mattnewton.co.uk

I recently took 2 weeks off work so that I could spend some quality time at home, relaxing, going to the gym, going for a swim with Chris - you know how it goes. However, the first weekend had hardly started when it was decreed: “I’m going to decorate the lounge”

Off to B&Q we went, got all the emulsion, the trusty Basecoat, all the nick-nacks you’d expect top use during a decorating job (there’s always some you forget) and a couple of plastic dust sheets to cover the stuff that was too heavy or too awkward to move out of the room.

Anyway, on to the good stuff… I’d decided that all the speaker cables, aerial cables and satellite cables were going to be hidden inside the wall. How easy is this to do? Well, to be honest, it’s a piece of cake - especially if you’re decorating the room afterwards I picked up a good trick off the electrician when he did some work at our house, and that was not to channel the whole wall, but to knock small holes in the to create the path that you want the cable to follow.

When I looked at all of the holes I made in the wall, my first reaction was: “Oh crap. I hope I can plaster”:

Unfortunately, because I didn’t want to mess around with the coving, I had to leave the satellite cables coming from the ceiling - trust me, it was much easier than the alternative.

As this was the first set of holes I’d put in the wall, I’d done rather a lot. I fed the cable through each hole just after I made it, then knocked the next hole out and so on.

I did three of these in total: The one you see here, one on the right of the room for the right-hand speaker cable and one next to the stereo, which contains the DAB aerial going up through the ceiling, into the airing cupboard and into the loft to sit happily with the other aerials. (Our loft looks a bit like an antenna park these days!)

So, once the cable was in, all I had to do was cover it up with some cardboard so that there’s less of the hole to fill with plaster and also so that the cable isn’t stuck in plaster (although my first though was so that I could move it around if I needed to, but once I packed it in with cardboard, it wasn’t going to go anywhere. Luckily we had loads of cardboard left over from the boxes and boxes of stuff that Christopher got for his birthday. So, when it comes time for someone to knock this wall down in I don’t know how many years time, they’ll have a pleasant surprise when bits of cardboard with Bob The Builder pop out at them

Now, what if you want to move the position of the moutning boxes, I hear you ask? Well, I thought of that. This next shot clearly shows how I assume that I’ll need clear instructions on how to pull cable through the wall next time I come to open the mounting boxes. (Click for a larger image):

In case you can’t read what it says inside the cable housing, each box has: “Spare cable in wall” written on it, and a handy arrow to show the direction to pull from, should it be needed

One thing that you do have to be careful of when you’re burying cables in the wall is that you don’t damage the cable. I know that sounds obvious, but just in case, I tested the cable before I started, once it was in the wall and then again once the holes had been plastered up.

What can happen (and did happen to me, which is why I’m glad aI left so much slack) is that as you’re gently twisting and turning the cable to where it needs to be, you can damage it. Lucky for me it was only at the very end!

So, holes done, cable in, all I needed to do was to plaster - and hope that I could still do it.

The plastering went OK - and I remembered a tip I read on the internet about smoothing over by putting the plastering trowel in hot water first. That saved me a bit of sanding later.

Once the plaster had dried, I had to sand it down. This didn’t take as long as I thought it would, because the plaster had settled nicely and I’d cleaned around the edges of the holes, as you can see.

Next job: Basecoat. That covered up any would-be imperfections in the wall (and also my plastering job).

Once coat of Basecoat and three coats of emulsion later and the room had nice bright white walls. (Just a shame that the coving also took three coats, as this was the biggest pain in the backside)

All in all, I’m pleased with the way that the cabling went - you can’t see it and you can’t see where I knocked holes in the wall. I must admit that I did enjoy smnashing holes in the wall - even though I didn’t know whether I’d be able to cover them up again or not. Well, what’s the worst case scenario - I’d have to get a plasterer in. Luckily it didn’t come to that

The painting seemed a doddle compared to the rest of it. I was getting a bit freaked out by the time I had to

So, holes done, cable in, all I needed to do was to plaster - and hope that I could still do it.

The plastering went OK - and I remembered a tip I read on the internet about smoothing over by putting the plastering trowel in hot water first. That saved me a bit of sanding later.

Once the plaster had dried, I had to move the piano out of the room to make way for the floor going down. This thing weighs a tonne (probably literally). I was worrying how on earth this was going to get shifted out of the way so that we can lay the floor, but thanks to our friends Dan and John who came to the rescue and made it look so easy, the piano is now sitting (temporarily) in the hallway. I need to get it back into the lounge at some point. Wonder if you two guys would be free again

In this picture, you can see the same area, but finished. Trust me, there’s not a lump in the wall. The floor’s down - thanks again to my dad, who’s a total expert when it comes to wooden floor. The final stage was the beading around the floor. Again, dad to the rescue. I just can’t handle a mitre block to get the funny angles.

While we were doing the beading for the floor, I realised that we hadn’t left enough gap to take the audio cable and the speaker cable that I wanted putting in. So, the audio cable didn’t make it, but there were still some places where the speaker cable wouldn’t fit in, so we had to trim the edge of the floor. Off we went to B&Q to buy a B&Q equivalent of the Dremel Multi tool. What a waste of time. No sooner had we put it together and attempted to chip little parts away from the edge of the floor than smoke came billowing out of the thing. Back in its box it went and off to B&Q for a refund the next day.

In the end, we managed to do it with a Stanley knife. The cable’s in and it’s hidden.

So much for a relaxing couple of weeks off!

Just after Christmas I started work on what used to be the spare room and is now the nursery. It was a relatively easy job. Having said that, the hardest part of it was scraping all of the awful wallpaper off (most of it just pulled off in long strips as it had been up that long), but as the wallpaper came off, it was dragging the emulsion off in patches that was underneath it. Not a problem, I thought, I’ll just sand it all down.

Thirty minutes of sanding and having only covered about twelve square inches with a room full of dust, I gave in. There must be an easier way. And there was. It’s called Basecoat. A couple of layers of Polycell Basecoat will cover up most imperfections in your wall - thank goodness. OK, so it took 2 or 3 coats of basecoat then 2 coats of emulsion on top of that, but it was a lot less hassle and much quicker than sanding down the whole room.

So, emulsion done, painting done, that only left one more thing to do - the floor. I had to call in an expert for that. My dad’s good at stuff like that - he can cut floor around the doorframe with ease, knows how to properly measure the floor where bits need chopping around things like doorframes, corners, etc. I did, however get quite acquainted with my jigsaw (the power tool, not the puzzle) and figured out how to get the cuts at each end right and then cut them (almost) straight.

With the floor down, the emulsion and painting finished, all I had to do was put up the curtain pole and hang the curtains. Should have been an easy job, but for some reason, every time I drilled I hit the mantle, so I had to keep pluggng the holes up and touching them up with emulsion. I got there in the end though, and the finished result was what we’d wanted.

Chris’ bedroom was easier - it was all one colour, but I did have to lay the basecoat down first though, becuase even though I used a steamer this time, them underlying emulsion still came off in patches.

Again, my dad came to the rescue and helped with the floor and a few days later I put up the curtain pole and his new curtains, which he keeps telling me he doesn’t like and he prefers his old ones. What can you do. Still, his Noddy duvet and wall pictures should take his mind off it, not to mention one of those rugs that looks like a town - you know the one - it has roadways, shops, etc printed on it.

The only hitch I ran into with Chris’ room was the door strip. I knew that we were pretty close to the heating pipework underneath the floor just outside his room, and I didn’t fancy drilling down into the floor to put in the door strip only to hit a main heating pipe. So I had to try to lift the floorboards, which was harder than I thought it would be. To cut a long story short, we just worked out where the beams were and drilled downwards, hoping that we were drilling into those beams to anchor the strip. Luckily we were.

All that’s left to do upstairs now is the bathroom and our bedroom. I have a feeling that it may be some time before we get round to those.

I’ve been meaning to post this update for some time now and as it’s a quiet time of year, i thought what better time. Besides, it will probably give me some inspiration to get on and do the Nursery in the New Year. Anway, here goes.

The kitchen is finished. All the new spotlights have been put in, the holes from the old spotlights have been covered up, the ceiling has been replastered and it’s all been emulsioned and painted

Phase 1:
The existing lights have been removed (that’s what the big circular holes are) and the new ones have been put in, along with the necessary wiring.

Phase 2:
The existing artex has been scraped away, the unwanted holes magically covered up and the ceiling is replastered. You can see the new lights hanging down from the ceiling ready to be seated back in their holes once the ceiling has been emulsioned.

Phase 3:
All done. I sealed the ceiling with watered down PVA solution and gave it about 3 coats of white emulsion. It’s the first time I’ve used a roller, as I used to use those paint pad things. Rollers are so much easier and use less emulsion too - well, compared to the way I was slapping it on with the paint pads!

The thing about using a roller is that I have to wear a hat so it doesn’t get into what bit of hair I have left. This is the only time you’ll see me wearing a Microsoft garment and I truly enjoy splattering it with paint, emulsion or whatever comes its way.

I’ll spare you from the pictures, but suffice to say that I completed my office whilst I was on holiday. It looks good, if I say so myself and that hole where the plug used to be is no more. In fact, if you didn’t know it had ever been there, you wouldn’t know where to look.

The new lights are up (and are responsible for heating the room to almost 30°c, which is unfortunate, but to be expected from 4x 50W halogen spots, I guess - mental note, must get a dimmer switch), the wooden floor’s downm thanks to my dad (I’m about as useful at cutting stuff as I am at following directions), all my cables are hidden (apart from the one I broke whilst laying it under the floor, but we’ll not talk about that one!) and I’ve added a piece to my desk to hide all my cables - which has had the nice effect of stopping it from wobbling from side to side, which is good.

Now then - watch this space for the changes in the kitchen. All I have to do is finish it off this weekend and the job’s done. Then start on the nursery…

Update - 29/12/2004:
I know I said I’d spare you the pictures, but here’s one anyway:

It’s just a shame that the audio cable (seen here in black) that I laid uner the flooring (down the side of the edging) must have got whacked at some point and it produces a loud hum. It’s now been cut off and I’ve got a new one, which I’m going to run up into the loft and behind all the furniture, so it’ll never be noticed. In theory.

Oh, and if you look carefully behind the right hand valve of the radiator in this picture (click the picture to enlarge it), you’ll not be able to see the hole in the wall I referenced earlier. I thought it would never cover up, but a bit of sanding sorted that out in the end.

Following on from my previous entry, I decided that Polyfilla just wasn’t going to do it - and I couldn’t be bothered cutting pieces of wood to fit into the hole to pack it up. So, off I went yesterday evening to B&Q to get some ready-mixed plaster and a plasterer’s trowel. What a good investment.

After a bit of sanding down the Polyfilla from where the plug socket used to be, I put a blob of plaster on the trowel and packed it in to the hole. It did the job and it hasn’t fallen out! I picked up a good tip off the internet to help the plaster dry smoother - and that was to run the trowel under hot water and then run it over the plaster to smoothen it out - it worked.

Pleased with this, I came downstairs and started to plaster the channel in the utility room wall where the electrician had put a cable for an outside light. As you can see, a neat job, I think you’ll agree.

So, there’s another thing I can add to my list, but I think I’ll leave the ceiling to the professionals.

Now all I have to do is wait for it to dry, seal it and sand it (or at least I think that’s the order I have to do it in).

I may have mentioned this before, but when we moved in here, there was a plug in my room (my office) that was, how shall we say… put in very poorly. (It was a metal-faced double plug without a backing plate (and therefore, I assume without an earth. Drilled down and eventually popping outside underneath the porch and then drilled into the hallway was the crappy piece of 13A flex that it was on). Not safe in my books. As a temporary measure, I took the metal socket off and put in a metal backing box and a proper plastic double socket. I’m no electrician, but it worked.

Anyway, once we had the electrician put all things right and do some other electrical-type jobs that needed doing, we removed the dodgy wire leading from downstairs to my office (via outside and a bit of jiggery pokery as it would appear) and made the socket inactive. Now I have the job of filling it up before I decorate next week. Easy job…or so I thought.

Well, as you can see, I’ve tried to fill the hole with Polyfilla. At first I put a nice thin layer in so that it would stick to the breezeblock at the back. Once this dried, I put on a second later, this time disregarding the instructions not to lob in too much at a time.

Over 24 hours later, and what should set in 2 hours has still not set. So I’ve pulled out all of the stuff that hasn’t set and I’m leaving it to dry for another night.

After speaking with Bob, what I need to do is cut up some old pieces of wood and knock them into the hole to avoid putting too much filler in there. Once that’s done, I can fill over the surface of the wood and sand down where necessary.

Now there’s another job for me while I’m off next week - sanding. I’ve bought a Black & Decker sander for all the bits that need doing. I don’t know what the previous owners did to my wall to make it need loads of touch-ups, but it’s certainly going to keep me busy for a while before I can paint the room.

More on the big hole in the wall later. Once it’s filled I’ll take another picture and then see if we can see it once it’s sanded and emulsioned over. I do hope not.

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…?

I’m not talking about work… Vic asked me to replace the old cupboard door handles with some newer, better looking ones. “Easy job”, I thought. Not so. It took me yesterday and today to complete the task at hand. Why? Well, underneath the knobs are fancy metal plate thingies, which all needed to be taken off the cupboard doors, sanded down to the bare metal and spraying with Hammerite silver paint (all 17 of them).

Of course, nothing ever runs smoothly. As I was taking the metal plates off, I broke the tips off almost half of them - they were nailed in to the cupboard doors and needed prizing off (you’d have to see them to know what I mean). Still, not to worry, a bit of Superglue and some creative spray painting fixed that!

Being a little impatient, I picked the metal plate thingies up and went to put them on the cupboard doors but ended up putting my fingerprints in them because they were still a bit wet. Back to the garage for a rub down and another spray (the metal things, not me!). Anyway, I finally got round to finishing it off this afternoon, I went out to B&Q and bought what I thought were the right knobs. Of course, they were wrong - but I didn’t find this out until I’d put them all on and Vic came home.

Vic makes trip number 45 to B&Q since Sunday to change the knobs for the fourth time (we eventually ended up going with the ones we’d decided on initially) We’re practically residents of B&Q these days.

Still, it looks better than it did - and with what little time I had left over I also managed to change the light bulbs in the cooker hood vent and the filter and also give it a good clean. There’s really not much to them, they’re dead easy to strip down and put back together without ending up with spare parts. I did, however manage to snap the light cover - I just knew it would happen. It was warped and I tried to bend it back into shape.

Good old Superglue!