mattnewton.co.uk

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.

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’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!