard before lunch-time. It was a little tricky in places, having to cut out small areas to get around obstacles. But all in all, it went on without too much bother. There were a couple of expletives shouted as hammers collided with fingers, but no lasting damage.

Once lunch had been consumed, we set about putting the final skin on the partition wall. Initially we measured up all the boards, cut them to size and checked that they all fitted together, before fixing them to the stud work. This was to allow us to fill in the cavities in the stud work with fibre-glass insulation that we had left over from when we fitted out our loft (details can be found in Part1 and Part2). With all of the insulation filling the cavities, the remaining plasterboard was nailed to the wall creating a completed partition wall.

With the wall now completed we decided to fit the door frame to the wall. The trickiest part of this was making sure that all of the pieces were square to each other and that they were also straight. Once completed we decided to call it a day.

Day 2

With the partition wall completed the previous day, our next target was to install some extra electrical sockets.

This would involve running a wire from the the current electrical supply around the newly created room stopping off along the way to wire in the sockets. In all we needed to install four sockets, three inside the room, and one outside.

Initially the wall sockets were fixed to the wall with the notches cut out to feed the wires through, then the cable was run between the sockets. My Dad then wired in all the sockets. I probably could have done this, but I was not confident that it would be done correctly, so it was left in my Dad’s capable hands.

Whilst Dad wired up the sockets, I set about making the cabling tidy by clipping the cable to the wall. This was not the easiest thing to do, trying to hammer the nails in the clips into the wall, whilst avoiding your fingers. Some of the clips would behave themselves and go in first time, but others would not be so forgiving. Some would fall out because of the texture of the mortar, some would not even go into the mortar so would have to be repositioned. I think I only actually clouted myself on 2 or 3 occasions, which led to a few choice words escaping my lips!

Once all the sockets had been wired in it was time for the critical part. We needed to actually connect them to the main power supply. We turned off the power to the fuse box and connected the new sockets via a junction box, and a fused switch, making sure that all the wires were located in the correct places. After double checking the wiring, the sockets were secured into their housings.

Next came the moment when we would know for sure if all the sockets were wired up correctly.

My Dad flicked the switch on the fuse box. Thankfully there was no loud bang that you’d get if something shorted out. Everything seemed OK. So just to make sure I checked every socket with mains checker.

Everything was OK.

With all the sockets fitted and working we had a quick tidy-up and called it a day. A job well done.

Thanks for all your help Dad.

Next phase will be painting the room to make it a little more liveable, that will be in a couple of weeks. Next week my Dad’s taking Mum away for her birthday.

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By Gareth, February 10, 2008 20:40

Today was an exciting day as our new cooker arrived.

It was ordered 2 weeks ago from Currys, and just before lunch-time it arrived. It was installed efficiently by the technician, who then went through all of the features on the cooker.

We’ve been looking to get a new one for a few months now, as the one that we inherited when we bought our house has been slowly deteriorating. It has been a job to get it clean in the first place. So, thankfully today, the new one has been delivered and fitted.

We now have a shiny, spotless cooker, which should make the job of keeping it clean, and grease free a little easier!

To celebrate this wondrous event, the cooker was christened by cooking a meal of sausage, mashed potatoes, beans and onion gravy. Mmmm!

So far so good. All the gas rings light first time, as do the grill and more importantly the oven. The oven on the old cooker was always problematic, taking its time to light, and you never could tell whether the oven was getting to the temperature it should.

Lets hope that we get many years out of it.

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By Gareth, February 6, 2008 06:58

This weekend was phase 1 in converting our garage as I’ve previously mentioned. Thankfully, my Dad has agreed to help me with this project, as its definitely not a one-man job.

DAY 1

Our first task was to clear out the garage so that we could set about putting a frame down to lay the floor. We began by running a frame around the perimeter of the garage. This was followed by setting out the cross members of the frame to lay the floorboards on. We had decided to insulate the floor from the concrete base, and we opted for polystyrene foam boards that would fit between the cross members.

We then set about laying all the cross members and in filling with the polystyrene boards until we had reached the required point. Even at this stage the garage was really taking shape.

Following this it was time to lay the floorboards over the top of the cross members and polystyrene boards. These went down fairly easily and in no time we had covered the entire area. There were only a couple of tricky spots, around the gas pipe and also the brick supporting column, but these were easily dealt with a few saw cuts.

The boards were all then screwed down and secured, this creating a very stable platform. At this stage it was an appropriate point to stop for the day, so my Dad and I tidied everything away ready for to start on the partition wall the next day.

DAY 2

The next day, my parents arrived fairly early, so that we could get started.

Today’s task was to get on with constructing the partition wall. The process began by constructing an frame around the walls of the garage. This took some time to ensure that all of the pieces of the frame were square and level in all directions. Nothing worse than a wonky wall.

Once the external frame was in place, uprights were then placed inside the frame at intervals that would be able to support the plasterboard that will be added at a later stage. We also needed to set out where the door frame would need to be. This was not too difficult once we’d sorted out how much room to leave from the non-existent instructions.

After sorting out the position of the door frame, we then put the small bracing pieces between the uprights, to give them more stability. Did you know that these bracing pieces are called “noggins”? No, me neither. It a word that is often heard but I’ve never given any thought about it. You learn something new every day.

Once the noggins were in place it was again time to call it a day, so we tidied up the garage and put everything back.

I must admit that the garage is looking good even at this stage. Next weekend my Dad will be back to start on phase 2. We’re planning to put some more power points in, and also put up the plasterboard and insulation on the partition wall.

Shouldn’t be too many weekends until its all finished.

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By Gareth, February 1, 2008 17:19

With the impending arrival of another baby we need to make some space in our third bedroom, and move our “office” somewhere else.

We’ve always said that we would convert our garage into another room, but as you can imagine this can cost a bit of money. So, in the interim we are going to divide up the garage with a partition wall. This room will then house our little “office”.

The partition wall will be accompanied by a simple floor, which will help insulate the newly created room from the cold concrete of the garage floor. It will be finished off with some carpet.

Building starts tomorrow with the help of my Dad. My Dad kindly came up the other day to get all of the materials so that we can start in earnest when my parents arrive on Saturday morning. The project will definitely not be finished in one weekend. It will probably take a few weekends work. All will be worth it in the end.

Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow, and it will be a bit warmer than it is today. It is pretty cold here today, and with the wind it is even colder. Brrrrrrrrrrr!

I’ll post some updates as the work progresses.