Gas, beer, more beer and music

 Now I have reached the kitchen!  Once I had cleared everything out of the way, the space looked bigger and, of course, I spent a day redesigning the kitchen layout!
The first thing to go in was the Gas. I was not looking forward to straightening the roll of 3/8 gas pipe but it was far easier than I anticipated.  I fixed a long line of plastic clips down the length of the boat, and simply rolled the pipe into them.  I left a decent length in the gas locker as I hadn't yet decided what I was going to do there, and fit a tee and two gas taps behind one of the potential kitchen cupboards.  There are two taps as I have a separate hob and oven.

Beer festival time again, so most of March was involved in running what may well be the first Padiham Beer Festival, and the fifth (I think) Ramsbottom Beer Festival.

They both went really well, except for the odd complaint that "The beers aren't in alphabetical order", and other such anal nonsense.  What matters is

•     Plenty of excellent beer
•     £2000.00 raised for RNLI (not enough but a good start)

   

Cleaning...

I was in London on Thursday, and Rachael Sermani was at the Union Chapel.  It was amazing to see such a large venue sold out, and the huge crowd completely silent listening to her fantastic, delicate music.






 


Uninteresting Fact : I noticed that Union Chapel seems to be made out of Cliff Bricks, which were made a few hundred yards away from where I grew up! Small world.

Now the wet room is (nearly) complete, I could build the laundry in remarkably  quick time.  I don't think that I am now working faster, it is just that there is only one way to do this, so I didn't waste hours thinking about alternative designs, I just got on with it.

  The oven was test fit into what will be the end of the kitchen and it fit perfectly.

 

Underneath Leeds Railway station on Tuesday, there was a large area behind fences where Railtrack are building a new exit for the railway station onto Granary wharf.

The dredgers have arrived to start cleaning up the river bed.

 

Wet on the inside

I have a combined shower sump/pump/float switch box that I bought, but it turned out to be no good.  The water entry pipe to the box was too high up, and ended up at the same height as the wetroom drain.

Time for Plan B (or was it C or D ?), I connected the shower drain to a small "sump", made from a shower drain fitment.  This sump has a float switch in it, and an outlet connected to a Gulper.  The float switch operates a 15 second delay relay, meant for keeping car lights on after the key is removed.  This means that the pump should keep running for 15 seconds after the water is gone, and should remove any problems caused by the float switch bouncing up and down on the "waves".
When operating, the gulper seemed to struggle when the sump was not full. It seems that when the water level is below the top of the outlet, the gulper sucks air instead of water, as the air is easier to pump than water.

A modification to the outlet pipe, using a strange waste fitting that has been in my plumbing box for years, makes sure that the gulper sucks as much of the water out as possible.  The only downside is that this pipe now takes up the room I was going to use for a float switch.

I will try to find a smaller float switch, but for now the gulper has a simple on/off switch.  I just have to remember to turn it one before having a shower!
The laminate and shower fittings are now complete and the wetroom is looking good.

 

I managed to find some "swimming pool changing room" tiles which, although expensive at £35 per meter, look good and are anti-slip.  Having borrowed an electric tile cutter, I spent most of the weekend getting extremely dusty, but overall I am quite pleased with my first tiling attempt.

A night to remember

 

I went to Rochester for the first time in 30 years.
I can't remember a thing about it.

Don't recognize a thing.

Can't remember the pubs...

Can't remember the gatehouse...

I can't even remember the castle.

I think I had a microscope made by Leech a few years ago.

However, have you ever had ideas like this about your boss ?

Anybody got a light ?

Saturday was a mad rush to finish brewing, because Rachael Sermanni was playing at the Met.  She just gets better and better.

The night was great because it was in the lounge at the Met, which is small, but a great atmosphere.  I was slightly disappointed that she didn't play Marshmallow Unicorn, but a great night nevertheless.

Coat after Coat

 Finally after six coats of sealer, the tub is nearly empty and I decided that this was enough coats.
Four days later the sealer was completely dry, and the laminate went on the walls quite quickly.  I am getting used to laminating now.

Lady P has started making the most amazing pies.  Fed up with the variable quality of pies that you can buy, she has now created a range of mini deep-fill Pies, stuffed full of meat, not gravy!

I was at Leeds the other day, and the end of the L&L was quite flooded, and the ducks seemed to be the only "people" enjoying themselves.

Taxing Wardrobes.

 Having looked at various options for bedroom furniture, I decided to build the wardrobe/COD based around a flatpack kit.


A quick trip to Ikea (Yes, it is possible to have a quick trip to Ikea) and I had a chest of drawers called MALM (strange name) which nearly filled the gap betwixt bed and wall.  A few sheets of plywood later, and I had room above for a few shelves and a "coat hanger" section.

This was done just in time to convert the lot into a temporary office while I did my end of year tax returns!

While I was in the mood for cutting ply, I also got the wetroom walls built.

I am getting better at cutting the porthole holes out of the ply - this one is nearly round!

Once all the gaps were filled, the plywood was primed with PVA and then given a coat of wetroom wall sealant.
After leaving it 24 hours to dry I gave it another coat.

I decided that I may as well keep on with more coats until I have used up the entire tub of sealant. However, January is not the best time to do this, as it is taking forever to dry...

Smooth walls

Sunday, and the first job was to clear everything out of the WC ready for the laminate.

I decided that cutting the laminate warranted a new blade for the stanley knife.  I know, extravagant expenses, but without regard to the budget I set off to B&Q.  I have had problems with the staff at this B&Q being idiots in the past, but when I approached the till with some stanley knife blades, what I was not expecting was "do you have any ID?".  Apparently you have to prove you are over 25 to buy knife blades.  As this is the first time I have been "ID'ed" since trying to drink in Preston in the Seventies I was quite chuffed.  However if she thought I looked under 25 then she needs to get a new guide dog, because I know I look at least 28!

The laminate cut really easily, probably due to a fresh blade and sticking it to the wall seems easy as well, even though I expected it to fall straight off again, as soon as you put some decent pressure on it, it sticks.  Even though it seems to take no time at all, soon it was going dark and time to pack up again.
Two walls done and the first porthole liner fixed. I was hoping to have the remaining wall, ceiling and floor done today, but it does take longer than it seems.

 Next week maybe.