mattnewton.co.uk

When we moved in, there was a BT Master socket in the living room, an extension in the hallway and from there, along with a badly wired electrical cable, it went into the wall, outside under the porch, hidden behind a baton of wood and then drilled into my “office” at just above floor level. Trouble is, I think the old geezer had used pretty cheap extension cable and he hadn’e left enough slack.

Normally this wouldn’t fuss me too much, but as I’m now on ADSL and not NTL’s broadband service, I want to make sure that my cables are in top condition. So, I spent all of last Sunday rewiring all of the extensions and pulling out the mess that had been trailling up the outside wall.

It’s fun lifting the floorboards. I could tell that they had never been lifted since they were laid initially, as the one near the radiator must’ve been put in as the pipes were laid, as the pipe came up through a little hole in the floor board. A sharp knife and a series of different shaped screwdrivers soon sorted that and it was lifted in no time.

Once I’d lifted the floor, it was clear to see that once upon a time, there had been an issue with thr radiator, or at least a leaky pipe. Mental note: Go easy around the pipework.

As I’m not a fan of having cables on show, I was wondering what else I could hide under the floor (I mean cables). I decided against putting any other cables under the floor (for now) and I’d just stick with the phone cable.

So, after a series of knocking on the ceiling and listening under the floorboards, I determined that where I wanted it to go, there were no inhibitors (pipes, cables, etc) - although at one point, I did think I may have hit the soil pipe - a run of taps, a quick measure out and a small waiting game confirmed that I was nowhere near it. So, I went downstairs and drilled a small hole in the very corner of the hallway ceiling and pushed the phone cable up.

You’ll see how I tidily drilled a neat hole with one of those odd-shaped sharp drill bit thingies that makes nice holes and then passed the cable through and up to the skirting board, where I’ve taken it underneath the skirting board until it comes out near my desk.

Anyway, it’s a nice tidy job and I have plenty of slack should I decide I want to have my socket elsewhere.

Today’s job (19/09/04) was to put an aerial in the loft for my Freeview box and sort out the satellite cables. I spent most of the evening in the loft - the cables are all done and the aerial is up and is spot on. I, however, am covered in nasty loft insulation which itches and prickles like I don’t know what. Trouble is that you can’t see the damn stuff and you go and put your arm down and of it goes.

I always say that I should wear something with long sleeves and get a mask for when I go in the loft. Trouble is, I never remeber.

Most of the electrician’s work is now done, which means that after Vic’s parents have visited us again the week after next, I can start decorating. Now, which room should I do first…?

That’s a good question, to which the answer I would normally give would be in the region of 2 to 4 - one at each end and maybe one or two in the middle if it’s a long window. OK, your curtain pole may require two screws - one above each other - for each bracket. Anyway, if I said 13 you’d probably think I was having a laugh. Well, laugh away. You see, the curtain pole that was holding our patio door curtains up was held in with 13 (yes, thirteen) screws sitting in 13 rather large holes, held in with 13 super-sized Rawlplugs as can be seen in this picture:

Now I guess you’re thinking that it must have been some really heavy curtain rail or curtains to warrant that many screws? Well, no. In fact, the rail was a less-than-average flat aluminium rail - nothing to write home about (unless it’s something derogatory) and the curtains were just patio curtains (albeit not our choice, but they put us on for a while).

You see, the people who lived here before us (we only moved in here in April this year) seemed to love doing things themselves. Unfortunately, whenever they did, although usually a neat job on first appearance, behind the scenes it was a dog’s dinner. One further example of that is the extra plug sockets that were put in. The one in the room that I use as my office was a metal plated double socket. Apart from the fact that I don’t really like metal plated sockets (reminds me of school), I decided to remove it and replace it with a normal one. To cut a long story short, the box was not earthed and weas being fed from another dodgy socket downstairs with 13A flex insted of 30A mains cable.
Needless to say, we’ve got an electrician coming in soon and he’s going tp put right all of the previous owner’s botches. Meanwhile, in my spare time, you’ll find me around the house pulling out oversized screws and their accompanying Rawlplugs that appear to have no function whatsoever out of the walls and filling up the craters with Pollyfilla.

Now don’t get me started about the lack of painting this house has had in its 14 year existance. That’s for another entry in a few weeks time.

After a quick trip out with Ed yesterday morning, when I got back (after stopping off for an obligatory pint), Vic asked me if I’d mind mowing the lawns. Normally the answer to this would be Yes, I do mind, but as the sun was blazing and I was keen to be outside, I obliged. Besides, they were looking a bit neglected and I needed to check the mower after the last fiasco.

You may or may not be pleased to learn that the mower works. I was slightly miffed at first, as I thought I’d be able to get a new mower, but then realised that the £150 it would cost me to buy a petrol one could be better spent on something else… Now then… Ebuyer…?